Video-Capture Reviews

This card moves high end game software graphics at rapid speeds on the highest setting. A title like FAR CRY can be played at it's full potential with AA applied & other high end resolution settings.

Unlike some other FX5950-Ultra cards this one is advertised as working with a 300 Watt power supply rather than 350 watt or higher. I have a 5950 from another company but this one seems to run cooler, quieter and faster. It appears to have a better ventilation/fan cooling system than some. Comes with quality game and instillation software. The card does require the AGP and adjoining PCI slot and a connection from the card to the power supply. Most with high end computers will not find this a problem. To me, the card is meant for computers with a 2 GHZ cpu or higher, otherwise the processor may limit the advantage/benefits of this higher quality/priced graphics card.

If your computer is up to specs then I definitely would recommend this card. It does everything I want it to. Another advantage is that the Jaton card is currently about $50.00 less than most other 5950 cards.

I'll keep this brief...it's fantastic. I can wqatch TV, record shows during the day straight to HD, then watch them at my leisure. This version has a remote control (there's apparently one that ships for less but doesn't include the remote or DVR software.

With the iCal integration, they give me a website that lists all the shows fore the date you select. Nice and easy to use and my daughter now uses it - she's 9!

buy it - great little card.

Taking those old VHS tapes and sticking them on your Mac or PC is now so easy that any box will do it right? To some extent, the answer is yes. But for anyone with a real desire to edit their footage, keep the quality, check what's actually happening while it's being digitized, then the Miglia Director's Cut Take 2 is absolutely the answer.

This list is in no particular order, just important 'stuff' I've learned;
1.The image output quality is superior to the other brands I've used - and discarded - in this price range. The reason is the chipset.
2. It's the only device that has an audio output for headphones on it - this means that, when editing that speech in Final Cut or other editing solution, you can hear when to make the clip - not just see it. Particularly useful when you want to edit out something that you can hear but not see! The other brands require a whole set of extra cables and plugging and unplugging - a reall mess!
3. The Directors Cut supports dual outputs - so you can see exactly how it will look through a preview monitor / screen while recording. Why wait to record it and playback to see if it's ok?
4. All the conections are at the rear of the box making cabling tidy - the 'others' have cables at front and rear making a mess of your workspace!
5. All the cables ship with this that you're possibly going to need. The others give the resellers a chance to 'sell' profitable cables to you.
6. It can be powered directly from the Firewire port - no need for a power supply - so on-the-road editing is now a reality

This thing has won very high praise from some European journals and I thoroughly recommend it. Well done Miglia

This is super great:

Description:
The miroVIDEO DC30 Pro is a professional, studio-quality video and audio editing system. It offers a fast, PCI interface and video overlay. It provides complete nonlinear post- production video and audio editing with full screen (up to 704 x 480, 60 fields), full motion video and audio capture and editing with Motion-JPEG compression and S-Video quality output to video tape through a convenient Breakout Box. Supports Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0.

Features:

Digital Video Format: MJPEG
Analog Video Format: NTSC, SECAM, PAL
Analog Video Signal: S-Video, Composite video
Video Capture Speed: 30 frames per second
Video Capture Resolution: 720 x 480
Still Image Format: JPEG
Color Depth: 24-bit (16.7M colors)

Technical Information:

System Type: PC
Form Factor: Plug-in card
System Requirements:

Required Slot Type: PCI
Package Contents:

Pinnacle Mirovideo DC30 PRO Video Capture/Editing
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of all information contained herein. Mwave.com makes no warranty expressed or implied with respect to accuracy of the information, including price, product editorials or product specifications. Product and manufacturer names are used only for the purpose of identification.

As a computer professional, but first time PC/digital video user, I rate this product highly for several reasons.
The over 1/2" instruction manual is well written. The short automated tutorial is very good too. The video capture card (IEEE, i-LINK, whatever you want to call it) has 1 internal and 2 external ports which is handy. The cable is actually long enough to use. It configured easily in Windows XP Home.
The software detects every thing with ease and has a cool feature when connected to my new SONY TRV340 (see my review for it) that allows control of the camera from the screen.
I have captured Digital-8 video and video converted from my VHS tapes via my SONY into the PC and easily edited the video into some very nice home movies. Some of the special effects are very slick.
I have had no problems as mentioned by others in inserting from multiple captured videos. I have made up to hour long movies so far. It has more formats to output to than you would ever need and I haven't had one single failure (capturing, editing, or writing) yet. I must say it delivers everything it promises and is suprisingly user friendly.

