MultiMedia PC

[wwu4life]

My major issue right now, is my Multimedia options. Im considering the ATI AIW 9800Pro. An alternative would be to get an ATI Tuner card, along with a separate graphics card - so that I can upgrade down the road (Im overclocking my system, so that may be a factor too). What are the advantages of each - or what other possible settup options do i have?

 

[chr6]

you probably won't get that big of an overclock with the aiw, whereas you might have better luck overclocking a 6600.

also, as far as the ati tuner card, you may want to wait for the cards using the theater550 pro chip. i know a few manufacturers have plans to use it, as well as ati's next tv wonder.

if you are overclocking, forget the aiw and go seperate components. but wait on the tv tuner. i'm sure the 550 pro will be worth the wait.

 

[piasabird]

ATI makes a usb 2 TV wonder unit that is external also. No Remote though. I think they wanted lap-top/notebook owners to buy them.

 

[piasabird]

If you buy the ATI TV Wonder card they make them models for just the ms mutimedia edition and also for XP. I dont know what the difference is. I am guessing it is the registered signed drivers or something like that.

 

[Shogun]

One thing that makes going with a video card and a separate tuner card is that you can get hardware encoding in some tuner cards. My buddy's 9700 AIW really hits the system hard when he is recording from the TV input. My Hauppauge PVR-250 is hardware based MPEG encoding so there is a lot less usage of the main CPU.

 

[DGath]

Owner of a 8500 AIW, and now a 9600 AIW, as well as a couple multimedia center PCs, and my suggestion is go with the Happauge + seperate card. Why? Drivers on the AIWs are a pain in the royal ass. I just reformat every time I want to upgrade the drivers now becuase of all the problems I had doing actual upgrades in the past. I used to think the upgrade bug wouldn't hit me frequently enough to want to upgrade my video card, but it is, and my AIW prevents me from doing that. Don't get me wrong, AIWs are great, and the quality is great, but after owning a few of them over the last couple of years, next upgrades will be a Happauge and a seperate, probably ATI video card. AIWs are great for non-gaming PCs, but if you need to upgrade for gaming purposes, then don't go with an AIW IMO.

All this is assuming you'll be using windows, for linux, you definately want to go with happauge.

Wait... If I were building a media center PC right now, I'd actually go with an ATI HD Wonder now versus a Happauge becuase of the FCC flagging that will start in a year. Kinda last chance to get an unflagged card.

 

[rbV5]

The real answer depends on what your use for the TV card will be and the rest of your system. I've personally had several AIW cards, including my present AIW 9700pro. I've not had to reformat a single time I can remember just for a driver change, and CPU use at the highest settings are ~45% for MPEG-2, however just watching TV is under 10%. I also use hardware eHome Wonder cards with SageTV (soon to be MCE 2005). Its the opposite from the AIW in that recording uses low cpu, however watching is higher than the AIW.

Short answer (well, shorter than it could be):

General TV Watching: AIW card. Its hard to beat an AIW 9800pro for ease of use, and it's a complete package. Native YPbPR output if you have a compatable display is a great feature as well. If you upgrade your graphics often, it "may" not be your best bet. However, the also retain there value longer and are quite useful even when gaming performance can't hack the newest games.

Real PVR duties: A hardware encoder TV card is excellent for PVR duties. Scheduled recordings work better, as do background recordings. They work well on much less powerful rigs, and can transfer over to your new rig when you upgrade. They do generally have poor software unless you get a bundled deal. They do support the popular 3rd party softwares like BTV and SageTV ( I use SageTV, and its pretty good software package) and also XP Media Center. I use eHome Wonder cards, hauppage PVR cards are supported in more softwares.

Gamer watches some TV already has a good graphic card: One of the lessor expensive software encoder cards like the leadtek or Asus cards. They offer good performance at an inexpensive pricepoint.


Other considerations: I'd forget the ATI TV Wonder cards, there are just too many issues for me to recommend one.

I do use an HDTV Wonder, and its a decent card that I can recommend, but needs some software polish. Even the analog tuner works well, and I haven't experienced the issues that plague TV Wonder users. ATI's new TV Wonder USB2.0 looks like a winner, but isn't available yet (great for a notebook, or any PC w/USB 2.0 port) The new cards that will feature the Theater 550 chip from ATI aslo look like winners, but again, not yet available

Edit: I just noticed TV Wonder USB 2.0 is available through shopATI and Newegg.