[Professor Frink]

I need an AIW card for one of my PCs at work (a Dell GX270) -- it needs to be able to attach to a VCR to play tapes without a TV. But I've learned that AIW cards do not play well with Dell. So is there an Nvidia card that does the same thing? Specifically, it has to have coax cable-in to accept a VCR signal.

[rendrag]

as i'm sure you're aware of, most of the nvidia cards have a tv-out, but i am not aware of a single nvidia card that does any sort of TV tuning... if you're looking for an all-in-one approach, it looks like ATI is going to be you're only option.

Obviously there are external tuners if you didn't go the AIO approach

[Professor Frink]

External tuners... How do they interface with the PC? USB?

[SidVicious]

NVIDIA Personal Cinema FX 5700 is what you want.

It's based on GeForce FX 5700.

[CoffeeFiend]

1) I've never heard of any AIW problems with Dells, and I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

2) You're looking for a GeForce with VIVO (Video In Video Out), there are lots. (Perhaps they've been renamed to personal cinema? I dunno, I don't buy nVidia stuff anymore)

You could also go the TV Tuner/Capture card way... Generic BT8x8 tv tuners are cheap, or you can get into fancier things if you plan to use your PC as a PVR some day

[Professor Frink]

I hate to seem dim, but I've never dealt with this kind of hardware before. Remember, my main goal is to be able to use my PC to play a VCR tape. BTW -- the VCR only has coax connections.

With that in mind, will any of these work? I did a quick search at newegg:

GAINWARD USB2.0 TV-BOX
Adaptec VideOh! DVD Media Center
Plextor ConvertX PVR Device

[Skyfrog]

Personally I would get a PCI tuner/capture card; seems like USB would be slow and possibly problematic. I also prefer a standalone card, because that way you are free to upgrade your video card later on. I have a WinTV card with FM tuner and it works great. The software isn't so hot, but you can use third party programs to do video capture.

[DisabledTrucker]

Might I reccomend using the new Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 which should be sufficient to do what your looking for. Otherwise any of the Hauppauge's would work sufficiently, as should any of the "Personal Cinema" line from NVidia, and for that matter any of the ATI AIW's should work fine as well. As I don't have a Dell, I cannot confirm this, but I do know that they partner with ATI for their AIW cards for use with the Dell Media Centers so there are drivers for the AIW cards from Dell, which should work, if not try using the ones from ATI themselves. Contacting ATI and Dell should help you with that matter.

On a final note, you should have SVideo or at least composite outs on your VCR which would make for much better connections to your system for quality than the RF out you're speaking of. I would highly reccomend using them instead, which therefore you could get by with a card without a tv-tuner built in so long as you have a video card with VIVO, which would suffice. Then all you would need is the software which can easily be obtained from 3rd parties, such as Cyberlink Power Producer 3, as well as built into Windows XP SP-2 such as Windows Movie Maker, or downloadable such as Windows Media Encoder. Of course you'll lose the tv tuning capability but unless your planning on using the computer as a TV and output to the VCR so as to record the shows, which you would need to use the SVideo/composite outputs from the computer for, you really wouldn't need a tuner card for what you are attempting to connect to it, thus a device such as Pinnacle Dazzle Fusion should suffice.

HTH.

This post has been edited by DisabledTrucker: 08 November 2004 - 09:35 PM

[eXPerience-XP]

SidVicious, on Nov 5 2004, 12:02 PM, said:

NVIDIA Personal Cinema FX 5700 is what you want.

It's based on GeForce FX 5700.

I would listen to him if I were you. I'm usually an ATI fan but when it comes to these kind of cards I would recommend NVIDIA. Try to stay away from ATI AIW cards.

[DisabledTrucker]

eXPerience-XP, on Nov 8 2004, 11:33 PM, said:

SidVicious, on Nov 5 2004, 12:02 PM, said:

NVIDIA Personal Cinema FX 5700 is what you want.

It's based on GeForce FX 5700.

I would listen to him if I were you. I'm usually an ATI fan but when it comes to these kind of cards I would recommend NVIDIA. Try to stay away from ATI AIW cards.

Assuming that is what he actually needs is an AIW type of card, then yes, I too would reccomend the NVidia over the ATI's even though the web reviews show otherwise. Having used ATI's AIW's since they were first released some 10+ years ago, I have always disliked one thing or another with them. Their compatibility problems with NVidia based motherboards being the most despisable of them them all. Not to mention NVidia's better, (IMHO,) looking grapics, being they are brighter and sharper, without needing adjustments. If he has space, I would reccomend a seperate card though, and the cards to beat are the Hauppauge's, assuming of course that is what he actually needs. Otherwise a card which only does video capture would suffice, which is why I mentioned the Pinnacle, though there are other cards, the Pinnacle is just an example. From what I gathered from his first posting, all he needs is a card which will grab input from a vcr which any device capable of svideo/composite input would do best for him. His VCR should have those outputs which would be able to give a much better quality picture than any RF input would. For that matter an MSI video card with VIVO such as the 5700 would suffice for what he is looking to do. All he would need then is just software, which I mentioned above as well.

[Professor Frink]

Believe it or not, the VCR here in the office only has coax input/output. Yup, it's an old P.O.S. But I guess I can talk the boss into shelling out 50 bucks for a better one.

The reason I can't go with an AIW card is that they're not compatable with this model of PC (Optiplex GX270). It's been discussed a lot of Dell message boards that they simply don't work. I've already tried one, and the PC totally locks up. So AIW is out of the question.

With that in mind, I'm a little leary of trying another brand of card, since I might have more problems. Would a Hauppauge or Nvidia tuner card give me more of a guarantee of running problem-free? That's why I'd probably lean towards a USB model.

Let's say I go the USB route -- any other suggestions? It would be nice to find one that doesn't require a separate power cable, since it and the VCR won't be permanently connected, and I want it to be as smooth as possible to hook up.