3dfx Voodoo3 3500 TV

Video Input

The 3 RCA and 1 S-Video output ports are complemented by 3 RCA and another S-Video input ports that start to give meaning to the 3500 TV name. The inputs allow for still frame and full motion video capture from your TV/VCR/DVD/Camcorder or any other device with either RCA or S-Video output.

VisualReality also gives you the option of freezing a particular frame of video, and even capturing the still picture to your hard drive. Once again, these two features aren't revolutionary, but they are nice to include as they are things neither your TV, VCR, nor DVD player will do. While it's doubtful that there are many gamers out there losing sleep over not having the ability to capture stills from their TVs or VCRs, it is a cool feature to have, although not worth the $250 price tag by a long shot.

While the Video Output of the 3500 was excellent, the same can't be said about its input. What you first need to understand is 3dfx is targeting the 3500 TV at gamers, not at home video enthusiasts, however they are providing the hard core gamers with something they've honestly never been given before, high performance and video in. Matrox and ATI have been, in the past, the only offerings for users that wanted video input as well as the ability to play games. Unfortunately neither Matrox or ATI (G400 excluded which still hasn’t found its way into the mass retail market) have been able to release a hard core gaming solution with video capture features. 3dfx attempted to succeed where those two failed with the 3500 TV, and from an informal interview we conducted with 3dfx behind closed doors at this year's E3 we gathered the same. Were they successful?

3dfx accomplished what they set out to do, but between the Matrox Marvel G200, the ATI All in Wonder 128, and the Voodoo3 3500 TV, the 3500 TV has by far the worst capture quality of the three. Capturing still shots directly from a DVD player using an S-Video cable resulted in the below two screen captures from Bad Boys.

As you can see, the quality isn't the best in the world, the reasoning behind it is the 320 x 240 resolution limitation of the captures.  The thumbnails look fine, but click on them to view the captures at 640 x 480 and you'll see where the 320 x 240 resolution limitation can be a problem.

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