ATI All in Wonder

[Miao Xu]

Hi everyone,

I am currently debating which video card to get, one that has the tv tuner
capabilities...now I have roamed the internet, and come across the ati all
in wonder chips. However, I don't quite understand the difference between
the "pro" tv tuner versus the "ve" tv tuner...what are the differences
(price of course), and also, is it better to buy a separate video card and a
tv tuner card, albeit the expense? Thanks,

Miao Xu

 

[Kev]

Hi everyone,

I am currently debating which video card to get, one that has the tv tuner
capabilities...now I have roamed the internet, and come across the ati all
in wonder chips. However, I don't quite understand the difference between
the "pro" tv tuner versus the "ve" tv tuner...what are the differences
(price of course), and also, is it better to buy a separate video card and a
tv tuner card, albeit the expense? Thanks,

Miao Xu

Do u mean the all in wonder cards or the tv wonder cards?

There is only 1 VE all in wonder card.

If you mean add on TV WONDER PRO/VE cards, the difference is the VE is
mono only.

 

[Noozer]

Do u mean the all in wonder cards or the tv wonder cards?

There is only 1 VE all in wonder card.

If you mean add on TV WONDER PRO/VE cards, the difference is the VE is
mono only.

Do not get an All-in-wonder card if you can avoid it. When you upgrade your
video card in a year or two you will also toss out a perfectectly working TV
tuner as well.

Also, ATI's TV tuner software/drivers are AWFUL! I'd suggest a different
maker.

 

[Kev]

Do not get an All-in-wonder card if you can avoid it. When you upgrade your

video card in a year or two you will also toss out a perfectectly working TV
tuner as well.

Also, ATI's TV tuner software/drivers are AWFUL! I'd suggest a different
maker.

perfectly working and awful describing the same thing. gotta love it.

 

[Dave Hau]

One thing I like about using an all-in-one TV tuner + video card is that the
video capture uses the AGP bus instead of the PCI bus. The AGP bus has a
much higher bandwidth than the PCI bus, which only has 133MB/s (for a 32 bit
33MHz PCI bus). That ensures that when you do video capture, you can still
allow bandwidth for your other PCI devices like your hard disks, sound card,
etc.

Noozer, when you mentioned that ATI's TV tuner software/drivers are awful,
can you elaborate on that? Personally I'm thinking about upgrading from my
Ti4200 to the AIW 9800 pro also.

- Dave

 

[Mark Leuck]

Do not get an All-in-wonder card if you can avoid it. When you upgrade your
video card in a year or two you will also toss out a perfectectly working TV
tuner as well.

I'd imagine when he does upgrade he'd get another All In Wonder card

Also, ATI's TV tuner software/drivers are AWFUL! I'd suggest a different
maker.

Seems to work fine for me

 

[John Q]

I have no problems with a hercules 9800se AIW modded for all 8 pipelines.

 

[Noozer]

perfectly working and awful describing the same thing. gotta love it.

ATI hardware is VERY good. Their software sucks. IF you get it working, it's
great, but who needs the hassle?

 

[Noozer]

One thing I like about using an all-in-one TV tuner + video card is that the
video capture uses the AGP bus instead of the PCI bus. The AGP bus has a
much higher bandwidth than the PCI bus, which only has 133MB/s (for a 32 bit
33MHz PCI bus). That ensures that when you do video capture, you can still
allow bandwidth for your other PCI devices like your hard disks, sound card,
etc.

Noozer, when you mentioned that ATI's TV tuner software/drivers are awful,
can you elaborate on that? Personally I'm thinking about upgrading from my
Ti4200 to the AIW 9800 pro also.

I've tried ATI tuners since their 4 meg All-In-Wonder Pro. The only surefire
way that I was ever able to make these cards work was to format the PC, then
immediately update drivers and install ATI stuff. Usually it worked fine
then. If you tried to install one of their tuners into an already working
machine, it usually doesn't work.

Right now I'm waiting for a reply from ATI about my PCI TV Wonder. Doesn't
work on my MSI KT6 system with a GeForce 2 GTS card. I do admit that I
actually got a bit of help from them this time. Never got anything before.

The hardware works great *IF* you can get the software installed and
working.

 

[Bernard Rother]

I've a Radeon 9000 AIW and the TV part has never worked ... ever. A friend
downloaded the latest drivers ( 25mb) a few weeks ago and that had no effect
at all. I can't even capture video from the vcr. My old Vexteme tv card
worked a treat. Popped it in, ran the software and up came the pictures ..
not so with the AIW.

