AIW Support in Vista?

[James Colbert]

Does ATI ever plan to support the AIE 1800XL? I bought this card shortly
before Vista and now, a year later, their website still states:
________
Note: All-in-WonderT boards operate with AMD Windows Vista-Ready Display
Drivers under the Windows Vista Operating System. However there is currently
no software application which provides TV/Capture functionality for
All-in-WonderT boards under Windows Vista.
________

Putting aside the fact that the 'discalimer' is written to sound neutral, as
though this matter is completely out of ATI's hands. Instead, the question
begs: Does ATI ever plan to add Vista AIW support for this card, or are they
just yanking the chains of those who own them rather than flat out state
that AIW owners are SOL, as they have no plans to *ever* support this
expensive card?

Apologies if this sounds like the rant it is. I've patiently checked the web
site on a regular basis for a year now only to be perpetually confronted by
this disclaimer and the realization that I paid entirely too much for a
straight video card when I thought I was buying a multimedia TV card.

Thanks!

 

[James Colbert]

Is there 3rd party software that will efficiently run the TV functions of
this card? By efficiently, I mean without crashing, good TV display, etc.

Thanks,
James

 

[pjp]

Does ATI ever plan to support the AIE 1800XL? I bought this card shortly
before Vista and now, a year later, their website still states:
________
Note: All-in-WonderT boards operate with AMD Windows Vista-Ready Display
Drivers under the Windows Vista Operating System. However there is currently
no software application which provides TV/Capture functionality for
All-in-WonderT boards under Windows Vista.
________

Putting aside the fact that the 'discalimer' is written to sound neutral, as
though this matter is completely out of ATI's hands. Instead, the question
begs: Does ATI ever plan to add Vista AIW support for this card, or are they
just yanking the chains of those who own them rather than flat out state
that AIW owners are SOL, as they have no plans to *ever* support this
expensive card?

Apologies if this sounds like the rant it is. I've patiently checked the web
site on a regular basis for a year now only to be perpetually confronted by
this disclaimer and the realization that I paid entirely too much for a
straight video card when I thought I was buying a multimedia TV card.

Thanks!

Don't hold your breath. I'm still pissed that my Radeon 7200 with video-in
could not be used in Netmeeting though it does work as a capture device
under 9x and XP (not with native drivers). My condolences on running Vista
btw.

 

[Augustus]

Does ATI ever plan to support the AIE 1800XL? I bought this card shortly
before Vista and now, a year later, their website still states:
________
Note: All-in-WonderT boards operate with AMD Windows Vista-Ready Display
Drivers under the Windows Vista Operating System. However there is
currently no software application which provides TV/Capture functionality
for All-in-WonderT boards under Windows Vista.

Short answer: Never

You'll need to upgrade your Vista to XP Pro to get functionality back ;-)
You'll gain a whole lot more speed too.

 

[Matt Ion]

Is there 3rd party software that will efficiently run the TV functions
of this card? By efficiently, I mean without crashing, good TV display,
etc.

You could try BeyondTV (www.snapstream.com) - there's a free
time-limited, fully-functional demo available.

 

[DaveW]

Vista was written so poorly by Micro$oft that ATI and Nvidia are having a
VERY hard time writing drivers for any of their moderately older video
cards. Blame Microsoft for not consulting with anyone else when they were
concocting the disaster known as Vista.

 

[J. Clarke]

Vista was written so poorly by Micro$oft that ATI and Nvidia are
having a VERY hard time writing drivers for any of their moderately
older video cards. Blame Microsoft for not consulting with anyone
else when they were concocting the disaster known as Vista.

If they can write drivers for their new boards then they can write
drivers for their old ones. Now ask yourself, who benefits from
making old video boards obsolete so that people have to buy new ones?
Is it Microsoft or is it nvidia and ATI?

 

[James Colbert]

If they can write drivers for their new boards then they can write
drivers for their old ones. Now ask yourself, who benefits from
making old video boards obsolete so that people have to buy new ones?
Is it Microsoft or is it nvidia and ATI?

Hi John,

It turns out that you are the only responder to realistically address the
question. I really didn't think that this thread would give Vista ranters an
opportunity to vent their frustration, completely off-topic. If ATI can't
manage to write software for Vista, perhaps their time has passed (anyway,
it's the drivers that should present a problem, and they seem to have
managed that...My ATI Vista drivers work fine, I just can't use any of the
capture or media features).

You make the excellent point that ATI may well be using Vista as an
opportunity to increase profits. Also an excellent point is the reality that
they are able to support the newer cards. And the XL1800 is not an old card
by any standard. I bought it just shortly after the Vista beta testing
began.

I have an ATI support ticket pending and am still awaiting an answer. As you
imply, I suspect that I will have to buy a new card to gain this
functionality. However, I do still have TV functionality on my PC via cable
box output component to input component on my monitor. Although the software
solution would be of greater use to me, I refuse to reward ATI's seemingly
strategy of greed by buying another ATI card.

Thanks for the concise contribution to the thread. I suppose I'll start
lookning into 3rd party solutions. Might be better off anyway...

Thanks,
James

 

[James Colbert]

ATI finally got back to me. Their 'solution' was to send me a link to a page
with a listing of boards that *do* support Vista, and, even though shortly
after Vista came out, they claimed that mid 2007 would see AIW multimedia
support via CMC, they now show only stand-alone TV tuners as having Vista
support. I guess I'm supposed to buy one of these. Heh!

I guess I'll keep my relatively new XL1800, but I'm sure not going to buy
any more ATI cards. Guess it's back to Hauppauge for those needs. Anyone
have any suggestions for a good tuner board? Other than ATI, of course...

At least ATI finally owned up to the truth, even if in a roundabout way.
That could pass for integrity in *some* circles, right?

James

 

[First of One]

It's been speculated for some time that ATI had completely given up on the
AIW line. That's why there aren't any new AIW models out. There are no
current nVidia cards with built-in tuners, either.

Stay away from ATi tuner cards and get a Hauppauge or LeadTek WinfastTV.
This way the tuner/capture software isn't tied to core graphics driver
releases. You can then update the Catalyst drivers as frequently as desired
to support the latest games, without worrying that the drivers may break the
tuner software.

 

[hexHead®]

If they can write drivers for their new boards then they can write
drivers for their old ones. Now ask yourself, who benefits from
making old video boards obsolete so that people have to buy new ones?
Is it Microsoft or is it nvidia and ATI?

In my case, I had just bought an AIW 2006 PCI-E that was still on
store shelves when Vista came out, so I'd hardly call it obselete.
When I tried Vista, my TV tuner was bricked.

It's not that ATI can't release drivers, they simply choose not to.
Their canned answers are always "Buy a new card"

Some might call this extortion.

 

[J. Clarke]

In my case, I had just bought an AIW 2006 PCI-E that was still on
store shelves when Vista came out, so I'd hardly call it obselete.
When I tried Vista, my TV tuner was bricked.

It's not that ATI can't release drivers, they simply choose not to.
Their canned answers are always "Buy a new card"

Some might call this extortion.

The last AIW I bought was an 8800. That's when I gave up on them.
CableCard is made to order for ATI's approach to TV--keep everything
so secret that you can only use the hardware with ATI-provided
drivers.