ATI TV Wonder 200 PCI

[inabsentia]

Hello everyone,

I've recently purchased an inexpensive, analog TV tuner card...

ATI TV Wonder 200 PCI

The software that comes bundled with it, ATI's prized Catalyst Media Center is awful. In fact, it will spontaneously decide what shows to record.. and fails to record more than half of the shows I demand it to. The software crashes too often and absorbs much of my computer resources when it does. I've spent months looking at alternatives. SnapStream gets high marks. I want to believe this budget card is still salvageable before I buy one of ATI's higher end TV tuner cards. In the system requirements for Beyond TV, it mentions a lot of ATI compatible cards.. but fails to mention my card. Is my card compatible with Beyond TV?

I hope that I'm not abusing this forum by posting a new thread as my first post, please forgive me.

Thanks,


Robert

[tscales]

That's what we're here for. Others will jump in with more experience, but it is not listed as supported in their list:

http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/sysreq.asp

That said, it might still work. Download the trial and give it a shot.

It isn't, however, the best choice, as it is a software encoding card, so it will eat up a lot of your cpu where a hardware encoding card, like the hauppauge PVR-150 won't.

Feel free to ask other questions, but I'd suggest trying the trial first.

[risen]

Originally Posted by inabsentia

ATI TV Wonder 200 PCI

This card does in fact work with BTV 4.5 -- I recently used it myself.

However, if you have the ability to return the card for a refund I highly recommend doing so. This card has a software encoder and will eat your CPU for breakfast to do encoding.

IMHO, much better results can be obtained with a card that offers hardware encoding such as the Hauppauge PVR 150 (PCI). They also offer USB models.

Or, if you just prefer ATI, look for an ATI card which has hardware encoding.

Bottom line, your card will work with BTV but may be less than desirable.

[inabsentia]

Ok, I will download the trial and test the card. I would like a hardware-driven card so I'll look into ATI's exchange program. Thanks for the response!

Robert

[Bigbird999]

Like risen said, it is a software encoding card and as such it is not the best choice for BTV. Having said that, if you have a reasonable computer and don't plan on doing anything else with your computer while watching/recording, it can work, albeit with limitations. When you say inexpensive, how inexpensive? And can you return it and get a hardware encoding card? What are your system specs? What do you want to do, just record shows like a vcr or have full PVR/DVR capabilities?

Post back and we can help you get where you want to go.

BB

[inabsentia]

I've installed the trial version of BTV. It appears to work, but not well. The video quality is less than desirable. CMC (Catalyst Media Center) does have much better video quality and recording quality, at least with this card. I've tried all sorts of things such as changing the video settings in BTV and recording compression. For some reason, deinterlacing does not function. My video card is old, a ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, but I don't think it is in any way a bottle neck.

I think I've answered my question on two levels. 1) the TV tuner card I currently have has got to go and 2) bundled software has a major lack of functionality and spotty reliability.

I'm VERY impressed with BTV. The functionality of it is overwhelming!

In response to BigBird:

I'll need a TV Tuner card capable of the following things:
1) Recording a lineup of shows. For instance, 3 shows in a row. I do not mean recording two shows scheduled at the same time.
2) It must reliably record.. I'd say less than .1% chance it would fail. I do have a UPS.
3) I am looking for some high resolutions, not HD, but good. I hold onto episodes of series.
4) Optimization. I need my computer resources... my computer is essentially my ALL-IN-ONE media center. Computer Specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+
1 GB DDR 3200 RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (AGP)
Creative Audigy 2 Platinum
160 GB seagate RAID SATA drives
500 GB seagate USB 2.0 drive

5) Consistent recording... I like my TV series.
6) I don't do much live TV watching... so being able to pause and rewind isn't necessary, but would be nice.
7) I hate commercials.

I hope that sets the stage for some good recommendations. The ATI TV Wonder 200 PCI was around $50. I'd say its about as valuable as its cost. I do have a brand loyalty to ATI. I still can't believe that the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro still plays the games I want to play, its nearly 4 years old! So I'd prefer to stick with ATI, but will choose otherwise if those requirements cannot be met.

[Bigbird999]

in
You are like me, an ATI guy. I use a Hauppauge 150 in my BTV server with an ATI9600 vid card, but I use a Sapphire Theater 550 (ATI) in my all purpose box. Both tuners are hardware encoders and work well with BTV. You will be much happier with a hardware card. If you can exchange your TVW 200 for a Theatre 550 pro it will be about 40 bucks more.

Picture quality should not be an issue with the current card. There will be other problems but generally not PQ. If you switch to a hardware card, it is a moot point however.

ATI also makes the Theater650 which is a dual tuner card 1 for HD and 1 for SD (hardware tuner). Can only record 1 at a time. Then there are dual tuner cards that can record 2 SD shows at once. Nvidia makes one.

If you are like most you will add other tuners later, but I prefer baby steps so start with one, get familiar with BTV and you can always add more tuners and storage later.

BTW, you mentioned Catalyst Media Center. Did it come with the ATI TVW 200? Or do you mean ATI MMC (multi media center)?

BB

[inabsentia]

BigBird,

The Catalyst Media Center is ATI's solution to Microsoft's MCE. The intention is to replace the old MMC. It comes ONLY bundled with newer ATI hardware. You cannot download it. Unfortunatley, it is buggy.

Robert

[risen]

Originally Posted by inabsentia

I'll need a TV Tuner card capable of the following things:

I'm running BTV with (see specs below) and recording shows in the background takes approximately 0% cpu.. hehe.

Viewing live TV takes about 20% give or take, due to decompression. Thats using the snapstream decoder, which I find just as good as any others I have.

Anyway you don't do much Live TV, so I suppose that doesnt matter ;-)

Someone asked how much less the ATI 200 cost; I recently purchased one to try (now returned) and it cost $70 with no remote. My hauppauge 150 "with" a 45-button remote was only $90, with a $20 mail in rebate.. sooo, not much better really!

I was *so* shocked to find out that the ATI did not have hardware encoding despite being the same price as the Hauppauge 150 which does have it.

Anyway. And I just got my Firefly, nice! Hauppauge makes a decent remote but firefly is even better!

[inabsentia]

Risen,

I loose about 30% CPU with the ATI TVW 200 card. Fortunately, my CPU and overall specs are so good that I can have BTV recording in the background while playing World of Warcraft at almost full specs. But I would like that 30% lost horsepower back!

I am definitely going to replace the TV Wonder 200. I think the Firefly is widely supported.. I ran into some nice European software for it.

I am so impressed with BTV so far. What a well written piece of software. Zero issues.

Robert

[inabsentia]

Is it possible for BTV to use both an ATI TV Wonder 200 and the Hauppauge PVR 150? I would like to use the Hauppauge for recording and the ATI as a secondary recorder/viewer. Please advise.

Thanks,
Robert

[yle]

Absolutely, BeyondTV supports multiple tuners out of the box. There is an order you will want to set them up so it records first on the 150, then the ATI if the 150 is busy, but otherwise should work perfectly. One added benefit to this setup is that with a software encoding card in the system you can stream liveTV via the web interface (not possible with a hardware encoder). You will find that there are many people on the forums using 4 or even more tuners on a single box.