TV tuner card. ATI TV wonder VE $20 after $20 rebate or 3 firewire port Card (DV wonder) @ Compusa

[raiders710]

To those who missed or "got" the Pinnacle PCTV pro card

this one is better, it allows timer recording, caption, etc...
But no generic software, it uses own ATI tv tuner chip.


Compusa ad

 

[breweyez]

A better link
I am curious about this card...anyone want to give their input?Thanks
will it work in XP??? Does it have the same TV features as the AIW???

 

[Sepen]

<< A better link
I am curious about this card...anyone want to give their input?Thanks
will it work in XP??? Does it have the same TV features as the AIW??? >>




User Reviews

 

[tops2]

hey, did u guys check online at compusa?
the rebate form says u only get $10 back, even though on the website it says u get $20 back?

 

[vcarpio2]

I love this card. I've had one since when CompUSA first had a $20 AR rebate sale about 2 years ago. I'm going to buy another one for my daughter's PC.

I agree with all the reviews in the above link. I've reinstalled OS's a couple of times (WinMe, WinXP). It is always confusing to install the drivers properly. But eventually, I always got it to work.

One weird thing with the XP drivers, though, when you start the TV application, the picture is sometimes distorted (like pay-per-view channel when you didn't pay). The solution which I found posted on the Net is to right-click the desktop as soon as you launch the TV app so that Windows' right-click popup menu is showing while the TV app is launching. Works all the time.

 

[cheeto]

yeah i noticed that too. Is it different in at the B&M ?

 

[theshamu]

The DV Wonder card looks decent from its spec:
3-port Firewire, Max Resolution 720X480, 60-Frame/second, bundled with Ulead VideoStudio 5...
Anyone cares to share some thoughts?

This review gave it good marks.

 

[manko]

I would like to hear from folks who have the DV Wonder. I've been looking up info on Google Groups, most people there say it works quite well for DV editing with a camcorder. My question is, can you plug in a firewire hard drive and a camcorder at the same time and capture video to the firewire drive without problems?

One thing to note about this card is that is is based on the Agere chipset , instead of the TI chipset (which has the best reputation), but it is OHCI standard compliant. Actually, doing a search for Agere, I came up with this quote:

<< Stick to Firewire boards with either the Texas Instruments or Agere (Lucent) chips... >>

for another viewpoint, here's a quote from a review of the ATI 8500 DV, which also uses and Agere chipset (though I'm not sure if it's exactly the same):

<< Here we hit another snag with our Via KT-266A-based Epox 8KHA+ testbed motherboard. We were able to have our Sony DVR-PC5 digital camcorder be recognized by Windows XP, and we could drive the camera's transport controls (play/pause/rewind/etc.), but we could not receive an incoming video or audio stream coming from the camera. Apparently ATI's Agere 1394 PHY/Link chip and the Epox motherboard's BIOS just couldn't get along. To verify that ATI's overlay driver wasn't broken, we installed a second FireWire card that uses TI's PHY/link chip, and it worked swimmingly. >>

8500DV review

 

[AnMig]

gaddarnit!!!


just bought a WinTV GO (hauppauge) at officemax bm yesterday for $50 (aftertax). I was actually looking for the tv wonder but cheapeast price on price watch was $44 (w/o shipping).

Now I have to decide if I should return this and get the tv wonder. Its already installed and working fine in xp

Can anyone give ther oppinion on which card is better?

Peace

 

[tiejiba]

vcarpio2
Hi, I have the same card. and i tried several time to install this bad boy in XP, but it just doesnot work only sound no pic, can you tell me how you installed it?
Thank you

 

[MustangSVT]

we can record TV shows with this right?

i want to record "IRON CHEF!" its so fun!
too bad i cant watch the new episodes.... (they are only showing old old ones before 2000 i think).

 

[sm]

As mentioned above by other people, I also see the rebate to be $10 and so the final price should be $30 .. Dont know whether B&M are different rebate ..

 

[wasssup]

yea b&m has the $20 rebates..but it only specifically states it's for the DV Wonder and ATI Xpert 98 (but the item number for the tv wonder is also listed)...

i don't think i'll be seeing the rebate, but who knows. i will raise hell if i don't get it, this fulfillment center is pissing me off...

 

[tallest1]

WinTV has great support, great drivers (linux and windows), and acceptable software but I'm not sure about the quality. I'm trying to build an TV recording rig and the video from WinTV Go is horrible (fuzziness in the form of light vertical line static, especially). I looked at a hallmate's ATI Wonder VE video quality and it was much better. However, since so many people rave about WinTV, perhaps my results are different from others. From what I've read, you can expect quality from ATI Wonder VE but not quality drivers (it is ATI after all).

