Hello,

I am completely new to the world of digital video, and thought that someone within this forum might be able to give me some general advice regarding the video capture hardware/software I'm considering.

I don't really need anything that is especially complex or production-oriented - all that I require is a video board that can get television quality results at a capture rate of 30 fps, and display it at full resolution on a 13" monitor while still being able to maintain a file size that enables me to fit each on a 650-700 MB CD-R. What I mainly need the hardware for is to convert a library of documentary films (most of which are approx. 60 minutes each in length) from VHS tape to CD-R. MPEG-2 appears to be the best file format option currently available for this.

I've been looking at the ALL IN WONDER RADEON AGP 32MB NTSC - see following URL: http://www.ati.com/na/pages/products/pc/aiw_radeon/index.html

Does anyone here have any experience with this particular model? If so, I'd much appreciate any comments regarding whether or not this would be the most cost-effective and useful hardware for my rather simple video capture/editing needs.

Thanks -

C. Campbell

-- C. Campbell (livingplanet3@yahoo.com), March 19, 2001

Answers

This gentleman has a web site that devotes a lot of space on that particular card.

http://www.members.home.net/richa/

A friend of my purchased one and is happy with it.

-- me (snake_mountain@hotmail.com), March 20, 2001.

I bought the AIW Raedon a few months ago in order to convert my VHS library to VCDs.

The latest version of the AIW Raedon can capture video in MPEG2 or AVI, however the AVI captures seem to have some problems with audio video sync. On the other hand, the MPEG2 captures are great!

You mentioned that you would like to compile your video onto 650M CD- Rs. FYI 45 minutes of MPEG2 will likely be 2.8G.

I have managed to convert my MPEG2 captures to VCD compliant MPEG1 (of pretty good quality) using TMPGEnc (need to deinterlace and resize). Look for it at www.flexion.org - There is also a great VCD Cookbook at this site.

[I still haven't figured out how to get the MPEG1 onto a CD-R so that it will play on my DVD player. If you figure it out, let me know.]

-- Curt Wvong (curt.wvong@poboxes.com), March 23, 2001.

This is a great card, but be aware... if your coumputer is "home made" you may have trouble getting the card working properly. My home computer is "home made" P III 750Mhz, 30 Gb, 128 Mb memory with W98 SE. TV works great but when using the capture feature, whatever I tried I got 10 secs of good sound then only warbled, unacceptable sound. ATI Tech support was aware of that and suggests to change some AGP setting, no luck. Finally, on March the 20th, ATI released a whole new video driver, which requires MS DirectX 8, and a full new TV and capture software. Finally it worked. Finally, one recomendation, at least in my case, I have to leave my machine untoched while capturing, this means no mouse, no keyboard, no screen saver and even no power managment.

Now, all that happened in a "hand made machine". I tested the card in my office machine (Dell, 128 Mb, P III 550Mhz). It worked like a charm the very first time.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Luis Gomez

-- Luis Gomez (softrends@infosel.net.mx), March 24, 2001.