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Old April 2nd 04, 05:19 PM
Kris Rawlison
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"Hupjack" hupjack_nospamtoday_yahoo.com wrote in message
...
I'm pretty sure my analog to digital conversion days will be over once I

get
the ones I have lying around converted, so I'm not super keen on investing
$260 for hardware that I'll only use once. Having read post after post
about how great this external box is, I finally found a reference to this
page http://www.digitalfaq.com/othervideo/buyerguide.htm expounding on the
wonders of the ATI all in wonder series for the same purpose. So now I

have
some info on using a graphics cards to do the capture.

I also don't know if I should really care to get a card with DVI out. A
quick peak at Viewsonic's products showed that many if not most of the

flat
panels have the old VGA connectors as well. Seems stupid to do a digital

to
analog and back to digital conversion when I have the option to go

straight
digital. So am I wise to get a video card with DVI out at this day and

age?

First, about DVI on your graphics card. Get it, it's worth it. Firstly,
there's less signal degridation because you're only going through one
digital to analog conversion. With DVI, the signal stays digital from your
video card until it gets converted to an analog signal by your monitor when
an image is placed on the screen. With a regular VGA, your video card
converts the digital image to analog when it gets sent along your monitor
cable, you monitor then converts it back to digital to do any type of
manipulation to it (contrast, brightness, the vert/horizontal stretch or
position, etc) and then it gets transferred back to analog when it is
finally sent to the display element. Secondly, the fact that the signal is
digital between your video card and your monitor allows for less signal
degredation as its going along the cable, so you can run DVI cables farther
(I've seen cables as long as 10 meters, and they make repeaters that allow
you pretty much unlimited length so long as you're willing to pay to chain
enough together).
LCDs with DVI interfaces are getting cheaper and cheaper. On average it's
about $30-60 difference depending on the band and features. If you're going
to be using your computer a lot, it's worth the price. You'll get less
ghosting and a crisper image.

As far as the card choice, well you can do one of two things.

A) Go separate video capture card and graphics card. You can get one of the
ATI tuner cards for approx. $50 USD before shipping if you look around, most
chain stores like BestBuy, CompUSA, Fry's, CircuitCity, etc. carry them in
stock if you don't want to wait for mail order. Then you can get a separate
graphics card. Stay away from the GeForce4 MX series cards they're total
garbage unless you're only doing business apps. If you do any gaming at
all, shoot for a cheap nVidia Titanium series or something in the ATI 9600
series. Since you don't do a ton of gaming, they should last you a good
couple years easy, and they're not going to break the bank.

B) Go for a combination card like the All In Wonder like you mentioned. I
have no experience with the AIWs but I've heard they're quite good. There
is no real difference in the AIW cards as opposed to the regular ATI cards
aside from the tuner being added on, so an AIW 9600 will give you the same
performance as a Raedon 9600 without the tuner. You can get an nVidia card
with tuning ability also. I have a LeadTek A280 MyVIVO and am quite happy
with it, it's served me quite well, although I can't comment on its capture
ability since I haven't tried that part of it yet.

I would suggest an integrated card unless you absolutely want say an ATI
tuner card and a nVidia graphics card or vice versa. There's less hassle
and less worry about device conflicts or driver conflicts, and usually its
cheaper. For example, on newegg, you're going to save about $30 going for
the AIW ($130) as opposed to separate cards, and an nVidia Ti4200 based
Chaintech or Ti4600 based MSI for the $130 range. Considering it's about
half the price of that little box you heard about, not a bad deal.

Anyway, hope this helped.