AMD VIA and Marvel G400-TV

[Fred H]

Hi,
I’m new member but old reader of this Forum and I decidet to stay.
As an ex. net/computer coordinator in my office I went Matrox on al of our CAD computers. Now I will continue go Matrox in my home. The decission is: Marvel G400-TV for video editing and some game (Unfortunatelly the card not arrived, to Sweden, yet)
Yestarday I found the following text on the http://www.videoguys.com/system.htm page (Sept ’99):
---"We have good success with the new AMD K6-II 300+ systems While many of our vendors will not comment or recommend these systems, we have had no major reported problems. In fact we have had many users swear by them. Just make sure you don't skimp on RAM or storage!
WARNING! We have had massive compatability problems with the AMD VIA chipset. If you get a system using this chipset you will have major problems."---
I’m discouraged by this. My system is : K6-2 400 VIA chip set on a FIC PA-2013 mother board. It works ok with an old S3-2Mb PCI card.
I tested the Adobe Premiere 5.0 with some 2-3 min. recorded .AVI and .MPG files. No ”massive compatibility” problems. Maybe they'll come with recording longer clips?
What to do? I am scared.
Anybody experienced major problems with this combination? Could anybody advice, or hopefully encourage me, please?
Regards, Fred H.

[Uwe]

Hi Fred,

I have used two different Marvel G400 TVs with my FIC VA503+ board with VIA MVP3 chipset and AMD K6-2-300 (later K6-3-450).
Both cards worked very stable without any problems even with AGP 2x.

Bye, Uwe.

[TheMorg]

I can understand your concern - unfortunately they made a fairly general sweeping statement on compatibility issues.

Your FIC mobo uses the VIA Apollo MVP3 chipset. OK, it's slower at I/O than other chipsets of the same generation, and there have been a number of compatibility and stability issues raised (and many solved!) since it first appeared. Most involved lock-ups and poor I/O thoughput, and poor AGP performance (I think).

I had an Aopen AX59Pro mobo that also uses the VIA MVP3 chipset. It often locked-up during the Windows startup screen, while I had my Matrox Millennium G200 & RR-G installed. A friend now uses my AX59Pro with a Creative 3D-Blaster graphics card (Savage4 chipset) - and it still locks up 1 in 4 boots, even with all the latest drivers!

The testing you mentioned seems to be AVI-playback through Adobe Premiere as you make no mention of an existing video capture card - correct me if I'm wrong. What was the resolution & framerate of these AVI files? I ask because when you capture high res video the throughput demands are high.

I should add that although my AX59Pro/G200/RR-G configuration played video smoothly, I dropped many frames while capturing video. Having upgraded to a Celery 400 running on an Abit BH6, that seemed to sort itself out though.

Do you have the latest mobo BIOS? It might help if you could post full machine specs. What video editing will you do? What sort of output quality will you need? A K62-400 probably won't have enough oomph for high quality stuff.

[Fred H]

Hi Tim/TheMorg,

Thanks for the info. Yes, I am conscious about that the I/O is slower and the other performances are less good as other chipsets. My motherboard is quit new, the BIOS is dated 05.05.1999, and I’m not prepared to flash it, yet. Of course a 800 Mhz CPU would be better, but I must accept what I’ve got in the present.
The video clips I tested, was recorded (by my son-in-low) with an Asus V3800 and a Celeron 450 machine, equiped also with a VIA chipset.
The few .AVI files I tested, quit randomly, was all from 240x180 up to 640x480, 16 and 24 bits. The only conclusion I caould see is that 24 b. color is to prefer. The 640x480 size worked well, but my S3-2Mb PCI graphic is clearly a poor basis. I also tested a longer .MPG (MPEG 1) file, about 15 min clip, but in edit mode my 2 Mb graphic was clerly poor but I could re-save this .MPG file to .AVI.
I am a beginner in video editing, but my goal is only editing family videos, simple editing, adding titles, voice comments, music backgrounds etc and output the product in short, say 5-10 min clips, to VHS-tape. Of course, I want the highest quality I can do with my machine, but I will accept compromises whitout upgrading my system, yet.
My machine specs are: K6-2 400, AWARD Modular BIOS V 4.60 PGA Ver. 1.15JI33 (02.26.1999) FIC PA-2013 mobo 64MB SDRAM-100, system HD: Fujitsu 3.5 Gb (E)IDE, deisgnated HD: Fujitsu 6.4 Gb (E)IDE, CD-ROM: NEC 32x (CDR 1900), CD-R/RW recorder: Sony 4x4x24x (CRX 120), SB 16 audio (ISA). The Video Camera Recorder is a Sony CCD-TRV10E Video8 PAL system.
Finaly, I’m waiting for the Marvel G4oo to be available in Sweden and have a lot to learn.
Thanks again, & sorry for my English.
Regards, Fred.

[Fred H]

Hi UWE,
thanks for encouraging. As you can see in the message above, I don't aspect pro. resultates, but a good home, family-video editing and outputing to VCR.
I hope it will work for me too, when the card will be available here.
Regards, Fred.

[Fred H]

Hi,
just found a message in this Forum that people are using Pentium 133 Mhz (!) with Adobe Premiere 5.1 and Marvel G200. It probably works for them, so I hope that the G400-TV would be even better on my K6-2 400...
Fred.

[TheMorg]

I think you'll probably be OK. It seems that a few people had problems, but it was esoteric combinations of components e.g. power supply, monitor, etc that caused problems. If you've been running stably for a while with your FIC mobo, I wouldn't worry unduly.

If you do have any problems when you get your Marvel, then use this forum to get answers - you'll be in good hands. I've found over the months/years that there are some very knowledgeable people on here.

Good luck!

Tim

[Fred H]

You are absolutelly right, Tim.
I love this, our Forum. For a couple of month ago I begun to read the most of what people says. One can learn a lot of it.
Matrox? I AM a devoted Matrox fan/user and was a Matrox user as computer manager in my ex. office, as I said before.
Thanks & see you,
Fred.

[This_Idiot]

Fred,

I can't comment on the G400/VIA combination since my Aopen AX59Pro is no longer in either of my test machines. But it worked for a long time with my G200 Marvel without problems once I'd got over the initial busmastering driver problems.

[Fred H]

Thanks, Chris
Yes I hope that it will work. It's no difference b.w. the G200 and G400 video, only in the graphic speed. As you can see above, I've got lots of usefull help and encouragements. I love this Forum.
I didn't get my G400-TV, yet, but I'm waiting very exited...
Regards, Fred.

[Fred H]

BTW, Chris.
Your review of the G400-TV is the best appreciated review I've seen. It's what we need: how to install, which problems, first impressions.
And what I said about this Forum, I can say about your page, I love it.
Yours "Idiot" Fred.