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**Dr Mordrid** · 16 January 2001, 23:47

I just looked at the AIW Radeon and it looks pretty good. 720x480 MPEG-2 with both I frame and IBP MPEG capability. Of course how it does in real-life use is unknown, but it's worth a look at least.

Dr. Mordrid

**jeepman** · 17 January 2001, 07:59

Thank you for your time! I am now looking at the AIW, and it does look good. I originally looked at the Radeon 64MB DDR because of the VIVO, (video in, video out) but it appears it is for displaying the PC's desktop, etc to a TV, but not for doing video tapes.

Looks like it may be the AIW, but anyone else have other opinions?

Thanks.

**rwierenga** · 17 January 2001, 08:09

I actually went the opposite way - traded my AIW Radeon for a Marvel G400. I'm much happier now. The Marvel has only one advantage over the Radeon, but it's a huge one: Dualhead. The AIW's TV out is capable only of replicating your desktop, which means that outputting video from your harddrive to a TV or VCR is either a big pain in the neck or impossible (I could never get the latter to work). It also resizes your desktop everytime you activate the TV-Out, since the monitor and TV have to be at the same resolution and refresh.

So in my experience, the Marvel is a much better video editing platform than the AIW. But there's no question that the Radeon is a much better gaming platform; the G400 is a very nice chip, but it's starting to show its fill rate limitations with the newer games. If your primary focus is games, and you just want to play around with video now and then, I'd say go for the Radeon.

If you want to go the Radeon/AIW route, I suggest checking the forums at rage3d.com. ATI's drivers still aren't what they should be (they're definitely holding the Radeon back at this point), and plenty of people have had the inevitable compatibility headaches (with the AIW in particular). I didn't have any problems, though.

**Dr Mordrid** · 17 January 2001, 12:16

That's what I love about this board.

Someone, somewhere will have whatever you're talking about and you're guaranteed a diverse opinion

Dr. Mordrid

**wizz** · 17 January 2001, 17:09

jeepman/doc

Just bought the AIW Radeon to replace my Marvel G400-TV. Wow, with a PIII500 and 128 Meg RAM, i'm capturing IBP MPEG2 on the fly with no problems and the quality is very impressive. I was very hesitant getting the card having been well satisfied with my G200Marvel andG400Marvel, but the 2D and 3D as well as the MPEG capability of the AIW Radeon is fantastic. Matrox please release something similar to this.

Tony

**jeepman** · 17 January 2001, 17:44

Thank you rwierenga!!! I went to the rage3d forums and saw the death blow to my idea, before I laid out the money. See below for an interesting post that is basically my setup.

If you have an Athlon with a VIA chipset, the AIW stinks. I've NEVER gotten the MPEG recording to work right in either Win2k or Win98se. The only reply I got from someone with an Athlon/VIA chipset that did work was someone who installed the VIA AGP driver in "standard" mode (AGP 1X). If you have an Intel chip, particularly if you have a non-VIA chipset, then the AIW works better. The drivers that have been "leaked" on this site are generally improving things, but I would guess it'll be another 6 months before the software works as advertised on an Athlon/VIA chipset. This is a pity, since all my other cards work with the Athlon/VIA chipset just fine. Anyway, if you have an Athlon/VIA setup, avoid the AIW. I dropped my $300 and now I'm stuck. Anyone got an Intel platform and wants to buy an AIW?

-----------
ASUS A7V
1 GHz TBird
256 MB PC-133
45 GB IBM (7200 RPM, ATA-100)
12X Toshiba DVD ROM
8/4/32 CD-RW (HP 9100i)
SMC PCI NIC
SB Live! 5.1 Dolby Surround
Actiontec 56K PCI call waiting modem
AIW Radeon
Win2k & Win98se dual boot
---------------------------------------------

Back to jeepman's comments -

Only problem is, this leaves me with no or few choices. Does anyone know of a good PCI cap card, that supports W2K, and analogue video in/out so I can just add that to my setup and keep my GeForce2 MX? Hopefully, if this card exists, it is not more than $150.

[This message has been edited by jeepman (edited 18 January 2001).]

**bogieman** · 17 January 2001, 21:51

jeepman,

I can't explain why I don't have the same problems others do but I'm running an Abit KT7-Raid (VIA chipset)-1 GHz Athlon with an AIW Radeon and it works great for me in Win2K. I've also got a Matrox Millenium PCI card in for a dual monitor setup. I don't use the TV out normally but the TV, MPEG-2 captures, and time-shifting work as advertised. I did try the beta Win2K drivers and they messed up the TV display but the drivers that came on the install CD work well. I can lock up Win2K if I open display properties while recording video but that's the only fault. I also tried it with Win98SE and it worked fine but the TV picture quality is better in Win2K for reasons unknown to me.

