I've been using the ATi All-In-Wonder Radeon video cards for the past 5 years or so to watch TV while I work and for capturing from various video sources. I currently use the AIW 9600 Pro and have reached the point where I can't get all the WDM drivers to load no matter what I do short of re-installing windows. It's been a love-hate relationship where I can't live without my TV on in the corner of the screen, but everytime I add or remove hardware or do a Windows Update I've had to keep my fingers crossed that some innocuous thing doesn't trip up the loading of any of the many drivers necessary to run the whole AIW thing.

Since I've been wanting to have OTA HDTV capturing capability since I started watching HD in early 2001, I'm seriously considering going the more modular approach, where I get a good video card for my work and use an add-in card for TV/capturing, and hopefully HDTV (OTA, cable, or both).

What are some of my choices and which ones seem to be the most flexible and least problematic?

Thanks,

Tim

ATI's TV capture is nothing extraordinary, you can actually find cheap cards with similar capabilities. Of course you could take the high road and get a card that supports hardware compression, such as the Hauppauge WinPVR 250.

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I've found the AIW capturing capability and flexibility to be quite good. In fact, there are many others on various video capture forums who have long touted the AIW's capabilities when set properly (certainly none of the default presets) and I've had very good results capturing DVD quality MPEGs. However, I agree that a card that supports hardware compression, though more costly, might be right up my alley. Since you mention the Hauppauge WinPVR 250, do you know if their new HDTV card that can do both OTA HD and Cable HD supports hardware compression? Will I run into some of the same compatibility issues that people are experiencing with the HDTV Wonder?

Thanks,

Tim

Hauppauge 150 does hardware encoding and cheaper.

the Prisoner

I'm not a number, I'm a free man!

I think the 150 is hardware-assisted, and the 250 and 350 are both full-hardware.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

I don't know anyone rich enough to own one! I've spoken to maybe 2 owners briefly and didn't hear complaints.

I was under the impression that only ATI had driver/application issues when it came to TV recording!

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From this link, it looks like it is hardware. A great value for this card. <A HREF="http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/products/data_pvr150.html" target="_new">http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/products/data_pvr150.html</A> Of course you can get it cheaper from other sources.

I usually buy separates becuase I upgrade my video cards faster then I do my TV card/Capture cards. So no reason to pay extra for an AIW.

the Prisoner

I'm not a number, I'm a free man!

From Hauppauge:

"New low cost design. Same video quality as the WinTV-PVR-250 at a lower cost."

The comparison table shows hardware MPEG2 compression on the new card, I was fairly certain I didn't see it on the old one.


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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

WinTV-PVR-150 contains a high quality 10-bit video digitizer with 4 line adaptive comb filter to reduce video noise, plus a highly integrated MPEG-1/2 hardware encoder. WinTV-PVR-150 can record full screen TV or video at data rates from 2.5 to 12 Mbits/sec from TV, VCR or camcorder. The encoded MPEG-2 video is sent over the PCI bus, where it is stored on the PCs hard disk. The video can also be played back to the PC screen while recording.



I'm not a number, I'm a free man!

Yes, this is a much larger advantage than most people believe!

I remember recording 640x480 uncompressed video with an STB TV card, it was something like 10MB/s! Putting all that over the bus takes a huge performance hit on the bus. Software compression still has to put it all over the PCI bus, then have the CPU compress it, and put the compressed video back over the bus. So having hardware compression at the input source is a huge benefit, enormous.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

I too have been using the AIW from ATI for video capture and watching TV. Since the AIW Radeon 7000 was released I have been more than content with capturing capabilities.

I have had difficulties with installing various ATI drivers. I have reached a point that while I like the AIW the driver difficulties have become too annoying, and since capturing in general has reached a point I am happy with it doesn't make sense to include both functions on the same card.

Soon, the next couple of weeks, I will by a separate video card, and separate capture card.

I am considering the Hauppauge 250, but I have reached in conclusions yet.

I have to admit that I have concerns about possible problems in loading drivers with ATI multimedia cards, but I've found complaints people have had installing Hauppauge cards as well. Actually, the number of complaints I ran into regarding Hauppauge's WinTV-HD card (software encoding only) installation were more numerous than those pertaining to the HDTV Wonder. I'm pretty sure I'd like to wait for a HDTV card that has hardware encoding, but I don't know if there are any really good affordable ones out yet.

If I make an escape from the AIW world, I'm really intrigued by the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 (<A HREF="http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/products/data_pvrusb2.html" target="_new">http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/products/data_pvrusb2.html</A> ), which has hardware encoding AND decoding. Since it's all external and hooks up via USB2, I could use it with my desktop PC or my Notebook, and Hauppauge is selling it for only $150 (MSRP $199) right now.

I notice that most of the cards that have hardware encoders don't provide as much customization for things such as any chosen bitrate, I, B, and P frame settings, non-standard resolutions, and other tweaks that ATi's MMC provides.

That being the case, isn't a CPU-based solution like the AIW superior for capturing such things as family video tapes?

Do some searching on video caputure cards. I think you will find them better then an AIW.

the Prisoner

I'm not a number, I'm a free man!

Well, I like the idea of a hardware encoder on the capture card, but can VirtualDub (AVI) use them to capture as well? I'm not really clear on that.