This is an OEM version of Radeon's 9700 128MB Pro card with a Zalman ZM-80 heatpipe pre-installed in place of the usual fan. I decided to avoid fans after the whiny monster on the Oxygen graphics card powering my SGI 1600SW flat panel drove me to distraction. Along with an Antec Sonata case and low-noise power supply, this is a perfect component for high-power, low noise machines.

It works. It's totally silent. The heatpipe transfers heat between the two huge heatsinks on either side of the card, and it gets warm, but not too hot to touch. Motherboard temperature ranges are fine under load.

The only warning is that you need a motherboard with plenty of room between the AGP slot and both the north bridge heatsink and the memory slots; this card obscures the first PCI slot on my ASUS P4C800 board, but is otherwise fine. If you're uncertain, Zalman's web site has an active newsgroup with tech support.

It was a piece of cake to install the card in the AGP slot, install the drivers and configure. The card drove my monitor during BIOS setup, and is now running my Samsung 240T at 1920x1200 in DVI. Both Radeon and Samsung claim this is not possible in their manuals, but my results agreed with what I read on countless message boards. Not only does my Radeon 9700 work at 1920x1200 60Hz (the monitor's native resolution and frequency), but so does my Radeon 9000 Pro with 128MB. The resulting images are bright and sharp, and DVDs are scaled very easily scaled to 1920x1200 with crystal clear results. DVI is an order of magnitude sharper than VGA when driving my flat panel monitor.

It may look like an oversize answering machine from the 70s, but this two-tone gray box is actually Sony's new 600-dots-per-inch photo printer. The FVP-1 Mavica Photo Printer lets you print 3-by-5-inch photos with or without a PC, and it offers several ways of capturing digital images. It's the only photo printer I've seen that's equipped with a floppy drive. You insert a floppy into its disk drive (which reads .jpg, .bmp, or the printer's proprietary .nui graphics files) and view the images by connecting the printer to a television using its video-out or S-video connector.

In addition to floppies, you can also capture, retrieve, or print photos from digital cameras, TVs, VCRs, camcorders, and PCs. But to connect the printer to your computer, you must have a graphics card with a video-in port. In my tests using a shipping FVP-1 unit, capturing an image from television video took roughly 10 seconds to save to the printer's memory. The printed photos looked decent, but I noticed some slight ghosting and blurring flaws--no doubt from my TV reception.

Inconveniently, for the printer's drive to read the .jpg files I'd saved on a floppy, I had to first convert the images to the .nui file format using Sony's simple photo utility. After that, I popped the floppy back into the printer drive and was able to print a crisp, colorful photograph within 2 minutes.

The Mavica's thumbwheel-like button control lets you make index prints or multiples of 2, 4, and 16 images on a sheet. The printer requires photo paper, which doesn't ship with the unit. Sony sells a 50-pack paper and ink cartridge combo for $45. It also offers an optional $99 automatic paper feeder that holds 100 sheets; the alternative is manually inserting a sheet at a time in the printer's paper port.

Although somewhat pricey, this easy-to-use photo printer yields nice pictures, offers the convenience of floppies, and ends tedious trips to the photo shop.

Pros: Prints great quality photos stored on floppies, in easy steps.

Cons: To connect the printer to a PC, you need a graphics card with a video-in feature.

Value: Easy-to-use and versatile photo printer.

It is one of the best things out!

The Avermedia TVBox 9 does everything as advertised! This unit fits the bill for the 3 indispensable features I had in mind for a TV Tuner:

1) includes a remote control
2) lets you work on your computer while you watch TV in a little window
3) Full screen mode

Additional features that were a welcome bonus for me:

1) PNP - or Picture-in-Picture with See-Through Translucent Mode -- pretty nifty!
At first I thought the PNP feature refers to the ability to view other channels in a little window overlaid on the current channel I'm on. Actually, to my disappointment, this feature refers to the ability to view TV in a little window over the computer desktop, so you can work on your computer while you watch TV. The PNP terminology was a little misleading! What's nice though is the little TV window can be made translucent, so you can see through it to view what's on your computer. There is no way, however, to adjust the level of transparency. I use the translucency feature mostly on news channels, where visuals aren't that important. You can also position the TV window anywhere on the screen with the remote.

