New from ATI: Theatrix chip

[hartford]

If this is against the rules, I'm sorry (I'm not promoting anything).

A number of manufacturers will be selling Vid Capture cards based on the
ATI Theatrix 550 chip. Was to be available in November, pushed to who knows when (Jan 05?).

Has very interesting capabilties. Sapphire may be first with the "goods."



PDF file (http://www.sapphiretech.com/pressrelease/theatrix.pdf)


Hardware MPEG2 encoding, Hardware Dolby Encoding, 3D filters, 5-line
2D filters.

[rfmmars]

I am a user of ATI AIWs. I rate the capture quality great because it can use just about any codec besides the enbeded MPEG2 which is Ligos.

The big problem is that the end users knows more about their product than they do.

They incorporate what they thinks is smart tech, auto detection of a TV monitor being connected to the S-Video port, if the monitor doesn't have a 150 ohm load, the port is not opened up.

The same goes for the PC monitor.......the sync signal must not be standard. for example I connected a GEM 15" LCD and it said it didn't support 1024x780, so there I was stuck with a message in the middle of the screen that could not be turned off. In fact the monitor did support it, but here we have two smart tech devices that are too smart for their own good.

Also if your PC monitor isn't new enough, it will force you to reload the driver everytime you boot your computer. No help on these isuess from ATI tech support, after two years of dealing with this, I solved it myself.

So beware, it can be a rough road with ATI products or Shaffire products.

richard
photorecall.net