[yrfc123]

Before I was not considering the ATI HDTV wonder at all because of the pricetag, but recently I have seen them as low as $145 shipped.


The new ATI TV wonder elite analog tuner was what I originally planned on purchasing, cheapest I can find is $155 shipped.


I keep thinking, why not just get the HDTV wonder? But then I realize, there aren't THAT many HDTV OTA programs, and what if the analog tuner on the HDTV wonder sucks for all my other viewing purposes?


I'm assuming the analog tuner in the HDTV wonder is the same quality as the one in the older TV wonder PRO. If that is so, I would rather get a Hauppauge PVR-150 for analog purposes. However, since the TV wonder elite has come out, that has been my main choice.


What do you guys think? Is the analog tuner on the HDTV wonder adequete for analog signals? Or should I not bother with the HDTV wonder and just get the TV wonder elite... will I really love the HDTV OTA programs that much?


I figure I will just buy the HDTV wonder from compusa, try it out, see if I get good reception in my room and test out the analog tuner. If all goes well, I'll return it and buy it online for a cheaper price =-X. If it sucks, I figure I'll just return it and buy a TV wonder elite online... but I'd like your input to see what you guys think.


TIA

 

[oferlaor]

You posted to the wrong forum, moving to the HTPC forum.

 

[kny3twalker]

unless you have with enjoy beta testing the ATI TV wonder elite, which can be bought under the sapphire name for under 100, I would go with the pvr 150 for stablity, and quality support

the analogue tuner in the HD wonder is a software encoder and cannot be used in MCE without hacking

 

[Hatecrime69]

How is the hd wonder if you don't have mce? I'm kinda curious about this myself, as i'm not fully pleased with the software with my winfast 2000xp deluxe (and i'm not 100% happy with the tuner itself)

 

[yrfc123]

TTT

 

[stanger89]

What do you wan't to do with it? You aren't really comparing similar products.


Of course in a nutshell.


For SD get the PVR 250 or PVR 150, especially if you want to build a PVR.


For HD, if you plan on using MCE the HDTV Blunder may be fine, if not, unless you want to beta test it, get something else, like the MyHD or AccessDTV.

 

[yrfc123]

Quote:

Originally posted by stanger89 What do you wan't to do with it? You aren't really comparing similar products. Of course in a nutshell. For SD get the PVR 250 or PVR 150, especially if you want to build a PVR. For HD, if you plan on using MCE the HDTV Blunder may be fine, if not, unless you want to beta test it, get something else, like the MyHD or AccessDTV.

Well before the HDTV tuner wasn't even in question. The only reason I considered it now is because the price is basically as cheap as the tv wonder elite. I figured why not just get the HDTV tuner instead? Only thing is the 550 chip in the TV wonder elite is better than the analog tuner in the HDTV wonder.


I looked into the PVR-150, and they don't seem to do very well during fast-sequence sporting events. I would like to still be able to watch my basketball.

 

[Sergei Esenin]

Quote:

Originally posted by kny3twalker unless you have with enjoy beta testing the ATI TV wonder elite, which can be bought under the sapphire name for under 100, I would go with the pvr 150 for stablity, and quality support

This is true, but the new generation of TV capture hardware--not just ATI's, and not just MPEG-2 hardware encoders--has some advantages on paper which may pan out in practice. Most interesting is far better comb filtering, and since coax uses composite signals good comb filtering is key if using the card's tuner. Even the more upscale software-based capture cards are starting to use adaptive 3D comb filtering, even adding an additional chip to do so--so I'm amazed that Hauppage overlooked this feature when designing the 150.


Personally, I love testing new video capture cards to look for any PQ improvements. The TV Wonder Elite and Compro VideoMate TV Ultra will soon be replacing two of my last-gen cards, the AverMedia m150 and Lifeview FlyVideo 3000 , for testing purposes. Every time there's a new generation I just eBay the old cards except my main card, then buy and test new ones against reference captures from the old cards. It's fun!

 

[stanger89]

Quote:

Originally posted by yrfc123 The only reason I considered it now is because the price is basically as cheap as the tv wonder elite. I figured why not just get the HDTV tuner instead? Only thing is the 550 chip in the TV wonder elite is better than the analog tuner in the HDTV wonder.

Actaully on the analog (SD) side, there's a huge difference in that the Theater 550 (and the PVR 150 etc) have a Hardware MPEG encoder which, IMO, is a huge deal if you plan on recording much of anything.