ATI AIW 7000 series vs. 9000 series capture cards?
 

I'm gonna build a dedicated capture PC with one of my old ATI AIW capture cards. I have 3 of them but haven't used them in a very long time so I can't quite remember which one is best.

I have two cards in the AIW 7000 series and a AIW 9000 (64 mb). I can't quite remember which cards in the 7000 series I have (if it's a 7000, 7200 or 7400), but I think the only difference between them is the internal graphic memory size (16, 32 or 64mb). I remember I had some serious problems with my 9000 card, probably related to Macrovision issues, but now I have the Datavideo TBC-1000 that probably will take care of those issues?

Anyway, I'm not quite sure if the 9000 card is the best one of my cards for my purpose. I'm interested in hearing other peoples thoughts on what's the main differences between the 7000 and 9000 series cards and what will fit my needs the most? :-)

PS: I'm mainly gonna use it for capturing PAL VHS tapes to AVI for heavy editing, color correction and noise reduction.

The cards are mostly identical.

The 7000 have the Rage Theatre (aka Theatre 100) chipset, while the 9000 has the Threate 200 chipset. The 200 is somewhat better, but not visually. It just offloaded more of the hardware compression to the card. Remember that ATI AIW is a hybrid software/hardware setup based on Ligos. That's one of the reasons the card was so excellent.

Some cards in the 9000 series had interference issues, mostly the 9600. But it was random.

There's no right answer here. Both are probably fine for what you need. My preference is to use a 9000 first, but it's honestly a preference based on nothing. My thought is that maybe the graphic RAM might matter if I do anything more advanced. (But I never really do.)

Your bigger worry is getting it to setup correctly. And then to setup and use VirtualDub and Avisynth.

Thank you very much, lordsmurf :-)

I've found out for sure now that one of my 7000 series cards is a AIW 7500 with 64MB graphic RAM. The other is probably a 7200 with 32MB. The 3rd is a Sapphire AIW 9000 Pro with 64MB. So it's in fact the same ammount of RAM on my 7500 and 9000. I think I'll follow your advice and try the 9000 first and see how that Works ;-)

I have downloaded the "180-V01084-100" ISO with MMC 8.8, but is it MMC 9.02 that is recommended for my cards?

Now, I have one last question. Does anyone know how it works using an external USB soundcard with the ATI AIW? I have a "Behringer U-Control UCA200" soundcard that I remember worked pretty well in WinXP. I think it's a more Professional soundcard with higher quality audio inputs than a regular SoundBlaster or internal soundcard. But maybe there will be a risk of delay and synch problems with a USB soundcard compared to internal soundcards?

Yes, ATI MMC 9.02 really is the bet MMC for all AGP cards. However, 8.8 can work fine for your needs. That was a good version too. All of 8.7 to 9.02 was essentially identical.

An external sound card is rarely a good idea. There tends to be lag from it. You are correct.

Thank you very much, lordsmurf :-)

Now I've built up my Capture PC and get it up and running... but have a strange problem that MMC doesn't repport dropped frames even though I've set it to show total frames.
But I create a New thread for that question ;-)

Once again, THANK YOU! :-)