ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 PRO vs canopus

I am aware that based upon capture quality alone that canopus will
provide a better quality end result. However, I will soon be
purchasing a miniDV camcorder with analog to digital conversion. I
will be using this for any conversion of my analog recordings so I am
not interested in the canopus products. I only mention this, because
the typical response in this newsgroup to inquiries about any
hardware capture device is ' get a canopus'

The ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 PRO offers many other features besides video
capture that make it an intriguing choice.

Such as:

1. It is a good overall video card for 2d and 3d

2. It can be used as a tv tuner and radio tuner.

3. It can be used like Tivo to capture and pause live TV.It can record
future programs by clicking on them using guide plus, but unlike Tivo
there is no monthly charge.

Not to mention various other functions and a good software value.

And all for about the same price as the canopus.

All that being said, does anyone here have any real world experience
with this hardware? Particularly with the three main functions
mentioned above. Are resulting recordings adequate to burn on DVD?
(or are the only people here canopus diehards)

TIA

Happy Camper

 

I play NFS:HP, GTA3, SoF2, Max Payne, Jedi Knight etc, and as far as 2d/3d
performance goes,
I'm quite happy.

I own a 9600 Pro, otherwise I'd give you my opinion on the other 2 points

 

A yes to everything except I'm not sure about the radio tuner.

 

I am aware that based upon capture quality alone that canopus will

Huh? I've tested both the AIW 128 PCI and Canopus ADVC-100 and they
pretty much are equal in terms of resolution and quality at 720x480
30fps captures. Capturing analog video is old stuff, and surely nothing
a simple analog capture card can't do well nowadays.

Too new to get a 9600 myself, but with the AIW 128 on a 2Ghz P4
system, it works perfectly under even Win98SE capturing 720x480
resolution @ 29.97 fps (standard NTSC) to AVI files using VirtualDub
(can use AVI_IO as well if you want) using PicVideo MJPEG compression
codec (HuffyYUV works fine, too) at the highest quality settings for 2+
hours of capturing to a standard Western Digital 7200rpm 40GB HD w/o any
problems.

The AVI quality is the same as if I were to capture on my ADVC-100,
and encoding them to DVDs using Sonic MyDVD, etc. all work fine (why
shouldn't they? same video, same quality captures, same DVD output...)

Figure as long as they haven't changed much since the original AIW
(not much), it should do the same quite well (I'd bet on it).

The only thing a Canopus will give you is easier setup - just plug it
in and record. The ATI will require setup of codec, capture program
like VirtualDub, settings adjustments, and testing to make sure
everything's all ready to go. (if you're capturing into AVI first)

On the other hand, if you're trying to capture to MPEG-2 instead, you
can just use any program like Sonic MyDVD to capture direct to MPEG-2
and burn to DVD in one click. No fuss here - just click, sit back and
let it do its job. (Quality won't necessarily be as good as the AVI to
dedicated MPEG-2 encoder such as Cinema Craft Encoder, but if you use a
higher bitrate, it'll be okay. See www.vcdhelp.com for lots of help here.)

----

Suppose the only problem I have is getting enough monitor space to:
1) Watch TV in a window on the AIW 128 hardware.
2) Watch DVD in another window with hardware playback on the
RealMagic Hollywood+ PCI card.
3) Watch VCD/SVCD/Divx in a third window with software playback.
4) Surf the net in a fourth window.
5) Burn DVD to the DVD recorder in the background.
6) Burn CD to the CD recorder in the background.
7) Encode a captured video to DVD/VCD/etc. in the background.
all at once.

sigh..... need a few more video panels here =

 

Hello,

I use an old ATI All in Wonder 128 as my graphics board. It's 3D
performance is outdated but still useful and I like
having the TV functionality.

I tried using it to capture TV programs and putting them on DVD. Results
were disappointing when capturing in
either AVI or MPEG2 format. As you are probably aware, MPEG2 is really a
format for distribution, not editing.
When I tried editing my captured AVI footage, I had big problems with
audio/video synch. I was using Studio 8
at the time and even ended up sending them a CD sample of my problem AVI.
They couldn't tell why the file
played in synch in all players but got out of synch when using Studio 8.
Editing an MPEG2 file is not recommended
since it is already compressed and most editors will try to recompress your
final output.

Bottom line is this:
If you want good quality results with few hassles, go for the Canopus. That
is what I use. Or, if you don't mind low quality
output with a good share of problems, stick with the all in wonder. I am
not trying to knock ATI. As I said earlier, I
still use my old model but just for leisure. If I want to record something
from TV and output it to DVD, I use my SVHS VCR and Canopus to convert to
true digital D1 AVI.

Thanks,
Oscar