Noob in need of ATI AIW buying advice (AIW 128 Pro).
 

Hi everybody!

Having finished my project to capture all my various formats of 8mm tapes, my next project is to work my way through my family's VHS tapes. I'm in the UK, so the tapes are PAL but it'd be neat to be able to cap NTSC at some point. After some initial research, it seams that the ATI All-In-Wonder cards come highly recommended. I've been searching for models listed in the following thread (quoted below) and I've found a few but I'm not sure whether the prices are decent or which model I should go for given the balance of project complexity vs capture quality.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post13441


Here's a list, and partial quote from the above link, of the cards I have found for sale in the UK. The prices seam decent to me but each card has it's pros and cons. I was wondering whether someone would be so kind as to give me some guidance as to which card is the best option.

Pros:

• Both cards a from before the market shifted toward more-PVR focused cards and therefore, (from what I understand) should be better suited to capturing video from VHS.
• The prices are acceptable, ranging from low £30s, to mid £70s depending on location and included accessories.

Cons:

• Both cards are AGP, meaning they wouldn't work with modern hardware.
• This not really a major con but... the 800XL is cheaper.

I do have an old PC up in the loft that has an AGPx8 slot but I'm not sure whether it's in working condition. But having to buy a vintage PC is not really a downer for me as vintage computing is an area of interest to me. The problem would be that if I were to buy an AGP card now, I wouldn't be able to test if it's in working condition for weeks or even months.


Pros:

• It's PCIe and I have numerous PCIe era computers laying around. I could test the card the day it's delivered.
• The cheapest option I've found.

Cons:

• It's from after the golden era of AIWs, when features were stripped away and the cards were more geared toward PVR functionality.