Some questions about AIW / nVivda Personal Cinema cards

[merlocka]

I currently have a TV capture card in my machine, and it's not supported well under Win2k platforms. I'm hooked on watching / recording TV on my machine now and I'm interested in video cards that have this.

My question is... do the Radeon AIW and/or the nVidia Personal Cinema systems require an additional interrupt when installed? It kinda sucked freeing up an interrupt for my capture card and I'd like it back for the RAID controller.

In addition, anyone have any experiance with the nVidia personal cinema?

thx

 

[Soldat]

and if you don't mind me adding a question..does anyone know where the nvidia personal cinema can be purchased?

 

[rbV5]

Personally, I've been using ACPI since early last year in Win2k and now with XP, both with my AIW and now with my 64 DDR VIVO, IRQ are no longer a problem IMHO.

 

[nvwebmaster]

The Personal Cinema uses a proprietary connection to interface with the Geforce 2 and Geforce 3 video cards. It is not simply an add in video capture/tv tuner device. Because of this, you can not purchase the Personal Cinema without a video card since the video card would require this interface to connect to the Personal Cinema.

 

[Soccerman]

are you looking for a better TV capture card? or a replacement for your current combination video card and TV capture card (to reduce IRQ usage)?

if you're looking for a replacement, all I can recommend is the ATi AIW video card. it's got pretty good 3D, but the AIW part is what makes it the winner. currently I cannot say much about the personal cinema, becuase there haven't been any favourable reviews of it.

if you're looking to replace your TV capture card with a Personal Cinema, good luck. someone else on here tried to buy a GF2 MX which had the personal Cinema, but his video card already had support for one, so he tried plugging only the Personal Cinema in, and no go.

I don't know about replacing your TV capture card with ATi's add-on that basically adds AIW features to your computer either, becuase unless the drivers for that card in Win2K are good you'll probably have some problems with it. that means checking for 'betas,' becuase ATi doesn't worry much about posting drivers, they don't even develop the 'betas,' from what I remember, they just take a beta, fix it (if it needs fixing), WHQL certify it, and call it their latest drivers.

finally, I hear that there are some good TV capture cards out there made by Hauppage or something like that. do some research on their Win2K implimentations, and what they offer (feature wise).

btw, I wouldn't be surprised if you end up wanting to buy an ATi AIW card (whether it be the 8500DV or the AIW Radeon, I don't know), cause they do pretty good (look at Anands TV card thingy).

 

[merlocka]

The Personal Cinema uses a proprietary connection to interface with the Geforce 2 and Geforce 3 video cards.

Yes, I'm aware of the usage but I think I worded my question poorly. My plan would be to buy a Geforce3 Ti200 with the Personal Cinema interface and a Personal Cinemal breakout box, OR an 8500 AIW. I want to be able to use these with WinXP when available.

if you're looking to replace your TV capture card with a Personal Cinema, good luck.

I'm looking to upgrade my Geforce2 GTS to an All-in-wonder type card, either nVidia card with Personal Cinema adaper (and purchase the Personal Cinema breakout box) or an ATI all-in-wonder 8500 card. Then I could dump my Pinnacle PCTV pro.

someone else on here tried to buy a GF2 MX which had the personal Cinema, but his video card already had support for one

I guess I don't understand this. He bought a GF2 MX that was bundled with the Personal Cinema and tried to use the Personal Cinema box on another Geforce card that he had installed which also had the connector for Personal Cinema and it didn't work? hmmm, I dunno. I'd probably buy whichever bundle (card and PC) that was sold together so I'm not so worried (unless it still doesn't work then I'd be pissed with nVidia for selling crap).

I wouldn't be surprised if you end up wanting to buy an ATi AIW card

That's very likely, but I've compared my GTS to a tweaked-out Radeon LE, Voodoo5 5500, Savage2000 (that was not fun), and I enjoyed the GTS above all by quite a margin. Of course, I redesigned the RGB output filters on my GTS for better 2D quality.

It's gonna depend ALOT on how the 8500 drivers look... which is good i guess, more waiting = more stable drivers + lower prices 🙂

 

[merlocka]

NVIDIA Webmaster
www.nvidia.com

Really!

The AT voice is being heard? Did you join AT just to answer my question 🙂 now that's service!

