Beware - video capture and DVD playback!
Written: Nov 09 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Glide support, good all-around video card
Cons: no DVD hardware decoding, 320x240 max video capture
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| sodakar's Full Review: 3dfx Voodoo3 3500, (16 MB) AGP Video Card |
I'll keep this short and sweet. There is NO DVD hardware decoding, and video can only be captured at 320x240. If your emphasis is on DVD playback and capturing video of your vacations and such, this card is not a good choice. Consider the ATi All-In-Wonder, which will capture video at 720x480, and decode DVD at the hardware level.
Note: The TV/video features don't work under Windows NT, but that is very typical of these types of multimedia cards. It's not specific to this card.
Now, is this a good card for your money? Well, it's a bit pricey, and as of this writing, it's somewhat dated in performance. To be honest, that's true of all 3dfx products as of late. Still, if your games require Glide, and you want TV/Video on your PC, this is still your best choice.
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Quick explanation/detail of what I just said in the beginning.
(if you know what they mean, you can skip this)
DVD Hardware Decoding:
If you have a DVD drive, and wish to watch DVD's on your computer, you can do so with or without hardware support. This is done by using a program (such as WinDVD) that uses your CPU to perform the decoding. If your computer is not fast enough, or is running applications in the background, DVD playback can be choppy, blurred, etc. On the other hand, if your video card has DVD hardware decoding, playback will always be smooth.
Note: If your DVD drive came with a DVD decoder card, then this is not an issue for you.
Video Capture at 320x240:
320x240 resolution is near-TV resolution, and is not considered acceptable by most for capturing full-screen video for archival purposes. Yes, this will be adequate for putting 10-second video clips on your website, but if you plan on making a full-screen multimedia presentation with the video you capture, this is hardly enough.
320x240 is not a lot of lines. Sure, it looks decent on your TV, but that's because TV has a built-in interlacing/blurring mechanism that smoothens things out. Considering most people have their monitors set to 800x600 or 1024x768, you can see why 320x240 is quite inadequate.
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Like I said, it's not a bad card. Still, lack of DVD hardware decoding and feeble video capture resolutions are quite surprising for how much you pay.
I don't recommend this to too many people, or suggest it as a gift - not because the card is bad, but in general, video cards don't make very good gifts unless you know specifically what the person wants.
Recommended:
No
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sodakar
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Reviews written: 4
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