NVIDIA GeForce FX Personal Cinema Roundup - Asus, Chaintech, eVGA, and MSI
by Andrew Ku on December 23, 2003 10:48 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
NVIDIA Personal Cinema Software — Outsourced
NVIDIA isn't developing their software in-house, instead NVIDIA choosing to license InterVideo's WinDVR 2, Ulead's VideoStudio 6 SE DVD and MovieFactory 2 SE. Past generations of Personal Cinema cards have been subject to InterVideo's WinDVD for playback, which has since been discarded in favor of NVIDIA's in-house NVDVD. Playback isn't nearly as important as digital VCR software, and therefore, we will put more weight on the latter.NVIDIA's choice in digital VCR software (InterVideo's WinDVR 2.0) has remained unchanged, as expected, since this seems to be the most popular third party title of its variety. This software title is decently expensive (once costing $99 from their website), when it was once listed. Because it's not custom-designed by NVIDIA, WinDVR actually has no features specifically for the Personal Cinema, other than the software module that is used to support NVRemote. The reason for outsourcing their software like this is because it saves NVIDIA a considerable amount of time and money that would otherwise be spent in development of their own software package from scratch, and we all know how NVIDIA likes to be quick with the product introductions.
By nature, we would expect that as WinDVR gets better with upgrades, NVIDIA's Personal Cinema will as well. The only problem with this is that with upgrades, NVIDIA needs to renew their license with InterVideo. NVIDIA hasn't done so with the current version of WinDVR, now at its 3.0 version. Because nothing has changed in the digital VCR software, rereading our April 2002 coverage of Personal Cinema will provide all the necessary information for this department.
Our main complaint with this software title has to do with how it is extremely dependent on access to the internet to work. Until the web based EPG (TitanTV) is initiated, the field for the channel name (to the right of the channel number) will read something like ANT (antenna) or CBL (cable) plus the channel number. If you don't have constant internet access, you're going to run into a lot of issues with scheduled recordings because the web based EPG directs WinDVR to schedule recordings.
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The other two software titles added are from Ulead: VideoStudio 6 SE DVD and MovieFactory 2 SE DVD ($99.95 for Version 7 and $49.95 for MovieFactory 2 from their website). ATI stopped bundling Ulead's VideoStudio with their All-in-Wonder cards at its 5.0 version, instead opting for an easier-to-use Pinnacle Studio 8. VideoStudio is included simply to provide the ability to capture, edit, and compress from a video/audio in source. MovieFactory is mainly bundled with all Personal Cinemas to back up the claim for direct to DVD burning, which is a bit complicated and takes some time to get comfortable with.br>
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Webgod - Sunday, January 11, 2004 - link
Where's the review? Where's the comparison of screenshots of live TV with both the Personal Cinema and ATI AIW cards? How does it compare to your TV set side by side? How do the ATI AIW's compare to the Personal Cinema cards with PVR functions, etc.? Go more in depth, this is Anandtech.bschuler2004 - Monday, December 29, 2003 - link
Nvidia sure does make some crappy AIW imitators! I thought they'd be worse than ATI, but not THIS bad. It's shocking to say the least. I'd rather have an original AIW rage IIC card then one of these garbage cards.How on earth do they honestly intend to sell this junk with a straight face? It's laughable.
jruff - Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - link
PC CLub recommened the nVidia card which is what I built for my mothers computer. Going over tomorrow t o run thru the software. For my wife's machine I just bought a AIW 9600 Pro that I will be installing tomorrow. Shhhh, its a christmas present ;)I couldnt find much on the nVidia when I put her new system together I was just going on what PC Club said. Ill get a chance to use both here in the next week putting together the 6 Digital 8 tapes I have managed to make in the last year of my sons life (birthday jan 8, 1 year)
We will se how it goes and which makes the easiest final product.
Stay tuned :)
LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - link
Interesting, but I do get a little tired of bundling all of these products with the video card. I want to keep a TV tuner/PVR for the long haul, and every time graphics technology changes, buying a new all-in-one card would break my budget. That, and the fact that NVidia only offers these features on their low-end cards means I'd rather choose one of ATI's solutions, despite some issues with their software. The All-in-Wonder line now spans from the entry-level AIW 7500 and 9000 on up to the top. ATI has a much better tiered structure, and also has standalone tuner/capture cards (TV Wonder Pro).morcegovermelho - Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - link
Good review. Very good info on breakout box, remote control, and Dual Display Support.Maybe should be included in the review some info about video-capture.
What capture format? MPEG2? AVI? Other format?
If capture is mpeg2, what resolution? what bitrate? Is it DVD-compliant?
If capture is avi, what is the codec? Can it be uncompressed? Can we use DivX? It's a proprietary codec?
How about dropped frames?
Audio capture - 44khz or 48Khz? Uncompressed, mp2 or ac3 ?
sandorski - Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - link
I just kinda skimmed the article, but I saw enough to support my conclusion(I think ;) ): Nvidia has a long road to catch up to ATI in regards to Multimedia/Multifunction vidcards. It's not just in technology though, but also reputation.It wasn't too long ago when Multifunction was all ATI had, they certainly weren't selling their cards for Gaming Performance reasons. No serious Gamer would even consider them.
OTOH Nvidia and 3DFX were engaged in a bitter battle for the Gaming Performance crown. We all know how that turned out ( :( ).
Nvidia won the Crown and all seemed good....until ATI released the Radeon 9700 Pro. That one card turned the video card world on its' ear and NVidia has been trying to catch up since.
ATI's time relying on and perfecting their AIW and lesser MultiMedia functioning cards had allowed them to focus on Gaming Performance. They acheived that and the Marketplace is begining to turn on to the whole Multimedia/Multifunction idea in a big way.
Nvidia has a long road ahead and seems to be trying to desperately catch up on a number of fronts. Hopefully they can for Competitions sake, but ATI is turning into a Juggernaut.