PV256C

[Anonymous65]

I just got my hands on the PV256C card, and have only had a few hours to play with it yet (have to put in those 8 hours a day thing..) My first impressions:

*I found out that the composite input is not terminated in 75 ohm, so I got very hot video that was washed out and I could not adjust it with the brightness/contrast settings. So, I will have to put a 75 ohm resistor over the input to make it work correctly. This is a design flaw, all video inputs should have 75 ohm termination. Until I get a resistor soldered on the card, I simply put another video device in paralell to get correct termination and 1 volt video.

* Since I love the PV231, I had to check out the PV256C performance on VCD captures. I'm now convinced that NOTHING will beat the PV23x card in VCD captures. The PV256 seems to do a OK job, but the video was not as clean as the PV231. Also, since I can not use a GOP sequence of 30 frames with the PV256, I cannot use the trick I use with the PV231. The PV256 has a limit of 15 frames in the GOP. This limit should be at least 30 frames.

* The card and drivers are not stable. I confirmed this. Every time I change the GOP settings, the PC does a hard freeze up. A power reset is needed to get the PC back to life.

* The SVCD and DVD records seems very good. The video has a bit too much filtering, but I don't think it will show up on a regular TV set.

Now I just need a few days to really test the card out and see how it performs. Still, for VCD only, the PV23x is the best card you can buy.

[SHS]

skittelsen have you look at this one by change?.
DViCO FursionMPEG PCI

[Anonymous65]

No, I have not seen that card in use. What chip does it have? If it uses the Winbond, the quality should be good.

[SHS]

Here there web page http://www.dvico.com/
MPEG encode chipset N/A in fact if click specification part you see what the card look like.
There have some Sample Movie.

[Anonymous65]

Oh, also the overlay does not work on my machine, I have to select Preview mode. Since I have an Intel chipset, Intel AGP video, and Intel CPU, there is no reason why the overlay shouldn't work. Still, I can live with the low quality Preview mode for capturing. It just means that the drivers have a long way to go for the PV256 card.
Has anybody made a default windows looking skin for the capture software? The ones I can choose between are to colorful and fancy for my taste. I like the good old grey (boring) square window boxes

[magicmycote]

Steve, can you clarify the 75ohm problem...Is this problem only associated with the 3Demon pv256C? I was considering getting a pv256 directly from 'Anne' at provideo, does this flaw exist on this card as well? Please explain what method you used to correct the situation, if you will

[Satan's Cheerleader]

bump

[Satan's Cheerleader]

I was just looking on the provideo website and see they have drivers for the PV256 updated March 12, 2002. Has anybody tried these yet? Do they improve stability?

Also, how does the PV256 work with Win XP?