ATI TV Wonder 650 $99 at Best Buy
- Thread starter bigsnyder
- Start date
Don't know if this is indeed the newer version.
But I have the previous version (which included a remote & antenna), and I can tell you you that it works GREAT !!
Only things you also need are:
- 1) A good fast video card with a lots of memory
- 2) A good fast processor with lots of power to keep up with this thing
- 3) Also, possibly a more powerful antenna if you live further from the towers.
I run this with a Nvidia 6600GT, and a 3000+ A64 just fine. This is the newer card. I paid more for this as a Best Buy employee a month ago. You need a good antenna, I have a DB2 (semi directional) that is amplified - works fine. The video quality is great on this one, and its hardware assisted so I hardly tax my processor at all, even while recording and playing back. It does work with MCE 2k5 with the standard driver package, unlike the hoops you had to run through in the past.
dew.
Dew - Do you think the Terk HDTVLP antenna would work any better with this card - Or are you really happy with your DB2? - Just curious because you mentioned you work at BB - Just want to get the most out of my card - Thanks.
BenJeremy
Senior member
- Oct 31, 2004
- 718
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I got the HDTV Wonder, and was very disappointed, to say the least. Stuttering playback on my FX-55/1GB/Barracuda SATA system, just built (i.e. no funky software or drivers installed, fresh XP install). The Remote Wonder also was severely screwed up (worked for a short time once every several boots). It got sent back to NewEgg posthaste.
My HTPC is running a crappy WinTV to Go PCI card without any problem, and I plan on getting an MCE180 tuner card for the analog side.
Does the 650 have a hardware MPEG encoder? Does it handle audio digitally, or is it a crappy patch cable to the sound card? Does it have bloated drivers like the HDTV Wonder?
UPDATE: Hmnmmm.... looking around, I found some answers; some good, some bad.
Good News: The card does have hardware compression, no audio patch cables!
Bad News: Notoriously bad driver experiences from EVERY REVIEW on Amazon. Typical ATI, take a good bit of hardware and hamper it with awful software. :::sigh:::
Amazon Reviews
My HTPC is running a crappy WinTV to Go PCI card without any problem, and I plan on getting an MCE180 tuner card for the analog side.
Does the 650 have a hardware MPEG encoder? Does it handle audio digitally, or is it a crappy patch cable to the sound card? Does it have bloated drivers like the HDTV Wonder?
UPDATE: Hmnmmm.... looking around, I found some answers; some good, some bad.
Good News: The card does have hardware compression, no audio patch cables!
Bad News: Notoriously bad driver experiences from EVERY REVIEW on Amazon. Typical ATI, take a good bit of hardware and hamper it with awful software. :::sigh:::
Amazon Reviews
videopho
Diamond Member
- Apr 8, 2005
- 4,185
- 29
- 91
The HDTV Wonder was a nightmare to install back in its infancy days.
This one should be better than the Wonder.
Whether it works for your rig or not, that's a big IF but I;m gonna try it out.
Here is the another user review from avsforum-ATI-650
you can also use one of the 10-12% off coupons if you got them via snail mail. Got mine for 89.99 today. Also picked up a PVR 150 from compusa for 40 bucks after 30 dollar rebate
I'm assuming you're running with MCE2005? I'm about to built a new system using a similar setup (FX-55 and MSI K8N Neo4 + Geforce 7900GS) and will be running XP64 & Linux. I'm thinking about possibly getting this card and run it on the new system. My other system, Opteron 144 overclock to 2.4Ghz pair with Asrock ASRock 775Dual-VSTA + Radeon X800, 2GB didn't have any problem like you've described (I see skipping related to bad signal but otherwise it's fine). I have also another system with ATI HDTV wonder installed in a Pentium 2.8 + Shttle 865PE chipset board, 1GB ram + ATI X1600Pro and that runs fine as well. Both of these systems are running Win XP pro. The only problem I have with ATI MMC when tunning to HDTV channel is when I close the apps and it gives me an application crashed error. I'm using MMC 9.14 (although newer one is avilable).
Have you try different slot and different MMC versions? What kind of video card and motherboard do you have?
I picked this card up today with the 12% off coupon as well.
I bought another one like 3 weeks ago with the 12% off coupon and had BB price match it today and applied the refund towards the 2nd card.
I have been reading night and day for weeks about tuner cards and liked the ATI so much I bought a 2nd for a dual tuner setup.
This card has the best analog capture on the market due to comb filters and noise reduction that is done by its hardware encoder chip.
There are a few minor bugs like the current driver is broken in MCE because it will not accurately show signal strength for the channels and something about using 2 650's and trying to wake up from standby. Other than these two bugs the card works great and is very clear! Another good feature is if you use it in MCE2005 and have update rollup 2, you do not need a seperate analog card to use the digital tuner since it has a hardware encoder onboard for analog and digital.
I bought another one like 3 weeks ago with the 12% off coupon and had BB price match it today and applied the refund towards the 2nd card.
I have been reading night and day for weeks about tuner cards and liked the ATI so much I bought a 2nd for a dual tuner setup.
This card has the best analog capture on the market due to comb filters and noise reduction that is done by its hardware encoder chip.
There are a few minor bugs like the current driver is broken in MCE because it will not accurately show signal strength for the channels and something about using 2 650's and trying to wake up from standby. Other than these two bugs the card works great and is very clear! Another good feature is if you use it in MCE2005 and have update rollup 2, you do not need a seperate analog card to use the digital tuner since it has a hardware encoder onboard for analog and digital.
BenJeremy
Senior member
- Oct 31, 2004
- 718
- 87
- 91
It's straight XP Pro, using ATI's own software. The motherboard is an MSI K8N Neo4-F socket 939, video is an nVidia 6800GS. I tried different slots, tried updating MMC, etc, etc... after 25 years programming computers, career as an embedded systems software engineer, and 6 PCs running in my home at this moment (countless built over the years), I pretty much racked my brain trying to get decent performance out of it, with no luck.
