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*** OFFICIAL***ATI's TV WONDER ELITE (TV capture card)

mcveigh

mcveigh

Diamond Member
I am starting this thread to hopefully consolidate all info about this card.
here is the thread I started in hot deals Text
other forums threads about this card:
sage TV forums with screenshots
htpc news forum
AVS fourm thread w/ screenshots

fluffy review :gaming nexus
more info from hexus Text

ati web page: http://www.ati.com/products/tvwonderelite/

for sale:
zipzoomfly
newegg

I haven't bought it yet b/c the image quality seems to be equal to or worse than the hauppauge ones



--update 3/3/05
http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review2351.html

http://www.atruereview.com/theater_Pro/index.php

http://www.ocmodshop.com/default.aspx?a=251

more views plus I ordered a Sapphire Theatrix Theater 550 PRO PCI from zipzoomflytoday so I'll put in a review.

--update 3/4
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/pcolor550pro/index.html

--update 3/8
I got my sapphire card today.
quick impressions.
old drivers are better, the new ones seem to make things more grainy
the color saturation is great!, the picture is a little softer
works fine in MCE 2005
the cyberlink software does an OK job.
I want to capture an uncompressed avi stream to compare
 
Thanks mcveigh.

Unbelievable. STILL no reviews for this thing with clip comparisons. Any day now... 😉
 
I'm surprised at how little discussion there is on this. I need a tuner card. I am considering either this, or the Happauge pvr 150. Which is a better card? Also I have an nvidia 6800, will the ATI and Nvidia drivers clash?
 
i have the hauppauge pvr 150 and have used an ati aiw 9000 pro. i liked that ati better. it's for that reason i'm looking at a aiw 9800 as an upgrade.
 
Well, regardless of the general disnterest in this card, I went ahead and picked one up. The card is great, picture looks great, bundled software sucks.
 
Originally posted by: Johnbear007
I'm surprised at how little discussion there is on this. I need a tuner card. I am considering either this, or the Happauge pvr 150. Which is a better card? Also I have an nvidia 6800, will the ATI and Nvidia drivers clash?
Click to expand...
I've run a TV Wonder VE alongside these video cards without many issues (the newer ATI drivers are much better than the old ones but their MMC software still blows chunks IMO):

PCI Radeon 32MB
GeForce4 Ti4600
GeForce FX 5900
GeForce FX 5900XT
GeForce 6800GT
 
Well, this is a neat card, and now I am using beyond Tv. However, I cannot seem to get full remote functionality using beyond TV as of yet. It works somewhat, but some buttons do nothing.
 
Well, technically this isn't the ATI TV Wonder Elite. I have yet to find the ATI TV Wonder Elite for sale....although I'm sure it's for sale somewhere but I haven't come across one yet. The ATI TV Wonder Elite is supposed to be priced at $150.00 and the Theatrix 550 Pro is half of that. Being the Theatrix 550 Pro hasn't looked as good as what ATI has promised for the Theater 550 Pro chip(according to other users from what I read on other forums) and it's twice as less the price, I am hopefull that the more expensive ATI TV Wonder Elite will be alot better. If it doesn't then the The Imaging Science Research Labs (ISF RL) certification is worthless and that organizations opinion on quality can't be trusted.

On a side note, a user on another forum used Nero software to capture some video useing Theatrix 550 Pro to AVI and it looked ALOT better without the cards hardware encodeing.

Just curiouse....can anyone compare this card(Theatrix 550 PRO) to the Pinnacle PC TV Deluxe card in AVI format? I am dieing to see the results as I might choose the Pinnacle instead.

-Dman
 
Originally posted by: dman7
Well, technically this isn't the ATI TV Wonder Elite. I have yet to find the ATI TV Wonder Elite for sale....although I'm sure it's for sale somewhere but I haven't come across one yet. The ATI TV Wonder Elite is supposed to be priced at $150.00 and the Theatrix 550 Pro is half of that. Being the Theatrix 550 Pro hasn't looked as good as what ATI has promised for the Theater 550 Pro chip(according to other users from what I read on other forums) and it's twice as less the price, I am hopefull that the more expensive ATI TV Wonder Elite will be alot better. If it doesn't then the The Imaging Science Research Labs (ISF RL) certification is worthless and that organizations opinion on quality can't be trusted.

