June 8, 1998 by Brandon Miquel SRP: $269.99 Micro Conversions, Inc. Pros: add another monitor to your mac, 4 MB of VRAM ($20 more than 2 MB version) Cons: mediocre 2D/3D accelleration, inadequate A/V capabilities      Video cards are a relatively new concept for most Mac owners, who have relied on their built in video for years. But with the increased demand for higher resolutions, more colors, faster video, and greater multimedia capabilities, more and more users are turning to third party solutions to ease their graphic gripes. MicroConversions, a dedicated Mac company since 1985, aims to fill the aforementioned void with its all-in-one Video Wizard line of cards.     The Video Wizard features five ports: a standard DB-15 Mac monitor connector, S-Video/Composite Video Output, 75 ohm TV/cable input, composite video input, and S-video input; which is to say virtually every kind of port a Mac user looking at multimedia could want. Installation of the card is a little bit more complicated than popping it into a PCI slot. First, MicroConversions recommends placing it in the lowest ID PCI slot (which is marked on the motherboard) because of the priority given to video in that slot. Although placing it in any other slot shouldn't cause any problems, when it was placed in the top slot of a PowerCenter the cooling fan for the case shutdown. Because the Mac lacks a dedicated sound card, the Video Wizard shares the CD's audio connector, with a splitter at the end so you can still plug your CD's audio cable in. 6400 and 6500 owners follow a similar procedure, except that the cable connects to the Direct Audio/Video slot. However, the cable contains no markings and lacks a spacer that prevents you from plugging it in backwards, so it was impossible to tell whether it was installed correctly or not. Our cable also was faulty, constantly slipping out of the connector, although MicroConversions replaced the cable free of charge and the replacement functioned fine.     On the acceleration side, the Video Wizard features a 128-bit accelerator and the 4 MB version (which costs a mere $20 more than its 2 MB counterpart) provides support for resolutions of up to 1280x1024, and color depths of up to 24-bit. But there wasn't a noticeable speed difference. On the Performa 6400 screen redraws appeared to be slightly faster while on the PowerCenter they were slower than the built-in video, despite the fact that both systems use virtually identical, standard built-in video controllers. In real world tests, using four different and intensive Photoshop tasks on large images, times were on par with those of the built in video. However, MacBench processor and FPU scores showed a moderate increase, thanks to not having to handle as much of the video, with both going up roughly 14%.     The TV Tuner portion of the Video Wizard is very disappointing. With a direct cable input (no box) the reception was poor and image quality left much to be desired. In contrast, Apple's dated TV Tuner card (which uses a PDS slot) provided much clearer reception through a PowerMac 6100 and virtually perfect image quality. With a cable box hooked up to the card reception was perfect and image quality flawless, but having to set up (and pay for) a cable box negates one of the primary benefits of watching TV on your Mac.     The TV Tuner software allows you to view video either at full screen, jeopardizing your Mac's other functions, or in a window, the latter obviously producing lower frame rates. In full screen mode, 30 FPS (comparable to the frame rate of a TV) was easily achieved although the image was only sharp when set to 640x480. The next version of the software, expected soon, will fix this higher resolution glitch. When viewed within a window, acceptable frame rates were only attainted when the window was set at 320x240 or 160x120, which is fine for anyone simply wanting to watch TV in the corner of their screen while they work. Fortunately, the sound is not disrupted during any video lags. The main functions of the TV are controlled via a virtual remote control, and the software also allows you to record TV or video to your HD, but since it uses the uncompressed .mov format, each second of video can range from taking up 1-6 MB depending on quality options, which rules out recording the last episode of Seinfeld.     On the video capture side, a direct VCR hookup produced similar results as the direct TV cable, although image quality was a bit more adequate. Unlike the cable box, though, no piece of hardware can act as a buffer between the VCR and the card which means you must put up with the sufficient, albeit hardly production quality video that the card produces. On the other hand, movie playback from the hard drive was flawless in terms of FPS, regardless of how big the window was scaled.     For many people with a limited number of PCI slots or a tight budget a TV Tuner/Video Accelerator combination is necessary. Unfortunately, the Video Wizard doesn't quite live up to being the all all-in one solution it claims to be. If you simply want to add a second monitor, increase your resolution and colors, or speed up video playback, the Video Wizard will fill that niche, although its multimedia capabilities will leave you wondering where your money went. ©1998 The Review