Life | Archive | Muffin Man
It's been a long time. I have no idea how long it has been, but for so long I have always wanted an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon (AIW). I heard about them making a PCI version and the main reason I wanted a PCI version was because maybe in a few years or months or something (who knows, maybe I could win the lottery) I might get a GeForce 4 or something. So I was just planning ahead.
I ordered it on the 7th of March and it got here on the 12th. I got 2nd day air. I was in a hurry.
One of the main reasons I needed a new video card was I needed to run games faster. That's a nice little reason. And with that reason I could have gotten just any old video card like a GeForce 2 or 3. But with the AIW, there is something more. Something special about it. It's just all those neat features. "What features, Stinkythe1?" Well, I'll tell you.
Radeon
Everyone needs good graphics. And so do I. The AIW has 32MB of SD RAM. It's not the best, but it is pretty good. Now on to the special stuff!
TV Tuner
What's America's favorite pastime? Football? Eating? Maybe... But I think one of the biggies is watching TV. Sure I have several TV's in my home. But why not just watch TV on your computer? Another thing is, I don't have TiVo. But with the AIW I can record shows and stuff on my computer and stuff.
There is another thing that is purple and it has S-Video in, Video, left and right audio in. You can hook up your video camera or VCR up to it and edit video. That is my new toy. Editing video is so cool! I love it! Now I am able to bring you new things. Including streaming video! I may open up a new section dedicated to video.
TV Out
What's really neat is hooking up your computer to the TV. Ever see QVC or HSN show off computers? And whenever they show you something on the screen it looks kinda different than it does on your regular monitor? Well, that's what it looks like when you hook you computer up to the TV. My default resolution is 1024 x 768. When I hooked it up to the TV, you had to move the mouse to the edge of the screen so it would scroll the screen. But when you change the resolution to 800 x 600, everything seems to fit. Watching cut scenes looks like you are watching console cut scenes. It's pretty neat having your desktop on a 27" TV.
The Software
The AIW came with plenty of software. The basic software you need to watch TV and stuff, but it also came with some more. It came with Ulead Video Studio 5.0, Merlin VR, and Mediator 6. I have only installed Video Studio. I have tried Adobe Premiere, but when I used Ulead Video Studio, it was so simple. I was able to figure out most of its features in only a few hours. I think Merlin VR is some kind of 3D modeling tool. And I think Mediator 6 is some kind of video post editing thing. This is what they say it is: "A post video editing utility that let's you create various things like e-greetings, product catalogues, slideshows, photo albums and fancy self executing videos."
Troubles
When I installed it, I uninstalled the old video card drivers, (Nvidia Detonator XP drivers... good stuff) and installed the new ones. Things seemed normal. But when I would capture some video, the bottom half of the video would be green. I emailed ATI and asked them what was going on. (Still haven't gotten a reply). Since I only had about 3GB left on my HD, I decided to reformat my HD.
It's always nice to get a fresh start. Things were running smoothly. Until I tried to install Starcraft. During the installation, the screen turned black, and it would never come back. Same thing happened with the Half-Life installation. And when I would be copying files or something, the screen would freeze. This is a very very bad thing. I tried uninstalling the drivers, updating to the latest drivers, but still nothing would fix it. While there were no drivers installed, (good ole 16 color display!) I was able to install Starcraft. But Half-Life insisted to have a 256 color display to install. Oddly enough, I successfully installed Diablo II with no black screen. I suppose the reason I didn't notice this before I reformatted my HD was because everything was installed before. I emailed ATI once more (still with no reply yet). Hopefully, they can fix my troubled video card.
A positive thing came out of reformatting. 1) More space. 2) The green stuff on the bottom of the captured video went away. Now it's working properly. Besides those black screens.
I hope it's not defective. I really don't want to have to send it back. Sure I'll get a new one. But I'll have to wait a long time to get it back, (maybe even a few weeks!) So... who knows. Cross your fingers and pray that ATI can fix my problem.
