** HTPC Users ** Very Hot? Ati All in Wonder 2006 Edition - $152.94

[dfloyd]

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail...._id=EWB08351&adcampaign=email,EWB08351

Seems like an amazing deal to me, I know many decent PVR cards can go up to $100 or more. So you can get a very decent video card and the all in wonder capabilites as well.

Highlights:

TV/PVR on Your PC
Pause, rewind, replay, skip the commercials and record live TV
Enjoy the free interactive program guide and never miss your favorite shows again
Cinematic Game Play
Experience high speed action optimized for the hottest game titles
Video Editing on your PC
Easily add titles and dramatic effects to homemade productions
Connect a variety of video sources such as your camcorder, DVD player or VCR to your All-In-Wonder 2006 Edition and capture content digitally onto your computer
Total Multimedia Experience
Create and share multimedia content with friends and family
Add cool functionality to your PC

Free Software
Pinnacle Studio 9 ATI Version - $80 USD Value (MRSP as of 05/05)
ATI Bonus DVD - Over 40 hours of Free Game Play
Gemstar GUIDE Plus+? Interactive Programming Guide
Muvee AUTOPRODUCER - Create instant music videos from audio/video content
Special Offer
Get a free* Remote Wonder? Plus & 50% off an MCE Remote Control (see box for more details)

So is this a hot deal? Please post and let me know as it appears to be so to me but if its not I will edit and remove.

 

[my sons father]

AGP card - here's the rest of the specs:



Specifications
System Requirements
Intel® Pentium® 4 / Celeron?, AMD® Athlon® / Sempron or compatible
128MB of system memory (256MB or higher recommended)
AGP 8X/4X slot
Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
DVD playback requires DVD drive
Interactive Program guide requires Internet connection for listing updates
1GHz minimum processor speed for MPEG-2 video capture
3.0GHz or equivalent minimum CPU is recommended for software encoding requirements of Windows® Media Center

Graphics Technology
Radeon® 9600 Graphics processor unit (GPU)
What?s In the Box
All-In-Wonder® 9600 256MB Graphics Card
ATI Audio/Video Input Block
ATI Audio/Video output cable
Set-Up CD and instructions

What?s New:
Support for Windows® XP Media Center Edition
256MB RAM
Silent no-fan solution, great for your living room PC!
Operating Systems Support
Windows® XP (Home or Professional)
Windows® XP Media Center 2005 1

Memory Configuration
256MB of double data rate memory

Display Support
TWO VGA displays simultaneously or ONE VGA display connected with a TV or VCR
YPrPb output adapter (optional, available in North America only)
TV Tuner Requirements
TV signal from amplified antenna or cable. Version included for:
NTSC (North America, Japan, and Latin America*)
MulTView? requires additional supported ATI PCI TV Wonder? card, compatible motherboard and soundcard

*Features vary from country to country and depending on the television standard. Note that Latin American countries using the PAL M and PAL N standards including Argentina and Brazil are supported by the NTSC version.
Connectors
Dual VGA
Stereo audio, S-video, and composite video inputs and outputs
External stereo connections to sound card?s line input and output
Dolby® digital stereo audio output (S/PDIF)
YPrPb Output adapter (sold separately on ati.com)
Warranty
3 Year limited warranty
Display Modes

Resolutions, colors and maximum refresh rates (Hz) in 256, 65K or 16.7M colors

Monitor Resolution Hz
640x480 120
800x600 120
1024x768 120
1152x864 120
1280x1024 120
1600x1200 85
1920x1080 75
1920x1200 75
1920x1440 75
2048x1536 60


MAXIMUM 3D RESOLUTIONS
65K colors 2048x1536
16.7M colors 2048x1536

CPU
Processor Radeon 9600
Interface type AGP
RAM
RAM Standard 256MB
RAM Type SDRAM
Display
Video, maximum resolution 2048 x 1536
@refresh rate 60Hz
OS type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Manufacturer Information
Parts Warranty 3 years
Labor Warranty 3 years

 

[marvdmartian]

For what's basically an AIW 9600pro card, I'd have to say it's a decent value. I've got a 9600pro AIW card in my htpc (tho I think it's 128mb, versus this card's 256mb), and it's a solid, dependable card. Got it a couple years ago, and think I paid ~175 for it at the time.

If you're wanting more performance out of an AIW card, there's a couple vendors advertising a 9800pro/xt AIW card for ~$200 on pricewatch. The lowest price on pricewatch for the 2006 version card (like you've linked to) is $171, so this is ~$20 price break.

I'd recommend this card for those wanting a good video capture/video card. The software they include is pretty decent for simple video editing, tho the Guide Plus software isn't always the best, imho (can you believe they don't know that my cable company provides the WB channel???).

 

[vladgur]

for an htpc users this is a meh card for tv encoding and overpriced card for tv output. There are hardware-encoding cards out there for half the price of this one and faster performing 3-d accelerating cards ,again, for half the price of this one.

Hauppage PVR-150MCE for $69 at Amazon
And there was recently a Nvidia 6600gt for $99AR at Newegg.com which is ages ahead of ATI 9600

 

[DesiDivo]

This card does NOT have hardware MPEG encoding. If you are using MCE, this will use up a lot of CPU time. You need to make sure it works well with your system. ATI 550 cards are much better for MCE encoding then this one.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: DesiDivo
This card does NOT have hardware MPEG encoding. If you are using MCE, this will use up a lot of CPU time. You need to make sure it works well with your system. ATI 550 cards are much better for MCE encoding then this one.

Good point, it basically depends on what CPU you have in your system. If its an HTPC with a AMD 64 3000+ it should be fine. If its one of those embedded 500mhz ones, it probably wont be fine Lots of times for reasons of heat and fan noise and cost, people choose to go with a lower speed CPU. Although nowadays you can get an AMD64 pretty inexpensivly and the lower speed ones run pretty cool. Especially with the autoadjusting of mhz on the fly. My amd 64 3000+ almost never cranks up the fan speed from the Q-fan option, and it typically sits at 1.0 ghz at a lower voltage when idling then cranks up to 1.8 ghz and the normal voltage when doing work. I love that feature.

 

[mikeford]

The big issue to me is that lack of a "cable digital" tuner, as my cable system has more than half the programming I like now only on digital channels. Its very much a some of this and some of that issue.

Cable DVR is $9.95 a month, 2x analog and 2x digital tuners any two can be used at same time, 160 GB drive, HD, and fairly easy to use, in a nice low power box.

Ati HTPC $150 buys the card with Gemstar free for a long time, 1x analog tuner, my system wasn't too happy playing back while I recorded, software was fairly buggy actually, in a knunkleheaded type way, minor stuff would send it for a total tailspin. Gemstar was pretty nice for schedules, but need manual tending. No restrictions on anything recorded.

Since getting the SA 8300HD cable DVR I haven't used the HTPC, but expect to spend some time getting updates etc and giving it another chance soon since the 160 GB fills up fast on the DVR and Time Warner hasn't enabled any of the hardware expansion options (SATA drive or Firewire backup).