New ATI Tuner Card.

[ron329]

Ciregnol,

Are you running all of your tests into a 13" TV as you stated in one of your previous reviews? If so that could account for why you think the card is so good. I was unsing the card through an MCX into a 51" widescreen RPTV so the quality issues will be more prevelant on a larger screen tv.

[ciregnol]

Good point. I've been looking at the quality on my 19" CRT monitor and a 13" TV.

I can try it on my 25" TV with some hassle, but eventually that is the one that it will hook to. I'll see what I can do in the next day or two.

[backlund]

ciregnol-
To get both tuners working, install both tuners. Then, go to the tv settings (in MCE) . You will have to go through the TV setup again (download channels, etc.) During this process it will ask you if you want to automatically configure your tuners. Select yes. When finished with the auto setup, you will see "Number of Connections". It should say 2. This will let you know that it has detected the tuners. From there, go on to download the program guide again and Voila! Once they are both working, you should be able to switch between the two by hitting record, and then changing the channel. You'll know which one is the 550, because the audio is significantly quieter. I have a 150mce and a 550 in my system, so I can validate this working!

[ciregnol]

cool. I tried the 550 and the NVTV and it didn't detect anything using the process you described, but I haven't tried it with the 150. Thanks for the tip. Now I know that is the correct procedure.

[Neonmod]

Hi,

Been looking for a decent video card for ages, currently using a TV2000 expert which is pretty good besides the halo's around the edges!

Ppl who are using this 550 theatrix card, can you tell me if it is compatble with D-Scaler or could you download d-scaler and try it?

Cheers!

[ciregnol]

OK, I have successfully installed the two capture cards (thanks backlund). I am also using my 25" TV now.

Both the ATI 550 and the Hauppauge 150 look great. Switching between them it is very difficult to tell the difference. Honestly, either card is a great pick. I think that the 150 gives a slightly sharper picture, but again, it is difficult to tell just by switching between the cards. I'd really have to have a screenshot of the same scene with each card, which is something that I don't know how to do, although I have seen it done in other forums.

The sound volume with the ATI 550 is definitely about half that of the Hauppauge. I can only hope that a future driver update fixes the problem.

[backlund]

OK, I have successfully installed the two capture cards (thanks backlund). I am also using my 25" TV now.

Both the ATI 550 and the Hauppauge 150 look great. Switching between them it is very difficult to tell the difference. Honestly, either card is a great pick. I think that the 150 gives a slightly sharper picture, but again, it is difficult to tell just by switching between the cards. I'd really have to have a screenshot of the same scene with each card, which is something that I don't know how to do, although I have seen it done in other forums.

The sound volume with the ATI 550 is definitely about half that of the Hauppauge. I can only hope that a future driver update fixes the problem.

That's pretty much my same thoughts. The 150 is sharper, but only by a bit. I like the 550 better because I had problems with motion blur, ghosting, etc. on my 150, where my 550 handles these problems without a hitch.

[ciregnol]

Yea, and I'm thinking that driver updates *SHOULD* only make it better, including the low volume.

Have you noticed that the 550 gets hotter than the 150?

[backlund]

Yea, and I'm thinking that driver updates *SHOULD* only make it better, including the low volume.

Have you noticed that the 550 gets hotter than the 150?

I haven't taken mine out since I put it in, so no. But, I would assume two tv cards running at the same time is going to get hot regardless.

[neutron]

OK, I have successfully installed the two capture cards (thanks backlund). I am also using my 25" TV now.

Both the ATI 550 and the Hauppauge 150 look great. Switching between them it is very difficult to tell the difference. Honestly, either card is a great pick. I think that the 150 gives a slightly sharper picture, but again, it is difficult to tell just by switching between the cards. I'd really have to have a screenshot of the same scene with each card, which is something that I don't know how to do, although I have seen it done in other forums.

