Windstorm Posted March 2, 2001 Share Posted March 2, 2001 I was inteding to buy a TV tuner card, but since a good one is about $200(cdn), I thought it would be better to buy this card instead, since it also has DVD decoding and would be a step up from my TNT2. Does anyone have experience with this card? My main concern is DVD decoding, especially surround sound. Will I be able to downmix properly into 4 speakers with this card, or are there any quirks (such as with hollywood+)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seb Posted March 2, 2001 Share Posted March 2, 2001 if you have a nice machine, i would advise you to use software decoding. i have a Radeon 64 DDR VIVO and the hardware video decoding is not that great. moreover, unless i am mistaken, you won't be able to downmix 5.1 to 4 speaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baz Posted March 2, 2001 Share Posted March 2, 2001 As far as a tv tuner is concerned. ATI has the best one. I have an old Zoltrix and it works fine (on my 2nd pc but interface is ugly (and poor features), I use to own an AverMedia tv/fm 98 (i fried it installing a defective 3dprophet mx) but the features were no good and the pic. & vid. capture we're of poor quality. A guy that works with me has a Hauppauge tv tuner and in this region it doesn't get all the chanels. I know for dvd decoding a lot of people are disapointed with the ati. But for a 3dcard/tvtuner you can't go wrong with ATI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windstorm Posted March 2, 2001 Author Share Posted March 2, 2001 Do you know if I can use a 5.1 sound card to do the downmixing with the radeon? In other words, can ati's player send ac3 to the sound card? I haven't decided which sound card yet, it'll be either a sblive 5.1 or an acoustic edge. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam_D Posted March 2, 2001 Share Posted March 2, 2001 What are the "quirks" for the Hollywood +? I just bought one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windstorm Posted March 2, 2001 Author Share Posted March 2, 2001 From what I heard there is no way to decode ac3 with the hollywood plus, unless you use the spdif out to an external decoder you can only get stereo. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiGNAN17 Posted March 2, 2001 Share Posted March 2, 2001 I recently installed an ATI AIW Radeon. I love the card. Works perfectly. If DVD is all you're concerned about, and you are happy with your current 3D card, it's probably more than you need. I got it because I wanted to do alot of video capture, which I do now. I can get 22-24 minutes of video down to 50MB without much quality loss. Not bad! The image quality is very good when it comes to the TV tuner. I haven't even tried any DVDs since getting it, but I'm pretty sure it will do fine. I had a decoder card running in tandem with my Diamond Viper V770D and it did okay, but I'm anxious to see what this card can do for me. The skinny of it is that it's a great card, with excellent 3D acceleration, and the best TV tuner technology available on the market in this tier of video card. ------------------ FURIOS Df>c> Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted March 3, 2001 Share Posted March 3, 2001 AIW Radeon with the VIA chipset gave me fits till untill I did a cut'n'paste patch on the installation file, with special beta drivers. My biggest bit,ch is the differences in the volumes of cd, tv, and DVD's from the AIW to my mb. I have not been able to get 4ch mix down either. I think the only way to get surround is to use the AIW's AC3 s/pdif or a software decoder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiGNAN17 Posted March 3, 2001 Share Posted March 3, 2001 Ah, I see. well I don't worry about that stuff at all, because I watch DVD's on my HT system, not my computer. And I have my speakers on a splitter to the front channel (the rear channel blew out - crappy sound card). I will say that the TV volume is very soft for some reason. I really can't figure that one out. ------------------ FURIOS Df>c> Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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