ATI HDTV Wonder Remote Control Edition 149.99$ at Compusa

[Infernus]

I tried it out back when they had that $50 rebate, on my main rig (2300mhz Barton, 512mb of ram and a 128mb GeForce 4 ti4400) it wasn't getting higher then 20fps at 720P and only around 13fps with 1080I signals. My dad's 3400 A64, 1gb of ram, 128mb GeForce 6800 performed much better but still wasn't silky smooth like on his Haupauge or my ATI TV Wonder.

 

[BaNzaiDags]

so psxjunky or anyone else that can answer this

if i wanted to get this HDTV card for my HTPC, what other card should i get
my case is this
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=56-153-002&depa=0
so i have 1 agp slot and 1 pci
if i used the hd tuner card that would take my PCI slot and i would need a video card for agp slot (currently using AIW ati 9600xt) picture comes in somewhat clear but not as good as if i hooked up cable directly to the TV. so i someone said that i should get a
Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150/250.

then im out of slots? what would be best setup for what i have?
I do have onboard video "Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX" should support directX 9.x?

also have a adapter:
http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2537968
so i could convert VGA to component.

Please help!

 

[aceO07]

Originally posted by: Infernus
I tried it out back when they had that $50 rebate, on my main rig (2300mhz Barton, 512mb of ram and a 128mb GeForce 4 ti4400) it wasn't getting higher then 20fps at 720P and only around 13fps with 1080I signals. My dad's 3400 A64, 1gb of ram, 128mb GeForce 6800 performed much better but still wasn't silky smooth like on his Haupauge or my ATI TV Wonder.

That's interesting. How did you figure out the fps? I guess watching HDTV through my ATI AIW Radeon 32MB would be 2fps?

 

[the FooL]

How come I haven't heard of this low fps problem?
Is this only when outputting to TV or when actually watching it on the PC monitor?

If the framerate is this bad, maybe it isn't the card for me.

-- d

 

[kindest]

well if you download and watch a sample of hdtv from like
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window...ider/film/contentshowcase.aspx#drmnote

and it plays at like 3fps then why would you want a hdtv tuner for your pc.
if your pc is a piece of crap dont bother with this...
if you can handle hdtv samples and clips just fine then playback will be flawless on the tunre so long as your signal is strong.

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: BaNzaiDags
so psxjunky or anyone else that can answer this

if i wanted to get this HDTV card for my HTPC, what other card should i get
my case is this
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=56-153-002&depa=0
so i have 1 agp slot and 1 pci
if i used the hd tuner card that would take my PCI slot and i would need a video card for agp slot (currently using AIW ati 9600xt) picture comes in somewhat clear but not as good as if i hooked up cable directly to the TV. so i someone said that i should get a
Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150/250.

then im out of slots? what would be best setup for what i have?
I do have onboard video "Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX" should support directX 9.x?

also have a adapter:
http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2537968
so i could convert VGA to component.

Please help!

BaNzaiDags: If you want to use MCE 2005 with the ATI HDTV Wonder card, I unfortunately do NOT have good news for you ! MCE requires an SD card along with the HD card before the HS card will get recognized. For this you will need two PCI slots, so that case will not work.

You can try the hacked drivers that let you use the ATI HDTV Wonder without using an SD card, but I do not have any detailed information on that. Check out www.thegreenbutton.com forums (where I heard about the hacked drivers).

You do NOT want to use the on board video for HD ! The GF4 MX most likely do not have enough horsepower to decode HD streams. I'd continue to use the 9600xt.


[CORRECTION]
I forgot about the USB based hardware SD tuners ! So there is actually a way to get this working even if you have only one PCI slot. You still need an SD tuner that is hardware encoder based, but for that you can use the Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB2 for this; it is a hardware encoder based SD tuner, just as good as the Hauppauge 150/250 internal cards, and connects thru USB. This satisfies MCE's requirement of an SD tuner, and you can still hook up your analog cable to this (directly, or thru the cable box).