The sound volume with the ATI 550 is definitely about half that of the Hauppauge. I can only hope that a future driver update fixes the problem.

Thx ciregnol

Could you please define for me what you mean by picture quality?
is it
- Using the card as TV (simply pass through signal)
- Playback of a recording using DVD quality settings

My main interest is capture so i am interested in the hardware encoder quality
- which one is better?
- is A/V sync OK
- functionality of programming a recording (does it work)
- Can you find all TV channels
- Is the audio for each TV channel OK
- Do you have NO problems with macrovision detection with legal captures
(free TV channels, your own (non commercial) videotapes,etc..)

cheers,

Neutron

ps: card is still not available in Europe

[ciregnol]

I have tested both cards with live TV and recordings. Both look really good. There was a couple of recordings with the 550 where the video cut out and the audio got choppy. I have only recorded say, a dozen programs, and 2 had the problem, but it seems to have disappeared. I will continue to investigate, as well as schedule recordings with the 150, as I have only done a couple with it.

Neither card had A/V sync problems (including a 2 hour home video I captured from camcorder).

All the TV channels are there (I only have basic cable, so the selection is not huge).

I haven't had audio probs (except those described above) with either card, although the 550 volume is much lower than 150.

I haven't run into any macrovision issues, but all I know about it is that DVD players have it built in so you can't dub to VCR, but I don't know how it impacts TV.

Hope this helps.

[neutron]

Thx Ciregnol,

Valuable information. (but makes a decision even more difficult haha)

The reason I ask for macrovision is not that I want to make illegal copies but..
the sensitivity of these build in hardware (yes it will be part of theater 550Pro I am sure of it) could make the TV tuner useless when it Thinks it is copyprotected material when it is actually not.
I do have on my ATI AIW 9800SE certain free public channels from which I can not capture.... I have been told that this has to do with special signals which set your TV to 3:4 and 16:9 format etc...

I know someone who recently bought a Philips DVD 615 recorder which is not able to record children TV shows due to macovision problems......
Probably he will end up with an anti macrovision device in order to be able to record Free TV channels. Very frustrating and the effect is opposite of what macrovision wants to achieve .....

looking forward to hear all your experiences

[blakev]

First thanx to ciregnol and backlund for participating such complete info
A question:
- are you both doing captures while using the pc for whatever?

This is an issue for me: but I have an old wintv pci. I can get poor but acceptable captures if I kill all extraneous processus with my current setup. I don't have the means to build a dedicated capture pc, so I was looking at these newest (read:dedicated video/audio hardware) cards to see if you can still work in word, for example (ghastly, I know) while capturing and not suffer from audio desynch.

[ciregnol]

I have done some multi tasking, although mostly I'm just doing the TV thing for testing. I've never seen the CPU go very high while recording. I can't remember if it's in the teens or just how high it got, but it was not very high.

The only thing I have seen is that during playback, if another process uses the harddrive a lot, I will see some stuttering, but I can hit the review button after it's settled down and the video is normal.

[bluefish266]

I attached a $20 signal booster to the cable line and almost all of the artifacts that I saw on stations are gone. I now have many channels that look almost as good as dvd. I do hope that they come out with a driver that real soon that will fix the volume issue.

[bluefish266]

I just got my Hauppauge 500mce today and installed it and played around for it for a while. Now after viewing the Hauppauge 500mce, Ati ehome wonder, Nvidia Dual Tuner and the Theatrix 550 on my 53" Hidef, my pick hands down is the Theatrix 550. The quality of the picture is the most important feature and the Theatrix has a great one. Before I used the signal booster I got a grainy picture with all of the tuners, but after connecting the signal booster it pretty much cleared up this problem completely mostly in the Theatrix. As I said in the previous post many of the channels are almost look like dvd qaulity. Now if ATI comes out with an update for the drivers to take care of the volume issue and some of the flickering that I am getting on a couple of channels it will be a good day. Oh yay and a dual tuner would be nice.