Nobody should have to go through any contortions to get a card working - ATI's software and support simply sucks. Sadly, I've been buying ATI since my first video card: an EGAWonder (yes, you read that correctly, EGA). I've owned the original All-in-wonder tuner/video card, it's follow up, several tuners since. ATI cards are currently powering the gaming systems my kids use. I am by no means anti-ATI, but their software is awful, and has been for many years. I would hope that their merger with AMD would have caused them to take a fresh look at that department and improve the situation - but it seems that is a false hope.
More than likely, it's a combination of videoe card (nVidia) and chipset (again, nvidia) that is the downfall of this combination, and that's particularly sad, if ATI has not done proper testing with a competing GPU and chipset combo.
I've settled on buying the AverMedia MCE A180, which, like all MCE certified cards, has a built-in MPEG encoder (like the 650), but from reviews, much less problematic driver installation or operation.
I'm sure the 650 is an excellent piece of hardware. Without proper drivers, though, it's worthless. If you are lucky enough to get it working decently on your particular system, great, but from what I've read, everybody has trouble installing the drivers, even those with "smoothly operating" tuner cards. ATI should be ashamed of that kind of track record.
/Really, really wants to buy another ATI tuner
//Then again, stopped holding breath for Creative to see the light and make a decent, bloatware-free card with DDL
Well. Thanks for saving me the troubles of purchasing ATI TV Wonder 650 and from pulling my hairs out. Too bad it doesn't play well with Nvidia Nforce4 chipset + Nvidia cards as dew042 says he is running his with Nvidia 6600GT, and a 3000+ A64 and my Asrock (Via VIA PT880 chipset) + Radeon X800 just fine. I think I'll save the cost and subscribe to DirectTV service instead.
I have had trouble setting this card up, but the most recent driver for MCE worked fine on my most recent build. I would say the troubles I had were not significant, and in line with ANY hyperspecialized piece of hardware.
I have had this in three systems and I have gotten it to work perfectly each time, including a Via-based MB and a A64 3000+ and an X800. My current system is Nforce based. My systems are hardly high powered.
I think most people don't understand that this requires a good amount of resources other than a video card and processor. I have found that a secondary hard drive make HD work much better. For example, I can't stream HD content over wireless 54g. An hour of HD content is about 8GB give or take.
So, to expect a hard drive to be running an OS, writing a file and well as playing it back is a pretty tall order.
Or, you can take the easy way out and just blame ATI's drivers -- that seems to be popular in this thread.
I love my DB2 antenna - its cheap and it works great.
dew.
I have had this in three systems and I have gotten it to work perfectly each time, including a Via-based MB and a A64 3000+ and an X800. My current system is Nforce based. My systems are hardly high powered.
I think most people don't understand that this requires a good amount of resources other than a video card and processor. I have found that a secondary hard drive make HD work much better. For example, I can't stream HD content over wireless 54g. An hour of HD content is about 8GB give or take.
So, to expect a hard drive to be running an OS, writing a file and well as playing it back is a pretty tall order.
Or, you can take the easy way out and just blame ATI's drivers -- that seems to be popular in this thread.
I love my DB2 antenna - its cheap and it works great.
dew.
On the issue of drivers think about this: They are trying to make a next generation piece of hardware work on a 5 year old OS that was never designed to handle hardware of this complexity and has 100's of patches, and combine that with hundreds of thousands of different computer configurations and just as many other variables -- its not easy.
Drivers will never perfect on XP. In a year or so when Vista is stable, I bet this piece of hardware will work like a charm because its features will be natively supported.
dew.
Drivers will never perfect on XP. In a year or so when Vista is stable, I bet this piece of hardware will work like a charm because its features will be natively supported.
dew.
videopho
Diamond Member
- Apr 8, 2005
- 4,185
- 29
- 91
No offense intended.
Much to my surprise reading your 25 years of computer/programmer tech savvy and you didn't even mention about getting on-line help/search and that's exactly how I did in order to get the ah heck to work in my MCe2005 two years ago from this avsforum site
Remember Google is your best firend when you're about ready to throw your hands up.
For someone new to HTPC, is this a good choice in a system where you also have a source such as cable or satellite? Is this card complementary to the BeyondTV 4 software? Can someone paint a picture of the use for the card and what else is needed?
It's pretty expensive compared to the older model. It just seems to add in FM radio.
I have the ATI HDTV Wonder. It works great. The only thing is to make sure that it has access to a separate harddrive for where it stores the tv feed. So, don't put it onto the drive with the operating system or any drive that you access often. As it's taking in data, it stores it onto the drive so you want the drive not to get congested with other requests. If that drive is busy with other stuff, it will delay writing/reading the tv data and it will lag..
I have the ATI HDTV Wonder. It works great. The only thing is to make sure that it has access to a separate harddrive for where it stores the tv feed. So, don't put it onto the drive with the operating system or any drive that you access often. As it's taking in data, it stores it onto the drive so you want the drive not to get congested with other requests. If that drive is busy with other stuff, it will delay writing/reading the tv data and it will lag..
This card will allow you to view the off the air HDTV programs but it still doesn't support unencreypted QAM signal from cable outlet. Baiscally you'll need to point it's antennae to the broadcast tower.
It's other input accepts regular NTSC signals, so any standard definition cable channels can be viewed. I have no idea about the Beyond TV 4 as I just got mine. But ATI have their own software MMC for viewing TVs, DVDs, and other video files.
I really want QAM support in these HDTV tuners. Most HDTV tuner chips seem to suppprt it in hardware but the drivers don't take advantage of it.
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