ATI's TV WONDER ELITE (TV capture card)

[TheUltimateNewbie]

It's on newegg for 89 bucks and 3 dollars shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/app/view...tion=15-117-601&depa=1

Also, I tried one of those videos that the dude linked before my post and I can't get any video. Is there an mpeg 2 codec that I need to watch them?

 

[syyid]

TheUltimateNewbie: Yes you need an MPEG2 decoder - any dvd decoder installed should be able to provide this.
Chadder007: I'm new on the PVR setup too, looking to setup a myth box (have ordered a pvr150) and was thinking of switching to this if it was as good as the hype was, but looking at the video captures they seem very substandard, quite similar to the ones I currently get from my 3-4 yo ATI All In Wonder 128. Anyways not sure how objective I am but was expecting a bit better quality

 

[TekDemon]

Heh I was thinking this was a great price till I remembere I bought a decent stereo 20" flat tv for around this price too lol.

Of course, this is a lot more portable...and would let me watch TV on my new 2005FPW....hmm...

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: syyid
TheUltimateNewbie: Yes you need an MPEG2 decoder - any dvd decoder installed should be able to provide this.
Chadder007: I'm new on the PVR setup too, looking to setup a myth box (have ordered a pvr150) and was thinking of switching to this if it was as good as the hype was, but looking at the video captures they seem very substandard, quite similar to the ones I currently get from my 3-4 yo ATI All In Wonder 128. Anyways not sure how objective I am but was expecting a bit better quality

Yeah after watching them too. (note that it is a very very slow server) They do seem to look like the usual quality of video that you get from the other tuners too. Maybe they forgot to turn something on in the shipping drivers or something can be improved....maybe the user recorded at a low quality setting?
Maybe this is just another sucky product from ATI???

 

[fastcuda]

Well somebody that has a hap 150 card buy one and tell me which is better, I was ready to jump on the happauge 150 with remote and now I read this, confuzzled now. Any opinions welcome, I am planning on using to record off digital cable/satelite and transfer my VHS collection to dvds.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: Oceanus

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: ngvepforever2

Originally posted by: Gibson486
Features:

* Theater? 550 PRO core
* MPEG-2 video encode support
* MPEG Audio Encoder with sampling rates of up to 48khz
* Dolby Digital 2 channel encoding
* Programmable filters
* NTSC/PAL
* Motion adaptive 3D Comb Filtering
* FM Radio
* World-Wide Audio Decoder
* 16MB DDR memory controller

This will be far from the best analog quality.....

Get something that encodes in MJPEG.....

Wrong, the Theater 550 PRO chip has hardware mpeg 2 encoding and best of all it has got a 12-bit Video decoder. This is sure to be one of the best Tv Tuners yet. Probably even Better than my poor Hauppage 250MCE

meh....i know it's hardware encoding, but i doubt this will be the best analog quality, despite what the PR department at ATI says. It may be the best MPEG2 encoder for $85, but it surely wont be the best analog encoder for under $150. MPEG2 is great and all, but it is really only good as a final source because MPEG2 stinks for video editing. That said...it has great potential because of one reason....

Built-in digital audio capture

If they mean full hardware capture of audio, this could, as a package, run with the big boys. I can only think of one other video solution solution that is under $150 (when on sale) that has hardware audio capture. That in itself is a big leap for a solution that encodes in MPEG2. If this is as good as ATI claims (and if their video filters actually work), this would be able to comparable to any high end TV on the market. Seeing as how ATI beat out some of the best DVD players in the market years ago with their mpeg2 decoder and dvd playback, it seems very possible.

I appreciate your cautionary comments, but would prefer you give some specific alternatives (leaders). Thanks

Pinnacle makes great products, but in order to get a audio endocer on board, you have to buy the Studio AV/DV deluxe, which cost about $200. I am not sure, but I think their studio products may still use the zoran chipset for encoding MJPEG video. The chip has been around for about decade, but it is still widely used in the non consumer sector. One way around not spending $200 for this type of solution is to find an old matrox g400 TV (edit, found it). It's a video card that has the Zoran Chipset, with and audio encoder on board and it even had a TV tuner. This was a competing product to ATI's AIW series, but Matrox' never had a great presence in the consumer soho market, so they got out of it.

