Well, I'm glad to see that "somebody" else other than me is getting good results with an ATI capture card.
FWIW, with my Win2K system I can do the "limit" (15 Mb/s full D1 Frames) without dropping any. And yes, I'm NOT using the ATI dropped frames counter but actually testing with a special source that allows me to see "duplicated" frames while examining them frame by frame. (I say that cuz I know someone will pop in here and tell me the ATI doesn't report dropped frames) <big grin>
I have a question. Why the "Hydravision" install? I believe that is ONLY for use with "dual head" ATI boards where you have a dual monitor setup. I would imagine it "might" add some overhead to the system. I've never used it or installed it myself. I could be wrong about it being specifically for dual monitor use, as it's been a while since I even looked at the ATI site. But if I'm correct, and you only have one monitor, then I'd get rid of it.
FWIW, I've found (after installing several dozen of these ATI AIW systems) that if you have a decent separate physical hard drive for capture, and some kind of processor running at least 1.5 gHz, and you keep the HD defragmented you can do at least 7-8 Mb/s full 740x480 mpeg-2 with VBR video.