For Sale: ATI 600 USB, ATI AIW, Pinnacle capture cards
 

Updated April 2024

Available:
- Pinnacle USB*, NTSC, $175, similar to ATI AIW USB, WinXP/V/7/8/10/11** all work well - 1 available
- Pinnacle USB*, PAL, $175, similar to ATI AIW USB, WinXP/V/7/8/10** all work well - 1 available
- ATI 600 USB, WinXP/Vista/7 work well, XP/7 best, $150 - 1 available
- ATI AIW PCI, rare, includes required cables, includes TBSC audio card, XP only, $275 - 1 available

Notes:
- This will be my last ATI AIW PCI kit, unless I find one hiding in a box somewhere.
- I do not plan to acquire more ATI 600 USB or clones. So this may be my last 600 card.

These work perfectly. :D

PM if interested.
Will ship worldwide.


________________________________________

* These are a specific chipset version Pinnacle card. These are not lousy Dazzle cards.
** Understand that Win10 and Win11 are nasty OS for capturing video. Every Win10/11 update tends to zap cards. It may also be an issue with the graphics cards in Win10/11, namely Nvidia. All capture cards have some % of Win10/11 incompatibility, but the above Pinnacle cards almost always work perfectly (only 3 reports of issues to date for Win10, no stats on Win11).

________________________________________

My cards:
- sometimes come in the original box (ATI, clones)
- usually appear flawless, often new and unused
- were thoroughly tested by me
- have all required parts for analog tape capturing
- either have driver/software disc included, or a download will be provided here in the forum

In terms of the capturing software:
- Use Pinnacle USB with VirtualDub, audio preview is allowed, WinXP/Vista/7/8/10 all work well, Win11 maybe.
- Use AIW USB with ATI MMC (MPEG, NTSC or PAL) or VirtualDub (AVI, NTSC or PAL), WinXP required.
- Use 600 USB with ATI CMC (MPEG, NTSC) or VirtualDub (AVI, NTSC or PAL), WinXP/7 suggested, Win10/11 not suggested.
- Use Tevion clone with Videoglide up to OS X 10.14 (x480 resolution max, so NTSC only, no PAL).
- Use Hauppauge/Tevion clone USB with VirtualDub (AVI, NTSC or PAL), WinXP/Vista/7 all work well, 8/10/11 is hit-or-miss based on other hardware in the computer, exact drivers used, and exact Win8/10/11 update versions.

Additionally, this site has drivers and info for all cards.

Full workflows available! If you need a capture card, and TBC, and VCR, get this instead:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/mark...-workflow.html

Discontinued:
- As of Dec 2021, I no longer sell ATI 600 USB cards (or the Hauppauge clones; Tevion clone still sold, but rarely).
- As of June 2022, I no longer sell ATI AIW AGP cards.
- As of March 2024, I no longer sell ATI AIW PCI cards. (Although I will create desktop capture systems using ATI AIW PCI, fully loaded systems with nifty modern conveniences, such as SSDs, removal drive trays, and hardware OS boot switches.)
Both of these are some of the best cards made, but various factors have made it difficult to locate decent cards, difficult to complete with all needed cables, and difficult to properly repair when damaged.

Pictures? For some strange reason, starting in 2022, I've gotten requests for "pictures", as if that tells you anything about these units. While the cosmetics on all my items is excellent, often like-new, it's the performance that matters. And in the case of capture cards, the chipsets. No mere photo can show that. You can already use Google to find photos of what these units look like, if you're curious. But also noting many non-identical cards look identical, so it's misleading altogether. In the few instances where images are not readily available, all a photo would tell you is "Wow, a boring box/stick/card!" It's a waste of my time to take photos, and a waste of yours to view them. So I don't do "pictures". I'm not some Craigslist/etc random person.

Warning: I see a lot of INCOMPLETE cards on Amazon, eBay, etc. Beware. If it's lower than my asking price, it's surely an incomplete kit, and thus useless for your capturing needs. For example, the ATI 600 USB is not simply a bare stick! The "accessories" are not actually accessories, but essential to its function!

Sold:
- Pinnacle USB, PAL, similar to ATI AIW USB, XP/V/7/8/10 all work well
- Pinnacle USB, NTSC, similar to ATI AIW USB, XP/V/7/8/10 all work well
- Hauppauge ATI 600 USB clone, XP/V/7/8/10 all work well
- Tevion ATI 600 USB clone, WinXP/Vista/7/8 work well (PAL/NTSC), Mac to 10.14 (NTSC), ignores many anti-copy
- ATI 600 USB clone (Hauppauge), WinXP/Vsta/7 work well
- ATI 600 USB clone (Tevion), WinXP/Vsta/7/8 work well, Mac to 10.14, ignores anti-copy
- ATI 600 USB, WinXP/Vista/7 work well, XP/7 best
- ATI AIW USB, XP only
- ATI AIW PCI, rare, XP only

Updated. :)

I broke up some workflows, so a few more cards are now available. :)

Broke up some more workflows again (sold the TBCs), so few more ATI 600s and some VCRs left. :thumb:

Is there any ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB left? :(

Yes. PM me. :)

Updated, bump.

