ATI HDTV wonder PCI tuner with an Nvidia graphics card

[Navid]

I have a 7900 GT (Nvidia GPU not ATI). I have heard some complaining about operating the tuner card with a non-ATI graphics card.
Can anyone confirm or provide other information?

Where can I get more information about this? Is there a forum about HDTV tuners somewhere?

I am considering this deal.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1880160&enterthread=y

Thanks

 

[grimlykindo]

I have the ATI HDTV wonder and a 7800gt - works great except that some of the past forceware drivers didn't work. 84.21 official drivers works great for me right now. The picture quality is stunning when getting 720p or 1080i

My coworker also has a HDTV wonder with an ATI video card and the drivers still don't always work. I think the HDTV wonder is just picky about drivers in general. If you do end up getting it don't use the latest (9.14) MMC - use the 9.13 released this January.

 

[Navid]

Thanks!

What is MMC?

I have XP pro. Please tell me what OS you have.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Navid
Thanks!

What is MMC?

I have XP pro. Please tell me what OS you have.

MMC is ATI's Multimedia Center for their Theater products.

The HDTV Wonder can work with NV boards, but its a royal pain. I ended up removing it from my system several months back. The fact that there were no good HD broadcasts aside from local news didn't bother me much though.

ATI's driver releases for the HDTV Wonder have been very lackluster and erratic. They're definitely not on a monthly schedule like their catalysts are.

 

[grimlykindo]

The drivers are very sketchy, but once you find a set that works just stick with them - It works great for me on my Nvidia mobo and video card. I am running on windows XP SP2

Getting good HD channels is all about what area you are in. I live right outside of Minneapolis, MN and I get 5-7 true HD channels all the time. I have been very happy with my over-the-air HD vs. my bunny ears (I don't have cable). I get every channel 100% perfect reception even if it is not broadcasted in HD.

 

[erwos]

I run an FX5700 with the HDTV Wonder, and it works fine. I've had oodles of problems using the analog tuner (it kills the tuner, and sometimes the computer, until you reboot), but the HD one works fine. I forget which drivers I'm using, although I clearly remember cycling through a few of them before I got ones that worked OK.

Dare I ask what's wrong with 9.14?

-Erwos

 

[Navid]

Does sound ever go out of sync with the picture?

 

[grimlykindo]

Originally posted by: Navid
Does sound ever go out of sync with the picture?

I have never had this happen at all and mine is even downmixed to stereo (2.1 speakers).

I know this can be a problem with TV cards is general, but haven't seen it with the ATI HDTV wonder yet. It would probably be a sound card setting anyway.

 

[IceBreakerG]

Originally posted by: Navid
Does sound ever go out of sync with the picture?

The sound only gets out of sync when you try to convert the recordings (OTA HDTV recordings specifically). I'm running XP MCE 2005 and record alot of tv (Watched the last 10mins or so of the NBA Finals in HD on ABC, looked amazing even for OTA, over the air). When trying to convert the dvr-ms files the sound gets out of sync for some reason, but playing back the original file is fine. I haven't noticed any sync issues with analog recording (if its out of sync its so slight that its not bothersome at all).

Also, I have an Abit AN8 nForce4 motherboard with a BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra and I don't have any problems using the ATI TV Tuner. However, they are about to release a new card next month (Theater 650 i think) that does analog/atsc tuning, so once the reviews for that come out i might look into switching (by default, the analog tuner on the ATI HDTV Wonder is diasabled in MCE, but not in XP Pro, gay ati drivers, gotta use the Kram hacked drivers to get both to work).