The Perfect Setup!

[spunk_bubble]

Hi all, advice needed from all you capture Gurus out there.
I am about to buy a new motherboard/processor/memory to go with my existing ATI Rage 128 Pro. I would like a setup as recommended by ATI if possible but can't find any recommendations at the ATI website. I prefer Intel to AMD. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[humdinger]

hi
I cant provide you with the 'perfect' setup, but i can provide you with what i use, which i have settled on after over a year of trial and error.

HARDWARE:
1ghz t'bird
512mb RAM
20gb win98SE partition
20gb Win2k Partition (its a dual boot)
30gb NTFS partition dedicated cap drive
20gb FAT32 partition for other stuff
ATI rage pro128 VIVO (same as AIW, but without a tuner)
Soundblaster live! soundcard with basic drivers (liveware cocks it up)
MRi Firewire card

SOFTWARE:
MMC 7.1 with macrovision patch for TV cap. My template is MPG1 I-Frame only @6mbit,352x288, which i use for live TV cap, then load in virtualdub where i remove the adverts and any logos with logoaway, and framserve to TMPGENC.
Sonic Foundry Vegas, for firewire cap, print to tape (back to DV) and more complex editing of home movies. It doesn't handle the TV caps that well (IE it doesnt work well with mpg files only avi's).
I use TMPGenc as much as possible for encoding, vegas doesnt have a frameserve option unfortunatly, so sometymes if the avi is too big i have to use the crappy LSX encoder, directly. My burning prog is nero.

Hope you find some solstice in this, even though you don't like AMD

[spunk_bubble]

Thanks for the reply Humdinger, I'm pleased you have a setup you're happy with. What motherboard are you using with that T Bird?
I'm not anti AMD or anything like that, I had a K6 a couple of years ago, I just prefer Intel.

Anybody else bought a new motherboard/processor recently?

[speedy]

I recently got a AMD T Bird 1200, because at the time only AMD motherboards supported DDR memory. I built my own system and selected an ASUS A7A266 motherboard mainly because you get provisions for BOTH the newer DDR memory and the more convetional variety plus ASUS boards are very stable and offer much tweaking via the BIOS which allows for overclocking.

One thing often overlooked is it isn't just how fast your CPU is. By using DDR memory you also double the front side bus speed, so instead of the 133 Mhz BUS which is already fast, with the DDR memory the BUS can run at 266 Mhz. The advantage of DDR memory (not yet available for Intel processors) is it uses both the rising and falling edge to effectively double throughput.

[spunk_bubble]

Hi Speedy, you don't say what capture card you are using.
I am basicaly going to build my pc around the ATI Rage 128 Pro that I already have. My current pc (PIII 450 MHZ, 256 MB PC100 DIMMS, Gigabyte GA6BX7 Motherboard, Fujitsu 20GB 7200 RPM) just won't capture anything of decent quality.
I refuse to give up on this and I don't want to have to start giving ATI a bad name without making sure of my setup first!

Can anybody else recommend a configuration that works with my card?

[humdinger]

my MB is a pcpartner, it doesnt have anything else written on the box. i know though that it has a via chipset on it. i agree with you on the k6 though, i have a a pII 333 and a k6-400, and the pII way out performs it, but the t'birds are in a class of their own, especially against the pIV. all i can say is search this forum for some of sefy's benchmarks he had between the 2, and decide 4 yourself. i'll admit the ati cards arent that great, especially with macrovision probs, they are reknowned for finding macrovision when it isnt there (just search the forums !) but with the patch from doom9, it seems to stop the invisible macrovision Ie from your camcorder and satellite, but it wont remove it from DVDs and star wars vids
o yeah, and i had a godawful tyme trying to make the capcard work in win2k, but i heard alot of reports of ppl having no probs. maybe its just me

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: humdinger on 2001-09-15 18:49:54 ]</font>

[spunk_bubble]

Hey Humdinger,
I found a QDI Legend motherboard for £109, P4 1.5 GHZ for £107 and two 256 MB Rambus modules (RIMM)@ £70 each.
Now you've mucked up my plans and I'm thinking T'Bird instead lol.
I'd sooner go with a tried and tested configuration than the unknown 'looks good on paper' type!

