Need advice: Ditching the AIW Radeon

[jlundin]

Having experienced more problems than I can count, including the repeated crash of my system, I think it's time to punt the AIW Radeon. It's a great card, but the software is pathetic, and yes, I've tried MMC 7.5. It crashes my system too.

So I'm looking for some video/capture card advice.

First of all, I want a TV/capture card that does the following:
1. Works correctly on Win2k.
2. Includes a program guide that works.
3. Captures directly to Video CD format using the included software.

The ability to auto-split the captures into CD-sized segments would be wonderful, but is not necessary.

Second, I need a video card that will:
1. Work correctly on Win2k and play nice with the capture card above.
2. Fit in an AGP slot.
3. Support 2 monitors.

Is that too much to ask?

[ggtronic]

have you send these comment to Ati

support@ati.com

( For my part , i stick to win98Se )

[crystaldon]

Yes, the ati reputation is that the software is the pits. I was considering a VisionTek xtasy everything, which does everything you mentioned:
http://www.visiontek.com/everything.shtml

But, another fellow suggested the Power Video pv-231 (only $85.00). It does hardware encoding, which is a big plus, but it may be limited to mpeg1. It also seems to have some setup issues (registry settings), but sounds pretty good in general. Good luck picking one.

[gf]

How long has ATI making capture/video boards and they still cannot get it right. Maybe they should hire Nvidia to write them some good code. And will they get more people to answer the phones and respond to emails. Oh well too much to ask for.

[damnim]

I've had two of the AIW generation cards and I agree the software needs some rewriting. I never had it crash my systems tho, clear back to Win 95.

I am currently using Win XP Pro with a radeon and the only part of the ATI software I use is the TV.

Actually if you like the board, just install the drivers and use other software like virtual dub, media center or Cyberlink Power VCR.

I sticking my neck out here so don't flame me. I don't think its in your software but how your system is configured that is causing the crash.

[Pied-Piper]

Stinky has done some rewriting with MMC Reg Tool, and he's working on the tool and I think it has to be improved.
In my opinion MMC software is so sensitive!
some eXPeriences:
always try to have a clean install for MMC and the corresponding drivers.
MMC 7.5 has some great enhancements so never return to previous versions.
ATI support is so BAD! try to solve any problem with the help of guys in this great forum. If you search for ATI there must be more than 1000 results.
For real-time VCD MPEG-1 capture one needs a powerful PC(at least 1.5Ghz), because ATI AIW cards don't have any hardware MPEG encoder and depend on CPUs.
I know MMC may cause some crashes, but jlundin can you tell me what type of crashes you're eXPeriencing(and your specifications?-your MB chipsets).
----------------------------------------------------
"When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just
hacking at the leaves."
Anthony J. D'Angelo

[Stinky]

Stinky has done some rewriting with MMC Reg Tool, and he's working on the tool and I think it has to be improved.

Pied-Piper? "I think it has to be improved" - what do you mean? it has to be improved? is it not working - what improvments am I missing? Just curious.

Per the topic. The ATI AIW is good for what it is. An inexpensive capture card. It does decent MPEG-1/2 software compression and now with MMC 7.5 they have made it even more flexible by allowing you to capture via MMC to any codec you choose. The ATI tech support is crap but we do a good job here of supporting each other.

@jlundin: It might be your system - I am running MMC 7.5 on my Windows2000 setup and have not had one problem. I do get emails from people who have had problems with 7.5 but once they uninstall 7.5 and clean out their registry like in the example from the top of this tutorial http://www.vcdhelp.com/ATI_AIW_Guide.htm then it works for them. Also if you follow that guide you can capture to VCD 2.0 format using the supplied software.

If your after hard core on the fly MPEG compression you need a hardware card - but for the price and the flexiblity I am a big fan of my AIW.

[spiderman2k1]

There are some thing you can do you might have ram that does not like each other. Some people have pc66 and pc100 in the same system or two different brand do not like each other I had this problem. fix by change some of my ram tow stick did not work well together. The other thing to help the AIW is very easy. When you start your PC start the AIW TV shut it right down hitting the X tab then shut down all software like IM ICQ and other thing next to the clock. the hit ctrl alt delete stsrt from the top again start from the top keep Exporer and systray open and keep all ATI program open some program take ten tries to keep doing it untilits done. Now start uo the ati TV record in VCD mode for ten seconds or so should work fine now

[Pied-Piper]

Pied-Piper? "I think it has to be improved" - what do you mean? it has to be improved? is it not working - what improvments am I missing? Just curious.

Hello Stinky, and thanks for your great tool.
Some features that I think maybe very nice:
1.adding an option to disable or remove MMC splash screens, they're really annoying.
2.Detailed help file for some expert settings.
3.Presets for svcd. (version 0.9.0 vcd presets did not produce vcd mpeg-1!)
4.what I always thought about is how to enhance MMC with some of virtualdub features (but for MPEG).I quess you can understand what I mean! (Noise Reduction,...)
5.ability to work with other capture drivers (in case of having a PCI capture board as well) if present.
6.is there any way to capture audio @ 48khz?

[Stinky]

@Pied-Piper: many thanks for the feedback - I'll answer each one for you.

1.adding an option to disable or remove MMC splash screens, they're really annoying.

--I haven't found a control for this in the registry yet - you can turn off the splash screen on my tool but I haven't found the switch to do it for MMC itself yet

2.Detailed help file for some expert settings.