 

[aceO07]

Originally posted by: kindest
well if you download and watch a sample of hdtv from like
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window...ider/film/contentshowcase.aspx#drmnote

and it plays at like 3fps then why would you want a hdtv tuner for your pc.
if your pc is a piece of crap dont bother with this...
if you can handle hdtv samples and clips just fine then playback will be flawless on the tunre so long as your signal is strong.

Mine isn't a piece of crap... but it has a really old video card. It's doing 1600x1200 DVI now

What media player should I be using to view those videos? I'm using BSPlayer since that's one I usually use. MS Media player seems to be crashing on my today..

 

[kindest]

Originally posted by: aceO07

Originally posted by: kindest
well if you download and watch a sample of hdtv from like
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window...ider/film/contentshowcase.aspx#drmnote

and it plays at like 3fps then why would you want a hdtv tuner for your pc.
if your pc is a piece of crap dont bother with this...
if you can handle hdtv samples and clips just fine then playback will be flawless on the tunre so long as your signal is strong.

Mine isn't a piece of crap... but it has a really old video card. It's doing 1600x1200 DVI now

What media player should I be using to view those videos? I'm using BSPlayer since that's one I usually use. MS Media player seems to be crashing on my today..

heh.
not sure about bsplayer.

but i know media player 9, 10, media player classic, theatertek, and zoom player will all play the clips.

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: huesmann
I exchanged the card today and installed it, but when I try to run DTV from the launcher it shows the splash screen and then just goes to desktop. Analog TV works fine, although as psxjunky stated, the quality sucks compared to the Hauppauge cards.

Any idea why DTV won't run?

huesmann: Your DTV app is most likely failing to initialize properly. This was a problem with the earlier (than Nov 2004) ATI drivers and MMC ver < 9.03.

If you are not using the latest ATI drivers and apps, I'd very highly recommend using those. First uninstall ALL HDTV Wonder related drivers and apps completely, then download and install the 4 drivers/apps from here ... in the order they are listed.

Hope this helps !

 

[Infernus]

I am able to playback those WMP 9 HD files at full speed, maybe it was just my signal that sucked.

 

[kindest]

Originally posted by: Infernus
I am able to playback those WMP 9 HD files at full speed, maybe it was just my signal that sucked.

ya most likely or if your using the ATI playback utility.
ive heard its a piece of crap and lags and farts. etc..
but once the upgrade to MCE i heard playback is flawless
since your using the MS player and not ATI's crappy one.

 

[aceO07]

Originally posted by: Infernus
I am able to playback those WMP 9 HD files at full speed, maybe it was just my signal that sucked.

I can do 720p at full speed (24fps). 1080p at around 20fps instead of 24fps

 

[BaNzaiDags]

so does anyone know if the ati AIW 9600xt encoder is hardware based of is it software based like the HDTV?

so if your goign to set up a HTPC should a hardware based video capture card definatly be used?

 

[dbz007]

Originally posted by: BaNzaiDags
so does anyone know if the ati AIW 9600xt encoder is hardware based of is it software based like the HDTV?

so if your goign to set up a HTPC should a hardware based video capture card definatly be used?

The AIW is a software based analog tuner and not HDTV.
For HTPC use it is best to use a hardware based solution when possible. That way you don't take up too much of your cpu which can be use for post processing with different pvr apps.
Unforunately for MCE 2005 which is a very good front end imo, you will need a hardware analog tuner & a software hdtv tuner. The ATI HDTV wonder has a software analog tuner and therefore is not supported in MCE. That's why you will need a different analog tuner like a PVR150MCE when you first setup TV up in MCE. There are hacked divers from a fellow named kram that supposedly fools MCE into allowing analog and hdtv for the HDTV Wonder. I was never able to get it to work....
The card itself isn't too bad. It's just ATI rushing to the market again and delivering bad driver/software which has given the card a pretty reputation.

Good deal mr kindest u rich sob.

Hope I awnsered everybody's question.

