Which All in Wonder Card?

[Willoughbyva]

Hi,
I don't do much gaming so an older card might be the OK with me. Right now I have a GF2MX and it would handle all the gamming I need to do. I also have a Hauppage Win TV GO card. The thing is the Hauppage card has crappy drivers and for XP it doesn't have any real software to capture video. They say they are working on it, but I have used this tv card for a couple years and I think I want something different.

What is the difference between the original AIW Radeon and the AIW Radeon 7500 as far as tv and capturing video is concerned? The AIW 8500 is way out of my price range. I read that the 7500 comes with a remote, but I don't really need that.

I just want something that is stable and does what it is advertised as. I also have "Video Studio" and was wondering if I could use it with the Radeon card?

I have been wanting an AIW for a long time, and I am thinking now might be the time to get one, but I am unsure as to what might be the one to get. I am a college student and am on a tight budget as it is, but I want something that is not a lot of hassell. So far I have about 5 different drivers downloaded for the WinTV card.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank You
Will

 

[bobjunga]

Hello,

I just installed an ATI AIW Radeon (not the 7500) in my sister's computer. I was very happy with the features and bundled software. The PVR stuff works, but not anywhere near as usable as TIVO, though (control convience, not performance -- maybe future versions of the TV app will be better and more integrated into the Guide+ app).

I have a WinTV-PCI Theater in one of my computers with a Matrox G400. The AIW is much more refined and works much better in WinXP than the WinTV card.

After being used to the WinTV, the AWI surprised me with neat features like the TV app can not only support the standard windowed, maximized, and full screen, but it can also toggle to a mode where it is your wallpaper. (A AIW 7500 review I read recently (pcmag.com or cnet.com) send that a new feature for AWI 7500 is the wallpaper mode where all your app windows are transparent). Also, the online listing guide app is very good. I was surprised that it came with the full version of Ulead MediaStudio even if it was not the newestest release.

I use Video Vegas for capture/editting. It worked with the AIW Radeon but there is a glicth where I have to toggle the capture resolution before the preview displays correct.

I think, but do not know for a fact that the main difference between the AIW Radeon and the AIW Radeon 7500 is the 3d gaming performane. See the current video shoot out on this site to get an idea of how the 3d performance of the Radeon and Radeon 7500 compare to each other and the state of the art.

I am no gamer, but I ran Half-life (my nephue's game of choice) on the AIW Radeon and it seemed good to me.

Bottom line is that I liked the AIW Radeon so unless the price difference was very small, I would not spend the extra $ for the 7500.

--BobG

 

[Balt]

Willoughbyva,

Have you tried some third-party applications with your WinTV card (VirtualDub, etc.)? From what I gather, a lot of people have trouble with ATI's applications as well.

Link to a site that might help you out a bit.

Good luck.

 

[AA0]

http://www.ati.com/na/pages/products/pc/aiw_radeon/index.html
http://www.ati.com/na/pages/products/pc/aiw_radeon_7500/index.html

also http://www.ati.com/na/pages/faq/aiw_radeon_7500_faq.html has a chart of the features to compare.

Looks like the only difference between the two is tv out capabilites.

 

[bobjunga]

They both have TV out. I think that the major (only?) difference in connectors is that the AIW Radeon has both vga and DVI connetors but the AIW 7500 has only DVI (which can drive either a digital or analog monitor with the included cable).

The AIW Radeon comes in PCI and AGP versions. I have the PCI because CompUSA ran out of the AGP while they were having a good deal on them.

There is a difference in the way the TV out is handled, though. On the AIW Radeon, the TV out can only be used to clone the primary display (you cannot extend the Windows desktop to the TV). On the AIW 7500, you can extend the desktop to the TV.

A further limitation on the AIW Radeon is that when TV out is active, both the main display and the TV run at a physical 800x600. If the res of the primary display is set greater than that, you get a virtural desktop (the rest of the desktop pans into view when you move the mouse off screen). I have seen this on my PCI version, I assume the AGP would work the same.

The help on the AIW Radeon talks about extending the desktop, so I ASSUME that with the AGP version you can connect a monitor to both the VGA and DVI connectors at the same time and extend the desktop across them. However, the AIW 7500 does not incude the extra VGA connector so you can connect only one real monitor.

One more thing, I read a review that stated that the AIW 7500 came out after the AIW 8500 and that the 7500 version is more refined in some ways so don't feel bad about not shelling out the big bucks

--BobG

 

[rbV5]

<< AIW Radeon has both vga and DVI connetors >>



Nope, they both have only DVI, and a DVI>VGA adaptor (1 monitor + 1 TV)

AIW Radeon 32 mb ddr
AIW Radeon 7500 64 MB ddr

AIW Radeon 7500 also has the new memory controller, a sweet remote , hydravision and the 0.15-micron core.

 

[bobjunga]

<< Nope, they both have only DVI, and a DVI>VGA adaptor (1 monitor + 1 TV) >>



Sorry, my mistake. I was going off this from ATI's website (excerpt from AIW link above)...

Connectors (AIW Radeon)

• PC monitor: 15-pin VGA
  DVI-I output (VGA monitors connect through DVI-I to VGA adapter - AGP version only)
  Stereo audio, S-video and composite video inputs
  S-video and composite video outputs
  External stereo audio connection to sound card's line input
  Dolby® Digital stereo audio output (S/PDIF)

And check out this comparsision table on ATI's web! Don't overlook the tabs. I got there through the support page. Too bad they have not updated it to include the AIW 7500. They also do not distinguish in the table between the RADEON VE Dual Display Edition which does have both DVI and VGA and the other cards that just have the DVI. They all have checks in the VGA and the DVI column.
Hard to find product comparision table on ATI's web

Picture from newegg confirms what you say.

So I wonder if you can extend the desktop to the TV with the AIW Radeon and I just can not figure out how to enable it.


--BobG

 

[Willoughbyva]

Thanks for all the input. I'll try and get me a Radeon 7500 within the next month or so.


Will