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Trying to decide on RR-G, ATI, Haup? Read this IMHO
I got a letter the other day from a MURCforum reader asking my opinion about the RR-G tunercapture card. This is what I told him in a thunder of typing trying to get everything out about my short-lived, event filled time with my Matrox pair. I hope you make it to the end.
I just got my RR-G card a few months ago, and so far I have mixed emotions about the card. The main reason I bought it, and not one of the other TV-capture cards, was my current hardware configuration. The A-bit motherboard seems to have some compatibility issues with some video cards, at least my old Bx6-r2 did. So I've been more selective with video stuff. I already had the G400 32mb DualHead agp card with my old bx6, so I put that in my newer system.
I'm just starting to test the recording capabilities of the rr-g, or any capture card for that matter, so I'm still fumbling through codec conversions. RR-g records in Mjpeg format, which is ok for computer stuff, both WinMediaPlayer and RealPlayer can play the videos, but now that I want to create some VCD or SVCD CD's, I'm finding everything has to be encoded, decoded, and re-coded. I've used the recorder for 10-20 minute recording on the computer, which I have hooked to the TV, then I can play em back and see good-great quality recordings on my TV. It really is great at sending nice quality to the television.
When I first installed the RR-G, I was pretty unhappy. I had some difficulty getting the TV-tuner to work consistently. I went to the forum and got a lot of good info, and it works about 95% getting a TV signal. I can re-boot, go into bios and update ECSD, and when it boots up again, TV-Tuner will be working.
This seems to only happen, exclusively, during peek viewing hours. Sometimes, I have to wait til after the news at night to re-boot, w/escd update, to get it going.
The things I did to get the card working were: I bought an Antec ATX 2.03 certified 300W Power Supply; I changed my PCI configuration, which changed my IRQ setup; I updated my Aureal PCI quad sound card to latest rev. I did the last one because, every time when the card tuner wouldn't, and doesn't work, the TV-Audio tab in the tuners advanced setting would be gone, weird? It also "X"'s out the speaker in the start-up toolbar icon every time I start the RR-G program, hmm. 300W power supply made the most noticeable difference.
I'm kinda new to the the video recording/tuner stuff, so I don't know how much faith you want to put into my advice or experiences. To be honest, I love this card, when it works. Luckily, that seems to be all of the time now. I have installed an ATI all-in-wonder on the system I put together for my mother-in-law. It was a 16Mb AGP, on my old Bx6 mb. I was pretty impressed with the ease of use, and the features of the ATI, but the TV-out picture quality doesn't come close to my Matrox setup. In fact, I remember noticing how much crisper and deeper the RR-G tuner picture looked on my PC when I first got it working, compared to when I saw the ATI. I'm not sure about the ATI recording quality, because I only played around with it for an hour or so during install.
I bought the RR-G when I saw it come down to $139 on the Matrox store site. I knew an ATI tuner wouldn't be compatible with my G400. I've really been amazed/impressed with the video quality of the RR-G program. The Mjpeg recording format takes up a lot of space, but the full frame, non-interlaced recording really keeps the video quality beautiful, and there are several compression options. The RR-G really works well with the TV-out and overall functions of the G400 DH. Most of the RR-G software is simple and easy to set-up and tweek. Ulead VideoSuite and PhotoSuite came with the card, which I'm just starting to play around with, but they seem to also work well with the RR-G.
So, if I haven't already confused you more, I'll tell you what I think. I would recommend the RR-G to anyone that has a Matrox AGP primary video card, that is familiar with setting up hardware in PC's. It's not necessarily a plug-n-play event, at least in my case, and things I've read. I only have the ATI All-in-Wonder 16Mb to compare it too, but the video quality of the RR-G TV-Tuner/Capture program is outstanding. Even when I record at 352x240 at30fps, the TV-out video/audio quality looks good on my 36" TV, using the 2nd out on my G400 DH card. Dropped frames seem to vary from 0 to 10-20 for 5 to 20 minutes of recording, probably varies according to system hardware. Now that I have it working, I'm very happy with it, but ask me again when I successfully make some SVCD's and VCD's with it to play on my Apex DVD player.
That's what I told my new found acquaintance, but wait there's more! I really do love the RR-GG400 duo. They seem to work well together,when they work, and In My Humble Opinion, the mjpeg video and audio are top notch.
I've been waiting to get a good post on, wanting to tell people who understand, potentially, about what I've been through, and maybe get some pointers and tidbits in the process.
I am very week at Windows, dll's, registries, codecs, and software in general, but I know I can do this. I am a Field Service Engineer in Semiconductors, which means I fix things when they break, so I'm not totally in the dark.
Right now I'm stuck with having converted a PC-VCR Mjpeg to Mpeg-1 using Ulead Video Media Pro 5.0, then when I go to Adaptec 4.02 Video CD creator to create VCD and add the file through the wizard, the Mpeg info window comes up, and the only parameter for my Ulead converted Mpeg-1 that's X'd out is "System Clock Reference" at 3557. I have no idea what this is referring to or what I need to change to fix this, HELP!
Some day soon I'm gonna ask y'all for some thoughts on PCI configuration and IRQ optimization. While my RR-G card is working near 100%, and everything seems OK. There still seems to be something that causes the capture or the tuner to flake once in a while,hmmm.
