New ATI Tuner Card.

[neutron]

Hmm. Erik, I'll check to see if recorded shows have the glitches when I get home.

Wenis, my computer is on a different floor from my DVD player, so I likely won't be able to test capture from DVD player soon. Maybe I'll bring the DVD player down and test it for you in the next day or two, if I have time. I'm sure the picture quality will be great, but we'll have to see if it has the same glitches as live TV.

Ciregnol can you als have a look (if you have time ) at the following

- schedule a recording, does your computer wake-up from standby and starts recording? This has never functioned with my AIW 9800SE. Somehow the TV Tuner starts up in NTSC mode(I am a PAL user) resulting in black and white scrolling screens.
- how is the sound when recording in DVD mode. I understood one can choose dolby digital and mpeg audio encoding
- When using DVD recorded MPEG file on a DVD R and playback on a standalone DVD player How is the image and sound quality..
- Is audio and video in sync after 1.5 hr recording
(old cards tend to desync after roughly 35 minutes)
- what options are available in the software for capture mode (DVD format, filters etc...)
- Did you try to connect to an VHS videoplayer via composite etc.. to see if Theatrix can handle this (filter etc..)

[nvening]

so can thi s card take dv video and convert it to mpeg2, ie hard ware mpeg2 compression. Does it have an svideo thing so i can encode my old vhs videos into mpeg2 and pu them on dvd?

[ciregnol]

I'll try to test the standby thing out...

I have dubbed a home video from camcorder (non-digital) to the card that was 1:54 in length and sound was still in synch. Image quality was good.

I have only been using Windows Movie Maker to capture the video, and haven't done any DVD capturing yet, so I haven't seen any options. I'm not sure how this works behind the scenes, as WMM records as WMV. Is it first MPEG2 encoding it, then converting to WMV, or is it going right to the Windows Media format? Beats me. I would like to find out how to capture my camcorder feed as MPEG2.

If you want to suggest some software to try out, I'd be happy to download and try it for you.

Yes, there is an S-video thingy, that's what I used to record home videos.

I checked out recorded shows, and they DID NOT have the same scene changing wierdness.

Fast motion video does have some shadow effects. The captured video of my kids dancing showed them with 4 arms a few times. I need to check the actual footage on the camcorder to see if it is really like that, or if it is the card.

I compared the captured video with old stuff I captured with my Hauppauge WinTV card and it was night and day.

[blakev]

Surely the soft they supply enables setting up a composite channel and capturing to mpeg2 ??? omg, if it doesn't, we are still in software mpeg2 capture land. basically there has to be some communication between the soft and the card to ensure that when you want mpeg2, the mpeg2 encoding is done chip-side and the stream is an mpeg2 stream with no further pc software encoding, other than some finalizing of file length values and so on.
In WMM, did you select the card's mpeg2 codec? If so, don't worry, the wmv is simply the container, much as avi. So the stream inside is mpeg2. I'm praying done on the card. please someone correct me if I'm off base here...

[ron329]

Well I got my card and have toyed with it for 24 hours and here are my findings. First off I am using a Sony Vaio RA-825G, P4 3.6G, 2G of RAM, (2) Western Digital 250G SATA hard drives and all is connected to a Linksys MCX to a 51" Pioneer Rlite RPTV all running using MCE 2005 with all of the latest updates. The current tuner cards are the ones that came with the system which are branded Sony which utilize the Conexant 416 chipset which is the same as the Hauppauge cards.

Installation - completely painless, inserted the card, installed the driver and within 10 minutes I was up and running without a single glitch. In fact this was the best part of the whole experience.

Quality - I thought this was going to be the ultimate in tuner cards the way the ATI has been pumping it up. I was VERY disappointed in the image quality. My current Sony tuner cards are much better in almost every respect than the 550 Pro. The only advantage the 550 Pro has is the output is slightly brighter than my current tuner. Other than that, there is no comparison. I experienced the same wavy lines that another user on another forum complained about, much more digital artifacts, high motion scences looked real bad, color accuracy seemed good, up close facial expressions looked as if people were made of clay. Just a complete disappointment. I have already removed the card from my system and reinstalled my Sony card which I noticed an immediate improvement. I can't for the life of me figure out how this card received the ISF RL certification. Those guys were either paid off or forgot to wear their glasses the day the did the evaluation.

Conclusion - Well I'm keeping my Sony cards for now. Good thing I only paid $85 for the 550 Pro. I'm thinking about trying an Emuzed Maui next. Not that my current Sony cards are bad, I just want the best possible picture that I can get and the 550 Pro certainly isn't the answer by

[ciregnol]

Wow, that is good to know ron329.

Any idea what those Sony cards really are? Surely they don't make them.

[ron329]

The card itself does say Sony on it and it does use the Conexant 416 chipset as do the Hauppauge cards. Not sure who the real manufacturer is though...

