Which has a better TV TUNER - AIW 7500 or AIW 8500 ?

[psxjunky]

Hey guys ... I need your help again

In my last thread I sought opinion on whether to get the AIW 7500 or AIW 8500. Based on the feedback, the AIW 7500 seemed to be a better solution for me since I was not very keen on getting high end graphics, but TV out quality was more important for me ... so I got the AIW 7500 from Newegg last week for $129 (since it seemed to be of better value).

However, this morning I saw that CompUSA has the AIW 8500 (NOT 8500DV) on sale right now for $149 ... so I couldn't resist and bought this card as well I still haven't opened the box because I need to do some research and then keep the better one and return the other.

The $30 or so price difference is not important for me, and I still retain the position that TV out quality and TV Tuner quality is more important for me than high end graphics. Apparently both the 7500 and 8500 uses the same chip (Rage Theater) for TV out ... so I don't expect the basic TV out quality to be sigficantly different between the two. However, the TV tuner used in the two cards is completely different. The 7500 uses the old tried and trustworthy analog Philips TV tuner (and I can attest that the TV reception is great with this), whereas the 8500 uses a new silicon based solid state TV tuner ... whose quality is not yet proven (at least I don't know about it).

So, now I need to know which of these two cards have a better TV TUNER ? If any of you have any experience with both or either of these two cards, I would very much appreciate you dropping a line here with your feedback.

If I quickly run down the specs, the AIW 8500 clearly seems to be a better choice for me ... but I would like to get some feedback from you guys before finally deciding which one to keep.

AIW 7500

• Radeon 7500 GPU
• Analog TV Tuner
• 64MB DDR VRAM

AIW 8500

• Radeon 8500 GPU (clearly better than the 7500)
• Silicon Solid State TV Tuner. Don't know if better than the Analog Tuner
• 128MB DDR VRAM

I will be using this card in a Home Theater PC, which will be used mostly for TV viewing, PVR (Tivo like) function, and playing back DivX and DVD movies. However, I *do* plan to occasionally play games on this PC as well.

So what do you think - which card should I keep ?

Thanks in advance for any feedback !

 

[optimistic]

Are they not the same? Ah well, FYI, there?s a deal for an ATI Radeon 8500 AIW for $150 after $50MIR from compusa in the hot deals forum.

 

[bluemax]

Darn it! You americans get all the deals.... I *need* an AIW card for a project and I'd rather have the 8500 for a little fun on the side.

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: optimistic
Are they not the same? Ah well, FYI, there?s a deal for an ATI Radeon 8500 AIW for $150 after $50MIR from compusa in the hot deals forum.

That is the deal I hopped on

 

[Quixfire]

The difference is the 7500 has an analog tuner and the 8500+ have digital tuners. I have the 7500 AIW and it works fine for what I use it for.

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: Quixfire
The difference is the 7500 has an analog tuner and the 8500+ have digital tuners.

That's exactly my point I am trying to find out if the digital tuner has been proven to be better than the analog tuner or not. I can't seem to find any review that compares the TV reception quality of the digital tuner vs. analog tuner.

I have the 7500 AIW and it works fine for what I use it for.

I am using a brand new AIW 7500 right now ... and am very pleased with the TV reception quality. However, I picked up an AIW 8500 for a great price yesterday ... and am trying to decide which of these two cards I should keep (I have to return one of them).

The AIW 8500 obviously is an overall better card than the 7500 ... but because TV reception is one of my most important reasons for going to an AIW card, I am willing to choose the 7500 over the 8500 if and only if it has a better TV tuner. If the 8500 TV tuner is better or equal to the 7500 tuner, then I'll keep the 8500 and return the 7500.

I don't want to open the 8500 box (that'll cause problem in returning) unless I am sure I want to keep it. That's why I am trying to find out from this forum if anyone knows about the quality of the TV tuner in the AIW 8500 card.

 

[Rally1]

That's exactly my point I am trying to find out if the digital tuner has been proven to be better than the analog tuner or not. I can't seem to find any review that compares the TV reception quality of the digital tuner vs. analog tuner.

I think the new 9700 AIW went back to the analog tv tuner for heating reasons. Either way ATI has gone back to an analog tuner, read what you will into that!

tomshardware.com says so!

Unlike the previous model, the AIW Radeon 8500, ATI decided to revert to the classical tuner. The chip solution of the AIW R8500 was plagued by heat problems and also tended to be rather power hungry. Since an analog tuner also requires fewer pins, the board layout becomes much simpler as well.

So stop voting for the 8500!

 

[rbV5]

Unlike the previous model, the AIW Radeon 8500, ATI decided to revert to the classical tuner.

The AIW 8500 has the same analog tuner as the other AIW Radeon cards...the 8500dv has the silicon tuner.

 

[psxjunky]

Wait a second ... I just found something VERY interesting. Apparently the AIW 8500DV is the only model where ATI used the digital tuner. The AIW 8500 (the non-DV version, which was released after the AIW 8500DV) uses the old analog tuner.

See here for more info.

Since the card I bought is the non-DV 8500, this should be the one with the analog tuner. So given everything else is the same, this should provide same or better quality TV reception compared to the AIW 7500, right ?

If this is true, this makes my decision really simple ... 8500 it is

Someone please confirm !

[EDIT]
Heh ... I was too slow in replying I see rbV5 has already reported this by the time I posted

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Trying seeing if you can see any difference, hehe. I don't think its very easy to see a difference in the two u nless one was horrible and I haven't heard that about the tv reception yet.