JonathanM's Personal Cinema review

[ragejg]

I dug it.

Honest balanced explanation of features, with no un-necessary bashing of the MX440 core...

His take on the supplied software makes me itch *kinda* for this product... I say *kinda* cuz I have an 8500AIW-DV for my HTPC... and I'm real satisfied that I can have really nice, smooth DX8 gfx @ 8x6, 2xAA ON A 27" TV (brag :rolleyes::D) on the newest games... OC'ed decently, IMO it still qualifies as a beefy card...

That fact hurts the Personal Cinema, sadly... in that it's starting to lose steam eye-candy-wise more than ever lately... the GF4mx's, GF2ti's, Ultra & GTS's, and even the FX5200 get big'ol framerate hits in graphically intensive situations... yes, I know, I say this like I 'm oblivious of futuremark... I am... ... IT IS about gameplay)...

But dang...

It's like:

-Easier software but more dated gfx capability ... for less $

or

-Harder software but better gfx ... for more $

a difficult fork in the road for any htpc owner... as I empathise with those not caring about dx8 effects, who play unreal tourney and CS (and get full enjoyment out of their purchase), as they really don't have to have the extra HP...

If I'm wrong on the ease of use on the software, please LMK. I'm thinking nvidia was smart to compensate with their shortcomings by including a very competitive software package...

Good review JonathanM. Made me think a lot. ;)

[ricercar]

One thing that wasn't explicit was whether the Personal Cinema TV tuner recorded audio in stereo or mono. I returned a (MSI TV@nywhere) TV card last year because it recorded TV audio only in mono, among other reasons.

Do the Personal Cinema cards record tv audio in stereo?
ATI AIW?
Hauppage?
LeadTek?

[HexiumVII]

how is 3rd party support for the card? I'm still using a ATI TV Tuner PCI and it has some weird ass issues. I really liked how ShowShifter can record straight to DiVX Pro but the GUI sucked and the software cost more the the cards. I'm currently using the tuner with a dual monitor Geforce2MX. I'm thinking this would be a nice upgrade, but need real time DiVX encoding.

[JonathanM]

Yeah, I believe the PC can record in stereo. I know both speakers on my second system were producing sound when I was listening to the video feeds I had recorded. However, I will double check to ensure the sound channels are in fact separate.

I haven't tested third party support for the card outside the programs included with the bundle. But from the way the software that's bundled with it recognized NVIDIA's WDM drivers, I wouldn't think there'd be a problem with "other" software packages. I'm downloading the demo version of ShowShifter and I'll let you know how it goes once I have a chance to test it.

[JonathanM]

Just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about you guys... I'm busy balancing two jobs & studying right, now. I'll get to ASAP.

[JonathanM]

Originally posted by ricercar
Do the Personal Cinema cards record tv audio in stereo?
ATI AIW?
Hauppage?
LeadTek?


Yep, it records in stereo. :D