ATI TV Wonder questions... Support MMC 8.5 etc?

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Ryan

I had a few questions about the ATI TV Wonder VE... I don't quite
understand what it is? Is it exactly the same hardware as the ATI All
in Wonder VE without the radeon graphis output? If not, what is it?

Also, all i need is to set up a PCI based TV card that can run ATIs
Multimedia Center 8.5. (b/c i really want to use EazyLook) The faq
for 8.5 says that it only supports the Radeon based cards, not TV
Wonder cards, BUT TV wonder uses MMC as well, so i was thinking it
will work? am i wrong?

Is my only option to buy the ATI All in wonder VE? Is that the only
PCI card that will support MMC 8.5? The only reason why i'd rather use
the TV Wonder, if possible, is i already have suitable onboard
graphics and dont want to spend the extra money if i dont have to AND
it comes packaged with the remote wonder, which apparently is a good
thing to have for MMC 8.5.

Thanks a lot for your help.
Ryan
 
The TV Wonder VE is an add-on TV Tuner card which requires a compatible
graphics card to be already installed in your machine. It will allow a
standard PC to display TV shows and perform like a VCR amongst other things.

Have you read this http://mirror.ati.com/products/tvwonderve/index.html
(theres even a picture of one there). Be aware that there is a new and much
improved TV Wonder Pro card coming "soon?"
http://mirror.ati.com/products/tvwonderpro/index.html which will do all the
TV Wonder VE does and more (the reason why the VE is currently going for a
song with the remote wonder) - I am holding off for the Pro. MMC 8.5 and
8.1 will only properly work if there is an All In Wonder Radeon or newer
class card in the system as well as the TV Wonder (for something called
MulTView) - TV Wonders alone use a different version of MMC. There's loads
on the ATI website (although not much yet about the upcoming TV Wonder Pro).

Paul
 
Thanks so much...
I have a couple more questions about the TV Wonder. When you say that
MultiMedia Center 8.1 and 8.5 do not work "correctly" with just the TV
Wonder, what exactly do you mean? I just want to use EazyLook and the
other TV specific stuff, like for PVR and Gemstar, I do not need
Radeon Capabilities OR MultiView. EazyLook is really the most
important thing to me, because on a TV (not a monitor) nothing looks
good, and apparently EazyLook fixes that.

Let me tell you my situation. I've got a small ITX setup that I am
using for an entertainment system. I want the system to have the
closest to TiVo capabilities as I can make it. I have onboard AGP
video. The board offers ONLY ONE PCI SLOT, nothing else, so that's
why I decided on the TV Wonder. I want to be able to run the cable
into it, and to watch tv on it, watch dvds on it, record tv shows,
pause tv, rewind tv. All that good stuff. And I want to have EazyLook
(or something like it) so I can have a display setup that is BERABLE
to look at on a TV rather than a computer monitor. Let me know what
you think.

Thanks a lot
Ryan
 
The TV Wonder will only handle the input/capture functions of that setup -
so whatever video card you presently have working in it will have to
continue to do so. I assume Eazylook works with it now?
 
Users on www.rage3d.com forums have reported problems getting MMC 8.5 to
install with a TV Wonder and even if they manage to do that, there are sound
synchronisation issues - in short MMC 8.5 is a no go with the TV Wonder by
itself. Having used MMC 8.5 with my All In Wonder Radeon, I can assure you
that its nothing to write home about and is less reliable than 8.1 (which
I've gone back to).

If you wait for the TV Wonder Pro, by the time it comes out, ATI will have
probably have released an improved version of MMC with Eazylook.

Regards
Paul
 
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