Video card recommendations

Rednroll wrote on 4/11/2003, 5:10 PM

I tried posting this one in the VV forum, thought this might be more of a Video topic, but got no responses.

I'm looking to make a video card upgrade for my PC. I'm more of a Vegas Audio user, so having the biggest and best for doing professional video work is not my concern.

Here's what I'm looking for:

1. Dual Monitor Support (flat pannel)
2. Analog Video Output
3. Analog Video Input
4. 4X AGP
5. Minimum 64Meg DDR memory
6. $100-$200 price range
7. I like ATI brand, but am open to any.

Ideally I'm looking to set Vegas up with dual 17in flat panel monitors for my audio editing needs. I also like to play around with personal editing of video, so I'ld like to be able to transfer video via analog ports to and from a video cam or VCR and also connect that video out to an external TV, because sometimes I do TV commercial audio post work, and would like to send the video signal to the client on a seperate TV. So I'll have to assume, I'm basically looking for a card that will support 3 video outputs (ie dual monitors and analog video out).

Any recommendations?
Thanks,
red

Comments

kilroy wrote on 4/11/2003, 8:07 PM

Matrox have sound and proven dual head cards and they have versions that add a TV out. One you may find suits your needs in the G450 eTV. A wee bit more cash than you were thinking, but it comes with Ulead VideoStudio 4.0 and Photo Explorer 6.0, The Matrox soft DVD player etc.

I can certainly vouch for the image quality these cards serve up. Very good colour depth and extremely crisp text and graphics. If you are into games This card will not be on the top of the heap performance wise. Image quality is where these cards rock, and if anything Matrox have always seemed to play to the business end of the market.

cosmo wrote on 4/12/2003, 1:25 AM

i use an ati radeon 9700..2 monitors and tv-out. probably more than you wanna spend but the performance is flawless.

wolf_recordings wrote on 4/12/2003, 2:21 AM

Cosmo, are you running in ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) mode? I've had a few problems with my GeForce Ti 4400 128 MB (quick video scrolling can cause recording glitches). Yet normal operation is flawless. I'm wondering if everything sitting on IRQ 9 has been the problem...???

Studio_de_Lara wrote on 4/20/2003, 4:39 PM

I am using a Matrox G550 DVI card. I run to 19" Samsung Syncmaster LCD. The Matrox card has a digital cable option to run to two monitors. Total cost, about $200. I bought direct from Matrox.
Very nice card. I upgraded from a G450 (dual analog ports) which is in my other machine. The only reason I upgraded was to have dual DVI output.
Regards,
Rich
ps. I run in Standard Computer configuration, no ACPI.

Rednroll wrote on 4/21/2003, 8:50 AM

Thanks Everyone for the recommendations, this helps quite a bit to try and narrow down my options. I originally went to ATI's website and got tired of digging through everything to find something that I hoped would be pretty simple. I think ATI needs to put up some kind of matrix that has a comparison of all their products, so I don't have to spend so much time reading all the great features a card has, just to find out it doesn't support dual monitors.

Thanks again,
red