adventures in video capture

[Bobtheduck]

When I first got my PC, about 3 years ago, I got an ATI All-in-wonder PCI Express to go with it. That thing was so awesome. It had RCA connections for both input AND output, allowing me to use my TV as a second (Albeit imperfect) monitor, had settings that allowed me to adjust for overscan, and had capture card functionality that worked on anything that didn't require Firewire-only captures (I'm staring hard at YOU, Premiere... grr)

Well, that lasted well until my last birthday. I disconnected my computer to bring it in with me to my party (I don't remember why, exactly) and when I went to hook everything up again, I went to plug the cables back into the VCR, and Vsshew... Everything went white.

I reset my computer, and it wouldn't turn on at all... I was more than a little upset. I took it into best buy, and they found that taking out the all-in-wonder (which was my TV input and output and capture card AS WELL AS my 3d card) solved the problem, and at least allowed my computer to start.

I was distraught, having lost all that glorious functionality, and was desperate to find something to replace it. I had previously looked for upgrades to my all-in-wonder, but for a while, they had been discontinued. Then I found out that they started the line up again, with a product called "All-in-Wonder HD"

I was ecstatic! Not only would i get all my old functionality back, but I would also have HDMI connections, which I didn't have before. I got the thing bought and installed before realizing that a lot of the functionality I got before was only possible with the purchase of a more expensive set that came with a daughterboard (or was it sisterboard? Something like that) that isn't sold separately. Yeah...

Now my only capture comes from recording off the "TV" signal, meaning a cable, with no TV output at all, and since my room seems to be a bed of bad signals, with static everywhere, setting it up to just record off a T output sending half to the TV and half to the computer leaves me with a much worse image than the RCA cables did. That's ok, though. At least I had capture capability...

Until one day, it decides to upgrade itself so I can no longer manually select channels. It decides very much on its own that the only channel I can view is channel 4, which doesn't have a signal, and doing an autoscan for channels I do have results in the program crashing... every... single... time.

Turns out this isn't an isolated problem. Turns out NO ONE using this software (catalyst media center) can use the autotune feature, and since it doesn't allow you to manually set channels, I end up with now channel 2 being the only channel I can watch. I figure I'd try to start with a fresh install of the program, catalyst media center. I uninstall and... Oh, dear me, turns out the program is no longer free, and it's impossible to find. I'm darn near certain it installed with a free update I installed, as it's not on either one of my ATI DVDs, so now the only program I could use to do the recording is gone.

I tried about 10 open source TV tuning programs, and none of them could quite get the hang of my card. Movie maker now crashes whenever you go into record mode, and I found ONE program that actually records...

Only problem? It records in a DVR format that can't be edited...

I'm going to go cry now... And ponder spending about 150 bucks to get capture hardware with Firewire output so at least I'll be able to use premiere and its far-too-large-and-takes-far-too-long-for-simple-web-shows DV avi format... And I want to burn ATI / AMD to the ground for their serious drop in quality.

Oh, did I mention the 3d capabilities no longer work properly? On install, UT3 ran on full specs with no slowdowns. Now? Let's just say, once again I'd prefer to play on the PS3. Let's not even get into source... I thought the PS3 version was bad, but it's downright glorious compared to how it now runs on my PC... So I'm looking at the need for a new 3d card in addition to new capture stuff...