 

[RedGSR]

Maybe I was drunk, but I had it working fine with my tbred 1700+ w/ a geforce 5600 ultra. So I don't know about the dx9 issue or whatever. I never did check fps or anything, but it seemed fluid to me. I still returned it though because I was only able to get 3 channels in my area reliably.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

Originally posted by: dbz007

Originally posted by: BaNzaiDags
so does anyone know if the ati AIW 9600xt encoder is hardware based of is it software based like the HDTV?

so if your goign to set up a HTPC should a hardware based video capture card definatly be used?

The AIW is a software based analog tuner and not HDTV.
For HTPC use it is best to use a hardware based solution when possible. That way you don't take up too much of your cpu which can be use for post processing with different pvr apps.
Unforunately for MCE 2005 which is a very good front end imo, you will need a hardware analog tuner & a software hdtv tuner. The ATI HDTV wonder has a software analog tuner and therefore is not supported in MCE. That's why you will need a different analog tuner like a PVR150MCE when you first setup TV up in MCE. There are hacked divers from a fellow named kram that supposedly fools MCE into allowing analog and hdtv for the HDTV Wonder. I was never able to get it to work....
The card itself isn't too bad. It's just ATI rushing to the market again and delivering bad driver/software which has given the card a pretty reputation.

Good deal mr kindest u rich sob.

Hope I awnsered everybody's question.

So I need something like an all in wonder Tv tuner card plus the HD card to run in MCE5?

Btw, does this card allow you to plug your exhisting basic cable in as well or is it all just over the air HD?

 

[huesmann]

Zeppelin, the card has two coax connectors--one for digital (HD) TV and another for regular (SD) cable TV (or antenna). You may not be very happy with the SD signals though...you'd be much happier with a hardware-based SD card, which this is not. The Hauppauge cards are really nice...too bad they don't have a HD solution.

Originally posted by: psxjunky
huesmann: Your DTV app is most likely failing to initialize properly. This was a problem with the earlier (than Nov 2004) ATI drivers and MMC ver < 9.03.

If you are not using the latest ATI drivers and apps, I'd very highly recommend using those. First uninstall ALL HDTV Wonder related drivers and apps completely, then download and install the 4 drivers/apps from here ... in the order they are listed.

Hope this helps !

Hmm...weird. Thing is, I did use the files from that page. I even renumbered them as I downloaded them. I did have to insert the ATI CD that came with the card at one point...I guess the installation wanted to check it for something. Maybe I'll try again. Think moving it to a different slot might help?

What's the best way to remove all the drivers and apps?

 

[dbz007]

Originally posted by: Zeppelin2282

Originally posted by: dbz007

Originally posted by: BaNzaiDags
so does anyone know if the ati AIW 9600xt encoder is hardware based of is it software based like the HDTV?

so if your goign to set up a HTPC should a hardware based video capture card definatly be used?

The AIW is a software based analog tuner and not HDTV.
For HTPC use it is best to use a hardware based solution when possible. That way you don't take up too much of your cpu which can be use for post processing with different pvr apps.
Unforunately for MCE 2005 which is a very good front end imo, you will need a hardware analog tuner & a software hdtv tuner. The ATI HDTV wonder has a software analog tuner and therefore is not supported in MCE. That's why you will need a different analog tuner like a PVR150MCE when you first setup TV up in MCE. There are hacked divers from a fellow named kram that supposedly fools MCE into allowing analog and hdtv for the HDTV Wonder. I was never able to get it to work....
The card itself isn't too bad. It's just ATI rushing to the market again and delivering bad driver/software which has given the card a pretty reputation.

Good deal mr kindest u rich sob.

Hope I awnsered everybody's question.

So I need something like an all in wonder Tv tuner card plus the HD card to run in MCE5?

Btw, does this card allow you to plug your exhisting basic cable in as well or is it all just over the air HD?

The AIW will not work in MCE2k5 easily. There are hacked drivers to get MCE to work though but it's a hit or miss type thing. You'll need a hardware based analog tuner like the hauppauge pvr150mce.

Technically, the card does have an analog tuner so it has the ability for you to plug in your basic cable. But it will not work in MCE(w/out hacked drivers).
If you're just using plain ole XP and ATI's MMC then you will be able to use the analog cable tuner as well as the ota hdtv. I've heard the new MMC 9.04 has worked out a lot of the bugs for people. I haven't had time to test it out yet.

