B]THIS is AIMED at the ATI EMPLOYEE who is a Member/Lurks Here:
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I bought this card six months ago despite serious qualms about ATI drivers and support. My qualms were based on previous experience with ATI Video cards with very bad drivers and almost useless support. Despite this I purchased the Theater 550Pro card for my first HTPC. This was based on the early reviews about video quality, and the on board audio processing.
I should note that all but one of my computers use video/graphics cards from nVIdia. Frankly, the contrast between nVidia Release notes, driver documentation, and other support is so stark that I am unlikely to purchase another ATI Card.
ATI have done several driver updates with Absolutly no Support Documents or Release Notes
**This is totally unacceptable - Am I supposed to just download these updates based on my faith in ATI - NOT BLOODY LIKELY!
** I have audio and synchronization problems with this card despite ATI's claims about superior audio performance and I am living with it rather than update to an unknown drive release that could cause even worse problems.
** I have not found a way to completely uninstall the drivers for this card prior to an upgrade (Driver Cleaner does not work - the old Drivers come back on re-boot even after a complete DC cycle)
** I have to again manually uninstall the driver and hope the new one does not conflict with any registry entries, and hope it will work better (BLIND FAITH!)
**I am not about to download yet another update from ATI based on wishful thinking and hope.
FINAL RAVE
I have searched this site and found it pretty useless. Nobody seems willing to really call ATI out and get them OFF THEIR BUTTS for their almost total lack of support for this product. The postings on the Theater 550Pro are mostly whining and complaining with not one actual demand that ATI do something (I mean anything at all) to support this chip and their card vendor partners.
At this point the Hexus site is really the only place that I have found that could possibly provide support for this card. ATI's web page is almost useless except for blind, undocumented driver update downloads. It does not even reference the Hexus forum as a possible solution for problems (for any card).
I just wish that more people here had the cojones to bluntly tell ATI (and their resident member/lurker) how bad their support for the 550Pro card really is. Is it possible not enough people have bought the card to make it actually matter.
: I am looking into a tuner card for my secondary PC, and frankly, based on my support experience to date with ATI, I will l will likely look to Hauppage or another solution.
I would recommend that others do the same, if there is no immediate improvement in ATI support for the Theater 550Pro. I believe that up to date Driver Support documentation is critical to implementation and ongoing successful operation of an HTPC.
Regards
Garth
PS: I bought the card through NewEgg. If I do not see an acceptable response here, I will post an abbreviated version on Newegg with 1 egg.