2) This unit is pretty much a full-feature TV. It includes your usual TV features such as Closed Caption/Parental Control, Supports Multiple Input Sources (Video, DVD, Game Console, etc.), OSD (On-Sreen Display), Sleep Timer (30 - 150 min, in 30 min increments), Favorite Channel Programming (haven't figured out how to work it yet), Full-Function remote (in other words you can control or set everything with the remote along with the OSD).

3) Multiple Channel Preview.
View 13 channels simultaneously. Well, actually, each channel is set in motion for about half a second and becomes a still. Regardless, you're still able to get an idea of what's on each channel, select what you want to watch, and watch it in full screen. I do find this feature very useful to quickly find the channel I wish to watch.

Pros
----

In addition to the above features, this unit also has the following pros:

- Easy setup. Within minutes, I was up and running. No need to install any software. Just plug in your video and sound cables to the correct in/out outlets and you're ready to go. I didn't even need the manual! The only hitch I ran into was the PNP function. Whenever I was in the PNP mode, the screen would flicker on and off. Adjusting the TV screen resolution didn't help. However, when I messed with the color setting by changing from 32 bits to 16 bits, then back to 32 bits, the glitch stopped -- much to my relief! I suppose resetting of the screen color setting somehow helped the TVBox recognize the video settings on my monitor/computer.

- Watch TV without turning on your computer.

- Good picture quality. Allows you to fine-tune the picture and has Brightness/Contrast/Tint/Color/Sharpness adjustments. I'm using it on a CRT monitor and I'm pleased with the picture quality (I still prefer CRT's over LCD's. Plasma's great, but gosh, they're still so pricey!) If you have it hooked up to a LCD, I reckon the picture quality will rival that on the Sharp Aquos line of LCD TV's.

- Console is really slim, space-saving, and cool-looking.
The silver color will match most computer systems. It can be laid down or set upright.

- Remote control buttons are conveniently laid out and intuitive (A big plus for me.)

Cons
----

- PNP TV picture not resizable. Regardless, the size is big enough to allow me to comfortably watch TV while I work on my computer. On my 17 inch monitor at a 1024 x 768 resolution, the box is roughly 1/9th the size of my screen. Also, when you turn off the unit and turn it back on again, it doesn't remember the last mode you were in (PNP or full screen.)

- HDTV not supported. Not a biggie for me. The picture quality is very good as it is!

- Surround sound not supported -- only stereo sound is supported.

- A little pricier than other comparable units. The TVBox 5, the predecessor to the TVBox 9, is significantly cheaper than the TVBox 9. However, TVBox 9 is an improvement over TVBox 5 with the addition of Closed Caption/Parental Control , Channel Preview, and image enhancement capabilities.

Features Not Supported
----------------------------
- Video capture/recording.
Consider the Avermedia MDVDEZUSB External Video Capture Device that lets you do just that. Other companies such as Hauppauge and Startech also incorporate this feature in their tuners. The Avermedia version even lets you record your TV shows onto your DVD or CD.

Conclusion
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The cons and the lack of some additional features have not deterred me from buying this unit. Make no mistake -- I love this unit! I only wish it had a true PNP function. I have looked at Startech, Viewsonic, Hauppauge, Samsung and I find the Avermedia to be the best TV tuner unit for a basic TV tuner. In my opinion, if you're looking for a TV Tuner for your home or office that has a remote control and lets you work on your computer while you watch TV and supports full screen mode, the Avermedia TVBox 9 is THE unit to get!

