Thinking of trashing my new All-in-Wonder 2006 PCI-E Edition

[Fred Hebert]

I just built a new system and put in an All-in-Wonder 2006 PCI-E Edition
but I am about to trash it. I am having a lot of problems and unless
someone tells me this is just my card, I am going to trash it.

1. The tuner is horrible. I have a signal amplifier and my previous
system had an AIW 9000 connected exactly the same setup/cable. The AIW
9000 worked great. I disconnected it and connected the AIW 2006, and the
signal is horrible. Half the station have static and/or audio problems,
some don't even come in and only about 4 are good.

2. The software doesn't work properly. I can't make it store my recorede
shows in my media folder on my d: drive and it puts the wrong names on
the files.

I have set the one touch path, but it doesn't work. Further more it is
more messed up than that. It actually uses that path WHILE recording a
scheduled show, but as soon as it is finished recording it moves the
movie to the root of C:. Also it doesn't get the name correct. I just
did a test. I selected 3 consecutive 30 minute shows on channel 42 to be
recorded. I have the file naming convention set to program name & date.
I then started watching channel 32. In previous version of MMC it would
it would jump to the selected channel at the designated time and record
the program.

At 10:00 it jumped to channel 42 and began recording as expected, but
instead of name/date the file was named channel/date, and it was being
recorded in my media folder. When the recording was finished the file
was moved to C:\. Then the next recording began. It was also recording
in my media folder, and it had the show name/date file name format, but
the show name was not the name of the program being recorded on channel
42. It was the name of the show on channel 32. As soon as the recording
was finished, it was also moved to C:\.

OK, now it is recording the third show. This one has the wrong name
again and is being "temporarily" recorded in my media folder. I bet it
will be moved to C:\ when it's done...

3. No hardware encoder. If I had noticed that I would not have bought in
the first place, but I trusted ATI. I have been buying AIT cards since
the EGA wonder but it has always been a bumpt relationship. There have
been a lot of driver problems but I have always been able to resolve them
eventually.

4. The initial software install is automated and easy, but updates are
terrible. Manual uninstall, then downloading all the different parts and
trying to get them installed in the right order. And the DAO breaks
everything...

Why can't they have an automated update that looks at what I have and
updates the required files like other modern software?

5. Performance. Well I am not a gamer and don't need the fastest card on
the block, but I now see in benchmark test it is usually the slowest card
in the lineup. I mean 3x slower than the next card. I don't do anything
that really requires speed, but I suspect this it the basis for a lot of
my screen flicker.

 

[First of One]

So unload it on eBay and get a LeadTek WinfastTV or something.

Frankly, any time you have an all-in-one card, the tuner software won't get
updated as often as the main graphics drivers. I see it with the ATi AIW
cards. I saw it with the Voodoo3 3500TV. Having a standalone card is always
less painful.

The ATI AIW series will be discontinued very soon, according to HardOCP and
DailyTech:
http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=MjEwMDEsQXVndXN0ICAgLDIwMDYsaG5ld3M=
I'm not sure how long the software updates will continue after the products
are cancelled.

 

[Barry Watzman]

I just installed the same card last night in a new Core 2 Duo system and
it's working fine, although I have not yet made (and probably won't
make) any recordings. But all functionality seems fine and quality,
while not as good as the Hauppauge tuners that I use in MCE systems, is
better than any of the previous AIW boards that I've used (this system
has an AIW 8500 in it).

Note: I did not use the ATI CD at all, since there are newer versions of
both Catalyst and MMC, I used only the downloaded latest versions.

 

[Fred Hebert]

My new system is a Core 2 Duo as well, I also downloaded the latest
Catalyst and MMC software.

This my 5th AIW card and the worst for me. The system I replaced had an
AIW 9000 AGP. I have the AIW 9000 card in my wife's system and the kids
system and they work fine.

I am a software developer by profession and I do some low end video
production. Mostly things like home videos, some stuff for the company
web site, and the ocasional wedding or anniversary video. I work long
and odd hours so several years ago I started using my AIW as a PVR to
grab shows I wanted to watch.

For me the tuner is the most important feature.

Another thing I just found out is that I can no longer convert my old VHS
tapes to DVD using the AIW 2600. Apparently there is something in the
software that won't record tapes with copy guard on them. This is a pain
because this another important feature for me. I think I can defeat this
with different software. I don't think this is a coptright violation, I
just want preserve some of my old, mostly kids tapes. I now have grand
kids and some of the old movies arn't even available any more.

Anyhow I am just frustrated and angry.

If you are not having any performance problems with the tuner perhaps I
just have a bad card? The pain is that taking it out and shipping it
back to get a replacement means that I will be without a system for a
couple of weeks...

....

 

[xmradio]

My new system is a Core 2 Duo as well, I also downloaded the latest
Catalyst and MMC software.

This my 5th AIW card and the worst for me. The system I replaced had an
AIW 9000 AGP. I have the AIW 9000 card in my wife's system and the kids
system and they work fine.

