Need help deciding on a video in solution.

[Chu]

Hello all. I'm currently trying to figure out how the best way to get "video in" functionality on my computer, and need a bit of help. My current video card is a GeForce 3 Ti200, and I was thinking the best way to do this was to buy one of those 8 meg PCI All in Wonder's for about $30 on ebay, and just use that (my monitor has two inputs). The other option is to sell off my GeForce3 and spend $300 on a Radeon 8500DV AIW. Need answers to a few questions to help decide.

#1: Is there any quality difference with either vga out or video in? I was convinced that all the AIW cards used the same chip for handling all the VIVO stuff, but ati.com has a blurb on the AIW DV8500 about a new and improved IVTC algorithm (which matters since I am going to be doing some VHS captures with this). Do they or don't they? Also, if there is a quality difference, how noticeable is it?

#2: Is the software the same? I've heard nothing but good things about ATI's TV software, but I want to make sure there isn't some catch with the older AIW cards. The digital vs. analogue cable tuner doesn't matter to me (unless there is a difference in quality . . .).

Thanks in advance,

-Chu

 

[Chu]

I really should do some more research before posting here. Was searching a bit more, and think I found the perfect card, given that the video in quality is decent. The maxtor g200-tv, pci version. Anyone know how it's image quality fares versus the all in wonder models?

-Chu

 

[jfunk]

I've never owned a Matrox card, but from what I understand nobody is gonna touch their 2D quality.

That being said, I think the AIW's are prolly king of the feature set realm.

My vote would be ditch the GF3 and get an 8500 AIW...no need to bother with 2 cards and if the 8500 runs any of your games slower, its not gonna be by any noticable amount.


j