What's the best video capture/TV tuner card??

[jazzman42379]

Howdy All....

This fall when I get bakc to school, I plan on upgrading my machine to be primarily a multimedia machine (TV tuner, MP3s, storage, DVD, etc...and of course, it has to be able to play games). I'd like to go for cheap to moderately priced. As far as games go, I really don't play many anymore, so I'd say the minimum is that it runs Tribes 2 decently. I'd really like to have a decent TV tuner/capture card in it, something that I can set to record shows, pause shows, etc. However, one requirement is that it has to have decent drivers under Win2k! I really wish that ATI had decent drivers, but I think running an AIW Radeon under 2k would severly hamper any gaming abilities.

Speaking of ATI...does anyone know when the Radeon 2 stuff is expected to be coming out?

I have already looked at ATIs standalone TV cards, and they don't actually have full drivers/software for 2k. I also cant' seem to find Asus's GFMX card with the TV tuner in it. I don't know weather or not it'd be better to get an all in one integrated card or a standalone. One advantage I thought with the standalone is I could get a decent vid card regardless.

One other thing I am hoping for with this system is that it is as quiet as possible. So a high powered, top of the line card is probably out of the question (fan).

Thanx in advance for any advice!
Jazzman

 

[jobberd]

ATI win2k drivers have come a long way, and are nowhere near as bad as they once were. I will soon be reformatting my drive and putting win2k with my radeon le so if you wish i could give you details of the transition. It sounds to me like your best bet would be a Radeon LE. It is very cheap, has excellent 2d quality, and IMHO the best money to performance ratio by far. However, if you feel very strongly about the win2k driver situation, then perhaps your next bet would be a geforce2 mx. They also do not have fans on them and are about the same price range of a Radeon LE ($60-70). However, people around here report that 2d quality is less then stellar, and the performance in games wont be too great either. Tribes 2 is a very taxing game, so youd most definitely have to run it at 800*600 or below for best performance. The nvidia drivers, on the other hand, are superb, and you will most likely have no complaints with them. I personally would go for the Radeon LE, but the choice is yours

 

[IshmaelLeaver]

I'd go with the Radeon, also. I have a Geforce 2 MX, a Radeon LE, and a Hauppage WinTV card. I'm dumping the MX and the WinTV and picking up a Radeon AIW. The 2D on the Geforce is pretty bad, and the Radeon is much more powerful in 32 bit color. It still chokes in Win2000, though. 37 FPS in 2000 vs 50 FPS in ME for Quake III Arena.

I don't know how the TV Tuner/Capture is in the AIW, though. I'm getting it later this week.

 

[rbV5]

<< AIW Radeon under 2k would severly hamper any gaming abilities >>



Hasn't hampered my gaming any, AIW Win2k sp2,and I got 65fps in Quake3A demo002, and it seems even better with 1.29 patch, but I can't figure how to run the demo with the new patch

Edit: found out how to run the new demo(timedemo 1>demo four BTW)

1280x1024x32 bit high graphics maxed settings 58.6fps
1024x768x32 bit high graphics maxed settings 69.4fps

bunch of crap running in the tray, nonoverclocked, no tweaks.

I play Serious Sam, Black and White, UT, MDK2, Hitman Codename 47 ect. and only run win2k.