8500AIW now or 9700AIW later?

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I have home videos on VHS and sony 8mm tapes in analog. I'm going to be capturing these, making digital formats out of them, and leave them raw on CD-R's until dvd writers come out cheap enough. I currently have a P4 1.7ghz, 80 gig space, and 578 mb ram. My video card is an ati radeon with 64 mb which has no video in. I was looking at the 8500 and the 9700's articles at this site and the thing that got my attention was the 9700's ability to filter in real time. Since these videos are on a tape and analog, they will have lost some quality over the years. What I want to understand is that if there is way to filter like that from the 8500AIW so my digital copies come out a little more clear. I'm not worried about processing time since I can just leave it on for a weekend or two batch processing all these.

Since I like to buy from stores locally, incase I need to return the item, Bestbuy is selling the 8500DV AIW 64mb for $200 and the 9700 AIW 128mb for $450. I know the R350 is in production and in a month or two, hopefully it will be selling. I am willing to wait if the 9700 AIW can make its way down under the $250 price mark.

Would these filtering have anything to do with the drivers making the 8500 capable of it too?

My dad said that at the end of this semester, depending on the grades he'd get me the 8500 AIW, for some reason hes ready to get it now but I still wanted to know when the 9700 AIW is coming down in price. My grades are looking good so far (thank god!) and I think if the 9700AIW can come down to around $250 or lower, my the end of my semester, he'll get it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[BeauJangles]

I don't think you will see the 9700AIW for under $250 within the next few months. The 8500AIW has only in the past four or five months slid below 250, and its been out for a while.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Is there any alternative? What I really want is performance of atleast the 8500 and the filtering of the 9700. I've checked out the sapphire 9700AIW since they manufacture ATI's cards, but there isn't any dealer of that sort in my area. I live in the Indianapolis, Indiana area.

 

[tart666]

For analog capture why don't you look at hardware capture / encoder devices: dazzle or adaptec.

Easy and realtime (1:1) MPEG2 capture. They can be had for ~$130. With the remaining $120 get an 8500 for gaming.

Edit: if you are really bent on 8500 AIW, get it now: $150 (AR) at CrapUSA this week for the 128MB version.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

That seems good, but I still want to know about the filtering, or am I missing something said?

I want to capture these, make them into a digital format, and sharpen the movie up a bit, restore it a little, pretty much the filtering I've seen done by the 9700AIW. If I get the 8500AIWDV, could you guide me as to how I should get it filtered? I'm more concerened about the filtering right now rather than gaming.

 

[tart666]

I don't know what you think 9700 can do, but AFAIK it only applies filtering for display purposes. It will not help you process your files.

You will have to apply all restoration filters in software (virtual dub, premiere, etc) Again, unless you get a $1000 video editing card, you will not get any hardware acceleration here.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Ok, thanks a lot, I that really helps me decide now.

 

[xylem]

Check out these, as they give some information as to the components and capabilities of the AIW 9700 Pro. If I remember correctly, the 9700 version has some hardware upgrades that distinguish it from the 8500 and a few prior AIW versions, so it certainly may be worth waiting until you can fit it into your budget.




AT Preview

AT Review

 

[HikkiFan]

just use programs such as tmpegenc to encode the movies ... and apply filter to it... hope that helped