PS, I think your motherboard might be made by PCCHIPS.

[speedy]

I haven't done any capture yet because I don't have a decent camera. Waiting for Santa Claus.

Right now I have a huge backlog of old MPEG files I'm redoing. I have a ATI Radieon all-wonder video card.

One thing I haven't seen anyone comment on in this thread is bus mastering. Check out this page for some info: http://users.netropolis.net/djsmith/BUSMEM.htm I had a bus mastering problem which prevented me from burning CD's. Once I upgraded I haven't made a coaster in months. Check out the home page of your motherboard to see if a new driver has been released. May help, may not.

[sulfur]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-09-15 11:17:25, humdinger wrote:
HARDWARE:
1ghz t'bird
512mb RAM
20gb win98SE partition
20gb Win2k Partition (its a dual boot)
30gb NTFS partition dedicated cap drive
20gb FAT32 partition for other stuff
ATI rage pro128 VIVO (same as AIW, but without a tuner)
Soundblaster live! soundcard with basic drivers (liveware cocks it up)
MRi Firewire card
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah nice system, but how much $$?

[onyx_z]

Hey Spunk_Bubble, I dont blame you about being a tad shy on AMD processors. I ended up choosing Intel, not because they are faster (they're not) but it seems like so many people were have little compatibility problems with the AMD systems. There was the whole AGP 4x problem, all the sound problems, and of course the heat and power problems. I stuck with a simple, but VERY stable ASUS CUSL2 motherboard, and an Intel PIII 800EB (But will be upgrading to a 1GHZ shortly) and 384MB of PC133 CAS2 memory. Although I use an Adaptec 2940U2W and all SCSI components, the CUSL2 does has ATA100 onboard for decent throughput for video captures. The CUSL2 is VERY stable, very reliable, and has come way down in price. Once you have a good setup, you can always upgrade your video card someday in the future. Personally I use an ASUS V7700 deluxe (Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS with video in and out) and after a few weeks of trial and error (Anyone figure out the mean time people take learning and finally being happy with Video capturing?) I can now say I'm quite happy with my setup and video capturing capability. But, I guess building your own system is like buying a car, everyone has their own needs, and wants and likes. We buy whatever floats our boats I guess. Good Luck to you!

Onyx_Z

[Hiei]

My setup is Dual Pentium 1 GHZ 1 GB Ram PC133 2 Samsung 10.2GB 7200rpm in Raid 0 2 40GB Seagate for Storage Mobo MSI 694D Pro2 WinTV Fm Stereo w/Remote is Nice for Capture VHS to DIVX whitout Dropframe and DVD rip =D .

[humdinger]

back in january the mobo cost me £83, it takes upto a 1.5ghz, and it was cheap cos it doesnt have onboard grafix or sound. those always f*ck things up when i want to put my own grafix and sound card in, so i didnt see any need for extra expense i can't remember how much the processor was, but its definatly cheaper now, under £100. the 2 sticks of 256mb memory cost £35 each at a local store. the hdd are both Seagate barracudas, one @£130 and the other @£145. there was quite a gap between buying the 2, so the larger sized one had come down in price by then. i got them both from the same local store as the memory and the VIVO card which was £70. I also got the firewire card there for £40, which came with a copy of Ulead somethingorother which is crap, and i dont use The soundblaster is actually pretty old now, about 2and a half years old... its one of the original ones, ie it doesnt have a platinum or 1040 or whatever after it, its just a Live! card. it cost me £130 from some mailorder company, but i cant remember who. right now though, im actually looking into getting a dazzle hollywood dv bridge, because ive heard a lot of good things about it, and its a firewire device, so no stoopid installation problems(hopefully) and i can put my trusty voodoo3 back in, cos on the grafix side of things it blows away the Rage128, which sucks when playing unreal tourny

[spunk_bubble]

onyx_z,
Asus motherboards seem pretty popular, I'll have a good look at their website before I decide.
humdinger,
I'm gonna stay with Intel and have decided on a 1 ghz PIII.
I just don't feel confident about the P4 for some reason.

Still hoping that somebody with an ATI Rage 128 Pro might read this and put me out of my misery. Anybody?