Anyone tried a Sapphire Theatrix 550 yet (new ATI 550 Chip!)

[Bilar Crais]

http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/prod...FU4EH6KN6M5TCA

Sounds like it could possibly be the ultimate analog, HW encoding tuner!

Very reasonably priced too!

Features:

• Theater™ 550 PRO core
• MPEG-2 video encode support
• MPEG Audio Encoder with sampling rates of up to 48khz
• Dolby Digital 2 channel encoding
• Programmable filters
• Motion adaptive 3D Comb Filtering
• FM Radio
• World-Wide Audio Decoder
• 16MB DDR memory controller

[Barnsie]

I don't know anything about it, but it looks pretty interesting. Hopefully there will be more info around soon.

Barnsie

[imf4]

wow I didn't know it was going to be that cheap.

The card has some features that should make the picture quality a little better. If ATI comes through they will become a real player. But that is a big IF.

[Rich A]

Note .. below is a case of putting mouth in gear before engaging brain. heh heh I must remember to keep up with the "new" stuff.

<wrong assumption>
I doubt VERY much that it is a hardware mpeg-2 encoder. I looked at a blown up view of the card itself and could not see any hardware firmware on it.

This "theater" thing ATI uses is hardware assisted pre-capture filtering. Has the normal ATI MMC stuff like noise clipping, etc. But not Mpeg-2 encoding. It uses the PC's CPU for mpeg encoding ..
<end wrong assumption>

[Kilrsat]

Originally Posted by Rich A

I doubt VERY much that it is a hardware mpeg-2 encoder. I looked at a blown up view of the card itself and could not see any hardware firmware on it.

This "theater" thing ATI uses is hardware assisted pre-capture filtering. Has the normal ATI MMC stuff like noise clipping, etc. But not Mpeg-2 encoding. It uses the PC's CPU for mpeg encoding ..

Check out the product page:
http://www.ati.com/products/theater550/index.html

ATi says it has a full encoder.

[imf4]

Rich A, It is a real hardware card. Not like the old crap that was out. That is why I am saying if they come through it would be great

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by Rich A

I doubt VERY much that it is a hardware mpeg-2 encoder. I looked at a blown up view of the card itself and could not see any hardware firmware on it.

This "theater" thing ATI uses is hardware assisted pre-capture filtering. Has the normal ATI MMC stuff like noise clipping, etc. But not Mpeg-2 encoding. It uses the PC's CPU for mpeg encoding ..

Rich...it has a chip DEDICATED to digital processing, filtering, etc., much like the VideoMate Ultra. And it is a full hardware encoder. I'd buy one now if I knew that BTV support was forthcoming.

[emg178]

I'm betting that ati will not let BTV support it, or it won't work right.

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by emg178

I'm betting that ati will not let BTV support it, or it won't work right.

If that's the case, I'll stick to the PVR-250. I am generally pleased with it, though I feel the picture is a bit on the "soft" side, perhaps even ever so slightly out of focus-even with prefiltering disabled and sharpness adjustment.

[Rich A]

Well after looking at the information in detail, it sure does have hardware ENcoding. At a price under 100 street it looks to be a winner. This is the new ATI chip announced several months ago. It's first actual in-the-store availabilty is mostly with 3rd party manufacturers (like the Saffire thing shown)

Interestingly very soon I hear, it will be available in both PCI and the new PCI Express buss.

Very interesting .. And since their new chip set is being used by many video/tuner card manufacturers, it looks to be a very viable product with a lot of support. Snap Stream definitately should look into support of this product.

[SHS]

I have one on the way hopely it be here monday or tuesday

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by SHS

I have one on the way hopely it be here monday or tuesday

Keep us posted :-)

If you could post some clips or caps on your www.shspvr.com site, it would be GREATLY appreciated!

I'm torn between this one and the Avermedia MCE 1500. BTV compatibility will be the deciding factor. Have you had a chance to try the Avermedia?

[SHS]

Sapphire Theatrix 550 dose work but by no means is it fully working.
As far I can tell you have put with 720x480 only and no odd ball bitrate like 3.5, 5.5 things lot that, but it dose seem support a lot more diff resolution and host of other thing when I check out everthing under GraphEdit.
Look like I setup dump profile with GraphEdit and it dump MPEG files

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by SHS

Sapphire Theatrix 550 dose work but by no means is it fully working.
As far I can tell you have put with 720x480 only and no odd ball bitrate like 3.5, 5.5 things lot that, but it dose seem support a lot more diff resolution and host of other thing when I check out everthing under GraphEdit.
Look like I setup dump profile with GraphEdit and it dump MPEG files

Have you tried it with the digital N/R? I would imagine you can only use the additional features through MMC 9.03. Curious about what you think about the picture quality and how it stacks up against the PVR-250.

[SHS]

Stacks up against the PVR-250 when 150 and 500 win hands down all ready didn't see this
http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6932