Will You Wonder Why You Bought The All In Wonder?
Written: Oct 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Works With Windows 2000, Captures Mpeg2,
DDR Ram onboard.
Cons: Will Probably not support Windows XP.
The Bottom Line: I would recommend this card to those running Windows 2000, Capture works great, lots of features, and smooth video playback.
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| Syntax's Full Review: ATI ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON, (32 MB) PCI Video Card |
I also wrote a review on the All In Wonder 128 I returned twice, Now spending 4 times as much as planned and 3 video cards later I have purchased the All In Wonder Radeon Card. Lets see how this turns out.
Problems
Well.. I had a few snags installing it on Windows 2000 again. The install went much smoother this time. The Key was to install the Beta Drivers from the start. Dont install the official release, thinking you will just install the betas if the originals dont work, that will just confuse Windows, instead, install the Betas and be done with it. The Beta Drivers are available via thier website.
After the card came up, without much trouble, I installed the software for TV Tuning, and it worked.. No Problem...
So I attempted a capture.. this is where my system sat...
did nothing, and created nothing. Saying it failed to initialize the capture device. Once again as with the 128 pro I thought I was going to have to just give up and take it back. As a last resort I installed the Direct X Video Capture Update available on Microsofts website, and rebooted. I had done this with the 128 pro, and it didnt help. This time however on the Radeon the Capture started right up. I created the file on my drive and I figures YES! Im in business.. Finally..
When I attempted to open the file I was in for another surprise.. The file didnt open. I found out after a little investigation that Mpeg2 files can only be played if you have a DVD player installed. So I installed a DVD software, even though I dont have a drive in my machine. To my amazement the video played back..
Quality
Well, so far I captured from 2 things,
Cable TV, and a DVD played thru the Input of an older VCR.
If your wondering why I did that.. Old VCR's dont recognize Macrovision, and you can defeat the protection built into ATI's card, as well as the protection of the DVD player, by running your output thru the VCR and then to the card.
The DVD capture came out great.. Clear sound.. clear video, alot better than I had expected.. I was impressed, 0 frame loss on my ATA100 drive.
As for the Cable TV capture, I found that any image you see on the TV comes out twice as fuzzy on the capture. It must have something to do with digitizing the image. I piddled a bunch with my cable trying to tighten down connections and clear up the signal a little, with only a little bit of luck.
Games
Well Im not a gamer, but I decided I wanted to take a quick look at what the card could do. I downloaded the pre-release of Castle Wolfenstien. I maxed out all the graphics settings, and started the game up, it was really jerky.. I turned a few down, none helped. Until I decreased the Texturing from High to Normal, and at that point the game ran so quickly it was unbelivable. I have yet to try it on games like Counterstrike, or Quake. I dont have copies yet. Ive never had many games, due to the fact I only had a 4mb video card before this.
Overall
Over all, I am impressed with capture from devices such as Camcorders, DVD players, ect.. If my cable were clearer I would really be happy with that as well.. Its not really the card causing the fuzzyness so I cant complain. Some downsides to the card are that ATI has long quit supporting Video For Windows, so you cant capture to Divx using this card, and you cant use this card as a video device for programs like netmeeting. The New ATI cards use the DirectShow codec to capture and display video.
Other than that small letdown, I am overall happy with the new card, it works great on my 2000 machine, The games seem to run fine, as well as I need them, the capture features work great, and the video as far as program and software performance is as good as any other Ive seen.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 170.00
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Epinions.com ID:
Syntax
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Member: Paul Germer
Reviews written: 181
Trusted by: 11 members
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