My son is in the market for a newer vid card for his PC.
He has an old Asus NVIDIA based card that is the FX5200, a slow card to game with.
That was my card when I built my present PC back in August of '03.

Looking at an ATI 9700 Pro All In Wonder card.
Mine uses the Titan TV web based service to set the TV shows to be recorded.
http://ww1.titantv.com/TTV/Grid/Grid.aspx

I looked in the settings on my Titan TV account, and they do not support the All In Wonder cards.
What service do they use to record with, and do you like it?

Thanks,

 

not sure if this is an option, but why not buy a reall nice video card and then buy a seperate tv tuner that allows you to record and watch at the same time?

 

That's what I'd do as well. At the speed technology is going, it's always nice not to depend on one thing to replace another. If you are really stuck on to the way AIW works, you can always get a seperate TV tuner from ATi which works the same way as the AIW cards, except seperate from the main video card.

 

If we went with a seperate TV card, I would get him the same one as mine, as it rocks.
http://leadtek.com/multimedia/winfas..._deluxe_1.html

His older PC is pretty much limited to as what it can run, as he has only a 300 watt PS, and I think the fastest he can go with is the 9700 Pro, or an NVIDIA 6600.

Anything higher such as the ATI 9800 Pro or NVIDIA 6800 series requires a seperate power plug and a 400 wat PS I believe.

We might just keep our eyes open for a used 6600 card, or even a 9600 Pro like mine.

 

Upgrade the PS! They are reall cheap http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817148027

LOL

just curious...what chip is he running?

 

I do what is mentioned above, I run a ATI All in Wonder and then run a ATI 256MB Graphics card. It works really well. I can watch/record and surf all at the same time I love it.

 

A 1.7 GHz Intel.
I just upgraded him for Christmas from 512 MB to 1 GB of RAM, and WOW and UT2004 play better.
Maps open quicker, and the big areas in WOW do not stumble the PC anymore.

This PC will do him for another year or so, and then I will help him build an AMD 4800 X2.
That is my next PC I will build during the summer with an Asus A8N SLI Premium mobo.
That is a good mobo for the AMD 939 socket.

 

man..can u be my dad? LOL

sounds like a good plan..the 939 FSB is soooo fast!

 

Yes, but what proggy does ATI use so you can select what you record?

Mine is web based, and I think the best so far.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/tando/pc31.jpg

I just run the mouse over a show, and a JAVA window pops up with info on the episode, and the options to record it, and also to shut the PC off after the last recording of the evening.

 

I am pretty pleased with my setup thusfar. I have a Radeon Video card(~$100.00, It think it was a 1550) with 256 MB ram and it works great for my 4x4evo2 game. I also got the most basic ATI All in Wonder card (~$49.00). The All in Wonder lets me capture the video I take from trips and it lets me watch tv if I want to. For about 150.00 it fills my appetite.

 

Hmmm...I might look into that capture card. I am actually looking for one to connect into my PC just so that I can easily record stuff and put it on DVD for home archiving.

If I were you, I would definately ugrade the power supply, they are not very expensive and very easy to install. If you were to go that route, I would highly recommend looking into ULTRA power supplies. They are not the creme de la crop (read: not as expensive) but do the job just as well, holding power well on all rails. I have had one of them for years now and I had no trouble. I especially like the X-CONNECT feature as it keeps it really clean and air-flowey in the case if ya know what I mean.

ULTRA power supplies don't have all the adjustment screws for overclocking and what not for people like me who used to modify their computers to the limit, but I don't think you would need that for your sons computer anyways.

Having said all of the above, I would go looking for a 9800Pro or XT. ATi recommends having a 300W+ PSU for all 9700 series and 9800 series cards (who don't have a great difference in power consumption), so even if you don't upgrade you can still run these, even though it's probably not the best thing to do. Then again, it all depends on how many hard drives, fans and devices you run off that PSU.

 

I don't exactly know what ATi uses as far as their program, but I personally didn't like it much. To be honest, it's a OK solution, but it's not pretty looking and if you research it it's really 3 or 4 programs squashed into one marketing name I believe. It's OK but there is better.

Also remember, you are not limited to what ATi gives you, look into solutions such as SageTV and ReplayTV. Both have trial versions and are most likely much better than what you are used to. Give them a shot.

 

Also just to get things really clear...all you guys that have two cards, one main and one capture, have an ATi graphics card and a TV Wonder ($49 or $99 or w/e) not an AIW. AIW stands for cards that have a display chip and the capture chip on one card.

Just clarifying

 

I think Sage is Linux only if I remember right.
http://www.byopvr.com/

I had a trial to one of those apps, can not remember the name of it, but it sucked compared to my web based one.
Mine is so easy use.

Found it, SnapStream.
http://www.snapstream.com/products/b...aign=googlecpc

It just plain sucks, and it is hard to get around the interface, and you also use their interface to watch your shows in.

My card has its own interface for watching TV, and you can also set recordings from it manually, but the ultimate is to use the Titan site to set all the shows up.

 

SageTV is for Windows...http://www.sagetv.com/

 

I have two seperate cards, not an AIW.