ATI HDTV Wonder Remote Control Edition 149.99$ at Compusa

[kindest]

I was going to buy one of these today to watch the superbowl and happend to search compusas website and saw it. its 199.99 everywhere else.
I priced matched at Frys (concord, ca).

ATI just released some new drivers for windows XP and some people are claiming success.

edit just releazied i didnt have a link to it.. duh
HDTV Wonder Remote Control Edition

 

[cw42]

this pretty much compusa's normal price on these.

 

[ttown]

any word on if it has the dreaded "broadcast flag" implemented yet?

There's a July 1 deadline for mfg's to incorporate it, and I'm hoping mfg's are waiting till the last minute.
I haven't been able to find any authoritative word on if this ati card has it or not

edit: nevermind... straight from ATI:
Information regarding Broadcast Flag legislation ? According to FCC?s Broadcast Flag Order (MB Docket 02-230) adopted November 4, 2003, Digital TV receiver products (like the HDTV WONDER) built on and after July 1, 2005 are required to protect certain digital TV broadcasts. The legislation does not affect HDTV receiver products manufactured before July 1, 2005 (or sold any time after). As such, the HDTV WONDER will continue to function exactly in the same manner it does today past the July 1, 2005 legislation date.

 

[kindest]

Originally posted by: cw42
this pretty much compusa's normal price on these.

i beg to differ ive been watching the price on these and been checking compusa/frys/bestbuy regulary the last couple weeks.

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: kindest

Originally posted by: cw42
this pretty much compusa's normal price on these.

i beg to differ ive been watching the price on these and been checking compusa/frys/bestbuy regulary the last couple weeks.

I concur. Compusa's price a week ago was $199 on the shelf.
$150 seems very warm, especially since it has a remote and hdtv antenna included

...I'm having trouble deciding between this ATI HDTV-wonder, myhd-120 and hd-3000
Can anyone compare? Or have "inside information" on any of them?

 

[kindest]

Originally posted by: ttown

Originally posted by: kindest

Originally posted by: cw42
this pretty much compusa's normal price on these.

i beg to differ ive been watching the price on these and been checking compusa/frys/bestbuy regulary the last couple weeks.

I concur. Compusa's price a week ago was $199 on the shelf.
$150 seems very warm, especially since it has a remote and hdtv antenna included

...I'm having trouble deciding between this ATI HDTV-wonder, myhd-120 and hd-3000
Can anyone compare? Or have "inside information" on any of them?

heh i was in the same boat. i was leaning torwards the myhd120/130.
the 130 coming out real soon (249 bucks) and the 120 (230 bucks) are hardware based where as the ati is software. the new myhd130 is basically the same as the 120 but it has QAM support (which is unencrypted hd channels thru cable). what did it for me was the fact that i picked up the ati for 100 dollars less as well as ati is a better known company and will work great with MCE along with a analog card.

the hd-3000 i dont know anything about.

 

[VaG]

Originally posted by: cw42
this pretty much compusa's normal price on these.

Incorrect. The price was $199 at CompUSA yesterday and I have not seen it at this price without a rebate since Dec. 5 when I posted it.

 

[kindest]

anyone know where i can score a decent size antenna that i can use to mount on a roof.

 

[Autumnmist]

I'm looking for some advice on these... I want to purchase a card before the July 5 flag gets implemented. I'm not looking for something uber-fancy, just a card that will 1) work 2) give me decent enough performance 3) work with Windows (I'm not looking to do a MythTV or personal PVR type thing yet).

I've considered the ATI but all of these cards are damn expensive for a college student's budget.

 

[batorok]

Kindest: This is one of the better UHF (HDTV usually is on the higher UHF frequencies) antennas. Mounting gear can be found at Lowe's. Check antennaweb.org to see if you need an antenna this powerful. I've read elsewhere that the ATI HD card really likes a strong signal, so if you're far from the transmitters like me, you might need something like this, and maybe even an amp.

