ATI Aiw card in Linux?

[Nelson37]

Trying Linux for the third or fourth time, this time Mint 4.0 Daryna.

Wireless USb adapter worked right away, got online, Software Portal an improvement.

No sound, Ati 2005 AIW card does not work, using on-board video.

Am I reading correctly that NO video-in or capture functions of any kind for any AIW card are functional in any version of Linux? Is there somebody in a basement somewhere working on this?

If no video capture, pointless to get just video working, or find drivers for X-Fi card, or try installing printer.

[freebird73717]

Ati capture is pretty much a no go in linux. I never got it to work in ubuntu. I still use windows to capture. You might try to download gatos from synaptic and km and avview from the gatos packagage at sourceforge. I never could get km to compile for me.

Look here for possible help getting capture+ to work in ubuntu/mint.

Unfortunately gatos project hasn't been updated in a long time.

[jman98]

Suggestions...
Install VMware (the free server version) and run a Windows virtual machine on the box and use that to capture.

Replace your card with one that works in Linux. Some Hauppauge cards work well.

Not for Linux reasons, but I gave up on ATI years ago as I became convinced that cards that do hardware encoding (like Hauppauge) are superior for a variety of reasons to cards that only do software encoding. Do note that ATI tries to be a "jack of all trades" and it views the video capturing abilities of its cards to be dead last on the priority list in terms of fixing problems. If you tell them that any PC game won't work properly, they might fix them. Tell them that video capturing isn't working and you'll only get unhelpful answers telling you to re-install.

People who use Linux for video capture usually just use the cards that are known to work like Hauppauge.

[Nelson37]

I don't want to change my system for Linux, and I am quite pleased with the performance of my ATI card.

So no video capture, and no modern games. At least it recognized the USB stick for Internet access. Got an old laptop this might work for.

[Nelson37]

Thanks, freebird, read about gatos a while ago. Apparently no further development, might have worked on my card 3 versions ago, but not the new one. Not sure if I have either Hoary, Breezy, or Warty, or none of the above.

Did enjoy immensely the Wiki instruction on "removing obsolete apps", the single command line (an odd description for a 12-line paragraph) is just too much.

At least it did work, there is some promise of usefulness on obsolete, basic hardware.

[freebird73717]

If you have the latest build 7.10 then you have gutsy.
edit~ Mint Daryna is based on 7.10 gutsy

I agree that I to am very pleased with my ati cards performance in windows. I just wish that the darned thing would capture in linux. Oh well... That's why I still have a dual boot!

[Nelson37]

So apparently the Linux folks also view the ATI capture capability as "dead last on their list of priorities", as well.

So if I'm looking at a Linux box, is there some easy way to determine that it is running Mint, Daryna version, which is based on Ubuntu, 7.10, gutsy version and running the Gnome or KDE interface? Something that would work with all Linux versions?

Is there a simple way to revert back to Hoary, Warty, or Ugly? I think I still have the old AIW 128 pro that is supposed to work with these. I'd like to see some performance reports before making the effort but have yet to find anyone who actually got this working. Nobody here has mentioned it, I take that as a bad sign.

I'm getting a distinct feel for why some people really like Linux.

[freebird73717]

So apparently the Linux folks also view the ATI capture capability as "dead last on their list of priorities", as well.

That is my guess. Actually you can download ati's official video drivers for linux from ati's website so ati is supporting linux somewhat but they have stated that they have no intention at this time to offer capture drivers for linux.

So if I'm looking at a Linux box, is there some easy way to determine that it is running Mint, Daryna version, which is based on Ubuntu, 7.10, gutsy version and running the Gnome or KDE interface? Something that would work with all Linux versions?

System->Administration->System Monitor = then check the system tab.

Is there a simple way to revert back to Hoary, Warty, or Ugly?

Ugly! haha.
They do come up with some crazy names. As far as I know there is no easy way (if at all) to revert to a previous version without doing a fresh install of the older version. Which in my oppinion would not be worth it . Go to the ubuntu forums and do a search for ati capture and see the countless number of people having issues getting capture to work.
I think for gatos and km to work your linux kernel had to be something like 2.6.15 or lower. To bad someone hasn't carried on the development.

[GMaq]

Nelson 37,

I also have an older ATI AIW, I had high hopes when I started with Linux a year or so ago, it was a no go for the reasons you've already detailed, I would caution you about Hauppage cards as well, although they are supported hardware wise by the IVTV project there is no proper GUI based (Some will work with commandline) application that will capture with a preview or schedule a capture. MythTV will support them but you need multiple cards to watch and capture at the same time. Also MythTV is to convert a computer into a PVR "Appliance" it is really waaaaaay overkill for a simple capture utility. Even "TVTime" which is a great TV watching app won't work with Hauppage cards.

I love Linux but there's no sense blowing sunshine about it's video capture capabilities because they are almost non-existent. for myself I bought a Canopus ADVC-100 DV Converter that works fabulously with "Kino" in Linux and still use a dual-boot with XP like freebird to use my other capture hardware.

I'm not sure why but there seems to be a real lack of interest in the Linux community at large for developing a Video Capture Application. Progs like XawTV and XdTV which reportedly worked on older cards with Brooktree or Conexxant Chips have ceased development and never did look "finished". The before mentioned TVTime project has cooked up a great viewer but implicitly states on their webpage that they won't be taking the extra step into Video Capture.

It seems to me that Video Capture is just not a mainstream enough concern to hold the attention of Linux devs who are feverishly churning out newer and better versions of an Alternative to Vista.

[Nelson37]

Linux seem more and more to be a huge collection of promising, "unfinished" apps which have ceased development.

The capture thing was sort of a shot in the dark, combined with a search for a simple, cheap, user-friendly XP/Vista alternative.

Getting closer on hte second goal, but still no cigar.

What really kills me is I think you could get 5-10 of these guys together and create a real consumer product that could compete with MS.