If anyone else can compare WinTV & ATI Wonder VE, please post.

Nevertheless, I'll be keeping my eye on this thread

 

[DanFungus]

*SO* tempted to buy...

 

[Fritzo]

<< gaddarnit!!!


just bought a WinTV GO (hauppauge) at officemax bm yesterday for $50 (aftertax). I was actually looking for the tv wonder but cheapeast price on price watch was $44 (w/o shipping).

Now I have to decide if I should return this and get the tv wonder. Its already installed and working fine in xp

Can anyone give ther oppinion on which card is better?

Peace >>



Keep the Hauppauge. It's a better card. It also uses the standard BT848 (or 878) chipset, so you can use other apps with it.

 

[MustangSVT]

EDIT.... (let me clear it up little bit).

i went to B&M compusa in schaumberg, IL today after seeing the deal.

they had it for $40 - $ 10 instant -$20 rebate.
after buying it, i went to their rebate rack where they have all the rebates.
the one for TV wonder VE DOES say $20 rebate, however on the rebate, it only says "Xpert98 or DV wonder PCI" and does not mention TV wonder, but after i looked down further, it did have the right SKU number for TV wonder in it (275162).
i asked the manager there... he said it is the right one.


hope it works...

any special drivers or steps i need to take to install this on my winXP?

 

[dmcgoy]

so this is actually $30 online....?

 

[Foghorn]

MY AIW Radeon works fine in XP. I think all these ATI cards use the same software and drivers. I was disappointed with a Hauppage USBTV tuner. Lousy software, lousy picture. Might pick one up for the 2nd PC

 

[BLoop]

Here's my take on the rebate situation. First off, here's a link to the two rebates listed for SKU# 275162.

The first one is the $10 rebate linked to from the product page. I requires an original UPC code and needs to be postmarked by April 30. It also states that it can't be combined with any other offers from ATI. This is the valid rebate for the TV Wonder VE even though it's for the wrong amount.

The second rebate is $20 for the DV Wonder PCI, but it also lists SKU# 275162 as being valid. This SKU# will be printed on the copy of the sales receipt that you send in, so I think it should be valid. Plus the sales receipt also shows that there's supposed to be a $20 receipt, so that lends even more support to your claim that this is the right rebate if you have problems getting them to process it down the road. It also requires an original UPC code, must be postmarked by 3/9, but doesn't say anything about combining it with any other offers.

So what I plan on doing is to mail in the $20 rebate right away with a copy of the UPC code and a piece of paper stating that I had to use a copy because there was another rebate involved that also called for the UPC code. Hopefully that will get approved. I'll have about 9 weeks from the time I submit it until the $10 rebate needs to be postmarked to try and get it sorted out. If I'm lucky, I'll receive both.

If the $20 rebate is approved then I may have trouble with the $10 because it's not supposed to be combined with other offers. I'll still be happy with the $20. If the $20 doesn't go through because of the product description or the copied UPC code, then the $10 should be approved without any problems. At which point I'll try to get something else from CompUSA since they clearly state it should have a $20 rebate.

Anyway, that's the plan. We'll see how it ends up.

 

[LiLRiceBoi]

How does this thing compare to the PCTV Pro?

 

[XoMartel]

just reminder...

when you record with ati tv wonder VE, you get mono sound quality. down side is you need to crank up the volume to hear the tv and recording. it get annoying when you multitasking on your pc, since you get that click, pop, fancy sound from instant message or apps really loud.

As for record quality, the best quality is good but i get about 10% frame drops which result a slight delay on the recorded movie. (like watching slide show). On medium quality, it's ok, blurry but only 1-2% drops which hardly noticeable.
This is on p3 550, 512mb ram, voodoo 5500 agp (go through creative dvd-decoder card, before go through the tv wonder ve), and win me.

If you need to watch tv on pc, this done the job very well. if you want to record, you might want to think about it since the limitation they put in. so people would buy the ati all in wonder card instead to get stereo quality recording/play back.

Hope this helps.

Xo Martel

 

[JimmyJoe]

I just got one at the Oxnard, CA store. About 12 left on the shelf.

Thanks for the deal!

 

[JuryDuty]

I've had one of these for a long time and it's a good card. I liked my Hauppague better, though. Still, the ATI VE has some really cool functions and is GREAT if you have dual monitors. I use WinXP.

 

[Eminem2k1]

any one know where to get a cheap coax cable splitter? costs something like $12 @ RS...online or B&M thanks...