Originally posted by racketboy@Oct. 15 2002, 8:30 pm
hmm that's interesting -- how are your experiences with the VCR hooked up like that?
Do you do anything out of the ordinary?
BTW, how do you hook up the audio from the sound card to a receiver? How is the quality?
My experiences have been nothing but positive. I switched from a different setup (regular TV, vcr, etc) to this and not only saved space, but I prefer it. The video card also has the closed captioning.
The connection goes Saturn -> VCR -> Video card. Mind you, the VCR is a top of the line set I got when I photo studio closed it's doors, so the picture is insanely sharp (for a VCR). The video card is just a video in, obviously, so I change channels with said VCR. I input sound through the Line-in on my sound card (Aureal Vortex2) and have outputs to a stereo and computer speakers (it's a 4.1 card).
Out of the ordinary... I rarely run it full screen - one the coolest features of the card is when you minimize the screen, the video becomes your
wallpaper, and you can do your work on top of it. That's how I generally view video, since it makes it easier to multitask.
I'm not sure if this is ATI specific, but in IE, 'ATi TV' is integrated so you can open a small window right above favorites (when you open it you automatically open favorites along with it) to view video, with it's own volume controls. Needless to say, it's very useful when playing Firepro.
And finally there's a whole slew of other features, including video auto record (main formats to choose from), wide screen, etc. I should mention, as it was a part of your question, the card has S-Video out also.
All in all, I've really loved it. My dorm room is a closet, and it saves so much more space this way. I didn't buy the card for it's performance, obviously, because Geforces are faster, but I got what I paid for (at the time, $200), and I think it was worth every cent. Heck, I still get great performance on GTA3 (800x600x32, 70fps) on this card, so it performs alright, too.