Is This a good Firewire card?

[dsp]

Hi all, I'm wondering if the Pyro Basic DV card is a decent lowend firewire card. heres the link to it <a href="http://www.adstech.com/products/pyro_basicdv.html">http://www.adstech.com/products/pyro_basicdv.html</a>.

Any feedback would be very helpful, as well as any compatibility issues with my system.

dsp

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AMD Duron 650@900MHz
256MB Micron PC-133 CAS3 -7E @ 133MHz CAS2
ABIT KT7-RAID
13.6GB Maxtor 7200RPM Hard Drive
8.4GB Quantum CR
20 GB Quantum LM
40GB Maxtor 5400
Toshiba SD-M1212 6X DVD ROM
Plextor 8/4/32A
SB Live X-Gamer 5.1
Matrox G400 32MB Dualhead Vanilla @ 150/200/150
Zoltrix TV-MAX Capture Card (BT848)
17" Hansol 710P
Win2kPro
10/100 Ethernet card (D-Link)

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup. It's probably the most popular OHCI DV card on the market. Tons of folks use it with good results. Two things to consider though;

1. think about using DirectX 8a. This has an updated DV codec that's worth using.

2. since it has both MSPro VE and VideoStudio VE you're in the catbird seat. You can start on VS and graduate to MSPro once you get your feet wet.

Ulead offers substantial discounts on the full versions for owners of these packages as well.

My concerns on your system come down to the Abit KT7-RAID mainboard itself. Make sure you investigate the BIOS and driver updates for both the mainboard and its HighPoint RAID controller. There have been several rather annoying problems with both that recent updates purport to have fixed.

Visits to alt.com.periphs.mainboard.abit, ABIT and HighPoints update pages should be informative on these issues.

You should also check out the latest VIA 4-in-1 driver and SBLive patch files. The VIA 686b southbridge chip and SBLive are a poison pill for many editing systems. These problems are also purported to be fixed by these recent updates. Check for info and links to them at;

http://www.viahardware.com/686bfaq.shtm

Have fun....

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 20 June 2001).]

[dsp]

Dr Mordid,

Thanks for the reply. I'm using DX8a and the DV patch right now so that's no problem. With the motherboard, I have the 1.0.3b BIOS and am using the 4.31 Via drivers. But I probably won't be getting this card for a little while yet, as I don't have money for it.

dsp