 

[tji]

These ATI cards are good, if you want to use MCE or view as a small window on your desktop. They rely on software MPEG decoding and display, so they integrate well into PC applications. But, the system requirements for smooth playback are pretty high, and running other apps in the background can effect the quality of playback.

The MyHD MDP-130 cards use a chip to do all the decoding and display, so you can do HDTV with a PII 300MHz system. Overall, I have found the MyHD cards to be much better than any of the software based cards.. With software decode, you are too susceptible to driver glitches, system interruptions, etc.

Also, to correct some mis-information earlier:

- The MyHD cards DO support time shifting now, with the latest software release you can pause live TV and catch up to real time. A future release will let you watch a recorded program while recording a live program. But, that's not available today.
- Digital TV is broadcast as an MPEG2 stream, so hardware encoders are not needed.. it just saves the MPEG2 to disk, with almost no overhead. If you want to record analog channels, you would have to encode the SD video, but that should be okay even on the CPU.
- The MyHD card supports QAM reception, for cable HDTV. The ATI card does not. Off-The-Air is free, so use that if you can. But, if you're unlucky and don't get good reception at your location, cable may be the only solution.
- With the ATI card, you need to get your video card to display in HDTV standard formats for output to an HDTV. This can be a pain in the ass sometimes. The MyHD outputs directly, in HD standard formats, as well as other common resolutions. (If you're just displaying on a PC monitor, this is not a big deal because you don't need to use HD formats).

 

[kindest]

Originally posted by: tji
The MyHD outputs directly, in HD standard formats, as well as other common resolutions. (If you're just displaying on a PC monitor, this is not a big deal because you don't need to use HD formats).

another thing to know is that in order to do that with a MyHD you need the dvi daughter card which will set you back another 70 bucks on top of the 240 you will throw down for the card.

 

[ttown]

OK... I'm gaining some amount of confidence that the HDTV Wonder will work with non-dx9 cards.

My particular scenario is: I want this to run next to my AIW 8500 in a AMD 1800+ machine.
Anyone know if I'll be able to watch a live HD broadcast on my normal tv via the tv-out from the AIw8500, while simultaneously recording a different non-hd broadcast?
Would I be able to hook the OTA HD antenna into the HDTV Wonder and also a normal coax-in into my AIW8500 -- since I have 2 capture cards?
Or is that asking way too much out of my machine/video-cards?

 

[huesmann]

Originally posted by: ttown
Would I be able to hook the OTA HD antenna into the HDTV Wonder and also a normal coax-in into my AIW8500 -- since I have 2 capture cards?

That should work. Not sure about the other question.

 

[huesmann]

I reinstalled the ATI s/w and now it works, but the picture stutters on the few channels I get, although the audio is fine. Is that just a case of a sh!tty signal and I should get a better antenna than the one that comes with it?

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: huesmann
I reinstalled the ATI s/w and now it works, but the picture stutters on the few channels I get, although the audio is fine. Is that just a case of a sh!tty signal and I should get a better antenna than the one that comes with it?

It could be your signal strength, or it could be that your video card doesn't have enough power to decode HD streams.

How is your signal strength (as shown when ATI is scanning for channels) ? You need about 80% or higher signal strength to be able to playback stutter free.

What video card are you using ? What's your CPU ?

 

[huesmann]

The machine it's on is an Athlon XP2200+ with a gig of RAM. Unfortunately, the vid card is a little long in the tooth at this point--a GF Ti4200. I'm cloning on a 21" CRT on VGA and a 42" plasma on DVI.

Some of the channels are a little weak, but the CBS one I get at 4 out of 5 bars (others are 1-3 bars) and it stutters. I may need a better antenna, or to put it in the PC upstairs. The one it's in right now is in the bottom floor, which is half underground. Upstairs machine is a 2600+ with a R9700p. I'd really like to be able to use the downstairs machine, as it's next to the plasma.

Also, does MMC have timed recording functionality?

Edit: Is there anywhere I can download some HD video clips to test out the capabilities of the vid card?