I just recieved approval from Mrs. Lou the other day to start buying parts to build my Athlon XP rig. Quite a step up from my Pentium 233. Here's the partslist so far:
Athlon XP 1500
Soyo Dragon Plus mobo
Antec black case and power supply (maybe)
30gb+ hard drive of some variety (prolly a 7200 RPM ATA100 drive)
CD-RW of some variety (definitely burn-proof, prolly 12x or higher)
Keep in mind, I'm being conservative here. I can always upgrade the proc later...I don't want to spend an assload of cash on this thing.
Here's my dilemma: I can't decide on a videocard. I don't play many 3D games, so pixel-shaders and polygons per second mean fuck-all to me, but I do want a card with TiVo-like Personal Video Recorder capabilities. I've narrowed it down to the ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon and the nVidia Personal Cinema. I'd consider the Matrox Marvel as well, but I haven't heard shit about it. Also, I'm talking about the older AIW Radeon, not the $400(!) AIW Radeon 8500. The purpose I intend to use this for is recording shows, then burning them to CDs in VCD format, to be played in my DVD player. Which card comes with the best software? If none have good software, can I use them with other software? How about picture quality? I JUST DON'T KNOW HERE, PEOPLE!
I do capturing myself, however, I've never heard of the nVidia Personal Cinema and Matrox Marvel. I don't know shit about any of the software that comes with them. Maybe you should check a review web site (try pcinsight.com). But I'll let you know what I use and see if that's what you want. I have a Leadtek Winfast GeForce3 card and a Belkin USB VideoBus II capturing device. It's a really small device. I suggest you check this little baby out! Click here Also, check out the review, click here.
The software that comes with it is MGI VideoWave III. I don't find it to be that good myself, b/c it's shareware version and I can't figure out how to compress my files. However, I use a freeware software called VirtualDub.. I haven't captured anything from it yet, only came across it a few weeks ago (reading the help manual at the moment! There's a lot to read and teaches you all about capturing and all the jargon.) I don't think it will allow you to play them in your DVD player. But you better check with the VirtualDub guy. That's the best I can help you. Hope it helps.
PS: my computer- Athlon 1.4GHz Asus A7A motherboard 256DDR ram IBM 40MB 7200rpm HD Leadtek Winfast GeForce3 SB Live! Ricoh CD-R/RW Win98SE cheap as dirt modem and Medal of Honor kicks big ass!!!!!!!!!!
(edited by Addy on 12.3.02 0145)
"Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs. Are you kidding me? Playoffs? I'm just hoping we can win a game, another game." - Jim Mora
AFAIK, the Radeon All-In-Wonder, nVidia Personal Cinema and Matrox Marvel all do the same job, which is TiVo-like Personal Video Recording, aka, being able to pause live TV, being able to digitally record a show to one's hard drive, etc. Since I have a night job, I work when Raw and Smackdown are on, so I can't watch them. What I want to do is record them to my drive, burn them to a VCD (or burn them to a regular data CD in Windows Media, MPEG, or AVI format) and watch 'em at work. I'm not looking to get into hardcore video editing (right now, anyway). Just to clarify.
But thank you for the reply. I checked out a number of review sites, but none of 'em had a good head-to-head matchup between the ATi and nVidia cards (PC Insight didn't even have separate reviews of either card). I will take a look at that VideoBus thing...the way I see it, I don't necessarily need to get one of those cards, if I can get comparable hardware and the right software, I could essentially do the same thing. Thanks again for the help.
Unless you do DIVX compression, I don't think you are going to be able to do RAW on one CD. That's two hours... on VCD that's going to definitely be two CDs worth.
DIVX takes a long time to compress. Does the video card do the compression real time as it captures?
Checked out the post and wanted to help. First if you're gonna use it like a Tivo, wouldn't it be better to upgrade the HD to at least 60GB, they are dirt cheap right now. Also if you can cost in other things, why not get a DVD burner instead. VCD can only burn like 30-40 mins of good quality video...if you really want to create a good library at the same time, why not get the DVD-R.
As far as the video card...it seems that the old ATI is defenaitly the choice for you, since its like $250 cheaper, but again, no good bundled software is included from what i read. The nVidia seems to kick ass the most on the benchmark test. Click Here
But...i just found out this new one from Creative Labs that i think it will suite you the best Click Here
Guru: I believe the ATi card does MPEG-2 hardware compression. I don't know of any videocard that does DiVX hardware compression....besides, with CDRs being as cheap as they are now, two CDs is fine with me.
Medella: I think you were looking at the Radeon 8500 All-in-Wonder, not the 7500. The 8500 is $400, whereas the 7500AIW is $200. I ain't even considering the 8500. I checked out that Creative Labs card...looks interesting, but the copy is pretty vague about the specifications...is it a full-on videocard, or just a screen grabber? As far as an HD upgrade goes, 40GB should suit my needs fine for now...drives can only get cheaper. And a DVD Burner? Geez, wish I had $500 to spare. Maybe in a year when they're down around $200.
Originally posted by ironcladlouGuru: I believe the ATi card does MPEG-2 hardware compression. I don't know of any videocard that does DiVX hardware compression....besides, with CDRs being as cheap as they are now, two CDs is fine with me.
I think the VirtualDub I posted earlier does DivX compression. I haven't tried it yet. I can let you know if you want.
Compressing in real time is not a good idea if you want good quality. You may lose frames doing this. And that's not good if you are capturing below 15fps.
"Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs. Are you kidding me? Playoffs? I'm just hoping we can win a game, another game." - Jim Mora
Iron, if you check the test, the 7500 is included also, and i was talking about it...i think i saw it at $119 on the cnet compare shopping, the 8500 is defenaitly is way too expensive.
As for the digital recorder, here is the link to the creative labs page, they have all the specs that I think you will need to make your decision. Click Here
I do also think there is no hardware that compresses directly to Divx...but sounds like something that would generate a lot of money...hmmm....later.
I checked CNET...they only had the Radeon 7500, not the 7500 AIW listed. No love for ATi. I did manage to gind a pretty decent price for it on Pricewatch though.
Checking out the Creative card...yeah, that's definitely just a vidcap card...no video out or 3d acceleration. I don't wanna go that route, but thanks anyway. The Radeon has a better remote anyway...RF, so no line of sight is required.
My old boss at EB desperately tried to talk me out of buying ATi today. He told me to get a GeForce 4 MX. I reiterated my desire to do vidcap. He was fixated on that fucking GeForce card. I threw up my hands, and made my final decision...the ATi Radeon 7500 All-In-Wonder will be mine.
You made the right choice. You want video editing with your games? ATI. You want just games? NVIDIA. Both are good choices, but the ATIs will always be more versatile.
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