ATI 32mb radeon card

[Speedpuppy]

ok hot shots need some advice currently i have this
750mz amd
512 ram
and dazzles dvc1

pinnacle studio version 7
dazzles moviestar
mgi video wave 3
windows xp (movie maker)

currently i capture video 8 home movies with the dazzle
do my editing thing for the kids (music and the like) and make vcds or svcds to watch.

dazzle after xp upgrade captures but with sound sync problems again...getting tired of fixing it (under 98 it worked ok)so also in market for new capture device

pinnacle works great but i have to capture in avi then convert to vcd or mpeg2. which is cool from my digital video camera but i have 10 years of the other tapes i would like to transfer hence i need the RCA inputs.

saw the ATI all in wonder radeon something or nother at best buy 199.00 and 30 buck rebate... it had
cable input, rca input and i think firewire (not sure)
on box indicated you could use it like a vcr if you wanted with the cable in put or watch tv ...capture in mpeg1 or 2

anythoughts on this product and how do i know which is better oh also i will eventually (3months) upgrade to flat panel display which this would handle as well

thanks in advance

[paulstamat]

ATI 32 MB All in Wonder Radeon has everything except firewire. I was never able to capture very well under 98, but under win 2000 (which I believe is the same engine that xp is supposed to have improved upon) it's nearly flawless. I'm able to capture large files without losing frames and I've only had an occasional sync problem, but we're talking about 1 in 30 captures. It's a good price, much better than the new version which starts at $399 (heck you can buy a television AND a DVD player for that price).

[Macros746]

I seem to be the ATI All in Wonder guy around here so I'll field your questions. The AIW is a great card but it is also a LIMITED card. Your best captures are still going to be through Virtual Dub and then re-encoded. The straight to VCD captures are Terrible quality. You can set your own bitrate for both MPEG2 and MPEG1 captures and these can result in excellent quality but, if you are in this for the archiving, you are still going to have to reencode to make them VCD or SVCD compliant. The TV features are very cool. The TV on demand (i.e. pause live tv) works beautifully for me and as a gaming card it is very solid. But....ATI has TERRIBLE support for it's card. The drivers are iffy and, though I've heard that the XP drivers are good (I run 98 myself) you may find yourself with some technical headaches. On the other hand 90 percent of people will put in in their rig, fire it up and have no problems at all. So if you want a sort of 'all in one' entertainment center and the ability to capture to MPEG2...then AIW is your card. If the TV functions, the gaming functions and the (slightly faulty) MPEG2 capture aren't that important...look elsewhere.

Macros

[Speedpuppy]

thanks for the input keep it coming,
i mainly wish ot capture mpeg 1 as well as mpeg 2
and in near future upgrade to flat panel display

currently running xp

remember i am only capturing mpeg 1 via dazzle at this point

so i am thinking , 1 this will support flat screen, 2 it will upgrade my capture ability to mpeg2
3. not so big i can watch tv if i want .. not a biggie.


quieston is will it caputer mpeg 1 as well and
what does it caputer mpegs into? pinnacle?moviestar?mgi video wave?

keep these posts coming ... i need the input

[Macros746]

If you are upgrading to flat screen then AIW IS a good card for you. It provides a digital out (which very few cards do). And yes, as I said before, this card CAN capture to MPEG1 and MPEG2. But it all depends on whether you want to make VCD and SVCD compatible files. You can capture to BEAUTIFUL MPEG but you have to up the bitrate and, if possible, use VBR as opposed to CBR thus making it incompatible with VCD. You can capture to beautiful SVCD but again, it requires some manipulation. As for your last question I'm not sure what you mean. It captures to MPEG2 and MPEG1...neither are specific to a given program.

Macros