Reason :

1. VERY Sensitive EXPOSURE detection My handycam shooting source, if there is a change on exposure wheh shooting - which cause video footage become dark then bright or vise-versa DAMN ATI AIW128 will detect it as MACROVISION and I unable to capture MY OWN HANDYCAM SHOOTING !

2. Can not recieve NTSC 4.43 or NTSC Playback My VCR is PAL based system but I've no problem watching NTSC tapes on my PAL TV, since the player support NTSC playback on PAL TV or NTSC 4.43 But this DAMN ATI never recognize the signal properly. If I set the source as PAL in MMC setup, then the video has color but jerky crazily and if I choose NTSC source in MMC setup then the video has no color and interlaced.

3. Upgrading to a newer version, is really pain in the ass. We should do CLEAN INSTALL thoroughly.

4. And I bet, there are 1 million and one other problems out there concerning ATI Products.

PLEASE READER, THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO BUY A VIDEO CARD, ESPECIALLY ON ATI PRODUCTS.

Thank you, Reko.

-- Rekotomo (reko@centrin.net.id), June 08, 2002

Answers

I have bought ATI once and come across the problems u mentioned but there is nothing new there. For example most know, from carefully reading the box among others, that there are separate models of the same capture/VGA card for NTSC and for PAL/SECAM capture. While it is possible to include multi-system analogue capture (like Matrox Marvel) that may make it more expensive. So with the problem about oversensitive Macrovision detection. On analogue video Macrovision is placed on about four lines within the vertical-blanking (VBI) group of lines and consists of three to five pulses that vary from blacker- than-black to whiter-than-white potentially upsetting the AGC of a VCR trying to record the same. But conventional VHS is already a potentially unstable video source and noise and spikes in the VBI area MAY be interpreted as Macrovision pulses especially in cases with old, dirty tapes on old, unstable, dirty VCRs when trying to capture. This is why in addition to this, Macrovision on the video outs of DVD players also consists of a digital code on one of VBI lines. While I do not want to buy ATI for these same reasons there are other areas u should still consider whatever analogue capture situation u plan 2 get into. Among others u should invest in a top-of- the-line S-VHS-ET VCR, with TBC if possible, and use only the highest- grade tapes u can afford.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), June 08, 2002.