--this I agree with you - I honestly don't know what some of the settings do yet - I rely on the feedback I get from users to help me explain some of the unknown switches ... I will keep working on a better help file I realize that the current one is a bit confusing

3.Presets for svcd. (version 0.9.0 vcd presets did not produce vcd mpeg-1!)

-- the VCD presets do work for VCD 2.0 captures - there was a problem in some of the earlier versions with the VCD bit value but it should be 100% fixed now. As for SVCD I am trying like crazy to find out the perfect settngs for SVCD 'on the fly' captures. I think soon I will have it. My goal is to capture to SVCD and be able to burn it directly in Nero without having to ReMux

4.what I always thought about is how to enhance MMC with some of virtualdub features (but for MPEG).I quess you can understand what I mean! (Noise Reduction,...)

-- MMC does have some minor filters/adjustments. I just haven't had time to add them to the GUI - they aren't anything too exciting though

5.ability to work with other capture drivers (in case of having a PCI capture board as well) if present.

-- if you manually edit the WMSysPrx.prx file you can adjust your capture setting for Windows Media Codecs and there are a few tools on Rage3d.com to adjust other codecs such as DivX ... I was going to try and add some support for AVI capture adjustments but I haven't had the time to do it yet - it's quite complex in that once I start to code a GUI for it that it will be a BIG project because there are so many options available. I am still undecided as to if I am going to stick to just MPEG capture tweaks or expand the tool to AVI's

6.is there any way to capture audio @ 48khz?

-- no - we have tried - MMC 7.5 deletes any profiles that have the audio set at 48khz .. I have not found a way around this.

I hope that clears up a few things and thanks for the feedback/ideas

[magelucid]

I also have the AIW Radeon 32ddr, I had tons of problems before I found the guide on this site. Now it works perfectly and I haven't had a crash or a bad capture ever since. It's YOUR system setup that is the problem as it's a pretty popular card on the board. I really never even had crashes before, just screwy problems where it keeps saying capture device in use. It's no secret ATI blows in the software department but it's still a really good card hardware wise. You seem to be looking for a really dumbed down solution so I might suggest a boxencoder alternative like Canopus ADVC-100 or a Sony DVMC.. it's idiot proof capturing, selecting a VCD/SVCD profile, and burning.. any moron can do it.

As for finding a card with flawless and perfect bundled software, that works with multiple os's, and splits your video into nice bite sized chunks, keep dreaming.

[tjdmobile]

Hi all,

I am with Stinky 8) . I love my Radeon AGP 32ddr AIW card (need a shorter name though). I have never really blamed my card for my problems though. They all came down to motherboard issues. If you think this one sucks, my first one was a video blaster II card. It was a full-size AT card, one meg memory (ohhh-ahhh). It was a real mess to configure, and needed a memory hole between 15-16 megs. Got it in 1991, and have been cappin ever since!

Only thing I liked better about that card was built in Chroma-key and 3 separate video inputs. That way I could do real-time video production. I still have this card, but I don't have any 16 bit slots on my new pc, only PCI, AGP, and a couple others I can't remember...

I am running XP pro, with Radeon 32AGP 4x, DDR. I use Virtual Dub to capture to either DIVX or Huffy. I then use TMPGEnc to make the final VCD file. I use TSCV to burn. Reconsider dumping it.

TJDMOBILE

[eastbloc]

I've recently formed my own love/hate relationship with ATI, following a purchase of the Radeon All-in-Wonder 8500DV, with the intention of using it as a multimedia portal, for making movies out of my Tivo content via the S-Video in and from Firewire devices in the future.

Of course, this is no simple feat, regardless of what capture hardware you're using, as I found out shortly thereafter. I've learned more about DVD recordable standards, codecs and software than I imagined possible in these harrowing three weeks. I do think someone should start an ATI forum, because the hardware of these cards is as stellar as the software is terrible. And I'm not just talking about the MMC.

First, the good thing is that the video capture at 720x480 is unparalleled. When, that is, it doesn't crash your computer. The most stable configuration I have found thus far is Windows 2000 (rolled back from XP) cleanly installed, and motherboard BIOS options set to their most conservative setting.

This still leaves me holding my willy every morning as I turn on my flat panel (hooked up via DVI) -- for some reason, the Radeon simply decides not to send a signal to the panel any longer. The machine is working, I can type stuff and hear Windows beeping at me, but the screen will not come back. Turned off power management, no difference. Turned off screen savers, etc, no difference. This is a really bad 'feature.'

Right now, I have a reasonably good time capturing video with Ulead Moviefactory at 48khz, but I'm not too happy with that program, either. I'm getting tired of capturing the same show over and over again only to find that neither DVDit! nor Roxio VideoPack 5 will import it due to the lack of packet headers, despite the fact that I tell Movie Factory to create them. Additionally, Movie Factory refuses to set my default capture size, forcing a rather awkward maneuver where I select a template which uses 720x480, which then takes me to an error, and then to a dialog box where I can set my capture size also to 720x480. I can't find the dialog box without going about this route every time.

So, now I'm back to trying to use ATI's TV applet to capture PicVideo MJPEG files. I figure even if I get them at 44khz, I can use Ligos to encode the MPEG file at 48khz. Or so I am hoping. All would be well, except that despite having registered PicVideo I still get the banners on the top and bottom of the screen.

I considered returning this card. But, people are telling me that it is not easy to find cards that will do a clean capture at the resolution I want. If someone says it ain't so, and that I can get a GeForce3 Ti200 with video-in that will handle 720x480, this Radeon is very much going away. I have enough love/hate relationships in my life...