Autumnmist: The only budget cards out there are the ATI or the Fusion III right now. Neither one gets raves as far as the software - ATI initially had driver issues (don't know if they're better yet or not), Fusions drivers are ok but the software crashes (from what I've read, not personal experience). I'm sure ATI will eventually get the drivers right. If you're on a college budget, why not get an analog card? It won't look as good as HD, but if you're watching on a computer monitor rather than a big HDTV, it will look pretty good.

 

[gbrux]

You might check out antennaweb.org for finding out the kind of antenna that you may need and how to point it in the right direction.

You could negoitate a free roof antenna and installation when buying new or upgrade cable TV or satelite TV services. For instance, DirecTV has a Customer Retention sales department that often throws in such things during negotiations on upgrades to DirecTV HD statelite programming.

 

[Heinrich]

I'll say that the picture is fantastic, but the software is GOD AWFUL. I got one of these in about mid-December when CompUSA had a sale like this...not sure what to expect. Then I bought Windows MCE hoping for decent software, but discovered that MCE will NOT work without an analog tuner. This is a limitation of MCE and not a limitation of this board. Just something to keep in mind. To be clear, the ATI software works fine under MCE, but the MCE TV tuner/playback features do NOT work without an additional analog TV tuner. MCE also does not work with all analog tuners, on certain ones...

 

[Skelshy]

I don't know about the ATI applications, I don't have them installed. The card works fine in MCE 2005 & you only need to install the drivers.

the included antenna is sold as the "silver sensor" Amazon. Works very well if you have enough signal strength indoors.

 

[kindest]

Originally posted by: batorok
Kindest: This is one of the better UHF (HDTV usually is on the higher UHF frequencies) antennas. Mounting gear can be found at Lowe's. Check antennaweb.org to see if you need an antenna this powerful. I've read elsewhere that the ATI HD card really likes a strong signal, so if you're far from the transmitters like me, you might need something like this, and maybe even an amp.

awesome, that looks tight.

i see it doesnt come with coax cable but is there a coax port on it?
im looking to hook up 2 different boxes with one satelite. i guess i can use a splitter
to make it go to 2 places unless for some reason that wont work?

 

[kamranziadar]

thanx

 

[Autumnmist]

Originally posted by: batorok
Autumnmist: <snip> If you're on a college budget, why not get an analog card? It won't look as good as HD, but if you're watching on a computer monitor rather than a big HDTV, it will look pretty good.

Thanks for the advice. I want to get HDTV because even though I'm on a college budget, I'd rather get a card that's going to work and give decent quality AND beat the July 5 broadcast flag deadline (that's probably most important in my mind). I'll probably hope that ATI will get their drivers right eventually.

 

[Armoth]

I got this card a while back and had some problems initially, but once I installed MCE2005 it works flawlessly! I watched the SB last night in all it's HD glory! Plus, OTA digital TV is the best way to go as far as I'm concerned. The only other HD I would really like is ESPN HD, but IMHO it's not worth the money of any of the other HD alternatives. Lots of people whine about having to have an analog tuner to go with this in MCE, but if you don't already have a Hauppauge PVR250 you should get one anyway.

 

[Shinare]

Is there any HDTV cards out there that do PVR functionality such as hardware encoding? I would like to turn my Mini-ITX box into a HDTV PVR but with a via eden 1GHz it will laugh at anything relying on software encoding.

 

[psxjunky]

The ATI HDTV Wonder is a great card, but only when NOT used with ATI's own software. If you are considering this card, do yourself a favor and get MCE 2005 to go along with it. The MCE2005+ATI combination works wonderfully with the latest ATI drivers.

For the antenna, I support the above recommendation of the Channel Master CM4228. It is a great antenna and the price is one of the lowest for a high gain antenna like that. If you are very far from the HD transmission towers, consider getting the Channel Master CM7777 pre-amp to go along with this antenna.

