WinTV-PVR Personal Video Recorder, worth the price?

[antieuclid]

This summer I got a good paying job from hell. In an attempt to not strangle my boss, I am buying myself a present with some of the money I'm earning. I was thinking about getting the WinTV-PVR, and I was wondering if anyone out there had one, and whether the bells and whistles are worth the price. Or if they had other suggestions for a good TV Tuner. I've had a lot of trouble with ATI products locking up my computer when TV Player was running, so I really want to find a stable Tuner. Other important features include being able to schedule recording and decent video quality.

antieuclid

 

[Duvie]

Since I had my All in Wonder 8500DV I have never had a freeze up when playnig the TV...I can capture at highest DVD settings and still only take 36% cpu utlization...

What are you looking to spend?? I think the nice wintv-pvr is still close to 100-150 right??? Do you game any??? I would look at the AtI 9600PRO AIW...Get great gaming power, access to ATI's much improved MMC 8.5, and the nice TV features.

ATI driver install is tricky but when done in the right order I don't see why you have issues unless something else to be blamed.

After my ATI TV wonder I felt about the same way and the lack of winxp support at the time froce me to go away froma tv tuner product, but when I came back I have had this card for over a year and I still love it....

 

[SemperFi]

I had an original All in Wonder and currently an 8500dv and have had the same experience with lockups while using TV. I reloaded my OS recently and also bought the upgrade disk from ATI for the updated dvd player. I haven't had a lockup since then. You may want to try the latest MMC like Duvie said.

 

[antieuclid]

I went to the ATI website and checked out the product information, went on google and looked at reviews, they all made the 9600 look pretty good. But when I tried to actually find one to buy, I discovered that they don't seem to actually exist. I assume they just haven't been released yet, but I can't seem to find an estimated release date anywhere. There was a flurry of reviews and announcements around Aug 5, but there hasn't been any news since then. Anyone know when we might be able to buy this mythical card that will support dual monitors and whiten your teeth as you sleep?

antieuclid

 

[Duvie]

pricewatch has a company listing ETA 9/15/2003 when I checked before reading this thread.....I believe with the newer cards (AIW's) you will get much better gamers as in the past they have neutered the core and memory speeds of the AIW's. However I don't believe you will get the nice interface of the 8500Dv as well as the firewire support. The firewire support is becoming popular on newer mobos so that isn't much of a big deal....

 

[rbV5]

I believe with the newer cards (AIW's) you will get much better gamers as in the past they have neutered the core and memory speeds of the AIW's. However I don't believe you will get the nice interface of the 8500Dv as well as the firewire support

Only the AIW 7500 and 8500dv were clocked different than their non-AIW counterparts. The AIW 9600 will be the first that is faster than their non-AIW counterpart. Firewire support is gone for now(forever?), the interface is provided through MMC is available to all cards, some features aren't supported by all cards however. The AIW 9600 will have FM stereo and dual VGA, no DVI.