Is Radeon's 9800 AiW worth it?

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penus

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Who has the 9800 All-in-Wonder? I am thinking of devoting my spare PC to multimedia (ie, capturing VHS, camcorder, TV, etc...) and want to hear thoughts on this card.

I read that it only captures at a max res of 720x480. Being that I am a fiend for 1600x1200 in ALL cases, I am wondering if the quality diminishes if stretched full screen from 720x480 to 1600x1200. Is this limit a fault of the hardware, has ATI developed software that can handle captures at higher resolutions, or am I talking about getting a capture board that is out of my wallet's league? Awaiting replies.
 
If this is your spare PC, and you are just planning on doing Video Capturing and such (not playing games?), why don't you just use a TV Tuner card, maybe a MSI TV@nywhere ? Save you some money if you don't need the high end video card. Is the video card in there currently decent?

The nice thing about the TV Tuner cards is that they can go from system to system, eventually your 9800 AIW (and I mean eventually, a ways off at this point) , you will have to buy another AIW card to upgrade to keep the TV capture capibilities.

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i haven't researched capture boards much, i guess. i thought a tv tuner just allowed reception from tv.. i didn't know it captured. specifically what i am looking for is a card that will capture video from pretty much any input device (such as tv, vcr, dvd, camcorder, etc) at 1024x768 or higher, preferably 1600x1200, and that i can also use as a video conferencing device with a camcorder and used to teleconference with screen capture as an output device. i know my specifications are high, but what do you know of that can do all that?

i am just interested in mpg3/4 encoding and don't necessarily need the 9800 AiW as i already have the 9800 XT.
 
Well technically I believe anything can do that, however there is no point to captureing at resolutions that high. Nothing you will capture will be that high of resolution. All that is really going to do is create a huge file size. You could capture at a lower resolution, 720x ?? and just full screen it, and it shouldn't look bad.

The MSI TV@nywhere card comes with software that does MPEG4 and MPEG2, and does 7xx/??? (Thinking it was 720x320, maybe 480).

There are several good freeware programs out there also, one that I have used is VirtualVCR, it is used for recording stuff from capture cards and you can set the capture size to whatever you want (you just type it in), so it will capture at 1600x1200, if you wanted to go this high.

The good thing about the MSI card to is that it doesn't cost that much, I picked mine up from the local computer store for $50, and it comes with all the software, including software to setup specific times for it to record automatically, a remote, is stereo (some cheaper cards are only mono), and can pickup FM radio, as well.

Overall the TVTuner might be a better option, especially since you already have a 9800 xt, no point in getting the AIW.

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Your system doesn't have the power to capture smoothly at 1600x1200.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<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>
 
At the highest setting at 720x420 it records at around 1gb per minute and the quality is about three times higher than a dvd I think that should be enought quality and space for you

Also the programs that do record at 1600x1200 actually strech the image out unless you have a video imput that is higher than 1080i HDTV so in effect your just using the same aiw9800
check and mate


System Spec's:
Asus P4c800-E 3.2e @3.8ghz
1gb corsair xms pro2-2-2-5 aiw 9800 pro
audigy 2zs klipsch ultra's
74gb raptor wd 2000jb
pioneer 108 pioneer 120s
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by lb19984 on 09/07/04 10:13 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
Stretch? 1080i would have to be cropped or shrunk to fit on a 1600x1200 screen.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<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>
 
True 1080i resolution is 1920 x 1080
so both streched and cropped

but 720p would have to be streched

System Spec's:
Asus P4c800-E 3.2e @3.8ghz
1gb corsair xms pro2-2-2-5 aiw 9800 pro
audigy 2zs klipsch ultra's
74gb raptor wd 2000jb
pioneer 108 pioneer 120s
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by lb19984 on 09/08/04 00:04 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
Nope, no stretching for 1600x1200 because it would maintain aspect ratio, adding black borders to fill the top and bottom of the screen. It would shrink it from 1920 to 1600 and shrink it vertically by the same amount.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<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>
 
Ok Ok you got me there
but the 720p will have to be streched

System Spec's:
Asus P4c800-E 3.2e @3.8ghz
1gb corsair xms pro2-2-2-5 aiw 9800 pro
audigy 2zs klipsch ultra's
74gb raptor wd 2000jb
pioneer 108 pioneer 120s
 
Yes, but depending on how it's stretched, 720p could provide a better image on a 1600x1200 screen than 1080i, because progressive images appear much sharper on a monitor than interlaced images do.

It would be helpfull to have the application reset the screen resolution to 1280x1024 when playing 720p, where the top and bottom would be filled with black to maintain the aspect ratio. That would definately give the advantage to 720p.

As for me, I have my screen set to 1280x1024 by default.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<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>
 
what video card/plasma/lcd do you have plannig do get a big screen myself that is if you have a big screen or do you just have a hdtv tuner
thanks

System Spec's:
Asus P4c800-E 3.2e @3.8ghz
1gb corsair xms pro2-2-2-5 aiw 9800 pro
audigy 2zs klipsch ultra's
74gb raptor wd 2000jb
pioneer 108 pioneer 120s
 
I have a CRT and watch 720p video from DVD as well as ripped movies in various format.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<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>
 
Love the AIW cards, I want the new AIW X800XT


========================
Try everything...
Do not be afraid of failure, for this is how we learn and grow...
Live life to the fullest...
Do not regret what you have not yet done!!!
 
crashman...nice
the all in wonder x800xt came out already i cant wait for the reviews

System Spec's:
Asus P4c800-E 3.2e @3.8ghz
1gb corsair xms pro2-2-2-5 aiw 9800 pro
audigy 2zs klipsch ultra's
74gb raptor wd 2000jb
pioneer 108 pioneer 120s
 
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