I have another. :)

How much would be the shipping cost for a ATI AIW USB to Portugal? :)

Shipping capture cards to most European countries is almost always $29.
Sometimes a few dollars less, rarely more.

PM me, or I'll PM you later. :congrats:

I'm going to PM you now :)

Do you still have the ATI AIW USB?

Yes, I'll PM you. :congrats:

What are the main differences between these 2? I'm absolutely interested in one of the two, whichever is best for my needs.

AIW = WinXP required, better chipset
600 = WinXP to Win10, excellent chipset (just that the AIW's Theatre is better video quality)

That's essentially it.

Hi Lordsmurf, new member here. Been browsing and researching info on the site for a few months and finally registered. I'm looking to buy one of the USB devices. Do you think the difference in chipsets will make a noticeable difference in video quality, make a very slight difference, or make a significant difference? I have a XP desktop all setup, but am considering the convenience of being able to use the USB on difference devices. If the chipset will make a significant enough difference I'll just go with the AIW. Thoughts? And thanks in advance!

Lordsmurf can correct me if I'm wrong.

The ATI USB2.0N used the ATI Theater 200 chip, and was a 12 bit video encoder.

The ATI 600 USB used the Texas Instruments tvp5150 chip, and was a 9 bit video encoder.

Its not the only thing to consider, but its one absolute.

The former is outstanding.

The latter is better than its competition at the time.

Pioneer DVD recorders finally caught up to 10 bit, only in the last model released in the United States (the DVR-640), the last models released only in Canada finally adopted 12 bit encoders (DVR-550, 560). And they only captured to MPEG2, you could not get the uncompressed video capture. With either of these ATI products you can get raw, uncompressed video if you want or need that.

The ATI USB2.0N can only be used in XP, but that is [not] a downside for many reasons when performing video capture. It does require a separate power supply, and they wear out, but the power supply can easily be replaced. Its a simple 6 volt 1.5 amp wall adapter. (Be sure of the polarity of any replacement power supply plug!) PSM11R-060 Positive Center, Barrel Plug, 2.1mm I.D. x 5.5mm O.D. x 9.5mm [must be 6 volt, not 5, not 9, not 12]

If you have to work with Windows 7,8,10 then the ATI 600 USB, is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Its a very good choice.

Another poorly documented feature of the ATI USB2.0N is that it was Apple Mac Compatible. Elgato EyeTV 3.0 supported the ATI USB2.0N as a supported TV Tuner and capture source. I have used it with my 10.6.8 Snow Leopard edition of OSX. I can't say how far up the lineage it supports it, but EyeTV is still around and still has the TVGuide EPG over internet through Rovi (Jan 2019). In fact I just renewed it a few days ago for another year.

Q: Is is noticeably different?
A: No, not overly noticeable, especially when capturing lossless in VirtualDub.

It comes down to this: 600 is excellent, AIW is better.

Of course, questions in video are rarely simple. Capture cards involve more than chipsets alone, and workflow, drivers, and OS must be considered when comparing cards. As with VCRs and TBCs, whenever somebody wants to buy something from me, I usually ask a few initial questions, to verify you're getting exactly what you need for your project. Sometimes the 600 will be better, sometimes a clone, sometimes AIW, sometimes something else.

This is a marketplace post, so I don't want to bog it down too much in the technical.

I have an old laptop that was near top of the line in 2007 that I can load XP onto. Will there be a noticeable quality difference between using the AIW on my old laptop vs the 600 on a Windows 10 machine with a Core i5-2500K CPU?

@lordsmurf,
I'm curious on your thoughts on this.

@BPHusker

As per above:
Q: Is is noticeably different?
A: No, not overly noticeable, especially when capturing lossless in VirtualDub.

Yes, the AIW USB does work with laptops. But laptops of that era can be squirrelly devices. I have a top-of-the-line HP (bought as refurb) that doesn't always want to cooperate with it, and another mid-grade no-name that has no issues. With capture, desktops are always better. The HP issue may be related to it being the original OS install, and it's had 13 years of install/uninstall/update/upgrade. The no-name was wiped some years ago, never used for anything but video and testing USB capture cards in XP.