Anything you can do about getting a FSAA setting put into the quicktweak menu options? It sucks having to bury FSAA 3 layers deep in the reference drivers.

 

[nvwebmaster]

FSAA is already accessable through the quicktweak menu options with the latest Detonator XP 21.81drivers. It is under the menu option "3D Antialiasing Settings".

"Yes, I'm aware of the usage but I think I worded my question poorly. My plan would be to buy a Geforce3 Ti200 with the Personal Cinema interface and a Personal Cinemal breakout box, OR an 8500 AIW. I want to be able to use these with WinXP when available."

Currently there are no Geforce 3 Ti200 with the Personal Cinema bundles available. Visiontek will be the first company to carry the Personal Cinema. You should be able to find the Personal Cinema bundled with a Geforce 2 MX400, Geforce 2 Pro and Geforce 3 from Visiontek at Fry's Electronics and soon <SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Best Buy, CompUSA and Circuit City and other computer retail stores. The WDM drivers which ship should support Windows XP.
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"I guess I don't understand this. He bought a GF2 MX that was bundled with the Personal Cinema and tried to use the Personal Cinema box on another Geforce card that he had installed which also had the connector for Personal Cinema and it didn't work? hmmm, I dunno. I'd probably buy whichever bundle (card and PC) that was sold together so I'm not so worried (unless it still doesn't work then I'd be pissed with nVidia for selling crap)."

Many end users think that the Personal Cinema connects through the TV out port of a video card. This is not the case. The video card not only requires a special interface to work with the Personal Cinema but a custom BIOS as well.

"That's very likely, but I've compared my GTS to a tweaked-out Radeon LE, Voodoo5 5500, Savage2000 (that was not fun), and I enjoyed the GTS above all by quite a margin. Of course, I redesigned the RGB output filters on my GTS for better 2D quality."

🙂

If you have any other questions, feel free to email us at webmaster@nvidia.com.

 

[Soccerman]

heh, well this guy's card AFAIK had the proper chip and port for using the Personal Cinema. his card was made by the same company who made the Personal Cinema combo he bought, so he assumed all he needed to do was plug it in and install some drivers. if a specific BIOS is needed for the video card, thats news to us..

 

[merlocka]

FSAA is already accessable through the quicktweak menu options with the latest Detonator XP 21.81drivers. It is under the menu option "3D Antialiasing Settings".

Well, I loaded 21.81 when they were first released. I resorted back to 7.97 (my personal fav) because I did not think the above was the case.

We might be talking about 2 different things, let me clarify. with older versions (pre 12?) anti-aliasing was set seperately for openGL and D3D. When the nVidia Quick Tweak system tray utility was activated you could save "custom direct3d settings", "custom openGL settings", and "custom color settings" ... and then access and switch between them quickly using the quicktweak icon in the system tray.

With 21.81, the anti-aliasing settings are now universal for both openGL and direct3D. Therefore, if I want to switch modes of FSAA, or turn FSAA on or off I must go to display properties and dig down 2 additional layers of advanced settings to get to the FSAA control panel.

With the older (6.31, 6.5 etc...) layout, FSAA was bundled with openGL and direct3d so I could save custom openGL FSAA setting and custom direct3d FSAA settings, and switch through them on the fly with the nvidia quicktweak icon in the system tray.

Now, I posted about this before and got no replied from other users, so perhaps
1) I'm the only one who finds this useful
2) everyone else is using nvtweak or nvMax
3) I'm crazy and my 21.81's are installed incorrectly.

I just now reinstalled 21.81 and I'm pretty sure #3 is not the case. When I right click on the nvidia Quicktweak icon my three customizable options are for opengl, direct3d, and color.

Currently there are no Geforce 3 Ti200 with the Personal Cinema bundles available.

This must change!!! 🙂

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Fusetalk3 + HTML = oops

Many end users think that the Personal Cinema connects through the TV out port of a video card. This is not the case. The video card not only requires a special interface to work with the Personal Cinema but a custom BIOS as well.

Understood, and my hopes were to find a GF3 Ti200 with this option, from your previous statements my chances seem so slim.

Thanks for the replies nvwebmaster. I will buy the best hardware for my needs, except Kyro (J/K don't yell at me Teasy), but I think it's cool that nVidia is posting on these forums.