HDTV - Installing ATI's HDTV Wonder

Just installed

Published on August 30, 2004 By Baub In Gadgets & Electronics

Over the weekend, I installed a ATI Technologies HD-TV All-in-Wonder after reading some good reviews of it. I'll write up what I've gone through to get it working, it was (as is with computers) not a quick or painless event, but in the end it might have been worth it. Luckily for me, I already had the ATI Technologies Radeon 9800 Pro video card. This card or another one that supports DirectX9 is required for installation. Purchased at retail, this card came with adirectional antenna and the ATI Technologies TV Wonder VE Remote. At this point, I'm not sure getting the remote is worth much, I'm still evaluating.

Comments

Zoomba

on Aug 31, 2004

I'm actually looking for a good PCI TV Tuner card right now as my PC has turned into almost a complete entertainment system for me, the only thing lacking is TV input. I don't want to replace my main AGP video card as it's pretty nice (9800 XT 256MB) and I want something I can hook up my cable and a video game console to. Thus far I've been rather unsuccessful in finding anything that might meet my needs. Aside from the HD-TV All-in-Wonder, have you had any experience with other TV cards?

gr00vy0ne

on Aug 31, 2004

If you don't care about HDTV then Hauppauge WIN-TV PCI cards are pretty good and work with a lot of software.

I also bought the ATI HDTV Wonder and after some installation nightmares, I got mine working. When it's working, it's spectacular, especially if you have a HD ready LCD TV. When it's not working, it's a headache. ATI's bundled software is garbage. Instead of a consistent user interface experience, they force you to use their "cool" skinned apps which are poorly implemented at best and graphically unappealing. I was hoping for at least the option to turn off the skinned garbage and use something that adhere's to standard Windows GUI components. Hey ATI programmers...there's this thing called the Windows API...please use it. I don't mind free-form skins but when they're as amateurish as these are it's very annoying. It's like the kind of skins you see uploaded here by first time skinners...

The remote may or may not be useful. I would have preferred a package that doesn't have it and costs $100 less. It seems ok, but it seems less useful since it still has to be used with the awful software interface.

Baub

on Aug 31, 2004

Be sure to check out www.avsforum.com, there are a bunch of discussions on pc video cards and their features. I wanted to stay in an ATI environment, so the Wonder card had a big lead in the selection process. There are defintely other cards out there with a more open programming environment, which will let the software capabilities exapand.

Baub

on Aug 31, 2004

You're dead on, the ATI UI is horrible. I can't understand how it got through any sort of usibility testing. I'd love to be able to code a floating bar (via Object Dock) that has my favorite channels on it. Plus switching between SD and HDTV is a pain. You're in HDTV with one interface and then you have to exit and go into SD with another interface. Simply abysmal.

terpfan1980

on Sep 03, 2005

I have one of these cards also, and thus far have done ok with the ATI software once I got the system configured and working....

I posted a review some time back. It isn't as smooth as it should be, but has improved as the software/drivers and other ATI stuff has improved a bit.

Still, most people that have been the happiest with the HDTV Wonder seem to be using it with Media Center Edition (Windows XP, MCE). It's supposed to work quite nicely there, assuming you have the other hardware needed for using that o/s.

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