question about ATi's Vivo cards

[pibb]

How does this thing work? I know the card has a ATi Theater chip on it and ive read that means you can tune w/ it by using vivo, but I havent found much information on it after that. So what I'd like to do is watch my cableTV using the card, is this possible? thanks

 

[TGS]

Yes you can. There is a coax hookup on the AIW TV tuner. There should also be a breakout box for using s-video and rca. There may also be another dongle for using component.

Also, at least for my 9700 Pro AIW, it came with Gem Star Plus. Which is basically like a software version of TV. The only thing it doesn't have is a season pass feature. Though it's a lifetime license, and without monthly charges.

Just beware, for capturing TV with some filters you will need somewhat of a beefy machine as all the encoding is done in software.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: pibb
How does this thing work? I know the card has a ATi Theater chip on it and ive read that means you can tune w/ it by using vivo, but I havent found much information on it after that. So what I'd like to do is watch my cableTV using the card, is this possible? thanks

You'll have to install the WDM drivers. You'll also need to install MMC and supporting software if you want to use ATI's software. You can't "tune" with a VIVO card without a tuner, so you'll need to use the tuner of your cable box and output to the VIVO cards' input. You'll change channels on your cable box. You'll need to connect the audio out put to an input on your soundcard as well.

Read the installation notes and readme files at ATI for both the drivers and the multimedia software carefully before you start.

 

[TGS]

Actually you don't need to run wiring from the cable box. The coax cable carries all the signals of the cable company. Which is why TV tuner cards work well with cable, over satellite. Things like digital/pay for channels will need to be decrypted prior to the TV card receiving a normal signal. The cable box shouldn't be doing anything but allowing you to watch the "premium" content.

For my AIW card, I ran a splitter from the wall jack. With one cable going to my TV tuner, and one cable go to my AIW coax port. You could watch TV channels independently. Allowing you to watch TV on the Television, and record another channel on the computer.

 

[Tebor0]

Originally posted by: TGS
Actually you don't need to run wiring from the cable box. The coax cable carries all the signals of the cable company. Which is why TV tuner cards work well with cable, over satellite. Things like digital/pay for channels will need to be decrypted prior to the TV card receiving a normal signal. The cable box shouldn't be doing anything but allowing you to watch the "premium" content.

For my AIW card, I ran a splitter from the wall jack. With one cable going to my TV tuner, and one cable go to my AIW coax port. You could watch TV channels independently. Allowing you to watch TV on the Television, and record another channel on the computer.

You're correct but watching multiple channels with Satellite or Digitial Cable won't work unless you have a 2nd receiver or a receiver that has 2 tuners.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: TGS
Actually you don't need to run wiring from the cable box. The coax cable carries all the signals of the cable company. Which is why TV tuner cards work well with cable, over satellite. Things like digital/pay for channels will need to be decrypted prior to the TV card receiving a normal signal. The cable box shouldn't be doing anything but allowing you to watch the "premium" content.

For my AIW card, I ran a splitter from the wall jack. With one cable going to my TV tuner, and one cable go to my AIW coax port. You could watch TV channels independently. Allowing you to watch TV on the Television, and record another channel on the computer.

Note: He is using a VIVO card, not an AIW card. For a VIVO card (without a tuner), you'll most definately the cable box or some other standalone box that has a tuner such as a VCR to tune the channels.

 

[TGS]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: TGS
Actually you don't need to run wiring from the cable box. The coax cable carries all the signals of the cable company. Which is why TV tuner cards work well with cable, over satellite. Things like digital/pay for channels will need to be decrypted prior to the TV card receiving a normal signal. The cable box shouldn't be doing anything but allowing you to watch the "premium" content.

For my AIW card, I ran a splitter from the wall jack. With one cable going to my TV tuner, and one cable go to my AIW coax port. You could watch TV channels independently. Allowing you to watch TV on the Television, and record another channel on the computer.

Note: He is using a VIVO card, not an AIW card. For a VIVO card (without a tuner), you'll most definately the cable box or some other standalone box that has a tuner such as a VCR to tune the channels.

I'm not certain what the software bundle is with the plain TV tuner cards, but if it's similiar to GemStar you should be able to change channels through the software. If not, than you would need to change channels on the box. Though it seems that ATI would have thought about that.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: TGS

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: TGS
Actually you don't need to run wiring from the cable box. The coax cable carries all the signals of the cable company. Which is why TV tuner cards work well with cable, over satellite. Things like digital/pay for channels will need to be decrypted prior to the TV card receiving a normal signal. The cable box shouldn't be doing anything but allowing you to watch the "premium" content.

For my AIW card, I ran a splitter from the wall jack. With one cable going to my TV tuner, and one cable go to my AIW coax port. You could watch TV channels independently. Allowing you to watch TV on the Television, and record another channel on the computer.

Note: He is using a VIVO card, not an AIW card. For a VIVO card (without a tuner), you'll most definately the cable box or some other standalone box that has a tuner such as a VCR to tune the channels.

I'm not certain what the software bundle is with the plain TV tuner cards, but if it's similiar to GemStar you should be able to change channels through the software. If not, than you would need to change channels on the box. Though it seems that ATI would have thought about that.

Hello, its not a tuner card...VIVO, Video IN, Video Out....

 

[TGS]

Which ATI cards equipped with a Theater chip does not have tuning capabilities?

More easily answered with, what card is the OP using.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: TGS
Which ATI cards equipped with a Theater chip does not have tuning capabilities?

More easily answered with, what card is the OP using.

Look in his sig: "ATi X800Pro PCI-E 256MB" That would be one of them.

There is a long list of ATI cards which feature Rage Theater VIVO chips other than AIW going back to the Radeon 64 VIVO up to every X850XT Platinum Edition card made.

 

[Traire]

The Theater 550 chip is not a "Tuner" chip, i.e., the 550 does not have itself built in analog TV tuner capability, thats handled by a seperate device on TV Tuner cards. The 550 chip is just a video processing chip, handling things like noise reduction, comb filtering, audio processing, mp2 encoding, etc. Just because a video card has a 550 chip does not mean it can tune analog TV. VIVO cards only have analog component input, like S-Video.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Traire
The Theater 550 chip is not a "Tuner" chip, i.e., the 550 does not have itself built in analog TV tuner capability, thats handled by a seperate device on TV Tuner cards. The 550 chip is just a video processing chip, handling things like noise reduction, comb filtering, audio processing, mp2 encoding, etc. Just because a video card has a 550 chip does not mean it can tune analog TV. VIVO cards only have analog component input, like S-Video.

You are correct, but for clarity(ATI has a number of video chips):
*Theater 550 currently only is available on PCI TV Tuner cards like TV Wonder Elite and Sapphire Theatrix.
*Theater200 comes on AIW cards >AIW9000 and eHome Wonder hardware TV Tuner cards.
*Rage Theater comes on AIW <9000, all the Radeon VIVO cards and on some Models of Standard Radeon cards for just TV output with no video input capabilities.

Apparently ATI's Xilleon chip will be used in the next generation as part of AVIVO, its the chip ATI has used for STB and TV sets.