I got both the ATI Radeon X800Pro and the GeForce 6800 Ultra for a review I'm writing in an ezine. When it comes right down to it the ATI Radeon X800 Pro matches or beats the GeForce 6800 Ultra in game performance and IQ. Compare the price, performance, and IQ of the ATI Radeon X800 Pro with the GeForce 6800 Ultra, and the ATI Radeon X800 Pro definitely stacks up as the better value than the 6800 ultra. NVIDIA is today launching an even higher clocked Ultra, no doubt in response to the X800XT-PE. We have yet to even see a retail 6800 ultra for any of the partners so currently I would consider these a non-issue. Also, a lower clocked 6800GT is being introduced but this card is simply not currnetly going to play in the same ballpark with the X800 series from ATI.

The technical detail:

a. The printer may be operated as a standalone product independant of a computer. It contains slots for both SmartMedia cards and compact flash PC card adaptors so you don't have to have a computer connected to the printer to use it. The printer has its own small LCD display which can be used in lieu of a computer interface to help you select pictures off your cards for printing and the printer also has a rather sophisticated built in capability to format the final product.

b. The printer has both a parallel port and a USB port for computer connection and is compatible with both PCs and MACs. Configuration software is included on CD for both types of machines. No computer cables are included and will cost you about $20 at your local computer store.

c. If connected to a computer, the printer is used to provide printed output for whatever photo editing software you already own. No computer photo editing software is included with the package.

d. Documentation is complete and voluminous. However, the technical document giving all the nitty gritty is provided as a computer PDF file readable by Adobe Acrobat software (supplied in multiple languages) and is not provided hardcopy. If you are buying this printer to use as a standalone device without a computer, this puts you at somewhat of a disadvantage.

e. The starter kit of paper and printer ribbon is adequate to print only five (5) 8x10" prints so you will want to purchase paper and ribbon with the printer.

f. Printing supplies (paper and ribbon) are expensive, costing almost $2 per 8x10" print.

The Subjective data:

The final print produced is 314x314 dots per inch and looks incredible. I have standard 8x10" Kodak prints produced from my digital photos that do not look nearly as good. Unless you are going to take your digital data to a custom printing specialist and stand over his shoulder, you will not be able to obtain a print better than this printer will give you. Recently, I was trying to restore an old 8x10" photo and scanned it into my computer at the highest resolution possible, edited it in Adobe Photoshop, and wound up with a wonderful restoration. By that time the digital image was up to 58MB size. I asked Kodak to print it, and they did. However, their system couldn't handle the large file size and compressed it to slightly over 2MB. Their final print was acceptable but a lot of the detail and my work was lost because of the compression. My computer fed the entire 58MB file to this printer and it produced a superb picture that made the Kodak image look like a childs effort in comparison. I don't know of any printer today that has comperable capability to the Olympus P400.

I have owned this printer for nearly two years. It has been trouble-free and has given me hundreds of beautiful pictures that have the look and feel of high-quality photo prints. I use Photoshop Elements to clean-up my images and to size them for printing. Photoshop elements allows me to place multiple images on a full sheet of paper. I recently showed some travel photos to a friend. He said, "I've seen digital pictures before but never any that looked this beautiful! What kind of a camera do you have?" I told him that it wasn't the camera, it was the printer. The printer, itself, is not hard to set up and use. At first , you must pay attention to how you load the ribbon, but if you look carefully at the instructions, you will be fine. A negative review mentions the micro lesions on the surface of the prints. It is true that there are a few extremely fine scratches on the plastic surface of each page . However, you will never notice them unless you take them to a window and tilt the picture around to catch the light just so. In normal viewing, you will never know they are there. And they are only on the clear, plastic coating that covers the pigments on the paper. (The paper makes four passes over the thermal head. Three passes put the color on, the fourth applies a protective coating of clear plastic.) The drawback to this printer is that it will not print larger than 8X10, and not quite a true 8X10 at that. Personally, that has never bothered me. I don't do a lot of 8X10's, and when I do, I put a border around the print, put it in a frame and it's fine. The quality of the pictures continually amazes everyone I show them to. I think this is a great photo printer.

Finally, a dye sublimation photo printer that gives you prints larger than 4" x 6"! The colors are rich, and the pictures are very sharp. There is nothing on the market today that is in this printer's class. If anyone is interested in quality prints of digital images, this printer is an absolute must have. I would recommend printing images that were taken with at least a 2 megapixel digital camera. I have an HP Photosmart P1000 printer that does very well, but it cannot compete with the P400. You can't achieve the same quality print with an ink jet printer.