DEAD: ATI HDTV wonder $59.99 Free shipping from buy.com

[FTJoe]

Mine was open as well. Unfortunately I simply can not get it to work using either the provided software (CD install of drivers reboots the machine very rudely, install from ATI website is okay, decoder install from the ATI website keeps failing but seems to install from the CD). I've tried their software, watchhdtv, mediaportal and I get no signal, catv or dtv. Maybe my 32MB XFX 6200TC is the problem, tough to tell without any real error messages and not a great deal of experience wih this stuff.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: FTJoe
Mine was open as well. Unfortunately I simply can not get it to work using either the provided software (CD install of drivers reboots the machine very rudely, install from ATI website is okay, decoder install from the ATI website keeps failing but seems to install from the CD). I've tried their software, watchhdtv, mediaportal and I get no signal, catv or dtv. Maybe my 32MB XFX 6200TC is the problem, tough to tell without any real error messages and not a great deal of experience wih this stuff.

When you install the decoder from the ATI web site, it will ask you to place the CD inside your drive. It does that to make sure you own the CD. Then, it downloads the decoder from the web and you can install it.

You only need to install the driver and the decoder. After that, you can use WatchHDTV to set up the channels and watch. This is true for XP Pro. I cannot talk about other OS because I have not tried them.

You can use http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx to find the stations that are in your area and their codes that you need to enter in WatchHDTV in order to tune to them.

If your graphics card is weak, the picture may stutter. But, you should not have problems installing the software and getting the signal.

If you are surrounded by high-rise buildings, you may not get any signal.

 

[FTJoe]

Appreciate the response but I don't want to tie this up with my problems. Having said that...When installing the decoder, if I use the ATI website package, it authenticates the CD fine, but fails on the download. I queried folks on the MediaPortal forums and opened a ticket with ATI. Must be something stupid I'm doing but I just can't figure it out. WatchHDTV and MediaPortal both can't seem to get a signal at all and the ATI app complains the TV Player Failed to Initialize.

 

[shurato]

Recieved mine, box was open, a little scratched. I don't know what is going on here... but it's obviously not new. Tried to install from website but no go. Installed from CD and it runs. PC crashes hard intermittingly. When it works, it looks great. But this is a piece of crap because I'd like something to work straight out of the box, not have to go through all these hoops to get it to work properly.

 

[isekii]

just RMA the units

 

[VaG]

Originally posted by: shurato
Recieved mine, box was open, a little scratched. I don't know what is going on here... but it's obviously not new. Tried to install from website but no go. Installed from CD and it runs. PC crashes hard intermittingly. When it works, it looks great. But this is a piece of crap because I'd like something to work straight out of the box, not have to go through all these hoops to get it to work properly.

Sounds like you need to go spend $200-$300. I jumped through more hoops than usual with MCE and hacked kram driver to allow both tuners to operate in about 15 mins. and have been using it as my main media center for more than a year without any problems.

 

[tbogstad]

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: FTJoe
Mine was open as well. Unfortunately I simply can not get it to work using either the provided software (CD install of drivers reboots the machine very rudely, install from ATI website is okay, decoder install from the ATI website keeps failing but seems to install from the CD). I've tried their software, watchhdtv, mediaportal and I get no signal, catv or dtv. Maybe my 32MB XFX 6200TC is the problem, tough to tell without any real error messages and not a great deal of experience wih this stuff.

When you install the decoder from the ATI web site, it will ask you to place the CD inside your drive. It does that to make sure you own the CD. Then, it downloads the decoder from the web and you can install it.

You only need to install the driver and the decoder. After that, you can use WatchHDTV to set up the channels and watch. This is true for XP Pro. I cannot talk about other OS because I have not tried them.

You can use http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx to find the stations that are in your area and their codes that you need to enter in WatchHDTV in order to tune to them.

If your graphics card is weak, the picture may stutter. But, you should not have problems installing the software and getting the signal.

If you are surrounded by high-rise buildings, you may not get any signal.

listen to this guy, he know what he is talking about, 99.9% of your problems are the steaming pile of shiit ATI software.

I have had my HDTVWonder for almost a year, and have tried it in atleast 6 totally different computers, and the ATI software did not work at all in half of them,. and worked horribly in the rest.

do what he says just install drivers and the decoder, and then use other softwaRE, anything is better than the ATI software.

beyond Tv works great with it, and so do most other softwares, even the free ones.

ATI should be shot for putting out such crappy software.

 

[nlkccom]

Mine arrived brand new and sealed. The card didn't work the the driver from the CD, but when I replace it with the latest one from their site, it works fine!

 

[ELopes580]

I bought one of these about a year ago. Reception was horrible and skip images. It now sits in a bag on the floor in the misc computer parts pile.

 

[FTJoe]

I can only install the decoder from the CD. Had success loading the older drivers from the website and getting the ATI app owrking but the picture wasn't very good. Having problems getting MediaPortal to work. I would love to just load the drivers and decoder and go. Any other recs for free software out there, I'm mainly interested in getting the analog stations off my cable.

 

[proroc]

Can the TV WONDER 650 be used in mce 2005 to tune analog and ota hd by using only one card?

If so how can one do this?

Thanks!

 

[zeroidea]

Deal is alive again.

 

[jwells777]

Any thoughts on why WatchHDTV reports 0% signal strength on channels when the ATI software displays the channels just fine? I would really like to give this program a shot, but I can't seem to get it to work and the documentation is pretty limited.

 

[GeneValgene]

Originally posted by: zeroidea
Deal is alive again.

looks dead to me?

 

[integera1]

Did anyone's order get shipped yet?

 

[junkiefp]

Really hot might be picking this up.