[Rich A]

Originally Posted by emg178

Sounds like you don't have much experience with an ATI all in wonder card and the corresponding set of crap that ATI passes off as drivers. Also sounds like you didn't read Nvidia's web site, as the above poster points out.
You also didn't know this, but snapstream tech support suggested that I try the Nvidia codec, although they said that it would probably only work w/ 9000 + boards. I believe that the ati website must say that it supports directx 9 instructions (in hardware) for it to work well w/ Nvidia, as that is what Nvidia's site says.
Anyway, what manufacturers web sites claim, and actual experience often don't match too well if you can even fully understand these claims, which is why personal experience w/ specific hardware is helpfull. That is what these forumns are about. I expect that some people w/ ati aiw 8500dv boards will repeat my experiment just hoping... However, at least if they read this, they will not expect it to work.

Thanks for the information. Yes you are correct that I really didn't investigate the Nvidia web site. I have done so and now understand this supposedly ATI compatibilty thing.. However I am VERY familiar with the ATI products. So much so I had a web site that was referenced by a couple national magazines as a great place for technical information regarding capture problems with the All In Wonder series of ATI Cards. In fact, I stopped about a year or so ago updating it, because people were emailing me saying the ATI TECHNCIANS were referring them to my site for "advanced" or custom work involving capture. I was at one time averaging over a few hundred emails a week. and finally decided to stop (cuz ATI wasn't paying me to solve their problems <grin>) and it was becoming more of a job than a hobby.

Now much of that web site is now dated, and I really "got away from it" just after the Radeon series came out. I only leave it there for users of older ATI AIW cards reference. I honestly haven't kept up with things. I still own about 6 different versions of the All In Wonder and have a 9000 series AIW in my multimedia editing machine. I use that to create very high quality DVD mpeg for special projects like home video conversion, etc. The Mpeg-2 when properly set up with that unit is really better than most that I've seen when used in that scenario. Their latest version of MMC is really very good. And from what I've seen in the last year or so, their move to a more "unified" driver set has been a big improvement.
FWIW I never had the myriad of problems others had with things like audio sync and such. But I helped many ATI owners get their systems straightened out. My CHOICE of record for my HTPC work is NVidia video. And today, for capturing mpeg where you need real time capture and low CPU use, the obvious choice is most any of the hardware based capture/turner cards. I DID run my ATI 9000 AIW with SS programs some time ago while investigating (just to satisfy my curiosity) Had excellent results with both capture and playback .. albeit feature limited because of the relatively high CPU use I needed to do full screen DVD proper high bit rate capture.

I will take another look at today's technology involving these things, but I do have to note one thing. The guys running this software based DVD decoder on Nvidia based video cards seem to have a whole lot less problems with it.

Sorry for the off topic ..and you were half right. BTW, you mentioned the 8500DV. When that card first came out, some people had a lot of trouble with it tuning stations and getting decent captures. I "borrowed" one from the shop and found it was very sensitive to rf level excursions when driven by an analog cable or off the air RF that varied in signal strength. In fact I "fixed" this problem for many people who could not get any help from ATI. Since then of course ATI has "discovered" what I found. That's why the 8500DV was (I believe) the only AIW card with a discreet electronic tuner. After the 8500DV they went back to the more tolerent Philips type tuner "cans".

Just because the software is designed to be compatible with certain types of manufacturer's cards doesn't mean it will work the same on each. Each manufacturer's "implementation" of things like DirectX and use of various filters can be different. I know these things are supposed to be "standardized" but my experience has shown not everyone uses the standards the same way.

I still say Nvidia wants to support their OWN products and you'll find in reality when all is said and done, that the product will work "best" with the manufacturer's own products. Sure they want to sell a DVD codec. But they are of course, in the business of manufacturing video cards more so than software. Maybe they are making a mistake by even suggesting it can be used with ATI Radeons? (my own opinion) Why the heck would a video card manufacturer made a low cost "solution" that makes it competitor's product work better? Well I'm not in marketing .. and like I said, "I have been known to be wrong". Oh, and maybe the guys who are getting better results using this with their ATI, never had the ATI set up correctly in the first place. Like "Judy the goddess of love" was oft to say .. "It could happen".