All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro Hardware encoding?

[SilverBullet]

I guess it's 2 questions in 1, but I'm looking at the AIW 9800 Pro. Will it work in SageTV?

Will it support hardware encoding?

Regards

[Opus4]

No, the AIW does not support hardware encoding. But, you could use it for output. If you don't already have it, buying that particular card for SageTv seems a waste of money.

See the SageTV System Requirements page for hardware encoders.

- Andy

[stanger89]

To expound on what Andy said:

Originally posted by SilverBullet
I guess it's 2 questions in 1, but I'm looking at the AIW 9800 Pro. Will it work in SageTV?

Yes the AIW will work in SageTV as a standard video card, but no, the tuner/capture portion is unsupported.

Will it support hardware encoding?

Yes it supports HW encoding in that you can put a PVR 250 (or any other HW encoder) in the PC and it will work. But no, the AIW itself does not have a HW encoder, it relies on software encoding for video compression.

Regards

As Andy said, if you don't have it yet, you'd be better off getting a standard video card and a separate HW encode tuner card.

[SilverBullet]

Well I guess I'm not interpreting ATI's site well. They talk about "Hardware MPEG encode/decode assist". I assumed it was a hardware encoder.

I currently have an AIW-9000 with a WinTV PVR250. I'm not too happy with the quality.

I have a tv with component inputs so the 9800 would have been nice. Not sure it's worth the $$$ if it's not a hardware encoder though. I guess I could always look at the cheaper radeons (non AIW) that support component out.

[Opus4]

Originally posted by SilverBullet
I currently have an AIW-9000 with a WinTV PVR250. I'm not too happy with the quality.

The problem there is most likely the decoding (software) as opposed to the recording quality. But, since I use hardware decoding (Xcard), I'll leave the details of the software decoder, card, & connections to others.

Edit: Oops... I meant software "decoder" in that last sentence, not encoder.

- Andy

[SilverBullet]

Originally posted by Opus4
But, since I use hardware decoding (Xcard), I'll leave the details of the software encoder, card, & connections to others.

- Andy

Darn you, I started reading thinking cool, I'm out of the woods... but then "D'oh!"

I guess I'll leave this alone for a while, my wife is about to lock the pc up because I don't see her anymore ;-)

[stanger89]

Originally posted by Opus4
The problem there is most likely the decoding (software) as opposed to the recording quality.

IMO, that only applies to the standard TV-out (S-Video) of video cards. When you go to HD outputs (Component/VGA/DVI) then that no longer applies, I use VGA to my 36" HDTV and the Picture is awesome.

A 9600 w/ the Component adapter would probably make a nice improvement in PQ (assuming you have an HDTV).

[stanger89]

Originally posted by SilverBullet
Well I guess I'm not interpreting ATI's site well. They talk about "Hardware MPEG encode/decode assist". I assumed it was a hardware encoder.

"Assist" is the key word there, the Radeon 9800 offers hardware accelleration, which offloads some of the work, where as a true HW encoder does all the work.

[SilverBullet]

Originally posted by stanger89
IMO, that only applies to the standard TV-out (S-Video) of video cards. When you go to HD outputs (Component/VGA/DVI) then that no longer applies, I use VGA to my 36" HDTV and the Picture is awesome.

A 9600 w/ the Component adapter would probably make a nice improvement in PQ (assuming you have an HDTV).

That was my assumption as well. Now are you talking about the AIW 9600 or the radeon 9600? I can get a cheap radeon 9600 around here, with an option to return it. Maybe worth a try...

Thanks for the info.

[Opus4]

Originally posted by stanger89
IMO, that only applies to the standard TV-out (S-Video) of video cards. When you go to HD outputs (Component/VGA/DVI) then that no longer applies, I use VGA to my 36" HDTV and the Picture is awesome.

A 9600 w/ the Component adapter would probably make a nice improvement in PQ (assuming you have an HDTV).

I probably wasn't clear enough -- that's sort of what I meant when I said it was the decoding that was the problem, not the encoding. (The decoder/card/connection combo, though I said just 'software' at the beginning of that other reply.) I was assuming that since he was considering buying a 9600 to get component out, the 9000 did not have that option & thus would probably have worse quality then some other decoder/card/connection combo.

- Andy

[stanger89]

Originally posted by SilverBullet
That was my assumption as well. Now are you talking about the AIW 9600 or the radeon 9600? I can get a cheap radeon 9600 around here, with an option to return it. Maybe worth a try...

Thanks for the info.

