ATI HDTV Wonder Compatibility

[homestarmy]

At first I thought one needed to have a high end 9000 series Radeon card to run one of these... is that the case? I didn't see anything listed about it on newegg. Would it run with a straight up 9000 or with even onboard video by any chance?

And do you guys think the current rebate would work with a cheap vendor from pricewatch? And do you think the refurb card on newegg would come with a full box and be eligible for the rebate?

 

[homestarmy]

Also, does the remote that it comes with double as a mouse? That would be nice for my HTPC!

 

[rbV5]

Graphics card with 64MB or greater of frame buffer and Microsoft DirectX 9.0 support

Link

I'm pretty certain they mean hardware DirectX 9.0 support by that as well, which would include NV FX+, and ATI 95xx+ cards. I use an AIW 9700 with mine.

The remote has mouse functions Link

 

[darkswordsman17]

I think the rebate is for Newegg purchase only. I'm pretty sure a refurb won't qualify for the rebate since it says retail.

 

[homestarmy]

A refurb at newegg is just a return though...

And would a regular ATI 9000 work? It uses DX9... right? or...?

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: homestarmy
A refurb at newegg is just a return though...

And would a regular ATI 9000 work? It uses DX9... right? or...?

It supports DX9 runtime, but you need a 95xx or better for hardware support, a 9000 would be a poor choince if it would work at all.

 

[repair4man]

Originally posted by: homestarmy
A refurb at newegg is just a return though...

And would a regular ATI 9000 work? It uses DX9... right? or...?

I had an HDTV wonder for a while and the video worked fine with a Radeon 9000 Pro except for commonly reported problems, see http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb...ge=20&pagenumber=1

I did not keep it because I couldn't get Dolby Digital sound, volume down mixed to 2 speakers very low, no video from Fox affiliate after September 10th, one channel is 720p but player interprets it as 480i, couldn?t get dual mode display to work, couldn't read features pull down menu in scheduler, and general stability issues. I found the multi media center in general to be unstable along with the DTV application. My CPU is a Pentium 4 2.4b in an Albatron PX845PEV Pro with an Audigy 2 sound card. All of my problems were reported by others in the forum noted. I tried all the drivers they updated to no avail and they haven't released anything new since I returned it. I can't see where any of my problems were due to my video card not being DX9 compatible and haven't found anything at Microsoft.com indicating that DX9 compatibility enhances anything but 3D games.

 

[rbV5]

haven't found anything at Microsoft.com indicating that DX9 compatibility enhances anything but 3D games.

You might want to start here Link

ATI requires it explicitly:

Compatibility
HDTV WONDER? is compatible with Microsoft DirectX 9.0 hardware compliant graphics cards and having 64MB or greater of memory


and no, all of your issues are not directly related to your lack of the required graphic hardware (sound for instance, there are issues with DTV and analog multichannel output), but using non-supported hardware obviously will doom it for failure.

IMO, there is more good than bad with HDTV Wonder.