I'll be dumping it the middle of next year and will look at another brand
and a separate tv card.

Bernard

 

[J.Clarke]

One thing I like about using an all-in-one TV tuner + video card is
that the video capture uses the AGP bus instead of the PCI bus. The
AGP bus has a much higher bandwidth than the PCI bus, which only has
133MB/s (for a 32 bit 33MHz PCI bus). That ensures that when you do
video capture, you can still allow bandwidth for your other PCI
devices like your hard disks, sound card, etc.

Standard definition video has a 6 MHz bandwidth, HD has 12--the
bandwidth of the PCI bus is not an issue in video capture.

Noozer, when you mentioned that ATI's TV tuner software/drivers are
awful, can you elaborate on that? Personally I'm thinking about
upgrading from my Ti4200 to the AIW 9800 pro also.

Personally I just moved away from the AIW. Been running a Dvico Fusion
HDTVII and so didn't see any real reason to spring for another AIW. If
you do decide to go AIW though, the 9800 is a better choice than the
9600 IMO simply because it has DVI while the 9600 is VGA-only.

 

[Miao Xu]

Do not get an All-in-wonder card if you can avoid it. When you upgrade your
video card in a year or two you will also toss out a perfectectly working TV
tuner as well.

Also, ATI's TV tuner software/drivers are AWFUL! I'd suggest a different
maker.

So would you say that the nividia brand of tv tuners are better? The problem
I have is that I don't want to spend too much money on a separate video card
which needs to be replaced (i have a geforce 2mx 400) as well as a tv tuner
card, which i desperately want, so I'm looking for the best compromise, and
the ones that I've come across are the ATI All in Wonder 9600 or ATI All in
Wonder 9000 for the price between 150 to 200. If there are any better offers
out there, or ones I don't know about, or even better suggestions, please
offer them...Thanks,

Miao

 

[Miao Xu]

ATI hardware is VERY good. Their software sucks. IF you get it working, it's
great, but who needs the hassle?

Noozer, what do you mean "if you get it working"... is there a problem when
you install it, or when you try to run it?

 

[jeff]

The PCI bus does become a problem when using raid. My PCI TV wonder drops
frames when I use the raid drives do to a saturated bus. Looking at the
fasttrack faq it's a known problem. So I too am considering the AGP card it
this would solve my problem. Any comments?

The PC has the following.

AGP Rage Fury Pro
TV Wonder Pro (PCI)
DX34R-U board with two 1.4 P3-S processors full 512 on die and speed.
768 MB PC 133
IDE1 Quantum 30G 7200RPM drive
RAID (Striped) 2x80G 7200 RPM drives

Jeff

 

[Granny]

I am on my 3rd ATI AIW Pro and have loved all of them - the 9600 Pro allows
you to connect 2 monitors to it so I was able to remove my 2nd video card.
I do not play games but do a lot of video capture and video editing

granny

 

[Kev]

I am on my 3rd ATI AIW Pro and have loved all of them - the 9600 Pro allows
you to connect 2 monitors to it so I was able to remove my 2nd video card.
I do not play games but do a lot of video capture and video editing

should have saved some bucks and bought the AIW VE then

 

[J.Clarke]

I've a Radeon 9000 AIW and the TV part has never worked ... ever. A
friend downloaded the latest drivers ( 25mb) a few weeks ago and that
had no effect at all. I can't even capture video from the vcr. My old
Vexteme tv card worked a treat. Popped it in, ran the software and up
came the pictures .. not so with the AIW.

I'll be dumping it the middle of next year and will look at another
brand and a separate tv card.

Uh, may I ask why you didn't RMA it when you found that the TV section
was dead?

 

[taifuun]

If there is not at the launch of Video in some sort of messages:
ATI....cant fint the driver....try reinstall...etc. then there can be
fault of the Rage Theatre chip...

 

[Kev]

It's WDM drivers(don't reboot), followed by display drivers(reboot) and
then control panel (reboot).

Then install the MMC stuff.

 

[PB]

It's WDM drivers(don't reboot), followed by display drivers(reboot) and
then control panel (reboot).

Then install the MMC stuff.

If only ATI could just write one driver package that took care of it all for
you, wouldn't that be an exquisite miracle?