Video In

[wallinbl]

I have two interests in Video In.

The first is that I'd like to have TV input. Do the TV tuner cards (including the ATI AIW) normally support DirecTV, do they only do cable, or do they even know the difference?

The second is that I'd like to have the highest quality input from a Video Camera (not yet purchased - still researching). Am I better off using one of the "DV" cams and using the FireWire output on it, or am I better off with an ATI AIW or something like that? I know it's overkill, but I'm probably going to purchase the Adobe Digital Video Bundle (I'm just going to be making home videos, but I'd like to learn DV editing while I'm at it). I'm going to be burning the final output to DVD. (I have thought about purchasing a Mac for this aspect of things, but I'd rather use the extra money to get a better camera).

The sum of this being: If I want TV tuning (for DirecTV) and input from a video carmera, should I buy a TV Tuner card and a FireWire card, or just buy an All-In-Wonder?

 

[Peter]

Video and/or S-Video in are usually found on TV cards. That's the analog signal path, suitable for any kind of video image source - tape, cable or terrestrial TV, analog cameras, games consoles, old home computers, whatever. FireWire lets you scoop the original, digital stream of images from a digital videocam, no more no less.

AIW cards have the nicest TV-in solution, thanks to ATi's chip having much better de-interlacing filters than the Conexant chips usually found on standalone PCI TV cards. FireWire performs best when coming directly from one of the most recent system chipsets - PCI card or onboard PCI solutions perform considerably lower.

What you also want is fast and large hard drive storage.

regards, Peter