[TriLUG] DVR

Thu Oct 10 19:29:34 EDT 2002

Dave,
    I have the 8500AIW, and it works like a charm on XP.  The S-Video 
output is pretty good as far as I am concerned.  I used a Radeon 7000 
previously with a big screen TV and the S-Video output was great.  I 
used the 8500 over the summer and the output was less than stellar, but 
I was also using a really crappy TV, so I chalk it up to the TV.  As for 
why I chose ATI over GeForce, there were three factors.
    I prefer Built-By-ATI cards because I have had ATI cards in the past 
and they worked very well.  Also, I got a little bit of security by 
buying a "Built By ATI" card, since the tech support I recieved for 
"Powered-By-ATI" cards was sketchy, at least from the downloadable 
driver point of view.  In fact, the driver CD that came with a 
Powered-By card didn't even recognize the card it shipped with.  I also 
knew very little at the time about how the GeForce side of the house 
works as far as what is "official" made by nVidia and what wasn't, so 
when I was shopping around, the "Built-By-ATI" was a sure-fire way to 
know ATI made it.
    Also, the price difference was dramatic between GeForce and ATI, so 
that was important.  IIRC, GeForce, from what I understand has held the 
lead in the graphics card industry between the two as far as power goes, 
but with that also came a stiffer price.  ATI's latest card, the 9700(i 
think) might stand up to the GeForce now, but there is no AIW version 
yet, and the current price that I saw for a 9700 Pro was around 350-450, 
so the AIW would add on at least another 100.  But, it appears you are 
more concerned with the TV-tuner and TV-out than you are with gaming, so 
the 8500 AIW will do.  I've noticed very little difference between the 
7500(?)AIW and 8500 AIW TV-tuner capabilities, so I doubt there will be 
a big change between the 9700AIW and 8500AIW in that categorie.
    Finally, the AIW came with a much butter set of TV software than the 
GeForce, which was important to me, since I didn't want to be fumbling 
around trying to find decent TV software.  I love the GuidePlus that 
comes with the AIW, and the TV recording and playback is rather 
straightforward, though I still can't find the first program I tried to 
record with GuidePlus.  Documentation is pretty much nonexistent, but 
the features are easy enough to understand.   Add to that the USB IR 
remote that comes with the AIW and the internal TV-Tuner on the AIW, as 
opposed to the Personal Cinema's external one, and that was enough to 
convince me to stick with ATI.
    As for the TV-tuner in linux issue, I have not even begun to try 
that, since I first heard it was "impossible," and then today found 
something about it on the internet.  When I have more spare time, i'll 
give the page I saw a try, but that will be my first experience trying 
to install software on linux, so its gonna be hairy.  If you want, I can 
let you know how it goes.  The card was found by RH8 with no problem, 
though it does only detect for the Radeon 8500 as listed, so...  Or 
maybe that was 7.3, I dunno.  
    Hope this helps,
        Bryan Burroughs

Dave Schwartzburg wrote:

> I am currently thinking about getting a video card with TV input 
> capability.  The two I am looking at are the ATI All-in-wonder 8500 w/ 
> 128mb ddr ram.  The other is the nVidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 Personal Cinema.
>
> Basically, I want to be able to do DVR on my PC, play TV shows back on 
> my TV, and not be limited to a TiVo-type box with a monthly fee.  What 
> I am concerned about is that I have tried TV-out from a ATI card (ATI 
> Radeon VE 32mb ddr) via S-Video before, and the picture I get on my TV 
> has been far from good.  I am wondering if anyone has any experience 
> using either of these cards, particularly in Linux, but also in 
> general, and whether they have gotten good quality going from PC to TV.
>
> Thanks,
> Dave
>
>
>
> Bryan Burroughs wrote:
>
>> Hey,
>>    I happened to run across this page the other day concerning TV 
>> Tuner cards.  Maybe you want to check it out...
>>        http://www.freeos.com/articles/3007/
>>    Bryan Burroughs
>>
>
>
>
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