AIW will always be better quality than ATI 600 USB, but it's not a night-and-day difference.
- The major AIW difference is color/contrast/etc is slightly more accurate, audio is perfect as-is (and with audio preview if set correctly), and then you have ATI MMC for MPEG capturing.
- ATI 600 USB values can be slightly off system to system (all eMPIA-bridge cards seemingly are), simply tweaked with VirtualDub proc amp. Audio needs a quick registry hack/addition to not be too loud (distort). And of course ATI CMC is craptastic (but workable, though without dropped frames counter), and CMC is NTSC only.

Win10 is a lousy OS for capture, as updates seem to break stuff every 6 months. As has been pointed out, Win10 doen't really get mere "updates" as much as it's actually a new OS pushed out twice per year. So it can majorly break things. If your Win10 OS is always updated, always online, then you may suddenly find yourself unable to capture. Workarounds have generally been found, sometimes after a few months, but it's no guarantee that it will always be the case. With Win10, nothing is guaranteed.

If you're not sure what to get, the ATI 600 USB will be a safer choice. And that's all I have available right now anyway.

-- more added --

I was asked a great question in PM, about this post, so I wanted to share my answer here...

@dudewiththepants

Q: What I'm also wondering is would a good proc amp make up for the difference of an ATI AIW vs a 600. Your post here made me wonder if that would be the case and staying on Windows 10 is fine, or if it's a separate thing entirely with digital (Virtualdub) vs analog proc amps.

A: Load question, long answer. :)

600 vs. AIW is somewhat complex, as now you're getting into what makes capture cards better/worse, in terms of accuracy. Color, contrast, brightness, over/underexposure, highlights, IRE, gamma, etc.

Analog video capture cards have both interpretive values (how the card sees the tape) and absolute values (how the card itself exposes video, regardless of tape). Realize VCRs also have this issue, which compounds the conversation, but let's focus on only the capture card here.
- The AIW rarely has any issues with absolute values, and the interpreted values are usually very accurate.
- The 600 absolute values can be off, and it's somewhat random (for whatever reason) system to system, which is where the VirtualDub proc amp comes in. The interpreted values can be slightly off with contrast/color/exposure, though not by much, not enough to make it unacceptable like EZcap/etc cards.

ATI valued accuracy. The Theatre 100/Rage and 200 chips were amazing. For the 600 USB, they use off-the-shelf TI chipsets, but seemingly tried to perfect values to match Theatre as close as possible.

Interpreted values are not static. For example, it's not as easy as -1/-2/etc brightness on a proc amp to combat blown highlights. The cards interprets darkness, mid tones, and highlights differently. So complete -1/-2 darkening an image could harm the shadows and midtones, in an effort to correct for it -- and it still may not properly restore the highlights. This is not AGC at work. Better cards (and VCRs and DVD recorders, etc) value accuracy, while most consumers items are made to "pop" (high contrast, untrue value). When the damage is internal to card chipset, proc amps don't really help.

Capture card quality is not binary, good/bad, but a spectrum.

In terms of where AIW is, on a scale of 1-100 (100 being best), easily a 95 or better. The good USB cards are also around 75 or so +/-10 (600 USB gets an 85, VC500 gets 65), while the bad USB cards (like EZcap) are well under 50. And anything under 50 is unacceptable. While some would ask why EZcap isn't a 0 on the scale, there are actually much worse cards, most of which were from the 90s and early 2000s. Canopus ADVC boxes are arguably even worse than the EZcap (for NTSC), one of those ancient late 90s engineered cards, as it outright tosses out color data, in addition to somewhat cooking the colors. ADVC for PAL is fine for values, but the card itself is a nuisance to use compared to 600 USB, so still not suggested.

So, to circle back around, proc amp doesn't 100% account for card differences, but it can minimize the differences on the better ~75 percentile USB cards. For those worse cards, under 50, it does nothing whatsoever, those cards are too screwed, and merely tweaking color values in a proc amp will not help.

Regarding analog proc amp vs. the VirtualDub levels (proc amp), those are different.

- The analog proc amp is pre-capture, and would affect interpretive values of a card. Not correct interpretive, just affect. The main use of the analog proc amp is to correct bad video colors, not compensate for the card. Generally speaking, bad tape color will far exceed any card offset, unless the card is complete junk. This is why I always state that you often must correct, or at least pre-correct, in the analog domain. Not everything can be fixed post-capture digital software workflows.

- The VirtualDub proc amp is post-capture, and will affect the absolute values of the card. It can affect bad tape color, but by then it's generally to late for more serious errors, and is really no different than color correctin in software.