ATI ALL IN WONDER 9800 PAL to NTSC

[tony]

Hello ,

Please can someone help .. I have moved from the UK to Canada and in
my pc I have all-in wonder 9800 card .. The tv does not work .. I know
they have ntsc and in uk pal

Can I make the card work here .. I cannot afford to buy a new one

please help

Tony

 

[Conor]

Hello ,

Please can someone help .. I have moved from the UK to Canada and in
my pc I have all-in wonder 9800 card .. The tv does not work .. I know
they have ntsc and in uk pal

Can I make the card work here .. I cannot afford to buy a new one

They are international. Just re-run the TV setup wizard.

 

[David T. Metz]

They are international. Just re-run the TV setup wizard.

That wont work, since it's a PAL-tuner on the card. You can never have it
receive NTSC.

David

 

[Geoff]

Hello ,

Please can someone help .. I have moved from the UK to Canada and in
my pc I have all-in wonder 9800 card .. The tv does not work .. I know
they have ntsc and in uk pal

Can I make the card work here .. I cannot afford to buy a new one

please help

Tony

so just change the output to ntsc instead of pal in the display settings
no big deal ??
the only v minor problem you will have is the card defaults to pal tv output
on bootup, then when windows runs it uses the windows drivers

 

[Conor]

That wont work, since it's a PAL-tuner on the card. You can never have it
receive NTSC.

Wonder why mine lists NTSC as an option...

 

[Paul Murphy]

Wonder why mine lists NTSC as an option...

Just because your software (ATIs MMC?) lists NTSC as an option, doesn't mean
it will actually be selectable or tune to/receive NTSC broadcasts. Certainly
MMC is international in that the same software will work with both PAL and
NTSC cards but in terms of hardware the cards come in 2 basic flavours which
are "Universal PAL/SECAM" and "NTSC" (with PAL N/M support). They are NOT
interchangable and one cant be "flashed" to the other. Tonys best bet would
be to sell the PAL card second hand and buy an NTSC one or continue to use
the PAL card and only use the composite in and use an NTSC capable VCR to do
the tuning.

Paul

 

[T Shadow]

Just because your software (ATIs MMC?) lists NTSC as an option, doesn't mean
it will actually be selectable or tune to/receive NTSC broadcasts. Certainly
MMC is international in that the same software will work with both PAL and
NTSC cards but in terms of hardware the cards come in 2 basic flavours which
are "Universal PAL/SECAM" and "NTSC" (with PAL N/M support). They are NOT
interchangable and one cant be "flashed" to the other. Tonys best bet would
be to sell the PAL card second hand and buy an NTSC one or continue to use
the PAL card and only use the composite in and use an NTSC capable VCR to do
the tuning.

Paul

Wouldn't the video in also be PAL(25fps)?

 

[Paul Murphy]

Wouldn't the video in also be PAL(25fps)?

Yes the composite video signal from the VCR would be in PAL format but
that's plugged in to the video input (either S-Video or Composite) and it's
not dependant on the tuner module but on other parts of the card ciruitry
and THAT part is universally compatible. There'll be an All In Wonder X800
in due course no doubt and when that comes out it would be nice see a
version which copes with "Global" broadcast standards - ie one card can be
used anywhere in the world. It would certainly make inventory control and
distribution simpler (not to mention the benifits for people who move their
computer to other countries as the OP has done).

Paul

 

[Paul Murphy]

Yes the composite video signal from the VCR would be in PAL format but
that's plugged in to the video input (either S-Video or Composite) and
it's not dependant on the tuner module but on other parts of the card
ciruitry and THAT part is universally compatible. There'll be an All In
Wonder X800 in due course no doubt and when that comes out it would be
nice see a version which copes with "Global" broadcast standards - ie one
card can be used anywhere in the world. It would certainly make inventory
control and distribution simpler (not to mention the benifits for people
who move their computer to other countries as the OP has done).

Paul

Just visited ATIs site and its already listed - alas only for NTSC and PAL
N/M only though. Maybe their next big card....

 

[David T. Metz]

Just visited ATIs site and its already listed - alas only for NTSC
and PAL N/M only though. Maybe their next big card....

Not likely. It would be to expensive not to mention heat producing and bulky
in design. Wait for hdtv, which is digital. With digital transmission it´s
much easier to produce a card that can cope with all the flavors.

Dav

 

[tony]

CaN I use something like dscaler I am trying it and it seems to find
programs but I cannot change channels etc

Tony

 

[Paul Murphy]

NO, its a hardware limitation of the card that Universal PAL/SECAM hardware
can't tune properly to NTSC broadcasts. You may get "bits and pieces" of a
clear signal/reception because the tuned frequencies may overlap BUT due to
differences in the actual signal it wont be watchable.

Paul

 

[Paul Murphy]

Not likely. It would be to expensive not to mention heat producing and
bulky in design. Wait for hdtv, which is digital. With digital
transmission it´s much easier to produce a card that can cope with all the
flavors.

Dav

Given that the differences between PAL/SECAM and NTSC hardware are minimal
(but still significant), I cant see how you'd say such a card would be to
large/bulky - sure the tuners and some related circuitry are different
inside but why cant the hardware be integrated in to one Global tuner (with
a simple adapter for the different antenna connectors used by PAL vs NTSC
countries)? The part that produces the most heat by far is the GPU and that
is the same on both cards. Judging by the amount of fan related "piffle" on
the new X800 AIW, I dont think ATI would claim they're that squeezed for
space on the boards. A large price difference would not be justified because
essentially all the same components would be used, there would just be some
duplication of cicuitry associated with the tuner and surface mount caps and
resistors cost just a few pennies/cents each. Certainly the initial design
work would be intensive but the long term payoffs for the company (stock
control/inventory management) I believe would justify that.

I'm not familiar with HDTV but do all countries use exactly the same format
for broadcast or are there differences? I cant see all counties swapping
over to HDTV quickly given that many areas in some countries dont even
receive the full range of channels on the analog range (I'm in this
situation and I live in the fairley well off - by international
standards -UK). The cost of infrastucture changes would surely be very high.

Paul

 

[OMaurizio]

Hello ,

Please can someone help .. I have moved from the UK to Canada and in
my pc I have all-in wonder 9800 card .. The tv does not work .. I know
they have ntsc and in uk pal

Can I make the card work here .. I cannot afford to buy a new one

please help

Tony

Hi,
the TV tuners on the cards sold in Europe aere different (analogic
Philips, if I remember) from those for sale in US+CANADA (digital with
HDTV capability) NO WAY. Sell the card to some friend of yours in UK
and buy another one.
Maurizio

 

[David T. Metz]

Given that the differences between PAL/SECAM and NTSC hardware are
minimal (but still significant), I cant see how you'd say such a card
would be to large/bulky - sure the tuners and some related circuitry
are different inside but why cant the hardware be integrated in to
one Global tuner (with a simple adapter for the different antenna
connectors used by PAL vs NTSC countries)?

I'm not saying it can't be done, just that it wont be done for the reasons
given. Similarly you would be hard pressed to find a regular tv set with a
"global tuner".

The part that produces the
most heat by far is the GPU and that is the same on both cards.

Agree, but why add more heat than necessary? It will only cause
cooling-problems.

I'm not familiar with HDTV but do all countries use exactly the same
format for broadcast or are there differences?

There are different standards, but they are much easier to handle in
software to my knowledge (which is somewhat limited on the subject).

The cost of infrastucture changes would surely be
very high.

Yes, it's a long-term perspective. In Denmark, where I live, however, analog
broadcast was originally planned to be ceased in 2008, but due to technical
difficulties it has been postponed.

David