AIW TV vs AIW 7500

[Aris_Boch]

I've been playing around with capturing using an ATI TV Wonder card. Seems to be fine with digital signals. However it is terrible with grainy analog signals. Even if capturing at 6Mbps or more on S-Video. Video is so bad, I have to encode for 15-20 hours for 45 minutes of video, just to end up with an overly smooth and washed out image...

Also, it only supports MMC 7.1 and it will not allow a capture size larger then 352x240. (Well it will do 480x240, but why?)

My video card is a Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS Pro 64. So basically I'm using a Nvidia video card and an ATI capture card...

I guess, I'm wondering if anyone has tried or uses the AIW 7500 and can tell me if it would be worth the upgrade to a single video/capture card solution. Not ready to pay the price for the 8500

Also, not sure what, if any benefit I might have from capturing in a larger size, other than possibly more data to work with when encoding.

Any other comments, ideas or suggestions would be welcome...
My PC info is available...

[Macros746]

First of all...you won't get 'much' benefit from upgrading to a 7500. But if capturing is your primary interest you might consider a simple Radeon AIW. All of the cap chips are the same on the ATI cards and the original 7200s are dirt cheap these days. I can truly make beautiful VCDs and SVCDs from my caps....you DO want to capture at a higher resolution (at least 352 x 480) just to provide more for the encoders to work with. Just some thoughts...

Macros

p.s. although I haven't tried them yet the GeForce 4200 by Gainward and Chaintech? both have capture chips on great gaming cards with amazing overclockability....that might be something to consider. Less than $200 on Pricewatch.

p.p.s. The reason that AGP cap. cards are better than PCI is a simple bandwidth issue...that is why you arent successfully caping at a higher resolution.

[Aris_Boch]

Thanks Macros! That makes sense, and I hadn't even considered the bandwidth difference. Duh!...

Thanks again....