How important is having Vivo on a video card/what's useful?

[lowesox]

I'm going to be buying a new graphics card and can get one with Vivo for $20 more than a card by the same company and with the same specs without it. I've never done any transfering of video from a camcorder to my computer because I've never been able to before, and likewise I've never tried hooking the computer up to the TV and watching what I'm doing on there. Also, my girlfriend's going into film-making and the new computer I'm getting might be handy for her to work with. Would I need Vivo for her to transfer video onto it?

All in all, how important is having Vivo on a video card and what else can I do with it?

 

[cleeve]

1. Vivo is only useful if you want to watch TELEVISION or attach a DVD/VCR and playback or capture on to your computer.

2. Digital Video, and editing it, is separate; if you have a DV video camera, you will be using a firewire port anyway, and you don't need anything other than software to edit video. So VIVO would be useless.



With a DVD burner, VIVO is useless for video editing to DVD. Unless you need an analog input/output, you have no need for it...

 

[pkquat]

FYI many newer video cards are VO (Video out) so they support HD resolutions and some include composite, S-Video, and component out.

It all depend on what you really want to do in the end. There are other methods to get video on to the PC.

Most newer camcorders with a firewire output transfer directly to the PC without VIVO. Many of these camcorders also allow you to connect a VCR etc to the camcorder and pass the video through them to the PC via the firewire.

If you get a TV tuner card, most support some type of Video In. If you want higher quality video in there are a range of higher end Video In converters from companies like Canopus.

Most VIVO, TV tuners, and cheaper Video In cards use the conextant (sp) chip if I remember correctly. There are two mass produced chips for video conversion, with contextant being the most common. Their quality is rated as good, but the results can range from good to poor depending on how they are incorporated. ATI also makes some video conversion chips and boards that are considered good as well. Some people have complained that they don't play nice with nVidia video cards.

One big benefit to a VIVO card can be the included software. It might include some PVR or editing software. Even if it is an older version, it might meet your needs or save you money to upgrade to the latest version (compared to the cost to add VIVO or another card) vs. buying the software out right.

If you think VIVO will be important, read some reviews on the card and find out what Video In chipset it uses, and read some reviews on that.

 

[RichPLS]

In vivo is Latin for in or with the living. In vivo is used to indicate the presence of a whole/living organism.

or Video In/Video Out... :roll:

ATI's new cards support AVIVO which is AdVanced Imaging and VideO...
AVIVO is integrated into ATI’s high end products and features PVR, HDTV, and next gen HD disc capabilities producing enhanced vibrant sharp images with smoother playback than most other technologies. Also it supports universal professional quality connectivity for TV’s and other displays making it very flexible and more compatible.
AVIVO supports a 10-bit per color display engine and analog capture of 12-bit analog-to-digital converter.
AVIVO also handles the processing for HD video playback freeing your CPU, including hardware post processing H.264 insuring smooth stutter free fluid motion viewing with HD content.

 

[sojrner]

agreed, other than the copy/paste from ati's site you are right. AVIVO is the best if you want to do anything w/ video.

you do not need any vivo to get the video to your comp. but w/ the x1x00 cards from ati you have much better color/video quality for any editing and you get a format compressor that works w/ the gpu to compress video into most formats that works just crazy-fast! Much faster than anything else out there.