[wenis]

I'm still excited about this card. Ati takes forever to get their drivers right maybe its the same here. Does anyone know if the card has been reviewed, on other sights?

[neutron]

If I recapture what i have read then

- image quality from TV tuner less sharp as Hauppauge 500MCE
- image better brightness when compared to Hauppauge 500MCE
- perfect sync of audio/video, Hauppauge (I read) does have sometimes problems
- during introduction of Hauppauge 150 a lot of problems were there with software (does that familiar)
- does encode dolby digital audio(not confirmed only based on specs)

Open questions I do have

- Macrovision detection, does it cause problems with normal(free) video/TV channels
- schedule a recording (does it work from standby mode, how about video/audio quality?)
- Recorded MPeg 2 material, can it be directly used by DVD authoring programs to burn a DVD(-R, +R)
- What is quality of recorded material when played back on a standalone DVD player
- What is the size of the video files
- What are the selectable settings (MPG2, MPG1, bitrate, resoluation, filters etc....)


http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/show...9&page=2&pp=15
http://www.tv-cards.com/messageboard...ic.php?p=32031

[ciregnol]

Thanks for the links, neutron.

I bought a Hauppauge PVR-150 and an eVGA NVTV tuner card locally today and will compare them with the Theater 550 Pro. I have 7 days to return them, so I'll get it done in this next week.

At this point it seems like you'll find good and bad written about every card, so it's tough to know exactly how they all compare.

[ciregnol]

Quote from backlund at http://htpcnews.com/forums/index.php...c=10151&st=105

24 hours worth of first impressions...

Here we go. Before I got this card I had a 150mce in my system. The 150 I've had a bit of trouble with. When the picture quality is working, it's great. But it seems to change between how much lighting is in the scene. For highly lit scenes, the PQ is great. Once things get dark, the image starts to ghost and trail all over the place. I've done everything to try and get rid of this, but it just won't happen. It's the card. Another thing I've noticed is that the 150 seems to have an edge enhancement problem. Anyone who reads DVD reviews will know what I'm talking about. There are these halos that show up on the sides of objects on the screen.

After using my 550 for a day now, I can honestly say I like it better than the 150. Unfortunately, it's not the holy grail of PC tv tuners as ATI's PR statement made it out to be. The quality is about the same as the 150, with a few minor improvements. First, the good:

-The 150 seems to have a sharper picture than the 550, but the 550 seems to have a cleaner picture. The 550 doesn't have the problems with halos and ghosting that my 150 does, but it's just a tad less sharp. I prefer the 550 picture, though, because of the less digital garbage on the screen.

-The 550 does color and lighting better than the 150. It's not leaps and bounds better, but I had to readjust my TV again last night because the color and brightness were so much better than my 150. This leads to problem 'A' of having this card and a 150 in the same system as dual tuners. Basically, I want to reset the color and contrast on my TV when I switch between tuners in MCE. It's really annoying, because the 150 gets too dark whne the TV is calibrated for the 550. The 550's settings look good enough that I don't feel the need to change settings when I'm watching a DVD on my standalone player either.

Now, the bad:

-The 550 has an audio issue. It sounds fine, but it's kinda quiet compared to my 150. I have to turn the TV up considerably farther than my 150 did. It's not a big issue, but it is a bit annoying. Hopefully a registry tweak will fix it. We'll see. This leads to problem 'B' of using both a 550 and a 150 in the same machine. When you switch to the other tuner, you have to adjust the sound again.

That was really my only major gripe with the card so far. The picture, as I said, is on par with the Hauppauge cards, but I didn't experience the ghosting problems that I did with my Hauppauge card, so I prefer the ATI. I just really wish that this card had been the card we've all been waiting for. The card that gives just as good of picture quality as a Tivo would. Not yet, anyway...

Oh, last thing. I've had a MASSIVE issue with the picture quality on my 150 during sports games, mainly football. The compression artifacts would show up in force on football games. Based on a post above about a basketball game, I'm kinda pumped to see how the superbowl looks on this this thing in the coming weeks.

So, can i recommend the card? yes. Frankly, it's just as good if not a tad bit better than the 150, and for only $10 more you get a remote as well. I'll probably pick up another one in a few weeks to replace my 150, unless I hear of a dual tuner version coming soon, or a better card all together.

[bluefish266]

Theatrix 550 Review ...

My computer is connected to a 53" Panosonic Hidef Television thru component input, so I have a great crystal clear picture when viewing the desktop and applications. No blur or washed out colors. So if I get a bad picture on my television, it's not because of my connection. Now onto my Media Center 2005 and long journey for a good tv tuner ....

