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Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 11:12:21 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: Re: PVR
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Mike Marino <[e-mail]> sent this message:
>Does anyone currently have a Pentium machine with a PVR card (with video
>capture option)?
>I am having a hecka-of-a time trying to find a system that this board
>will fit in.

I bought by PVR-2500 and AD-2500 (The capture card) first, and went from there.

I'm using a 133Mhz Micron Millenia Plus system from Micron.  This
Triton-based system with sync cache and EDO ram runs NT at full speed (No
cache disable or any of that junk.)  In a mid-tower case the top four slots
of the system are PCI, and the bottom four are ISA.  The middle two PCI
slots are mid-length because of the CPU fan, but the top and bottom are
full length.  The bottom PCI slot shares some IRQ lines with the top ISA
slot, so you can't use these slots simultaneously.  Fortunately, when you
place the PVR/AD combo in the bottom PCI slot, the only other slot that
gets covered is the unusable ISA slot -- Perfect!  So, with the PVR/AD
combo in place, I still have 3 PCI slots free - one for my video card, one
for my SCSI-II card, and a full-length one for my Perception audio card (if
it in fact is full length?  I haven't seen it yet.)  I also have 3 ISA
slots available, one for my SoundBlaster, one for my second SCSI controller
(for the CD-ROM burner...)and one for ??? Ethernet I guess, later.

I've been 100% satisfied with my purchase from Micron.  They seem to be
committed to bringing out the fastest products possible, with a level of
quality that I've never before experienced in a PC hardware vendor.  (When
was the last time you bought a brand-new technology product from someone
and had it work perfectly from day one?)  I've never had to do a BIOS
upgrade, never had to set jumpers, and never had to call them for tech
support.  They shipped 3 days after I ordered, and this when the 133 was
still "brand-new." It just works, and fast...  My only problem ever with
any of the system's components was the well-handled PVR PCI bus-timing
thing.  (Very early PVR cards had some PCI chips that didn't like certain
bus frequencies.) Again, this situation was handled quickly and painlessly
by DPS.

If I've learned one thing from this latest PC buying experience, it's
this...  It's not always cheaper to buy the cheapest product that claims to
do the job.  There where plenty of slightly ($50-500) cheaper computer
systems available, but the newsgroups are stuffed with folks complaining
about how various pieces don't work.  I'm glad I chose a "larger" company
who know what they're selling and can deliver what they promise.  There are
plenty of cheaper Motion-JPEG cards available, but none of them seem to
have the level of support and quality that I've come to expect from DPS.
The "savings" you get by buying something at the bottom end of the spectrum
quickly turn into headaches and lost revenue.

IMHO - YMMV - I don't work for any of these guys.

ObLightwave...  Does anyone know whether there are plans for a "render
plug-in" for the Perception.  Having to save the frame as Targa and load it
into the Peception software for every little test is a pain.  Add to this
the fact that the Perception software seems to eventually run out of
"alternate" file names for the stills I load in.  Try this... turn on targa
RGB saving, render frame, import into Perception.  Wow!  Nice still!
Hmmm... let's make the crust texture a little smaller.  Re-render, same
frame, same filename.  Re-import.  Try this four or five times.  Unless you
load the Perception file-manager and delete the stills each time (or at
least every third or fourth time), you'll eventually lock the Perception
recorder thing.  No real problem, just adds another step to the test render
process.

 - Chris Ludwig
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