video/audio card recommendations

[Kaecha]

getting a new system built for me and was wondering about video cards and audio cards for working with video. Anyone know of any to avoid, if you can't recommend certain brands here.

I am going with 2 gb ram, 2 hard-drives, one for storing and capturing to and the other to run the programs.

any other recommendations of what I should get or avoid?

kaecha

[reboot]

What capture card/device are you using?

[Kaecha]

I'm not sure what card I am currently using, I believe it's a radeon something or other. I am keeping the old system so I can still work on my other stuff while I am producing videos and burning dvd's on the new system.

I want to get new technology on the new system as I can afford. (My old system is from the last century -- eeek!) I've gone surfing to reseach video cards and it's like too much information already, so I thought I'd come here and query everyone about what they prefer.

[reboot]

Preference is a matter of usage. If you're a gamer, then you're going to need a lot more than Grandma who only does email.
Are you going to purchase a new capture card as well?
You could go 3 or 4 ways here. There are TIVO cards, there are the ATI semi-hardware capture/video cards, and there are separate video and capture cards.

[tigerman8u]

If you're building a new system and need a video card I would look at the ATI AIW. I use the AIW 9000 pro and this does good captures for me. It has video out and video in plus other features.

[reboot]

Yes, that's a good card, however, if you want to upgrade your video in the future, you lose the capture ability. Better to get separate cards IMHO.

[anonymez]

get a digital hdtv tuner card. as far as i know, they do not come built-in on any video cards,

for video cards, if you are a gamer, go for nvidia 6800 or ati x800. i'd go for the ati. this is assuming you have the cash for it

[Kaecha]

won't be for gaming, just for making videos. I've been doing videos for local clubs and groups, you know, the grad class, the skating club, etc.

Haven't given up my day job or anything like that, but I know I need better hardware.

[reboot]

won't be for gaming, just for making videos

Any old Radeon 7000, or GeForce MX will do. You don't need to spend a bunch on a video card, simply for editing videos.
You should save money there, and purchase a good capture card, preferrably one with hardware mpeg-2 encoding. It will give you sufficient quality (better than some), and the luxury of NOT having to re-encode all your captures to mpeg-2 for authoring and burning. A hardware encoding card will also work on ancient hardware, because it doesn't rely on your CPU to do anything. You only need a hard drive capable of the capture data rate, and any 7200rpm 2 meg buffer drive will work, as a separate drive, just for capture. I see you've already got that covered

[ormonde]

To elaborate on "reboot's" synopsis of hardware recommendations for capturing, If you don't have an extra PCI slot available in your PC, you can also use an "External" device (preferably with either USB II or Firewire capability) but also with mpeg-2 "Hardware" encoding. These devices install in a snap - just plug it in and Windows (2000 and higher) will do the rest. Adaptec and Pinnacle are two good examples that manufacture these types of capture devices.

[reboot]

Please! Don't go USB 2.0 In many cases it's data transfer rate isn't sufficient to capture Full D1, even with a hardware encoder in the device.
Get firewire (Canopus ADVC-100 or similar) or a hardware PCI card (Hauppauge PVR250/350/500).
The advantage of a card, is the TV tuner, which a TBC type device doesn't have. You would have to hook up a VCR to get tuner capabilities.

[ormonde]

Firewire is more stable than USB II I agree. I have an Adaptec VideOh! AVC 220 and it has both firewire and USB II capability.