DVD-R or AIW

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Saudargas
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Richard Saudargas

I'm trying to decide between getting a DVD-R or an AIW. I want to record off
my TV (digital cable with cable box) like on my current VCR. At the same
time I have some VHS and 8mm videotapes I would like transferred to DVD. I
currently have my cable TV running through my hi-fi VCR and then stereo for
my surround sound system.

It appears from the AIW 9800 or XT800 cards I should be able to both record
TV programs and videocapture with one solution. But if I went with a DVD-R
for recording TV programs I would still need a videocapture card.

Having no experience with AIW cards, is it possible to hook up the
connectors and through my 5.1 surround sound system as I have currently done
with my hifi VCR? Are the AIW cards fairly easy to use and program for
recording and videocapture. I will also be getting a HDTV in the near, or
not so near future, depending on if you ask me or my wife.


appreciate any suggestions; or if I didn't make myself clear, which is
certainly possible, help me clarify.

Thanks

Rich

current system: I think my system is sufficient for my needs. I'm not a big
gamer and am not interested in building a new system until all this dual
processor business gets sorted out.

Intel PEBT2 mb
1 gig RAM
ATI 9500 Pro
Maxtor SATA 150 HD (a second hard drive will be installed soon)
SONY 720 DVD
3.06 processor with hyperthreading
 
Richard Saudargas said:
I'm trying to decide between getting a DVD-R or an AIW. I want to record
off my TV (digital cable with cable box) like on my current VCR. At the
same time I have some VHS and 8mm videotapes I would like transferred to
DVD. I currently have my cable TV running through my hi-fi VCR and then
stereo for my surround sound system.
Click to expand...

A DVD-R and AIW aren't mutually exclusive - let me explain. An AIW or TV
Tuner card such as the ATI TV Wonder range can record non-macrovision
protected content to hard disk drives (be aware though that some cable
companies protect their content from copying/recording). If you subsequently
choose to burn those captured TV shows to DVD-R that's fine but you could
also leave it on your HDD.
It appears from the AIW 9800 or XT800 cards I should be able to both
record TV programs and videocapture with one solution. But if I went with
a DVD-R for recording TV programs I would still need a videocapture card.
Click to expand...

Given that you already have a Radeon 9500 Pro and consider your current
system sufficient for your needs, replacing the 9500 Pro with an AIW 9800 or
XT800 would be massive overkill (and very expensive). A much cheaper
solution would be to buy an add-on ATI TV Wonder card and this would do what
you want (as long as the cable TV content isn't copy protected).
Having no experience with AIW cards, is it possible to hook up the
connectors and through my 5.1 surround sound system as I have currently
done with my hifi VCR? Are the AIW cards fairly easy to use and program
for recording and videocapture. I will also be getting a HDTV in the near,
or not so near future, depending on if you ask me or my wife.
Click to expand...

I've used a number of All In Wonder varieties on my machines and have found
them to work well. They are not the simplest things to setup though and many
novices encounter problems. If you (or a friend) have a good understanding
of PCs and configuring software and the OS, it shouldn't be a problem,
otherwise it may be best to get the retailer who sells the card to you to
install it and fully set it up. If you want HDTV ATI also produce a card for
sale in the US which provides this on the PC. its called the HDTV Wonder.
appreciate any suggestions; or if I didn't make myself clear, which is
certainly possible, help me clarify.
Click to expand...

Perfectly clear! I think your next best bet would be to review the TV Wonder
range (and HDTV Wonder if you want that now) on ATIs website. They all use a
piece of software called ATI Multimedia Centre to control the cards. The
best way for you to see what that's like is to read the users manual for MMC
as well as the manuals for the particular cards you're interested in.
They're all downloadable from ATIs website in Adobe PDF format. Let us know
if you cant find them.
<snip>
Click to expand...

Paul
 
Paul Murphy said:
Perfectly clear! I think your next best bet would be to review the TV Wonder
range (and HDTV Wonder if you want that now) on ATIs website. They all use a
piece of software called ATI Multimedia Centre to control the cards.

Paul
Click to expand...

According to online reviews the TV Wonder Elite does not use MMC but
PowerCinema instead. I was really hot for this card because of the
Theater 550 chip but it looks like it may be less versatile because of
the software limitation. See:

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=650

Roland
 
Joe Doe said:
According to online reviews the TV Wonder Elite does not use MMC but
PowerCinema instead. I was really hot for this card because of the
Theater 550 chip but it looks like it may be less versatile because of
the software limitation. See:

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=650

Roland
Click to expand...

Yes you're right - sorry, forgot about that. According to the reviews I've
read about it that app doesn't (currently) support displaying inputs from
other than the tuner either so playing back VCR tapes on it will be out of
the question. The TV Wonder Pro and below do use MMC though - promise....

Paul
 
Get a Hauppauge PVR-150 card, and a Pioneer A09 DVD burner, keeping your
existing 9500 Pro. You can probably get them for $150 or so, total for
both.

[unless you are running Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE), get the
"plain" PVR-150 and not the "MCE" version, which does not come with the
necessary player software, or the remote control.]
 
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