[Feedback] Sazar's 9700 pro review

[Sazar]

http://www.osnn.net/articles.php?action=show&showarticle=100

please post any feedback or questions on the review on the front page in this thread

thank you

 

[champ2005]

from what i see, you haven't said anything about the "All in Wonder" part of the card - perhaps you could talk about the TV capture features of the card etc.

But other wise its a great review, lots of benchmarks are good. Great effort

 

[Sazar]

I concentrated specifically on the core of the card because most people would be purchasing the product (or its siblings) for the core...

I am planning to add to the review suite with a multi-media discussion sometime in the future but that depends on a coupla factors, including interest...

I'll let you know before I do any work on it...

 

[LeeJend]

Sazar speaking of TV options in the review. Here's the first request for more detail.

You've messed with multiple video cards and video capture. I've been routinely disappointed by video capture quality. I'm using the Leadtek 200 now, I had an Avermedia for a while and my old system uses the ATI Rage 3D All-In Wonder. None produced what I would call acceptable quality for converting my VHS library to DVD. I don't expect DVD quality but there was way too much blockiness in the converted files.

Do the newer ATI cards do any better or am I just expecting too much from a sub $100 card? Note, TV reception is good, it's just the saved files that are poor. And yes, I set the capture quality to best picture.

 

[Sazar]

ok, well I'll give you an idea of my cards quality...

my wife was home late the other night from work so I recorded law and order for her...

the picture quality is fabulous, on my display while we sit on the bed or the couch, its almost the same output as digital television...

admittedly this was @ max quality setting (ati's dvd quality) and 2 hrs of record == 5 gigs (including high quality audio)

however going from my hauppage card to the ati tv tuner (the new x800 series and standalone hdtv tuners are supposedly better for regular tele, plus they are hdtv capable)

television reception is sharper than on regular tv's mainly coz of the smaller dot pitch but you have to sit @ a distance of around 6 feet or so otherwise it looks a little off... you can make out the lines a lot easier when you are closer and it makes it look worse...

wrt blockiness, I dunno if the built in hardware filter works for VHS conversion to DVD or whatever, but for movies and channels, there is an active de-blocking feature that works hand in hand with divx (for recording and viewing purposes) called fullstream and it actively works to make images clearer w/o the blockiness...

I had a low/mid end hauppage and i had an msi tv@anywhere master tv tuner... the ati tuner is the best I have had personally... mainly because of the feature set... and the remote control

 

[LeeJend]

Hmm, sounds like I should have bought the ATI tuner. Another item for my Christmas list.

Thanks.

 

[Sazar]

the older tuners are not quite as good as the newer ones... you will see that when you have playback...

however the latest hdtv discrete tuner is a little expensive

otoh you can purchase an AIW product like the 9600XT version for a cheap price...

also keep an eye out for the hauppage higher end products... they are pretty good...

 

[Electronic Punk]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20040928015459.html