Best TV card

[R Thompson]

Group,

I have an AMD XP2500 powered PC, 1g memory, and an ATI 9800 Pro video card.
I want to be able to use my PC as a DVR and burn DVD's. I've looked at the
TV Wonder Elite for about $150 and want to know if this card will accomplish
what I want. Any thoughts about this card?

 

[J. Clarke]

Group,

I have an AMD XP2500 powered PC, 1g memory, and an ATI 9800 Pro video
card. I want to be able to use my PC as a DVR and burn DVD's. I've looked
at the TV Wonder Elite for about $150 and want to know if this card will
accomplish what I want. Any thoughts about this card?

It will do what you want and for analog TV it probably has the best image
quality of any non-professional board out there. The downside is that it
uses a proprietary ATI chip and has limited third-party support.

Personally I'd go for one of the Hauppauge PVR- series boards, that work
well and have good third-party support, or if you're in an area where ATSC
or QAM HD is available, a Dvico Fusion board, which costs the same or less
than the TV Wonder Elite, captures analog so-so to well depending on the
model, captures ATSC and QAM HD, and, while not as widely supported as the
Haupauge PVR series, is developing good third-party support. Some models
of Dvico Fusion board will even work for analog TV with some versions of
ATI MMC.

 

[stratus46]

Group,

I have an AMD XP2500 powered PC, 1g memory, and an ATI 9800 Pro video card.
I want to be able to use my PC as a DVR and burn DVD's. I've looked at the
TV Wonder Elite for about $150 and want to know if this card will accomplish
what I want. Any thoughts about this card?

Very similar to the PC I use with the HDTV wonder. Mine has only a 9600
pro card, Win XP Pro SP2. I was just at the ATI site and saw a news
release about Windows MCE and the PC with Athlon 64 dual core and TV
Wonder Elite which I just looked up. With digital TV now available

http://www.nab.org/Newsroom/issues/digitaltv/DTVStations.asp

an analog TV tuner reminds me of announcing a new turntable. I ASSURE
you that after you try DTV (even standard def) you won't want to mess
with analog any more.

The DVICO fusion card can do ATSC and QAM 64/256. I only use off-air
HDTV so the HDTV Wonder (ATSC only) is sufficient. I now use it for
time shifting instead of a VCR (JVC HDTV VCR is $1200--- OUCH!) The
remote control has the 'skip' forward and reverse in 32 second
increments. No more commercials. Being disc based, the skips are nearly
instant.

BTW, HDTV burns through 6-8 Gigs/hour so my 300 gig RAID is good for
about 40 hours. Std def is down around 1.5 gig/hr.

Glenn Gundlach

 

[Roger]

The DVICO fusion card can do ATSC and QAM 64/256. I only use off-air
HDTV so the HDTV Wonder (ATSC only) is sufficient. I now use it for
time shifting instead of a VCR (JVC HDTV VCR is $1200--- OUCH!) The
remote control has the 'skip' forward and reverse in 32 second
increments. No more commercials. Being disc based, the skips are nearly
instant.

Where are you located (with reference to the local TV towers), what kind
of antennae, and what software are you using? I have an ATI HDTV Wonder
and I have had problems with reception -- the strongest stations freeze
every now and then and the weaker stations receive only sound. I live
about 20 miles from the towers and have a direct line of sight. The
HDTV wonder is junk compared to my Samsung SIR-T451.

I would really like to do what you are doing and build a multi-media PC
for the family room.

Roger

 

[J. Clarke]

Where are you located (with reference to the local TV towers), what kind
of antennae, and what software are you using? I have an ATI HDTV Wonder
and I have had problems with reception -- the strongest stations freeze
every now and then and the weaker stations receive only sound. I live
about 20 miles from the towers and have a direct line of sight.

Try an attenuator--Radio Shack has a variable model that works well. You
may be overdriving the front end on the HDTV Wonder's tuner--this was a
problem with the Dvico Fusion 2 and with a number of ATI analog boards.

 

[stratus46]

Where are you located (with reference to the local TV towers), what kind
of antennae, and what software are you using? I have an ATI HDTV Wonder
and I have had problems with reception -- the strongest stations freeze
every now and then and the weaker stations receive only sound. I live
about 20 miles from the towers and have a direct line of sight. The
HDTV wonder is junk compared to my Samsung SIR-T451.

I would really like to do what you are doing and build a multi-media PC
for the family room.

Roger

Hi Roger,
I live in the LA area about 35 miles south from the towers. I use a
Winegard SquareShooter without the preamp (channels 7-69)

http://www.winegard.com/offair/squareshooter.htm

It is connected to the ATI and Samsung TS-165 with Belden 1694 which is
about the lowest loss RG-6 size cable.

The signal strength indicators on the ATI and TS-165 do not show
multipath (ghosts) problems, only how strong. The DTV LED on the TS-165
indicates that it is actually decoding DTV. Now and then the stations
will glitch which leaves the LED on but still breaks up so it probably
isn't multipath. At 20 miles out fron the towers, I wouldn't expect
overloads but attenuators are cheap to try.

The newest generation 5 receivers (DVICO fusion 5 is one) can handle
changing multipath better than the earlier units. Looking through wet
trees during a breeze is a challenge. Since you say you can see the
towers, thats great. If space or ugly (the wife knows) isn't an issue,
I would get the highest gain (best directivity) antenna that covers DTV
in you area. There is 1 channel 3 (WBBM-DT) DTV in Chicago that I know
of and a few channel 7-13 around but the bulk of DTV is UHF. Also use
good cable with properly attached connectors. I use clear silicone
heatsink grease on the connectors to prevent corrosion.

For software its Win XP Pro SP2 and V9.04 from the ATI -200 disc. Last
November my HDTV Wonder came with a -100 disc. I bought the -200 last
July. The nice thing about the disc rather than the website is that
everything gets loaded at once and hopefully works.

Glenn Gundlach