Audio input from AIW?
 

Returned ATI TV Wonder Elite card and purchased two other cards through Kijiji, Canada. I am now proud owner of an AIW 7500 AGP card and an AIW 9600 AGP card (both came in most of original packaging with all cables, software, manuals, etc). I will be following the guides on this site to set them up this weekend. Is one of these cards better than the other for capture?

Neither AIW card includes a cooling fan. Should I install some cooling for the cards if they are to be used for video transfer only?

I have a couple of Asus AMD notherboards with AGP slots to put the cards in, and also a couple of old (late '90's) Soundblaster Live! cards. Is it worth putting these in the systems to use as sound input, or just plug into the AIW purple box?

These 2 threads seem the most useful:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...ach-santa.html

Post #2 sums it up succinctly and applies to both of your AGP cards. The rest of the thread applies to PCIe cards which are a different animal.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...ti-wonder.html

This one includes images of the first two connection methods described in the first thread I've linked.

Basically, by the first two methods, the analog audio is just looped through the AIW to the sound card so connecting directly to the sound card works just as well, maybe better (fewer connections???). The downside is that it is a bit more convenient to use only the purple AIW block for both video and audio, especially if you are changing playback devices.

BW

Thanks a lot. I had not found these two posts, this should save me a few hours of trial and error. Just got my Soundblaster card working and will try transfer from my camera, hopefully, tomorrow - assuming that SWMBO* doesn't have a bunch more stuff for me to take care of first.

(*She Who Must Be Obeyed)

I forgot to comment on the question on cooling fans.

If your 9600 looks like this it should not need a fan and never had one.

Your 7500 should look like this and also does not need a fan and also never had one.

There are other AIW 9600 versions that did come with fans. You can find them by scrolling down at either of those links.

Capturing video will not stress the GPU much at all. The Rage Theater chips are doing the work and will get warm but I've never read where anyone recommended adding a heat sink or anything. Just do what you can to provide good airflow through the case and leave the slot open next to the video card and you should be fine.

BW