Tiger Direct

[mga]

Be aware that the customers' "Product Reviews" at Tigerdirect.com are a
fraud; if you submit a negative review, they don't post it.

I have purhased 3 bad items from them, but had not posted any reviews.

1) If you want to copy your VHS movies to your computer, do not buy the
ATI All In Wonder 2006; it assumes that all the VHS tapes have
macrovision, the exception being recordings into VHS from the TV; in
other words, if you want to back up your legitimately purchased movies
that do NOT have macrovision protection, it will not let you do it. I
submitted a review mentioning this issue among others with this card,
and they don't post it, and ignored my email asking them why they
rejected the review.

2) I purchased 2 ADS external hard drive enclosures; one of them went
bad after one week. The other still works after 6 months.

3) I purchased a 25 foot S-Video cable; the signal that the TV gets is
the video + horizontal lines going up the screen.

 

[kony]

Be aware that the customers' "Product Reviews" at Tigerdirect.com are a
fraud; if you submit a negative review, they don't post it.

Why did you purchase from them in the first place?
A little bit of research at the BBB, various online forums,
and resellerratings.com will reveal all kinds of shady
practices.

I have purhased 3 bad items from them, but had not posted any reviews.

Always research a company before buying. Ignore positive
reviews, any company still in business will get it right a
few times... instead, focus on the problem reviews and how
they attempted (if they did attempt at all) to rectify any
problems.

1) If you want to copy your VHS movies to your computer, do not buy the
ATI All In Wonder 2006; it assumes that all the VHS tapes have
macrovision, the exception being recordings into VHS from the TV; in
other words, if you want to back up your legitimately purchased movies
that do NOT have macrovision protection, it will not let you do it. I
submitted a review mentioning this issue among others with this card,
and they don't post it, and ignored my email asking them why they
rejected the review.

There might be hacks to get around that problem, as false
macrovision detection has been an annoyance for quite a few
years with various cards, not just AIW 2006, but to be
frank, if there were any capture/tuner card brand that I'd
avoid, it'd be ATI. Their hardware is fine but their
drivers and philosophy in general leaves a bit to be
desired.

2) I purchased 2 ADS external hard drive enclosures; one of them went
bad after one week. The other still works after 6 months.

3) I purchased a 25 foot S-Video cable; the signal that the TV gets is
the video + horizontal lines going up the screen.

I'd wonder if something else isn't wrong, even a poor
(cheap, low-end) cable will do far better than that. I
suppose a defective cable is possible but I wouldn't assume
it just yet.

 

[mga]

Why did you purchase from them in the first place?
A little bit of research at the BBB, various online forums,
and resellerratings.com will reveal all kinds of shady
practices.



Always research a company before buying. Ignore positive
reviews, any company still in business will get it right a
few times... instead, focus on the problem reviews and how
they attempted (if they did attempt at all) to rectify any
problems.



There might be hacks to get around that problem, as false
macrovision detection has been an annoyance for quite a few
years with various cards, not just AIW 2006, but to be
frank, if there were any capture/tuner card brand that I'd
avoid, it'd be ATI. Their hardware is fine but their
drivers and philosophy in general leaves a bit to be
desired.



I'd wonder if something else isn't wrong, even a poor
(cheap, low-end) cable will do far better than that. I
suppose a defective cable is possible but I wouldn't assume
it just yet.

Thanks for your input.

I had only bought about $30-$40 worth at a time from them (the bad hard
drive enclosure being one of them, after I had earlier bought the good
one which still works after 6 months) a couple of times.

The video card and the S-video cable I bought with my last purchase 2
weeks ago.

Your are correct, their software is garbage, that's one of the other
many problems, which I didn't mention in the original post.
Interestingly, I also have the AIW 7500 Radeon, and that one correctly
identified the macrovision and non-macrovision tapes, but that computer
died, hence new computer and new video card (the old card is an AGP,
the new PCI express). From the research and experimentation I have
done, I have come to the conclusion that the card is overly sensitive
to errors in the tape, and concludes that anything other than a perfect
tape has macrovision in it; does that sound right to you? Keep in mind
that these are not bad tapes, they play perfectly on the TV.

 

[kony]

Your are correct, their software is garbage, that's one of the other
many problems, which I didn't mention in the original post.
Interestingly, I also have the AIW 7500 Radeon, and that one correctly
identified the macrovision and non-macrovision tapes, but that computer
died, hence new computer and new video card (the old card is an AGP,
the new PCI express). From the research and experimentation I have
done, I have come to the conclusion that the card is overly sensitive
to errors in the tape, and concludes that anything other than a perfect
tape has macrovision in it; does that sound right to you? Keep in mind
that these are not bad tapes, they play perfectly on the TV.

It sounds plausible, but I doubt anything can be done about
it except completely disabling the macrovision, IF anyone
has hacked it to do so.