I have tried a few tv tuners ( ati ehome wonder, Nvidia NVTV Dual Tuner and now Theatrix 550 Pro ) over the last 4 months. I have also tried several decoders. First off if you use ATI Catalyst software make sure that you install the latest .NET Framework 1.1 and the latest DirectX software from Microsoft. I did not have this latest installed and it made a BIG difference ( for some unknown reason ) in my tv viewing experience. After this install, I realized that the ehome wonder is much better than the Nvidia Dual Tuner card. It is cleaner and handles WHITE far better but not perfect. With both cards there were many channels that seemed a bit blurry (Travel Channel, ABC etc) and a few that were very clear (TBS, Fox etc. ) but neither cards could fully handle individual signal strengths and the infamous WHITEOUT which occured on most channels in bright scenes.

I received my Theatrix 550 a few days and installed it with no problems. I opened up Media Center and tada great picture quality on 98% of the channels. At first I really could not see much of a difference from the ATI ehome wonder until I flipped through the channels a few times and noticed that "Hey the blur is gone from most of the channels and Holy Cow this thing actually is able to handle the WHITEOUTS that I got from the other tuners in bright scenes. By the way the latest Nvidia Decoder ( which you can purchase at Nvidia.com for 19.95 ) is an important part of the great quality picture that I got while using all of the tuners.

A couple of things that I did notice while using the card was that I had to turn up the volume a bit more than I did on the other cards and while viewing some channels there was some flicker. I am sure that these things can be fixed with a driver update so I am not worried.

I think that the 550 chip is just one more step in the right direction for viewing tv through the pc. You probably won't notice that much improvement in picture quality form the ehome wonder or some of the hauppauge cards until you view all channels a few times through different scenes. It seems to handle signal strengths and bright colors very accurately which until now I had yet to find from any of the other tuners.

Here is my setup if anyone is interested.

Shuttle SB75G2V w/ 250 watt silentFX power supply
Pentium 4 3.2 ghz
512 Ram
Ati 9600XT
Theatrix 550 Pro
Nvidia DVD Decoder

[neutron]

Thx Bluefish for your review
Did you also tried to schedule a recording?
Does this work in MCE? does is wakup from standby mode?
Can you use the recorded mpg to burn a DVD?
How about the quality of recorded material (what can be selected in your software, bitrate, etc..)

Greetings

Neutron

ps: Andrzej are you stil here?

[backlund]

honest to god, people keep trashing this card but after a weekend of using it, I'm really happy with it. I don't have any of the blurring/ghosting problems my 150mce has, I haven't experienced any audio sync issues (which happened once in a while on my 150. Changing the channel back and forth usually fixes it.). The color is much better than the 150.

My biggest complaint is the audio. It is too low. I have my TV cranked to the max it will go just to have it at a comfortable level where we can watch it from our kitchen. If I'm in the living room, I turn it down a bit, but the TV still is set pretty high. I hope a driver fixes this, and I am going to email sapphire about it today.

The only other problem is that the picture isn't as sharp as the 150. On my old 27" it probably isn't a big deal, but I could see it being ugly on a high def. Perhaps this too can be a driver fix.

Overall, I still recommend the card. It's only $15 more than the 150, and you get a remote. The card is still in its infancy and perhaps some official ATI drivers will take care of a few issues. I personally think there is some reason beyond MMC9.4 that there haven't been any drivers listed on their site yet.

[bluefish266]

I read in another thread or maybe this thread that 550 card only captures in 720 x 480 resolution. I completely forgot about this. I changed my settings and the picture is even better than before. After changing this I tried using the cyberlink decoder but still found the Nvidia to have a crisper picture.

If anyone can tell me how I can get into the settings for the tuner, please let me know. I have looked everywhere for these settings.

Also, Neutron here are the answers to some of your questions.

1. Yes I can schedule a recording and it wakes up out of standby just fine.
2. Recorded picture quality looks just like the live picture.
3. I haven't tried to burn a dvd.

[ciregnol]

I have done more testing...

NVTV...not nearly as good as the Sapphire 550 card. Only used it for about 10 minutes before I yanked it. PQ is not nearly as good.

Nvidia encoder does make a difference! I now see no choppiness or waves like I did before. My TV viewing experience is 100% the same as just watching direct connect cable.

The card gets hot! I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but that thing gets toasty.

I did have a period of time, where half way through a recording, the display went black and the audio got really choppy. I'm doing more testing of recording to see if this occurs regularly or if this was a fluke. Maybe this was a heat issue?

I'm also testing the PVR-150 as I mentioned in an earlier post. So far, performance seems practically identical. I could not figure out how to do the dual tuner thing in MCE, so have been swapping the cards in and out, so haven't seen side by side comparison. Ideally I'd be able to leave both cards in and connected to cable and then chose which one to view.

More in the next day or two. I have to agree with many of the others, that the quality is good, and should even improve as the drivers mature.