Recommendations

[Aspen]

I'm cutting bait on Matrox. I can't express my emotions in text. Suffice it to say that the businesses I advise and the PCs I build will not contain Matrox products.

Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me.

That said, what capture cards do you recommend that are separate from the video card. I like the GeForce3 for AGP but want cheep capture only cards that I can use in PCI slots.

Oh, and the must support WINDOWS 2000!

Thanks,
Aspen

[Elie]

Non at the price range of the Marvel G400.
You must spend at least "$800+ US" to get something like RT2500 or DV 500 to capture under Win2k.

Also depends on what you want to capture, DV or analog or both.
The Marvel G400 does a great job at capturing YUY2, but like I said in other posts, you need fast drives and fast proc's.

Cheers,
Elie

[This_Idiot]

Nah, what does a DC30+ run at in dollars over there at the moment ?

That's claimed to work under W2K using late drivers, is a PCI card, and produces top quality MJPEG when you've got the system bedded in properly. I'd invite you to read my review of it from Dec 1999 except that it hasn't been reinstated to the site yet. I'm hoping to upload it tonight or tomorrow (thanks to Andrew Martin who saved a complete copy of it including all the screen shots !)

If you are desperate to see it, drop me a line and I'll email it to you (it is 164Kb tho).

Needless to say I'd be interested to hear from anyone using a DC30 under W2K.

Chris
(T_I)

[Dr Mordrid]

About those Win2K Pinnacle DC-30+ drivers, here are some posts on them from the Pinnacle forum;

"As I said in other post....while we're waiting...here's something to do...

>> BANG HEAD HERE ! <<"

"I did Banged My head and bought Rt2500 ...just came ... and trying to to figure if I should sell my dc30+"

"If Pinnacle would have mercy on us and finally decided to make a WindowsDeviceModel certified driver then at least we may be able to use the Microsoft VideoForWindowsWindowsDeviceModel mapper
then we would be able to use VDub, AVIO ...etc with win2K.....'till then..."

Hmmm....to do a WDM driver Pinnacle would have to create a DirectShow filter...which Pinnacle too seems to be having problems producing. Wonder where we've heard about that problem before????? And their drivers aren't even able to capture outside of Premiere. Just great.

Face it guys. WDM/DirectShow is a major problem with MJPeg hardware that uses Zoran's chips. NTFS and unlimited files is the whole reason folks wanted to go to Windows 2000. Without WDM/DS drivers you're not going to get it, which makes moving to Win2K more an exercise than an upgrade.

Dr. Mordrid

[This_Idiot]

Can't comment, not running W2K. Won't run W2K either, while I can do all that I need in W98SE.

Meanwhile, I can report that the recovered DC30+ review is back online and accessible through www.desktopvideoworld.co.uk/reviews . I apologise that it hasn't been possible (yet) to provide the zoom-in screenshots.

Before making any decisions pro/con DC30+, I'd be investing in a little research to determine how it REALLY behaves under W2K. Forgive me for being cynical, but that's what I'm here for. I can't tell you, I don't run W2K. Doc can't tell you, he doesn't run a DC30+ on W2K. The guy he quoted ? Well I don't know him, don't know his savvy. Doc will agree with me big time that the number of calls we've had here on the DTVW/MURC forum that sound like major problems until you spot the guy has his board in upside down or whatever is astounding.

Don't accept it till you see it. Don't reject it until you are satisfied that the down-side you are being shown is due to the inability of the package and not the operator. (Basic rule of programming - it's easy to prove it don't work, it's impossible to prove that it does !)

[Dr Mordrid]

FWIW this is from Pinnacle Tech Support on the file size vs. OS/filesystem issue;

"The DC30 software doesn't support files larger than 2 GB, regardless of the OS it's running under. Windows 98 supports 4 GB files, and NT supports effectively unlimited file size, but if you're using the DC30, your video file size will always max out at 2 gigs."

That says no WDM/DS to me....

Also, one thing I would suggest to anyone running Win2K is SP2. It has enhancements for Win9x (and Win9x component) compatability. It has fixed some problems I've had with Photoshop6 and a few other GfX proggies.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 01 June 2001).]