I am using the ATI HDTV WONDER + MCE2005 + CM4228 + CM7777 combination for a few months now and coulnd't be happier

The MyHD 120 is supposed to be a very good card, but its software does not support full PVR functionality and they have no plans of doing so. So if doing Tivo like things are important to you, the ATI + MCE2005 is a much better option.

Finally, the OTA HD streams are already encoded to MPEG2 ... so having a hardware based card does NOT help in any way as far as the ENCODING is concerned. Where the hardware based cards (like MyHD) come in handy, is for DECODING and that too if you have a low power machine (sub 1-1.5GHz). If you have a decent machine (around 1.8-2.0GHz or more) and a decent video card that can decode in hardware (ATI 9000 or above, preferably 9600 and above) then having a hardware based HD tuner card does not matter that much.

Note that this is NOT true for SD. Since SD signal is analog, having a tuner card that has hardware ENCODING (like the Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150/250 cards) still outshines any software encoders based cards out there ... even with a very powerful machine.

But for recording OTA HD, as long as you have a decent machine with a decent video card, the ATI HDTV Wonder will work very well for you.

 

[ttown]

I've asked this question in video-forum as well... but maybe someone with HDTV-in --> svid-out to regular TV knows the answer:

If I combine this (or similar) HDTV capture card with a "regular" video-card w/svid-out, do the drivers (and/or software and/or 3rd party sw/drivers) downconvert an hdtv broadcast for viewing on a normal TV via a "normal" video card w/svid-out?
(I'm aware that current hdtv is simulcast for "regular" TV's)
I'm specifically curious about the HDTV capture card + "regular" video-card combination going forward -- past the day when hdtv replaces "normal" broadcast tv. I don't want to be forced to either buy an additional downconverter device, or be forced to buy a HD TV monitor.

I think buying a "downconverter" device defeats the purpose of buying a HD capture card. I want to watch HD on HD compatible devices and "downconverted" HD on non-hd compatible devices -- like my current TV. (Maintaining the "source" video in HD)

 

[L00PY]

I don't have the card (yet), but I suspect that since normal video-out down converts your desktop to "regular" TV, there's no reason why it wouldn't do the same for a HDTV image being displayed on your desktop. I know that with my cruddy TV capture card and onboard TV-OUT there was a slight audio-sync problem. YMMV.

 

[ttown]

OK... I'm really confused.... Can I use this thing to watch hdtv (ota) with my AIW 8500 --> regular TV or not? (I realize not "full hi-def").

Specs at ATI imply directx 9 is REQUIRED -- which the AIW 8500 does not support --, but THIS implies complete functionality between the HDTV Wonder and the AIW 8500 Radeon.

Can anyone say for sure?? This little trivia would be a deal-MAKER for me.

 

[durin]

kind of new to the OTA HD scene - is there any sites that have a listing of what is available in your area?

 

[psxjunky]

www.checkhd.com
www.titantv.com

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: ttown
OK... I'm really confused.... Can I use this thing to watch hdtv (ota) with my AIW 8500 --> regular TV or not? (I realize not "full hi-def").

Specs at ATI imply directx 9 is REQUIRED -- which the AIW 8500 does not support --, but THIS implies complete functionality between the HDTV Wonder and the AIW 8500 Radeon.

Can anyone say for sure?? This little trivia would be a deal-MAKER for me.

The ATI HDTV adapter that you have listed for the 8500 has nothing to do with the HDTV Wonder card. The adapter simply lets you hook up the 8500 to an HDTV display using the component input.

The HDTV Wonder card, on the other hand, needs a video card that can handle DirectX 9 natively. AIW 8500 is not one of those, so at least theoretically it wouldn't work ... however, several people have gotten non-DX9 cards (like the ATI 9000 and 9200) to work with the ATI HDTV Wonder ... so you may want to do some research to see if it will work for you.

There is a huge thread in AVSForum HTPC section about the HDTV Wonder. Check it out to see if anyone else has gotten the 8500 to work.