I bought this and hooked it up to my PC. In order to make it work I had to update my graphics card to the latest drivers (I have a NVIDIA GEForce 4 MX 440 with 64 meg of RAM so it is kind of slow compared to what is out there now) and update to the latest Microsoft Direct X drivers (you need to be 9.0 or above).The manual is strange because even though it is in english and seemingly well written it really doesn't tell you much of what you need to know. I put the card in an unused PCI slot and my windows XP machine found the card and then I updated the drivers. But you also need to install other software or it won't work and that is poorly explained, but finally I managed to find it.
After I got it all installed and found I tried digital HDTV (why I bought it) and it didn't even start up. OK, then I tried analog TV and got that to work so I knew it wasn't the card or anything like that. I stumbled through ATI's poorly designed site and sent their customer service group an email (it was saturday night so I didn't really expect a response right away) and FINALLY I found what I was looking for updated DTV (digital TV) drivers. I downloaded them, and, voila it works!
I am in chicago so the channels available aren't so great and they vary by station but I was immediately able to watch the baseball playoffs in hdtv and they looked good!
The antenna that it comes with is not powered and from my looking around at tech sites basically you need a powered antenna. I know that the chicago transmission is all from the hancock or sears towers and I can't really face the antenna the right way due to where the computer is located but the stations come in OK, most of the time. I think you need to buy a powered antenna to make it really work.
It comes with a channel guide that is free but that is geared more towards analog than digital TV. It apparently has TIVO like functionality but I haven't figured that out yet.
ATI puts a docking station on the side of your toolbar which isn't too bad.
The remote is very cool! There is a USB antenna you plug in and then the remote allows you to change channels. You can also use this remote for power point presentations and stuff like that. I like it a lot.
This thing is clearly for early adopters and you have to be willing to fiddle around but for 200 bucks you get:
analog TV card
digital TV card
remote control
non powered antenna
TV guide software (free)
ability to do some tivo like stuff and screen captures, and play it back thru the library
Personally I am trying to setup a cheap HDTV system with a PC, 20 inch flat screen and this card. I want to be able to watch some sports in HDTV but I don't want to spend thousands on a current generation HDTV. This allows you to do this.
Don't kid yourself this is a first generation product, just like the first generation wireles router I bought, etc... And ATI's customer service and web site have not impressed me they didn't tell me to get the updated drivers, they said it was an XP problem (wrong!). But anyone who gets a first generation product and expects tech support to fix it is just dreaming, unless you happen to reach the one guy or whatever who knows your product, the rest of the tech staff have a boilerplate response.
I mean what do you expect for 200 bucks? The TV tuner for analog and remote and antenna cost something, right? And then you get HDTV? This is going to come down some in price but as soon as something breaks the 200 dollar price point I am going to be an early adopter just for grins, and that is what this is.
But I don't recommend this unless 1) you are pretty technical 2) you don't mind fixing it all yourself and figuring it out, including drivers, and you can do this w/ a junky manual and non-intuitive web site 3) you have some time on your hands.
To me that is what I expect from a first generation product that is being priced at a mainstream cost (i.e. less than 200 bucks).
Also if there aren't many stations broadcasting HDTV in your area than you are basically buying a regular TV tuner which is OK but there is probably a cheaper one out there.
* HDTV Wonder PCI card (contains both NTSC and ATSC tuners)
* ATI's Multimedia Center (MMC) 9.x software suite, which includes apps for standard-definition TV, HDTV, a media library/transcoder that can create DVDs and ATI's DVD player
* Mini-breakout box that has composite and S-Video inputs, as well as analog stereo inputs
* Indoor HDTV Antenna (Similar to Silver Sensor)
* ATI Remote Wonder Kit
* CD containing Software
* Manuals & Documentation
The card itself features a "Philips" HDTV tuner but ATI's NXT2004 receiver chip does most of the Job in processing the signals.
Even though NXT2004 Multimode VSB/QAM demodulator can work in either the ATSC compliant 8 VSB mode for terrestrial broadcasting, or 64 QAM or 256 QAM modes for Digital TV-Cable Connect and Digital TV-Cable Interactive reception. In this HDTV Wonder product, the NXT2004 is set up only as a 2-69 channels off-the-air HDTV receiver, with *no support* for Cable Card.
PROs:
* Very Good hardware
* Nice Bundle of accessories
* Very Good Picture Quality (**)
* Relatively cheaper
CONs:
* Very Buggy Software Suite.
* Difficult to install and setup without proper Knowledge of various Software components that interact and dependent on each other.
* Relatively high end system requirements (**)
(**)(System Requirements)
In order for a satisfactory performance, You must have these following Hardware & Software.
