HDTV Wonder Arrives

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T Shadow

I thought by now someone would have posted about ATI shipping HDTV
Wonders. Last week I received an email that the HDTV Wonders were in stock
and would ship in 3-4 weeks. 4 days ago another email says their shipping
it. It arrived today.
Never imagined it would arrive so soon. Having only a AIW 128 pro in my
P4 system now, it needed to be upgraded. Unfortunately didn't get the new
video card (AIW9600XT) and a bigger power supply ordered until yesterday. So
it will be next week before I can try it out.
It just looks like standard ATI hardware the only unusual thing about it
is the antennae. It's a table top. I live 30-60 miles from the transmitters
so may need to get creative about placing it.
Anyone else going this route?
 
T said:
I thought by now someone would have posted about ATI shipping HDTV
Wonders. Last week I received an email that the HDTV Wonders were in stock
and would ship in 3-4 weeks. 4 days ago another email says their shipping
it. It arrived today.
Never imagined it would arrive so soon. Having only a AIW 128 pro in
my
P4 system now, it needed to be upgraded. Unfortunately didn't get the new
video card (AIW9600XT) and a bigger power supply ordered until yesterday.
So it will be next week before I can try it out.
It just looks like standard ATI hardware the only unusual thing about
it
is the antennae. It's a table top. I live 30-60 miles from the
transmitters
so may need to get creative about placing it.
Anyone else going this route?
Click to expand...

Personally I'm waiting to see if anybody can tell me if the tuner is any
better than the one in the Dvico Fusion.
 
If you can still send the 9600xt back... I would.

Do a google group search for AIW cards and HDTV.. many customers including
me have massive overscan problems on their HDTV.. so bad it's unuseable.

ATI is aware of the problem.. but keeps on pumping them out.

Don't want to rain on your parade.. I wish someone had warned me.
 
Drew said:
If you can still send the 9600xt back... I would.

Do a google group search for AIW cards and HDTV.. many customers including
me have massive overscan problems on their HDTV.. so bad it's unuseable.

ATI is aware of the problem.. but keeps on pumping them out.

Don't want to rain on your parade.. I wish someone had warned me.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I don't have a 9600XT, I have a 9800 Pro and an 8500 DV, and both
of them work just fine with my HDTV. If they don't work with yours then I
am forced to conclude that the cause is EBKAC.
 
Drew said:
If you can still send the 9600xt back... I would.

Do a google group search for AIW cards and HDTV.. many customers including
me have massive overscan problems on their HDTV.. so bad it's unuseable.

ATI is aware of the problem.. but keeps on pumping them out.

Don't want to rain on your parade.. I wish someone had warned me.
Click to expand...

Oh, by the way, since you seem to be one of those idiots who thinks that his
message is so important that he must repeat it over and over and over again
even to people who have already told him that they don't give a damn,
 
J. Clarke said:
Personally I'm waiting to see if anybody can tell me if the tuner is any
better than the one in the Dvico Fusion.
Click to expand...

I'm only going to have the ATI and have never seen the Dvico. The possiblity
of ending up with unsupported hardware make me nervous.
It remains to be seen but I've been told that with digital, unlike
analog, you either get a good signal or nothing. Considering the large
resolution of 1080i, the display device may be the most important part for
picture quality
 
Drew Carter said:
If you can still send the 9600xt back... I would.

Do a google group search for AIW cards and HDTV.. many customers including
me have massive overscan problems on their HDTV.. so bad it's unuseable.

ATI is aware of the problem.. but keeps on pumping them out.

Don't want to rain on your parade.. I wish someone had warned me.
Click to expand...

Look at this. http://www.ati.com/support/faq/hdtvuserdefinedmodes.html

Now show me where I said I was using the HDTV adapter or an HDTV monitor.
 
T said:
I'm only going to have the ATI and have never seen the Dvico. The
possiblity of ending up with unsupported hardware make me nervous.
It remains to be seen but I've been told that with digital, unlike
analog, you either get a good signal or nothing. Considering the large
resolution of 1080i, the display device may be the most important part for
picture quality
Click to expand...

It's not quite that simple. You either have picture or no picture, but
sometimes you have picture in bursts--you'll get a good frame and then that
stays frozen for a while then you'll get another one. And too much signal
can be as bad as too little. The first generation HD tuners did not deal
well with multipath either--whenever a plane flies over I lose the picture
entirely on some stations.

