ASUS V9280 Ti4200-8x "Super Fast"
Outputs to external devices
The video card features two outputs to monitors, one for the D-Sub15 and one DVI. As was mentioned earlier, the card comes bundled with an adapter with which you can plug in a regular analogous monitor to the DVI-out. It is impossible to plug in two DVI panels simultaneously though, and this is a minus for a card of such class. During the tests there was nothing to complain about the 2D quality, it was high enough up to the highest resolutions no matter which output is used. The card supports image output onto two monitors simultaneously using the nView technology, and instead of the second monitor an output to the TV set can be used.
The implementation of the TV in/out merits a special mention. In this, Asus applied a new smart technological solution which along with the ease of use offers no quality losses in connection. To achieve that, Asus simply improved the standard splitter cable recommended for use by Nvidia itself in the reference design. So, what has been done?
As is seen from the photo, all the four sockets are placed in a separate plastic block plugged in to the card via a pretty long cable (a bit longer than 1 meter). The card is also bundled with a double-sided sticker with which you can fasten the block in a whatever place as you like and thus facilitate access to the sockets. As is easy to notice, inputs and outputs are brought to the block.
Video-In and TV-Out
The video In/Out on the card is implemented with the Philips7108AE chip typical for cards of this type. Although the driver support is not perfect, this chip is quite good, has its own pros and cons. Among the cons is that the system automatically detects any device plugged to the video-out without rebooting the PC. That is, as soon as you plug in a device you can output image to it via the tab 'nView' in the monitor properties that becomes enabled. The TV-Out supports resolutions up to 1024x768 and what is above it is brought into the mode of virtual scroll display. As for the output quality, this remained on the same level as before. The color blends on the TV look unnatural, but we didn't notice any visible interference like snow and stripes. There was also no image instability as a result of voltage drops found.
As for the TV-in, let me point out some details. This first relates to nVidia's driver itself. Wasn't it possible to drive decent proper drivers where selection of the TV standard (PAL,SECAM,NTSC) for Composite and S-Video is in the driver properties? To switch to a TV standard, you've got to practice a witchcraft ritual singing out taboo songs before the computer.
At first, as soon as the operating system installs the driver and detects all the four devices (yes, there has got to be four of them, not one), you should reboot the system. Then install the bundled software Asus Digital VCR that comes on the CD and follow tuning via the Wizard. You don't have to lean over backwards - it won't remember anything at first try. Then run the program and highlight 3 channels in the channels settings.
Don't mind the errors that might come up in the process. After that reboot the PC and re-start the Wizard. Define the regional settings in it to 'Russia (SECAM D/K)' upon which an error message window pops up, but don't mind it either. Tune the brightness (no use, it will reset anyway)... Select NEXT and there you are - you see that the pre-highlighted channels have activated. Now start the program and in its setup window define the parameters shown on the screenshot below. That's it. Got it.. now you have three buttons to switch between the TV standards, so enjoy the video cassette in PAL as well as all other channels available to your video cassette recorder. Then, to save the video capture settings, you've got to press the 'Apply' button, otherwise all your settings will get lost and re-set to defaults.
I can say this software suite was written with as crooked hands as one did ever see, but anyway there is a silver lining in the cloud. The fidelity and, what is most important, the recording quality are simply fantastic to make the BT878 turn green of envy because it offers a variety of de-interlacing modes (when switching it on, the frame does not interlace). On a Pentium4 2.8 GHz, we managed to record a file on the disk in 5 minutes and get the 25 fps under the 10 Mbps data flow, at the 720x576 dots. The quality is pretty high which allows digitizing any favorite movie, converting it into MPEG4 and writing it on a CD. But keep in mind that if you decide to repeat the experiment, the file length under my parameters was increasing by 1.5 MB every second, i.e. 15 GB of the hard disk space which would be as long as 166 minutes recording time. Of course, in this process the performances of both the CPU and the disk subsystem are critical.
The card also comes bundled with the Asus VideoSecurity utility which merits a special consideration. With Asus VideoSecurity you can turn your PC into a surveillance system. The idea behind the program is this. If you have a statically fitted video camera focused at a certain object which either no one or a limited circle of people should approach, then connecting the camera to the video-input of the graphics accelerator you get a static image of the object being guarded. Then, starting the program you define the scan range and the sensitivity level. Now any motion within the scan range will make the PC roar immensely (sounds like a security alarm system in a bank) and the picture of the intruder object will be taken instantly, with the time record registered into a log file. The program allows smooth variation of the illumination levels. For example, you target the camera at your car parked overnight outside the house and enable the program in the monitoring mode. So, if the intruder approaches your car you will be immediately notified of that, and the bad guy instantly photographed at the moment of committing the harassment, then a record of date/time of the crime will be added to the log file. If you come up to the monitor when the alarm snaps you will see the spot through which the perimeter was broken highlighted as a blinking red square; but if the intrudes keeps moving, the red square will precisely follow him - the way it is in hardcore action movies :). But the system has a minor flaw typical of all systems without AI - with this going on you might end up compiling an extensive database of all the neighboring cats, dogs and other pets around regarded by the system as intruders.
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