• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

To ATI All-in-Wonder or not...

S

spinn

Golden Member
What I basically want to do is setup a computer in my room, and hook it up to my TV. I want to play DVDs from my DVD rom drive and record TV programs. I don't necessarily need timeshifting (pause live TV). I want to be able to just use it as a digital video recorder in MPEG-2 format.

What ATI All-in-Wonder product could I get away with? I was hoping to just use a PII-350 w/200MB...but will upgrade if necessary. Anyone doing this? I'm a newbie here...

Also, what's missing in the OEM packages for the AIW 128 pro and Radeon AIW, from retail?
 
I have a retail AIW Radeon and I'm liking this card more everyday. I'm using it just as you describe. I'm thinking that you'll need a cpu upgrade at the very least, video capture/editing takes some considerable cpu power (especially mpeg2) and thats a bit low for DVD decoding as well.

 
I have an AIW 128 Pro 32M, and it works great for video editing and TV. The gaming is ok (Nothing special, but this is my wife's machine).
 
Read my thread I just started I am so disappointe in the ati AIW radion32 DDR it cannot capture in anything but AVI format and it takes 1.7Gigs+ to record 6minutes of video that means I need 60gigs for recording 2 movies.
The adobe premier 5.x cannot capture because the AIW cannot support it has no driver to do that and the software it has can only edit AVI and although it can save in other formats it cannot capture in them.

So ok you guys that love this card how do you capture from a Video camera say you did a little 10 minute video with your camera?

Gee I hope somone makes me wrong and shows me the erros of my experiences...
Wish I bought a Matrox450 with 2 heads it can support the Adobe premiere software... I mean what is the use of MPG2 and converting to MPG4 so you can Burn it to a CD and use CDs to watch videos? if you have this crap of an editor.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

 
TungFree,

you must not capture the video uncompressed in order to keep the file size down. Use MJPEG or DivX Codecs to compress your video while capturing.
See also this thread.
 
TungFree, I replied to your other thread as well, Adobe Premiere works great with the AIW Radeon (I use it myself, its my favorite! I don't like the interface to the Uulead software myself, but it is definately capable of producing quality stuff)
Tips from this newbie:

For the highest quality, uses the most HD space,
Hook your video camera up with the s-video in or composite in and capture AVI, uncompressed right in Premiere, edit to your hearts content,add more clips, add effects, transitions and titling, export out as a movie(maybe use a divx or mpeg4 codec for small file size) if you have the hardrive space for the capture(your finished video will be fairly small with the right compression) Stick almost 2 hours of your home movies or videos on 1 cd!

Otherwise compress as you capture into Premiere, uses much less HD space, takes the most CPU power to avoid dropping frames, doesn't edit as well, and you lose quality everytime you compress. This may be your best bet for TV captures and VHS tapes you don't need to edit much(your movie collection)and convert to VCD or divx formats.

Look around on the Net, there are many sites dedicated to PC Video editing/capture. With the right information you'll turn that AIW of yours into a very capable video tool.




 
the thread that rbV5 mentions is bellow and has very fine additional inputs by this very fine expressive fellow I am coming to admire. It contains his input and my reaction and some interesting history of computer video. 🙂

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=360497

Once again rbV5 thank you for adding the connections hookups. Once again I ask you as b4 what version of premiere are you using and reiterating that the 5.1 That I and "Bile" (a new member since 2 days but well known to me for 5 years) used to try and capture did not do it and ATI said it does not support it, so I am curious how you captured with Premiere. The compress as you capture into Premiere comment is very interesting and I noted it in the former post of Hanky above. I am noting the names Hanky mentions and will seek out the sites that were suggested as help sites.
I must say that after you posted in my thread and here and what Hanky said I feel much better and the "screwd" feeling is thawing out LOL 🙂 and hope is replacing the feeling.
What great exposure this must be for Spinn 🙂 don't ya just love Anandtech's forums 🙂))


 
Spinn, I feel that rbV5's input in my thread is relevent to this thread and am reposting it in Quotes. If you wish to see my reaction see his answer

" Don't feel screwed! Your selling your Radeon short.

Actually there are several ways to capture with the AIW Radeon, You can use the ATI digital VCR application to capture AVI YUV raw video(uncompressed) this is best for editing and most video editing software supports this format, uses a huge amount of hardrive space. Mpeg1 and 2, compresses on the fly so it takes less hardrive space and more cpu power to avoid dropping frames. Not the best for editing because its already compressed, but can be edited in a variety of software packages(change the extension from *.mpg or *.m2p if your software wont load it)hint: Use Flaskmpg to make small high quality divx!

You don't have to use ATI software to capture, in fact I believe any software that is compatable with the matrox cards are also compatable with the AIW (I think they also ship with Uulead video studio same as the AIW unless you get the g400 Marvel which I believe ships with Avid Cinema, and I don't particularly like either one) I have used Adobe Premiere(I use this mostly, great for capturing and editing) VirtualDub (very powerful freeware capture/conversion software) Amcap (I like this as well, came with my Directx8 SDK)

Your monitor resolution is not the same as video resolution, Here are the resolutions of popular video formats as far as I know:

DVD = 720x480
VHS = 300x360
VCD = 352x240 NTSC or 352x288 Pal
Broadcast TV, I believe is between VHS and DVD 500, something by ?
please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm just learning also

In other words, watching a DVD on your computer full screen(or out to your tv for that matter) will look the same whether your Monitor resolution is 800x600 or 1600x1200.

There is MUCH more to video capture/editing than meets the eye, it takes a powerful computer and tons of hardrive space(you compress it after you capture and edit your video and with the proper codecs, you can burn almost 2 hours of near DVD quality video onto 1 CD, so the hardrive space is temporary anyway) I am a newby to Video capture/editing myself, and found that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation and half truths about the video capability of this card on this and other boards.

my conclusion: the AIW Radeon is a powerful video solution, that can produce excellent results in the right hands. Its very adept at Gaming and its DVD playback is second to none. Like anything else, its not so much the tool as the person opperating the tool that determines the quality of the end result. (I have yet to find the right combination to properly transfer my VHS to CD myself) "


Hope Spinn you will save the above as it is quite valuable to know this if you plan on buying the AIW radion 32 DDR.
 
What about the new Hauppage WinTV PVR (I think thats what its called) does it do all the same and how does it compare?
Is it worth buying a AIW or WinTV with a celery 266@400 or would it just mean that I would have to record uncompressed and then mpg4 it in software? Do you get better quality with software compression than with the hardware compression these cards do?
 
All I can say about the Hauppage is it has a very fine tuner may be even the best one on the market but I know nothing about the rest. I saw no recent reviews.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top