Questions about ATI Theater 650 Pro

[watdahel]

Like any good boy I read the reviews on the ATI Theater 650 Pro tv tuner and have come out confused. So, I guess I'll ask those who have the card for a better understanding. Are there different versions of the card? I know about the recall that supposedly affected primarily BestBuy. Are there pre-recall and post-recall Theater 650 Pro tv tuners on store shelves?

From all the reviews I've seen the cards use the Theater 312 and not the 311. Some cards also had 128 MB of RAM while another review had 256MB of RAM on the card. And on the back of some cards there are two soldered wires on the signal inputs, which looked like something you would see on a prototype or was this the fix for the recall.?

I want to get this baby but damn I don't want to get a hack hardware.

Reference:
Samsung RAM

 

[bigsnyder]

All of the Theater 650s in stores should be post-recall. I have a 650 and am very happy with it, however this card does have a varied track record.
If you are running Vista, I would stay away from the 650 for now. Most feedback regarding Vista installations have not been positive. Most of the
XP kinks seems to have been worked out, but for some the signal strength bug remains: MCE shows only one red bar for each OTA channel which
can be a problem if you have not already worked out antenna placement. Luckily I already knew what directions to point my antenna. Some are
reporting that the latest drivers from ATI solves this bug, however I cannot verify it. Also this card seems very picky about antennas. ATI recommends
the use of an amplified antenna, but this doesn't seem to be a guarantee for good performance. I am using a non-amplified outdoor directional antenna
without any problems. Bottom line, I wouldn't attempt using an indoor antenna unless you have very good reception in your area. The documentation
regarding which connectors are which is misprinted, but the labelling on the back of card seems correct. This card is definitely worth a try, if not just
take it back.

C Snyder

EDIT, I deleted my comment about the RAM, it appears I was wrong. However, ATI does not advertise the RAM specs on their site.

 

[watdahel]

Check out this review. The review is from last month so the hardware is pretty recent. This one has 256 MB of RAM.

 

[bigsnyder]

The review states 128MB. Where did you see 256MB stated?

C Snyder

 

[watdahel]

Card with no wires on back.
Card with wires


Follow the Samsung link and look at the spec on the memory chip.