FWIW, the possibility of ending up with unsupported hardware with the HDTV
Wonder is greater than with the Dvico--the Dvico is basically just an
off-the-shelf tuner and an off-the-shelf video processor chip and an MPEG-2
software decoder--there are third-party drivers for it and even Linux
support in the works, so even if Dvico folds, which doesn't seem likely, it
should be well supported into the foreseeable future.

The thing that would motivate me to go to the ATI would be a tuner that
dealt well with multipath and had enough sensitify to pick up the one Fox
station in the area without the multiple-antenna array that I have to use
with the Dvico.
 
I'm glad you are one of the precious few who the HDTV adaptor works for..
like I mentioned if you do a search it's very easy to see that this is a
"Major" problem. If it's EBKAC then I have several hundred suckers who also
plunked down for the Card..

Glad you got that off your chest.
 
Thank you for that link, I've been there many times in the past week, it
seems the only people who have had any luck have used Powerstrip and wierd
timings.

You have been 10 times more helpfull than ATI support.
 
Unfortunately the custom HDTV settings seems to only apply to the AIW9800 -
if I try to use them on my AIW9600 my system just hangs. and then locks up.

Thanks again.
 
snip>>
It's not quite that simple. You either have picture or no picture, but
sometimes you have picture in bursts--you'll get a good frame and then that
stays frozen for a while then you'll get another one. And too much signal
can be as bad as too little. The first generation HD tuners did not deal
well with multipath either--whenever a plane flies over I lose the picture
entirely on some stations.
Click to expand...
Thats one of the things I was wondering about. My cable box does this every
once in a while and gets artifacts too(my tv is analog). I'll assume you
live in the city near an airport. I live in the sticks television
transmitter wise. I get about 6 analog stations well enough to watch with
rabbit ears. Signal strength and interference will be my main concerns.
FWIW, the possibility of ending up with unsupported hardware with the HDTV
Wonder is greater than with the Dvico--the Dvico is basically just an
off-the-shelf tuner and an off-the-shelf video processor chip and an MPEG-2
software decoder--there are third-party drivers for it and even Linux
support in the works, so even if Dvico folds, which doesn't seem likely, it
should be well supported into the foreseeable future.
Click to expand...

Until ATI ships the HDTV Wonder in quantity you are probably right. Its
after the foreseeable future that bothers me. I have a Channel Surfer TV
card in a PII system. I tried putting it into a PIII system with different
chipset and it does not work. Possibly there is third-party software for
this but it was easier to put it back in the PII system. Third-party
software usually ends up being a hassle in its self. YMMV.
The thing that would motivate me to go to the ATI would be a tuner that
dealt well with multipath and had enough sensitify to pick up the one Fox
station in the area without the multiple-antenna array that I have to use
with the Dvico.
Click to expand...
Looks like were at opposite ends of the antennae problem.
 
Drew Carter said:
Unfortunately the custom HDTV settings seems to only apply to the AIW9800 -
if I try to use them on my AIW9600 my system just hangs. and then locks up.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Sorry the new software didn't work. I did the google search as you
suggested. What I read agrees there is a problem but you must have the
worst case scenario. What are you trying to display to?
I have an NEC LCD VGA monitor hooked to a kvm switch. It adjusts to
whatever computer its switched to. I'll buy a display device that can adjust
to my HDTV or VGA output. Thats the plan anyway. Buy the most expensive part
last while prices are falling and the technology is getting better.
 
Thanks for the response. I've tried every fix on every page that ATI has and
then some.

I'm outputting to a 47" Panasonic Rear View Projection set. The overscan is
outrageous.. I'm trying to use Powerstrip with some custom settings.. I seem
to be married to this video card. Everything else with the card works as
advertised. but the HDTV is very frustating.
 
Where can you find hardware like that? Is it a major purchase? That's
something I should investigate also.
 
Drew Carter said:
Where can you find hardware like that? Is it a major purchase? That's
something I should investigate also.
tuner
Click to expand...
Don't know. Haven't gotten that far. Just pointing out that its possible. If
you bought an expensive DVD player a few years ago it probably won't play
cd-r. My friend recently bought a $50 player that plays just about any media
format as long as the disc is closed.
I'll probably just be using VGA for the time being.
 
Thanks for the response. I've tried every fix on every page that ATI has and
then some.

I'm outputting to a 47" Panasonic Rear View Projection set.
Click to expand...



What is the exact model number or are you afraid to tell us?


The overscan is
 
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