video-in card quest - need input

Acts837

Golden Member
Mar 11, 2001
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I'm looking to go with a budget solution for starting to capture video from VHS tapes. Not looking to spend above $130 so here are the cards I have run across so far.

white box ATI All-In-Wonder 128 PRO 16MB AGP for $45 shipped

used ATI RADEON 64MB (VIVO) for $60 shipped

retail boxed ATI All-In-Wonder RADEON 7500 64MB for $127 shipped

Up until now I have always copied fro VHS to my digital camcorder and then downloaded thru my firewire. What a pain. Looking to go straight from VHS (VCR) thru the video-in on a video card and then work it from there.
 

Mavrick007

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2001
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The Radeon 7500 AIW is a pretty good card and it fits in your budget. If you had a bit more, I would go with a GF4 Ti4200 VIVO though, but that's just cause it's a faster card and would have more benefit for other things, but the 2d of the Radeon would be as good if not better.
 

Acts837

Golden Member
Mar 11, 2001
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The $60 Radeon has VIVO and since I don't care about the TV option will the All In Wonder be that much better for twice the cost? I agree...I have been eyeballying
rolleye.gif
the LEADTEK GF4 TI4200BK 128M VIVO for $169 at Newegg.
 

Mavrick007

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2001
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I guess I should have asked if you do any gaming at all. If you do, then I would think about the 7500 AIW, but if not then the Radeon VIVO should be more than required for your video editing purposes and it costs half as much.
 

Acts837

Golden Member
Mar 11, 2001
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no gaming here. I leave all that stuff for my 15 year old son. Although I do think counterstrike is cool.
 

Mavrick007

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2001
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Save yourself some money and just go with the Radeon VIVO, it will do the job as well as the AIW 128 Pro.
 

rbV5

Lifer
Dec 10, 2000
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The AIW cards have a higher quality s-video input than the composite input of the VIVO which makes a big difference..but only if your VCR has the s-video output to take advantage of it. The Radeon cards support the newest catalyst and MMC, which is far superior to the MMC 7.2 currently supprted by the AIW 128 pro.

Newegg has the AIW Radeon for $79 which would make a good choice between the AIW 128 or AIW 7500, it has most of the multimedia features of thew AIW 7500 (no remote, no dual RAMDAC..so no "Theater Mode")

So IMHO, the VIVO if you are just going to use composite video input, AIW Radeon if you want a much better feature set at a little more cost, AIW 7500 if you want the remote and better output options, I own all 4 cards, they are all good for what you want.
 

oldfart

Lifer
Dec 2, 1999
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Up until now I have always copied fro VHS to my digital camcorder and then downloaded thru my firewire. What a pain. Looking to go straight from VHS (VCR) thru the video-in on a video card and then work it from there.
Your DV camcoder does not have the AV->DV passthrough feature? Some do, some don't. This allows analog passthough to the firewire directly without recording on tape. Great way to do it if your camcorder supports it.
 

Acts837

Golden Member
Mar 11, 2001
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oldfart- overclocker and a video dabbler too? Wow, I have the Sony TRV103 so I'll have to look and see if it has that feature.
 

rbV5

Lifer
Dec 10, 2000
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I have the Sony TRV103

How do you like that? Its the digital8 format correct? I had the chance to use a TRV9 last weekend..OMG it is absolutely fantastic little digi cam, I couldn't believe the IQ even using analog capture off it (no fiewire on my rig yet) Night shots, action footage that thing did a great job no matter what I tried..must get one soon (and firewire, so I can take advantage of dv)
 

Acts837

Golden Member
Mar 11, 2001
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I bought it 2.5 years ago when it first came out. We love it! need I say more? Went from a Pinnacle studio dv to an audigy card...works great
 

oldfart

Lifer
Dec 2, 1999
10,207
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Heh, yeah. I recently got into the video thing. I recently converted all my 8mm home movies to SVCD's. Quite a project. I had 20 1 Hr SVCD's when I was done! I learned quite a bit in the process. I used the AV->DV passthrough feature on my Canon ZR40 to connect the 8mm camcorder to the Pinnacle firewire card. Worked vey well.