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Dave,<br>
I have the 8500AIW, and it works like a charm on XP. The S-Video output
is pretty good as far as I am concerned. I used a Radeon 7000 previously
with a big screen TV and the S-Video output was great. I used the 8500 over
the summer and the output was less than stellar, but I was also using a really
crappy TV, so I chalk it up to the TV. As for why I chose ATI over GeForce,
there were three factors.<br>
I prefer Built-By-ATI cards because I have had ATI cards in the past
and they worked very well. Also, I got a little bit of security by buying
a "Built By ATI" card, since the tech support I recieved for "Powered-By-ATI"
cards was sketchy, at least from the downloadable driver point of view. In
fact, the driver CD that came with a Powered-By card didn't even recognize
the card it shipped with. I also knew very little at the time about how
the GeForce side of the house works as far as what is "official" made by
nVidia and what wasn't, so when I was shopping around, the "Built-By-ATI"
was a sure-fire way to know ATI made it.<br>
Also, the price difference was dramatic between GeForce and ATI, so that
was important. IIRC, GeForce, from what I understand has held the lead in
the graphics card industry between the two as far as power goes, but with
that also came a stiffer price. ATI's latest card, the 9700(i think) might
stand up to the GeForce now, but there is no AIW version yet, and the current
price that I saw for a 9700 Pro was around 350-450, so the AIW would add
on at least another 100. But, it appears you are more concerned with the
TV-tuner and TV-out than you are with gaming, so the 8500 AIW will do. I've
noticed very little difference between the 7500(?)AIW and 8500 AIW TV-tuner
capabilities, so I doubt there will be a big change between the 9700AIW and
8500AIW in that categorie.<br>
Finally, the AIW came with a much butter set of TV software than the
GeForce, which was important to me, since I didn't want to be fumbling around
trying to find decent TV software. I love the GuidePlus that comes with
the AIW, and the TV recording and playback is rather straightforward, though
I still can't find the first program I tried to record with GuidePlus. Documentation
is pretty much nonexistent, but the features are easy enough to understand.
Add to that the USB IR remote that comes with the AIW and the internal TV-Tuner
on the AIW, as opposed to the Personal Cinema's external one, and that was
enough to convince me to stick with ATI.<br>
As for the TV-tuner in linux issue, I have not even begun to try that,
since I first heard it was "impossible," and then today found something about
it on the internet. When I have more spare time, i'll give the page I saw
a try, but that will be my first experience trying to install software on
linux, so its gonna be hairy. If you want, I can let you know how it goes.
The card was found by RH8 with no problem, though it <i>does</i> only detect
for the Radeon 8500 as listed, so... Or maybe that was 7.3, I dunno. <br>
Hope this helps,<br>
Bryan Burroughs<br>
<br>
Dave Schwartzburg wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:3DA5D908.5090809@uwalumni.com">I am currently
thinking about getting a video card with TV input capability. The two I
am looking at are the ATI All-in-wonder 8500 w/ 128mb ddr ram. The other
is the nVidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 Personal Cinema. <br>
<br>
Basically, I want to be able to do DVR on my PC, play TV shows back on my
TV, and not be limited to a TiVo-type box with a monthly fee. What I am
concerned about is that I have tried TV-out from a ATI card (ATI Radeon
VE 32mb ddr) via S-Video before, and the picture I get on my TV has been
far from good. I am wondering if anyone has any experience using either
of these cards, particularly in Linux, but also in general, and whether
they have gotten good quality going from PC to TV. <br>
<br>
Thanks, <br>
Dave <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Bryan Burroughs wrote: <br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Hey, <br>
I happened to run across this page the other day concerning TV Tuner
cards. Maybe you want to check it out... <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.freeos.com/articles/3007/">http://www.freeos.com/articles/3007/</a> <br>
Bryan Burroughs <br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="$mailwrapcol">--
"It's a one dog town, and he's old and mean..."
-- Garth Brooks</pre>
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