On a side note, a user on another forum used Nero software to capture some video useing Theatrix 550 Pro to AVI and it looked ALOT better without the cards hardware encodeing.

Just curiouse....can anyone compare this card(Theatrix 550 PRO) to the Pinnacle PC TV Deluxe card in AVI format? I am dieing to see the results as I might choose the Pinnacle instead.

-Dman
Click to expand...

Are you saying this doesn't have the 550 chip? remember the $150 is suggested retail price. our favorite online retailers often see prices much less than retail.

I don't know much about the pinnacle card. sorry

I have heard some people mention that the 550 seems to capture fast motion better than other cards, this is at least one plus in what has been a lackluster report card thus far.

 
Even though the Theatrix has the ATI 550 Pro chip it still isn't the same card as the ATI TV Wonder Elite. That is why the Theatrix goes for around $89.00 and the ATI TV Wonder Elite goes for $150.00. I found one site so far that has the actual ATI TV Wonder Elite....not the Theatrix 🙂 I have high hopes for the ATI TV Wonder Elite since it is twice as much.


-Dman

 
Originally posted by: dman7
Even though the Theatrix has the ATI 550 Pro chip it still isn't the same card as the ATI TV Wonder Elite. That is why the Theatrix goes for around $89.00 and the ATI TV Wonder Elite goes for $150.00. I found one site so far that has the actual ATI TV Wonder Elite....not the Theatrix 🙂 I have high hopes for the ATI TV Wonder Elite since it is twice as much.


-Dman
Click to expand...

The card is exactly the same. The only difference with the ATI version is that it comes with a nice RF MCE remote, whereas the Sapphire has an IR remote. The ATI card will not offer anything more than the Sapphire besides the remote.

It's the same as having say a Sapphire 9800 pro Vs. an ATI 9800 Pro... Exact same performance.
 
WinTV PVR looks noticeably better in the screenshots. It's not only a lot sharper, but has less noise.
ATI's TV tuners have always been worse than the competition anyways.
 
Might this be a good solution for transfering VHS and Hi8 tapes to DVD? If not, what is better in the $75 to $200 price range?
 
TV Wonder Elite now showing up at online vendors as well. Now hopefully, we'll see a model minus the remote...I need a couple of them for my new build🙂

Newegg
 
http://www.nextgenelectronics.com/tvwonderelite.php

Just found this review. Looks good.

I'm also trying to find a good card/software combination.

Right now I'm looking at:
tv wonder elite
happauge pvr

and on the software side :

Pinnacle 9 (currently using the trial. mixed feelings about it)
Vegas Movie Studio (can't import my mpg files w/ the trial and thus haven't use it)
DVD-Lab (Have no clue about this one yet)

I've tried MyDVD *GAG* don't go there.
Pinnacle seems to be the "best" thus far, though i'm currently "purchasing" Vegas. Only problem is I still need to get a better card. (ATI eHome[tv wonder for MCE], aslo *GAG*)

Any other worth while card and/or Capture/Edit/DVD Authoring software I should look at?

 
DAMN! this is confusing..this seems to be the only glowing report of what on paper looks to be the best analog capture card.

Anand! we need a review!
 
Tell me about it.

It seems like it should be some what simple, at least for just capturing and burning.

Sometime this month I'll be purchasing the Hauppauge PVR-150. I'll be testing it with Pinnacle 9 and Vegas Movie Studio. I'll post my experience with it.

Anyone have any info on the Elite card in terms of the max bit rate it can capture?
 
there is a review up at nextgen

9.4/10 + editors choice

now if ATI would just release one without the remote (since i just paid $30 for the MCE remote)

it looks like it may even fit in my little shuttle next to the x700 card.
 
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