Standard 9600. IMO the AIW is a waste of money.

Be aware that the Radeon's don't come with the adapter, you need to get it separately.
http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2537967

[Gemini1706]

does it matter 9600 non-pro, or the pro version is needed (9600 PRO)?

Cheers...

[SilverBullet]

Good question, I was going to go with the non-pro since I'm no gamer and don't think the pro will make a difference. In the same line, would a non-ati (ati-powered) Radeon 9600 work as well? I can get a generic 9600 pro with 256 megs of ram for ~ the same as the ATI 9600 SE.

[stanger89]

IMO:

Anything but the SE's are OK, if you want to use VMR9, the SE's are just too slow. As for "built by" or "powered by" it doesn't matter, I have a Sapphire "powered by" Radeon 9500np (can't do VMR9 BTW) and it's fine, I use the Catalysts off the ATI site.

Short answer, go with the generic 9600 pro over the ATI 9600SE.

[mls]

Originally posted by SilverBullet
Well I guess I'm not interpreting ATI's site well. They talk about "Hardware MPEG encode/decode assist". I assumed it was a hardware encoder.

Ya know, I've e-mailed ATI 3 different times asking them specifically what they mean by "hardware assisted encoding" and never got a real answer to my question. All they ever sent back was saying their cards have "assisted decoding", which has nothing to do with encoding.

I currently have an AIW-9000 with a WinTV PVR250. I'm not too happy with the quality.

I'm "reasonably" happy with my AIW-9000 (for now anyway), but then again I'm only using it to output to a standard definition TV with S-video. I'm sure it doesn't do as good a job when output to a HDTV though (as compared to a 9600 or higher).

[kny3twalker]

"hardware assisted encoding"
is only for the X800s
and is does assist in software encoding
http://apps.ati.com/ATIcompare/result.asp

[mightyt]

I posed the question before about video cards, but never really got an answer ...

Right now I have my Sage Server set up with;

A PNY nVidia GeForce4 MX 440 Video Card and 2 Hauppauge 250 cards..

I also have an ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro. I understand that the ATI can not be used as another TV card since it requires software decoding, but would you us it in place of the nVidia for video out only?

I have heard of 2 other video cards mentioned on this forum ... The nVidia 5700 and ATI 9600 be better? Should I scrap the nVidia GeForce MMX 440 and AIW 9700 for either of these???


Or is there a better video card recommendation? Looking for some thoughts .... Thanks, T.

[kny3twalker]

the 9700 Pro AIW requires software encoding
just so you know (decoding is what happens as we view the digital recording and encoding is taking the analogue and converting it to digital, sorry about my rough definitions suppose I should just google it)
and the 9700 will be better than a 9600 or 5700
since it is a faster card
I think those are suggested as a good starting place
and you are welcome to get better
like the 9700 Pro

[mightyt]

Originally posted by kny3twalker
the 9700 Pro AIW requires software encoding
just so you know (decoding is what happens as we view the digital recording and encoding is taking the analogue and converting it to digital, sorry about my rough definitions suppose I should just google it)
and the 9700 will be better than a 9600 or 5700
since it is a faster card
I think those are suggested as a good starting place
and you are welcome to get better
like the 9700 Pro

Thanks very much for the reply ... And I appreciate the def ... So here's what I am getting from what you said;

1 - I understand that the AIW is not Sage worthy as a TV in Card because is uses software decoding and the Hauppauge uses hardware decoding.

2 - The AIW "can" be used as my video card for TV Out card in place of my existing nVidia GeForce MMX 440.

3 - If I have to chose between these Video card options;

a) nvidia GeForce MMX 440 (Own & Installed)
b) nVidia 5700 (read about in this forum & would have to purchase)
c) ATI 9600 (read about in this forum & would have to purchase)
d) ATI AIW 9700 Pro (Already Own)
e) Any other (would have to purchase)

..... the recommendation would be don't buy another card, but replace the nVidia GeForce MMX 440 I already have with the ATI AIW 9700 Pro I already have.

So … That’s what I will do next!

Thanks again for taking the minute to reply ... T.

[stanger89]

Originally posted by mightyt
1 - I understand that the AIW is not Sage worthy as a TV in Card because is uses software decoding and the Hauppauge uses hardware decoding.

That would be encoding, which is what is done during capture/recording, decoding is done on playback.

Other than that I agree...

mostly, if the AIW 9700 is not returnable then yes use it, if it is returnable, you could save yourself some money by going with a new, non AIW card.