edit : Matrox also released the G450 eTV video card after the g400. It does MPEG2 video capture, but i am sure if it is hardware, hardware assisted, or completely software. I am also not sure if it has an onboard audio encoder. These Matrox solutions are only good if you are gonna use this as a primary video card, anyways, since they take up your agp slot.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: syyid
TheUltimateNewbie: Yes you need an MPEG2 decoder - any dvd decoder installed should be able to provide this.
Chadder007: I'm new on the PVR setup too, looking to setup a myth box (have ordered a pvr150) and was thinking of switching to this if it was as good as the hype was, but looking at the video captures they seem very substandard, quite similar to the ones I currently get from my 3-4 yo ATI All In Wonder 128. Anyways not sure how objective I am but was expecting a bit better quality

Yeah after watching them too. (note that it is a very very slow server) They do seem to look like the usual quality of video that you get from the other tuners too. Maybe they forgot to turn something on in the shipping drivers or something can be improved....maybe the user recorded at a low quality setting?
Maybe this is just another sucky product from ATI???

It's an $85 card, what did you expect? for realtime video watching, this thing should be great. For video editing, take my earlier advice ditch this and get something that captures in MJPEG.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: mcveigh

Originally posted by: Chadder007
Now if someone would release one with the SDTV quality signal capture of this one.....with DIVX hardware compression like the new Pinnacle tuner/capture card. ....We would have a winner.
Then again...do the HDTV cards capture a better SDTV quality too or are they just as good as the 10bit cards from everyone else when used to tune SD channels? Any digital signal tuners out, as in comcast digital cable tuner?

While I have nothing to back it up, I have heard over on AVS forums that the HD capture cards don't do as good of a job as a dedicated SDTV card.

maybe someone who has one can comment.

My MyHD HDTV tuner has a very poor analog tuner IQ and poor software support for analog (the DTV part is excellent however) The analog tuner on my HDTV Wonder is very good ~= to my AIW and eHome Wonder cards, but a PITA to get working in MCE (I use the hardware cards for SDTV anyway)

This new card has 12bit ADC like the eHome Wonder, but an improved comb filter, so it should be superior to any other prodct on the market.

ATI's eHome Wonder hardware card uses the same MPEG encoder as the hauppage PVR 150/1250/350 cards and is generally considered pretty similar in IQ for comparison.

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: syyid
Yeah what I thought but just wanted to make sure / was double checking with <i>sumrtym</i>

The ATI TV Wonder Elite has the RF remote. This one (Sapphire version) has their own non-ATI IR remote.

 

[number9]

yucky.... ati tv drivers

 

[syyid]

Originally posted by: Gibson486
It's an $85 card, what did you expect? for realtime video watching, this thing should be great. For video editing, take my earlier advice ditch this and get something that captures in MJPEG.

From the PR Releases and stuff expected it to be somewhat better then the other 30-85 dollar cards out there . From the video which may not be indicative of normal operation it didnt seem better. If true then this would be the same as a good deal on a Hauppauge 150 not a super hot deal on better technology .

Also sumrtym thanks for the heads up on it being IR

I've already ordered a Hauppauge 150 which I should get by Tuesday, will post a clip asap . (If anybody has some spare webspace i'll gmail it to you instead )

 

[zinkpig]

FYI ppl this is already supported in beyond TV with sage support soon to follow !
read more about this card in the discussion over at htpcnews
test clips on the last page !

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: syyid

Originally posted by: Gibson486
It's an $85 card, what did you expect? for realtime video watching, this thing should be great. For video editing, take my earlier advice ditch this and get something that captures in MJPEG.

From the PR Releases and stuff expected it to be somewhat better then the other 30-85 dollar cards out there . From the video which may not be indicative of normal operation it didnt seem better. If true then this would be the same as a good deal on a Hauppauge 150 not a super hot deal on better technology .

