Ati's capture card questions

[Iamnotsam]

Hi, I am new here.

I got some questions on Ati capture cards, and before I make my purchase, I hope somebody here can give me some answers. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

1. I heard that there is a different in performance between the two Ati's encoder chip (Rage Theater and Rage 2000?), and I want to know how much difference in terms of picture quality between them. Can anyone who own both cards give me some ideas ? Any audio de-sync issues on Ati's capture cards?

2. Is it true that Ati only release wdm driver? Can I use third party software like virtualdub with Ati capture card? Any compatible problems with any programs that I should be aware of?

3. I will capture video in huffyuv or mjpeg format, because I will edit them later; Ati's capture card should have no problem with those format, right ?

4. I have a few (less than 5) old movie on vhs that I wished to convert into mpeg4 for backup. Those titles are already out of print, and I wonder if the 'macrovision's hack' really work; and will it work for all ati's capture card, or only for AIW. I got a Geforce capture card that I can disable the macrovision, but the picture quality is not good enough for me. I have apply all the possible filters that I know of, but I think Geforce card still need a lot of improvement in that area. By the way, I do own those movies, and I don't have extra cash on TBC.

5. I heard that not all Ati's drivers are equal. Can anyone tell me which driver version is better?

Sorry for my bad English ......

Thank you!

[Supreme2k]

Someone isn't watching the boards today

www.digitalfaq.com

[Iamnotsam]

Thanks for your reply Supreme2k!

I already been there. (www.digitalfaq.com)
It's definitely a very good site with a lot of good info and advices...

However, I am a very greedy person :P and also pretty poor .
So basically I really want to know whether it is worth it to go for AIW, or just a regular Ati's VIVO will do. As I am going to capture in huffyuv, which is software based encoding anyway, therefore I wonder there will be any difference in quality between the two Ati's encoder chip. I can get a pretty good quality with my Geforce card if I capture in huffyuv, but not mpeg; and I guess a good mpeg capture need some kind of help form the encoder chip. I have even tried the mainconcept mpeg code for encoding, but very high bitrate capture (>8000) is not possible (drop frames), and low bitrate capture is not nearly as good as huffyuv.

The macrovision issues is also important for me, as if it is not possible to remove macrovision for Ati's capture card; I might go for Compro videomate Gold Plus TV turner card instead. As I have heard some good reviews about them.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[thecoalman]

I tried the hack trying in vain to capture a home movie and a commercial video that was MV protected. It worked for neither on a 9800.

[lordsmurf]

The difference between Theatre Rage/100 and Theatre 200 is about 5% of MPEG hardware (at most).

They perform the same as far as I'm concerned.

"Theatre" chips are the important part. Not the sub model.

[Iamnotsam]

Thank you guys!
You guys are the best!!!

Too bad the hack doesn't work,
but at least I got all the information I need.

Thank you to you all!