I also have a Broadway MPEG-1 hardware capture card in this machine and it co-exists with the video cards, a Studio DV firewire card, generic network adapter, Adaptec SCSI card (for CD, DVD, and CD-RW drives), and Soundblaster AWE64 ISA card. I am not using the raid feature of the Highpoint controller but do have a pair of hard drives, one each channel, on it with no problems, including video capture. My boot drive is on the primary IDE port of the motherboard. All this works great but only if I disable the secondary IDE motherboard port. I've got good PC133 memory and run the FSB at 110 MHz which pumps the memory to 143 MHz and the Athlon to 1.1 GHz.

I will admit it took me the whole time between xmas and New Year's to make it all work but it was worth it. The biggest problem was getting Win2K to install on the Abit board - it kept hanging after copying files to the hard drive but somehow it worked once.

I run this PC through a keyboard-monitor-mouse switchbox and share the secondary display monitor with an Asus P3B-F with Pentium 3-600 and a Matrox G400Max and Rainbow Runner G. I don't use the RR-G much any more but this PC has a DirecPC satelite card and USB modem for my internet connection which is shared accross the 5 PC's in my house - the kid's and wife's.

Using the G400Max in DVDMax mode and connecting the S-Video out to the Broadway input in the Athlon PC works slick for converting DVD's to VCD's in one step, real-time. The Broadway card is the most trouble-free device I have. It doesn't use an interrupt and never drops a frame. While it's not DVD quality, it's output looks excellent on a notebook screen.

**jeepman** · 18 January 2001, 11:11

bogieman,

Thanks for the info. I will keep it in mind, and I congratulate you on getting that complex set up to work. I have the A7V, so I am close to your config. I will be getting a 1GHz Athlon free from work, so I will be replacing my current 900MHz Athlon.

Hopefully, I will get 10.5x105MHz out of it reliably!

Anyways, I guess I just need to find a local shop with a 7 day satisfaction guarantee so I can avoid the restock fee if it doesn't work out. I will try an AIW Radeon this weekend.

Finally, I am still researching the Asus V7700 Deluxe which has similar video features, but no TV tuner. Since the Marvel is in my other system, I could still watch TV, and it is even full screen on that PC's monitor.

**jeepman** · 19 January 2001, 23:07

I picked up the AIW Radeon today from CompUSA. Fortunately, they have a 14 day, no restock fee, return policy. The price was only about $50 more than the best web price, so if I get it to work, then I may just keep it.

I will update with my results for posterity.

**wkulecz** · 20 January 2001, 07:32

jeepman,

Has CompUSA changed their policy? I stopped going there when the stores in Houston instituted a policy of charging a 15% "restocking fee" on "non-defective merchandise". Given the sorry state of this industry -- that one can never be sure any given board will work in any particular system -- I won't buy anything under these terms.

I've been buying at Microcenter, Best Buy, Circuit City, or the web and haven't set foot in a CompuUSA since.

Actually my first preference is a "mom and pop" computer/electronic store here in town that gives really good service, it costs a bit more but I've found lots of good deals on used and surplus there. (especially monitors).

There was another regional chain called "Chipsmart" that had good prices but also had a sign that said "system incompatibility is not a defect". Needless to say, I never went back. They've since gone belly-up.

If CompUSA has seen the error of their ways, I'll shop there again since they have several locations that are convienent for me.

--wally.

[This message has been edited by wkulecz (edited 20 January 2001).]

**jeepman** · 20 January 2001, 14:35

wkulecz,

At least in So. Cal. the CompUSA said no restock. The guy who got the board box from the back even said "they dropped that policy" so hopefully I am ok. I have heard from 3 seperate people from CompUSA that there was no restock.

I will say though, the board I received was a shrinked wrapped box, but it was obviously a previously sold product. I have called the manager asking for a 10% discount, but I have no way to prove that it was really open before I got it. Even the static bag had no ESD warning sticker, which seems odd considering it's a consumer installed upgrade. Oh well, he said he would "call me back." If it works for what I need to do, I will definitely keep hounding him for a discount, which would bring the price of the board in line with some of the internet prices ($275USD).

**wkulecz** · 20 January 2001, 18:38

If it works fine its not really fair to demand a discount because it wasn't a virgin.

Its the price you have to pay to not risk loosing 15% off the top or worse being stuck with something that may never work right in your system.

--wally.

**jeepman** · 20 January 2001, 23:46

I see your point.

One more thing. I did notice all the caps, IC's etc have a blue stripe of either paint or "Permanent" marking pen across then. The larger IC's have the blue mark in the "pin 1" depression. I have never seen markings on a card like this before. Any ideas? Maybe QC markings?

Announcement

Been gone for awhile, looking to upgrade Marvel G200

Been gone for awhile, looking to upgrade Marvel G200

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