Also sumrtym thanks for the heads up on it being IR

I've already ordered a Hauppauge 150 which I should get by Tuesday, will post a clip asap . (If anybody has some spare webspace i'll gmail it to you instead )

Well, it's PR's job. One thing they did real well was really boosting up their motion capture hardware encoder, leading every one to belive encoding is done by hardware encoder and only the heardware encoder. A more accurate way to describe this is that the encode prcoess is done by hardware assist. That is it is done by the CPU, but the encoder assists it. This is why it is called MPEG-2 video encode **support**. I don't know the actual ratio of CPU to encode hardware. but i'd imagine 70-80% is done by the encoder, while the rest is done by the CPU. hence, it is not a true hardware encoder, as some would believe. ATI and nVidia and done this for ages with the dvd playback support. As for a TV turner, i really don't know how you could take an video and make it look better than it's input in real time. Their are a bunch of filters, but those can only do so much. All TV tuners claim to do this, but i have never seen one live up to it's claim.

 

[Glendor]

It's on backorder now

 

[Tab]

Wouldn't you think it would be backwards compatiable with SDTV(480i) and work with HDTV(720p, 1080i)

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: Tabb
Wouldn't you think it would be backwards compatiable with SDTV(480i) and work with HDTV(720p, 1080i)

No HDTV and SDTV are different animals, it's not like taking an input signal through s-video and recording it. you are actually TUNING channels

 

[satiger]

Mine shipped yesterday, will post the result as soon as I could make it work with my MCE 2005......

 

[MIDIman]

Originally posted by: satiger
Mine shipped yesterday, will post the result as soon as I could make it work with my MCE 2005......

If possible satiger - I think we would all like to see side-by-side comparisons. i.e., capturing the same footage somehow of both this card, and other cards currently on the market.

Nonetheless - can't wait to see if it makes even a subjective difference.

 

[satiger]

_____________________________________________________________________________________
If possible satiger - I think we would all like to see side-by-side comparisons. i.e., capturing the same footage somehow of both this card, and other cards currently on the market.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Unfortunately I don't have any other card to compare with it........

 

[hytek369]

wow

 

[Glendor]

New links:

ComputerHQ for 89.00

Allstarshop.com for 92

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: satiger

_____________________________________________________________________________________
If possible satiger - I think we would all like to see side-by-side comparisons. i.e., capturing the same footage somehow of both this card, and other cards currently on the market.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Unfortunately I don't have any other card to compare with it........

Surely someone else can come through for us....

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: mcveigh

Originally posted by: Chadder007
Now if someone would release one with the SDTV quality signal capture of this one.....with DIVX hardware compression like the new Pinnacle tuner/capture card. ....We would have a winner.
Then again...do the HDTV cards capture a better SDTV quality too or are they just as good as the 10bit cards from everyone else when used to tune SD channels? Any digital signal tuners out, as in comcast digital cable tuner?

While I have nothing to back it up, I have heard over on AVS forums that the HD capture cards don't do as good of a job as a dedicated SDTV card.

maybe someone who has one can comment.

My MyHD HDTV tuner has a very poor analog tuner IQ and poor software support for analog (the DTV part is excellent however) The analog tuner on my HDTV Wonder is very good ~= to my AIW and eHome Wonder cards, but a PITA to get working in MCE (I use the hardware cards for SDTV anyway)

This new card has 12bit ADC like the eHome Wonder, but an improved comb filter, so it should be superior to any other prodct on the market.

ATI's eHome Wonder hardware card uses the same MPEG encoder as the hauppage PVR 150/1250/350 cards and is generally considered pretty similar in IQ for comparison.

I don't want to go too OT here, but which HDTV card would you recommend overall? Analog quality is still important, since when I'm at school there seem to be only a few stations broadcasting digitally. Houston (huge market obviously) is ~80 miles away. However when I'm at home in San Antonio, I'm pretty sure every station there broadcasts in digital these days. So basically, I want a card that can do it all. How is the Dvico one compared to the ATI one? (And how is the software for the ATI one?)

Thanks in advance.

 

[imported_backlund]

I have one arriving tomorrow. I also own a HP 150MCE. Something's been wierd at our cable company lately, because we have the same channel on two different numbers. So, once I get it all set up, I'll set MCE to record both channels, and we should be able to compare the two.

 

[imported_backlund]

Also, I ordered mine from Zipzoomfly.com for $85 with FREE 2 day shipping. Unfortunately it's out of stock now. Here's the link, if anyone wants to keep watch of it to come back in stock.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...jsp?ProductCode=320832