Well, I'm finally out of breath, so I'll get off the box. Who's next?
J.Klein
I just got my RR-G card a few months ago, and so far I have mixed emotions about the card. The main reason I bought it, and not one of the other TV-capture cards, was my current hardware configuration. The A-bit motherboard seems to have some compatibility issues with some video cards, at least my old Bx6-r2 did. So I've been more selective with video stuff. I already had the G400 32mb DualHead agp card with my old bx6, so I put that in my newer system.
I'm just starting to test the recording capabilities of the rr-g, or any capture card for that matter, so I'm still fumbling through codec conversions. RR-g records in Mjpeg format, which is ok for computer stuff, both WinMediaPlayer and RealPlayer can play the videos, but now that I want to create some VCD or SVCD CD's, I'm finding everything has to be encoded, decoded, and re-coded. I've used the recorder for 10-20 minute recording on the computer, which I have hooked to the TV, then I can play em back and see good-great quality recordings on my TV. It really is great at sending nice quality to the television.
When I first installed the RR-G, I was pretty unhappy. I had some difficulty getting the TV-tuner to work consistently. I went to the forum and got a lot of good info, and it works about 95% getting a TV signal. I can re-boot, go into bios and update ECSD, and when it boots up again, TV-Tuner will be working.
This seems to only happen, exclusively, during peek viewing hours. Sometimes, I have to wait til after the news at night to re-boot, w/escd update, to get it going.
The things I did to get the card working were: I bought an Antec ATX 2.03 certified 300W Power Supply; I changed my PCI configuration, which changed my IRQ setup; I updated my Aureal PCI quad sound card to latest rev. I did the last one because, every time when the card tuner wouldn't, and doesn't work, the TV-Audio tab in the tuners advanced setting would be gone, weird? It also "X"'s out the speaker in the start-up toolbar icon every time I start the RR-G program, hmm. 300W power supply made the most noticeable difference.
I'm kinda new to the the video recording/tuner stuff, so I don't know how much faith you want to put into my advice or experiences. To be honest, I love this card, when it works. Luckily, that seems to be all of the time now. I have installed an ATI all-in-wonder on the system I put together for my mother-in-law. It was a 16Mb AGP, on my old Bx6 mb. I was pretty impressed with the ease of use, and the features of the ATI, but the TV-out picture quality doesn't come close to my Matrox setup. In fact, I remember noticing how much crisper and deeper the RR-G tuner picture looked on my PC when I first got it working, compared to when I saw the ATI. I'm not sure about the ATI recording quality, because I only played around with it for an hour or so during install.
I bought the RR-G when I saw it come down to $139 on the Matrox store site. I knew an ATI tuner wouldn't be compatible with my G400. I've really been amazed/impressed with the video quality of the RR-G program. The Mjpeg recording format takes up a lot of space, but the full frame, non-interlaced recording really keeps the video quality beautiful, and there are several compression options. The RR-G really works well with the TV-out and overall functions of the G400 DH. Most of the RR-G software is simple and easy to set-up and tweek. Ulead VideoSuite and PhotoSuite came with the card, which I'm just starting to play around with, but they seem to also work well with the RR-G.
So, if I haven't already confused you more, I'll tell you what I think. I would recommend the RR-G to anyone that has a Matrox AGP primary video card, that is familiar with setting up hardware in PC's. It's not necessarily a plug-n-play event, at least in my case, and things I've read. I only have the ATI All-in-Wonder 16Mb to compare it too, but the video quality of the RR-G TV-Tuner/Capture program is outstanding. Even when I record at 352x240 at30fps, the TV-out video/audio quality looks good on my 36" TV, using the 2nd out on my G400 DH card. Dropped frames seem to vary from 0 to 10-20 for 5 to 20 minutes of recording, probably varies according to system hardware. Now that I have it working, I'm very happy with it, but ask me again when I successfully make some SVCD's and VCD's with it to play on my Apex DVD player.
That's what I told my new found acquaintance, but wait there's more! I really do love the RR-GG400 duo. They seem to work well together,when they work, and In My Humble Opinion, the mjpeg video and audio are top notch.
I've been waiting to get a good post on, wanting to tell people who understand, potentially, about what I've been through, and maybe get some pointers and tidbits in the process.
I am very week at Windows, dll's, registries, codecs, and software in general, but I know I can do this. I am a Field Service Engineer in Semiconductors, which means I fix things when they break, so I'm not totally in the dark.
Right now I'm stuck with having converted a PC-VCR Mjpeg to Mpeg-1 using Ulead Video Media Pro 5.0, then when I go to Adaptec 4.02 Video CD creator to create VCD and add the file through the wizard, the Mpeg info window comes up, and the only parameter for my Ulead converted Mpeg-1 that's X'd out is "System Clock Reference" at 3557. I have no idea what this is referring to or what I need to change to fix this, HELP!
Some day soon I'm gonna ask y'all for some thoughts on PCI configuration and IRQ optimization. While my RR-G card is working near 100%, and everything seems OK. There still seems to be something that causes the capture or the tuner to flake once in a while,hmmm.
Well, I'm finally out of breath, so I'll get off the box. Who's next?
J.Klein
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