1. Atleast 2.8GHz Pentium 4 CPU
2. Atleast ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card or better with 128MB (On-board) of DDR-2 SDRAM
3. Atleast 1GB of DDR SDRAM Main Memory
4. Fast HDD (IDE with UDMA is okay but "SATA" Recommended)
5. Optimized Latest Drivers and Patches.
6. You *MUST* have an another Analog "Hardware Encoder" Based Tuner in your PC pre-installed in order for it to work under Media Center 2005 (Or have Software Hacks such as KRAM Drivers)
Installation notes:
I have spent countless hours in getting this thing to work properly on my PC, Please save yourself a lot of headache and follow these notes, it will help you in getting best out of this HDTV Blunder.
1. Location, Location, Location Install the Antenna in a good location, If you live in Fringe reception areas, or places where MultiPath (Digital Term for Ghosting) is an issue, Save yourself time and money, The Included Antenna will *not* give any satisfactory performance, Outdoor UHF/VHF Antenna is recommended.
2. Optimize your system, Make sure that all the necessary CHIPSET drivers for your PC are up-to-date, You have the latest and optimal Video Driver that is capable of OVERLAY and is Direct X 9 compatible.
3. If you have Windows Media Center 2005, Make sure you have the latest Update Rollup 2 which enables additional HDTV features.
4. Do not use the Drivers and Applications that comes with the product, Most of CD is outdated, Visit ATI's Website and download the latest necessary Drivers first. The latest drivers are better than what is on the CD.
5. Save yourself time & frustration, *DO NOT* use the ATI's Multimedia Suite, It is very Buggy. Instead use other Third Party Application like WATCH-HDTV, BEYOND TV4 etc;
If your PC has Media Center 2005 use the built-in MCE application (It is not as good as the Third Party Software in terms of Picture Quality but works better than ATI's own Software Suites!)
Other Notes:
* DO NOT expect to get those unscrambled Digital Cable signals using this card, IT will not work.
* DO NOT expect to capture Analog Video that is protected using Macrovision Protection, IT will not work.
ATI has this product in market for about 2 years now, I must say, ATI makes pretty good hardware as always, but their software is very buggy.
Now with the drop in HDTV Wonder price at Amazon, It is a good time to buy this product if you are willing to have few days of technological adventure :-)
Buy ATI Technologies 100-714127 HD-TV Wonder Now
I've owned this card for going on 2 weeks and have been extremely frustrated with the poor service I've been getting from ATI, but thanks to kind strangers and google, I can now share a fix to one of the problems that has been bugging me for a while. 480i/p and 720p worked fine out of the box, but 1080i was garbage. Thanks to smileyw, I changed a registry key and now 1080i works great. Here's the secret: hkey_local_machine\software\ati technologies\multimedia\cyberlink\powerdtvchange UIUseHVA from 1 to 0
Credit where credit is due =
The picture quality is beautiful, 5.1 audio is great, and with football season coming on strong, I'm happier now.
Read Best Reviews of ATI Technologies 100-714127 HD-TV Wonder Here
If you read the bad reviews of this product, you'll notice that they are complaining about the quality of their reception, not the product itself...too bad. You must live in a major metropolitan area in order to get the DTV HDTV stations, yes. Some cites and areas are better than others. New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, S.F. Bay Area, San Jose, Miami...these are the areas i am talking about.You defintely must take note of the requirements, most notably a 64mb video card supporting Directx9.0.
What this pci card does: Record, pause, etc...HDTV and normal analog TV. You can burn to DVD and CD. It has a remote. Amazing. Comparable ATSC tuners set top boxes made by SOny and Samsung cost 300 plus...and they dont record HDTV onto your PC..and burn too.
This PCI card is serious HDTV technology, using a chip that ATI has been using already in other applications. Now we have tivo hdvt functionality on the pc with no monthly fees. This is a great product and more people that live in major cities should check it out. The future of TV...the FCC is forcing this transition anyway...
Want ATI Technologies 100-714127 HD-TV Wonder Discount?
I've read MANY reviews before deciding to take my chances by purchasing this product. Lots of people have bashed it or complained on how hard it is to setup. It's as easy as this...1.) Install the card
2.) Click cancel on the "Found new hardware wizard" and insert the included CD.
3.) ONLY install the hardware drivers and then install something called "ATI Multimedia Center."
4.) On the multimedia center setep, choose "Custom" and ONLY install something called "DTV."
5.) Restart your PC and open the newly installed program, "DTV."
In case you're wondering, I'm using an HP Media Center 2005 PC with an Intel Pentium D 820. 1GB RAM and an ATI Radeon X700 card.
REVIEW UPDATE: WINDOWS UPDATE FOR WINDOWS XP NOW FINDS A DRIVER FOR THIS DIVICE WITHOUT THE NEED FOR THE ATI CD. THIS ALLOWS THE HDTV CARD TO WORK DIRECTLY WITHIN MEDIA CENTER. WINDOWS VISTA ALSO SEES THE CARD WITHOUT THE ATI DISC AND MEDIA CENTER SEES IT. ENJOY!
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