I am a software developer by profession and I do some low end video
production. Mostly things like home videos, some stuff for the company
web site, and the ocasional wedding or anniversary video. I work long
and odd hours so several years ago I started using my AIW as a PVR to
grab shows I wanted to watch.

For me the tuner is the most important feature.

Another thing I just found out is that I can no longer convert my old VHS
tapes to DVD using the AIW 2600. Apparently there is something in the
software that won't record tapes with copy guard on them. This is a pain
because this another important feature for me. I think I can defeat this
with different software. I don't think this is a coptright violation, I
just want preserve some of my old, mostly kids tapes. I now have grand
kids and some of the old movies arn't even available any more.

Anyhow I am just frustrated and angry.

If you are not having any performance problems with the tuner perhaps I
just have a bad card? The pain is that taking it out and shipping it
back to get a replacement means that I will be without a system for a
couple of weeks...

...

I have both the 9600 aiw and the newest x1900 aiw.

I notice the scheduler don't work on either of these cards.

I now, only install the tv and dvd player for these goofy capture cards. I
got a happauge too, its a good card, but you cannot change the capture
profiles. Anyone know how?

I use an avi capture profile, for both ati cards thats good for my video
editing stuff.

As for recording vcr stuff. It might be best to get a dual player, recorder,
from cost co. You can record to dvd from the tape.

If I want to use some "back ground" video. I might use the pass-thur of my
sony camcorder, from a dvd.

Then I take that avi file, use it with my camcorder footage, editing
software.

I also notice the older 9600 software has a pause button while recording, as
the newest software for the 1900 crap don't.

I occasionally like to pause when recording and change channels, or
camcorder tape.

xman

 

[Barry Watzman]

Based on my own experience, the "Pass through" conversion on many Sony
camcorder is by far the best way to capture video.

 

[T Shadow]

I just built a new system and put in an All-in-Wonder 2006 PCI-E Edition
but I am about to trash it. I am having a lot of problems and unless
someone tells me this is just my card, I am going to trash it.

1. The tuner is horrible. I have a signal amplifier and my previous
system had an AIW 9000 connected exactly the same setup/cable. The AIW
9000 worked great. I disconnected it and connected the AIW 2006, and the
signal is horrible. Half the station have static and/or audio problems,
some don't even come in and only about 4 are good.

2. The software doesn't work properly. I can't make it store my recorede
shows in my media folder on my d: drive and it puts the wrong names on
the files.

I have set the one touch path, but it doesn't work. Further more it is
more messed up than that. It actually uses that path WHILE recording a
scheduled show, but as soon as it is finished recording it moves the
movie to the root of C:. Also it doesn't get the name correct. I just
did a test. I selected 3 consecutive 30 minute shows on channel 42 to be
recorded. I have the file naming convention set to program name & date.
I then started watching channel 32. In previous version of MMC it would
it would jump to the selected channel at the designated time and record
the program.

At 10:00 it jumped to channel 42 and began recording as expected, but
instead of name/date the file was named channel/date, and it was being
recorded in my media folder. When the recording was finished the file
was moved to C:\. Then the next recording began. It was also recording
in my media folder, and it had the show name/date file name format, but
the show name was not the name of the program being recorded on channel
42. It was the name of the show on channel 32. As soon as the recording
was finished, it was also moved to C:\.

OK, now it is recording the third show. This one has the wrong name
again and is being "temporarily" recorded in my media folder. I bet it
will be moved to C:\ when it's done...

3. No hardware encoder. If I had noticed that I would not have bought in
the first place, but I trusted ATI. I have been buying AIT cards since
the EGA wonder but it has always been a bumpt relationship. There have
been a lot of driver problems but I have always been able to resolve them
eventually.

4. The initial software install is automated and easy, but updates are
terrible. Manual uninstall, then downloading all the different parts and
trying to get them installed in the right order. And the DAO breaks
everything...

Why can't they have an automated update that looks at what I have and
updates the required files like other modern software?

5. Performance. Well I am not a gamer and don't need the fastest card on
the block, but I now see in benchmark test it is usually the slowest card
in the lineup. I mean 3x slower than the next card. I don't do anything
that really requires speed, but I suspect this it the basis for a lot of
my screen flicker.

Can't recall the details but think I've seen references to your tuning
problems, at least, in the Knowledge Base. Or it could be a bad install. MMC
saves it's settings when it closes so you might try closing and rerunning
the program between changing settings and using them. If that helps it might
indicate the program isn't closing properly normally. You don't mention Cat
or MMC versions. You probably should be cleaning the system between
versions, especially if going backwards. ati.com/install

Why would you think the AIW had a hardware encoder, especially if you've
already owned an AIW? I've never seen anything to suggest AIWs had a
hardware encoder.

Guess I've gotten used to the ATI Shuffle but it's costing them a lot of
money in sales. I can't recommend their multimedia hardware to my less
technically savvy friends.