HDTV Wonder vs TV Wonder Elite

[Kernel32]

I'm leaning toward the TV Wonder Elite because it has the onboard mpeg2 encoder which reduces cpu usage. Also has the Theater 550 Pro chip which is supported by Windows MCE.

HDTV Wonder.....well, it has good reviews and i may be able to pick up some Free-to-Air HDTV broadcasts. No mpeg2 encoder.

Can anyone suggest why i would want the HDTV wonder over the TV Wonder Elite?

Or, are there any other similar type products out there i should consider?

 

[Kernel32]

Yeah, try the..........oh, this is my post!




bump

 

[kylebisme]

One is an HDTV card and the other is an SDTV card, get one if you are after SDTV and get the other if HDTV is what you are after. Or get both if you would like to have both.

But if you are interested in the TV Wonder Elilte you might consider the many other cards based on the same Theater 550 chip that sell for about half as much.

 

[Kernel32]

i'd love to be able to use the HDTV Wonder to display the 5 hdtv channels my cable provider is giving me already, but unfortunately this card will not display those. It will only display Free-to-Air HDTV broadcasts using the provided HDTV Antennae it comes with.

Is there a HDTV tuner card out there that i can view the HDTV channels from my cable provider?

 

[kylebisme]

no.

 

[Maetryx]

Yes, there are several now. Something called myHD and... I don't remember. Do a search for HDTV on the FatWallet Hot Deals forums.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Maetryx
Yes, there are several now. Something called myHD and... I don't remember. Do a search for HDTV on the FatWallet Hot Deals forums.

There is no card you can buy that will display HD from a digital cable provider; digital cable is encrypted and requires use of either a digital cable box or a tuner that supports the CableCard spec. There are no PC tuners that support CableCard (and there are unlikely to be any in the near future, since content providers would have a fit). Ergo, no digital cable on your PC. The only tuner cards you can get are for OTA reception.

It is possible in some setups to get a tuner card for digital satellite service, but this is a totally different product.

If you have a digital cable box with an enabled Firewire output, you may be able to use that to watch/record digital TV -- but you can't watch/record anything that is flagged to prevent copying. AVSForum has a lot more info on these sorts of topics.

 

[Maetryx]

It's my understanding that some cable HDTV signals are not encrypted and that some HDTV cards can accept the QAM cable signal protocol. I have not done this myself. I have a HDTV Wonder which is for OTA HDTV and normal cable TV. I've read that the HDTV Wonder definitely cannot handle a QAM signal like some other cards.

 

[Lothar1974]

If you go with the TV Wonder Elite do not go with anything but ATI. I tried 3 different cards that use the 550 chip. They SUCKED! The picture quailty was terrible no matter what I did. I finally broke down and got ATI's and the picture is 100 times better!. I don't use their software however. I am using Beyond TV 3, much better in my opinion, gives you alot more control overall! Good luck!

 

[Markbnj]

I have the TV Wonder Elite, and the picture quality is pretty good. Better than other cards I have seen. Bear in mind that you are going to be displaying NTSC resolutions on a much higher res device, so no card is going to look great. There just isn't enough information in a standard NTSC signal to fill your monitor and make it sharp. I watch my full screen from the couch, and it looks fine. Up close I run it in windowed mode at native res, and it looks great, but very small window.

ATI's software blows, nothing more to say. The PowerCinema software is barely adequate, and the Remote Wonder drivers are buggy trash. BeyondTV is much more capable if you don't mind spending $69, and will work with the remote.