TV Cards: Pinnacle Studio PCTV or ATi TV Wonder?

[angrymaxx]

I was wondering if anyone with experience has an opinion of which one is better, mainly in terms of picture quality, especially with S-Video inputs (for consoles) and also feature wise.

thanks

 

[luv2chill]

It would be hard to beat ATI in terms of TV Tuners. I had an All In Wonder Pro a while back that had a great tuner and great software to boot. For instance, you could make the TV picture your desktop wallpaper! It also has closed captioning (pretty sure PCTV doesn't) and full screen channel display (I think that when you're full screen the PCTV doesn't show you what channel you're on).

Also keep in mind that unless you're getting the higher-end PCTV (with remote) you're not getting Stereo, which you will with the ATI Card.

I'm not sure if ATI has WDM drivers for Win2k, but I know that the PCTV does not (yet). That is another issue.

That said, I've heard people say good things about the Pinnacle cards too... hopefully you will get some other responses.

l2c

 

[Orbius]

Actually from what I've been reading the Ati cards have some of the worst picture quality on the tv tuner, though their capture features are about the best. Cards with the Brooktree chipset usually have some of the best Tv quality, I have an Antec Tv-tuner with a Brooktree chipset, though I believe Pinnacle and WinTv also use this chipset.
From what I've heard the 3dfx Tv200 is about the best out there right overall now, too bad about the driver situation, though if you can find one for a good price it might be worth it.

 

[TimeKeeper]

Currently still own this $49 pinnacle TV card from CompUSA.
Very easy to setup, very stable, very easy to record your TV show....w/ cable

Never try ATI, can't tell you which one is better though...

 

[angrymaxx]

thanks for the opinions guys. the only thing im worried about with the voodoo tv 200 is the current and future lack of driver support. I would like to know if there is a difference in quality with the s-video inputs though.

 

[MGMorden]

The ATI TV Wonder does use a brooktree chipset (the BT878), the All in Wonder's use the ATI Rage Theater chip though.