DON'T Buy For Video Capture
Written: Oct 01 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Minus the "Deluxe" an otherwise good card
Cons: No audio capture, poor video software, SVHS output doesn't work
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| charliewb's Full Review: Asus AGP-7700 |
I recently purchased the ASUS 7700 Deluxe video card with a new PC. I wanted the ASUS 7700 for two reasons: (1) Diablo II; and (2) I needed the video capture features that comes with the Deluxe version of the card.
The bottom line is that the ASUS 7700 is a magnificent video card for playing Diablo II. The game plays great and other reviewers have already detailed the card's many great features. HOWEVER, the video capture addition in the Deluxe version simply does not work. DON'T BUY THIS CARD for the video capture features.
I am not new to video capture. I take a lot of home movies and the computer is the best way to make the results look professional and enjoyable for viewer. I capture the video to the computer, edit it and add effects, titling, etc, and publish the results to VHS or SVHS tape. I cannot afford the high end equipment, and until I bought my new computer had been getting along with a 400Mhz system with an ATI All-In-Wonder Pro card as my video capture card. The ATI card worked just fine. It did everything expected of it, but I was not really satisfied with the maximum 352x240 resolution it offered. The 7700 was going to fix that. My new system, in addition to the ASUS card, includes the ASUS K7V motherboard, an Athlon 700Mhz CPU, 256MB PC-133 RAM, and a 30GB UDMA/66 7200 rpm hard drive. For my new JVC digital camcorder I also added Pinnacle Systems DV Studio (a great DV capture card and editing program!), but I also needed the ASUS card for use with my older 8mm camcorder and the various VHS and SVHS VCRs I used. For mid-quality video processing I felt I was all set.
The ASUS card comes with composite (RCA jack) and SVHS video input and output. It also comes bundled with a variety of ASUS software as well as Ulead VideoStudio for recording and editing. The set up was not that difficult and I was quickly up an running. That is when the problems started.
Problem #1: The card supports a maximum of 704x480 capture resolution. Unfortunately, using the bundled Video Studio software, I was unable to achieve any better capture than the 352x240 I got with the ATI card. I also tried the ASUS Live Video software that was also included. It appeared to capture video at the max resolution, but the resulting file could not be played back by any software I had, including Live Video. After hours and days of experimentation and frustration, I stumbled over yet another program called ASUS Digital VCR that had been thrown in with no documentation. The ASUS web site refers to it as a beta version. Digital VCR would capture at 704x480. It was a very rudimentary program, with no bells and whistles, but once I got the video on the computer I figured I had other ways to edit it. I was not happy this was the best an expensive card like this could do, but I could live with it. During this time I searched the Internet for help and came up literally with nothing on the ASUS 7700 Deluxe that covered video capture. The company, ASUS, was totally unresponsive. I never talked to a single person or received a single email response to multiple requests for help on this problem or on any of the problems below.
Problem #2: Now that I had a work around for the video problem, I discovered that the captured files contained no audio, regardless of what resolution used and even when asking for simple mono sound. After more hours of experimentation I came to the conclusion that the card simply does not support capturing audio with the video. This problem alone eliminates any value this card may have had for video capture and editing. Since ASUS won't respond I cannot confirm this. I do know that the ATI card comes with instructions for setting up the audio capture. That setup does not work with the ASUS card and there is no documentation that came with the card or at the ASUS site that covers audio. There is nothing wrong with the sound card. Audio from a video source captures fine using MusicMatch audio capture software and the DV card captures audio just fine from the digital camera. ASUS is the problem.
Problem #3: If the above weren't enough, I also discovered that captured video output to an SVHS player comes out in black and white, not color. The same output via the composite output works fine. Go figure.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 325
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Epinions.com ID:
charliewb
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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