New ATI Tuner Card.

[spacded]

Does the 650 work with MCE 2005?

[Multimedia Mike]

Hi everyone,
I know I should have done this earlier, but I created a separate thread for Theater 650 Pro discussion. I really shouldn't have mentioned it on this thread and I would please ask that you post all Theater 650 Pro related discussion there. Note, I moved a few of the later posts so I apologize for any confusion (don't worry I didn't delete anyone's post). I think you'd agree that it's best to keep this thread for it's intended purpose and that's the Theater 550 Pro related issues.

[SHSPVR]

move to the new Theater 650 Pro separately dicussing

[jonaslasky]

Just so we don't forget....

Mike, you said that new driver is going to be released soon... how soon will it be? and have they remembered to include a change log?

Jonas

[Multimedia Mike]

Hi,
New drivers will be released later this month with the Catalyst 6.6 package. I'm still working on getting release notes posted, so I can't promise anything right now.

On a side note, I've updated the link posted by Nicholas G (from ATI) at the top of this Hexus ATI forum, so that any of you can provide feedback about any problems you're seeing. Hopefully that would lead to either fixes or article additions to the KB like we did for the issues we discussed here. Here's a link to the thread for convenience, but it's right at the top of the forum:

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=73872

[SHSPVR]

Super that would be nice to start having some kind release notes on what been update in the drivers.

[swiego]

Mike... Are you sure you have a 550 pro card and not a 650 pro? This problem has been confirmed by... well, everyone; but you say the 2 pins output exactly the same thing... .
Regarding the nVidia 'issue', I see your post just as an opinion from a user who had both cards, not as 'nVidia bashing'..

Yeah... not sure what to say here. They were pretty different looking to me. Preview window always looked great. Actual capture always looked muddy. This was with s-video capture.

[swiego]

Hi swiego,
Regarding the AGC, it's definitely advertised and it's definitely implemented. You can't really turn it off or on, it's there as part of the R/F tuning capabilities. What were you doing/watching to make you think that it's not there?

I am capturing via s-video. The 550 was advertised as a premier capture card, so I bought it for that purpose and honestly have never really used the TV tuner. So is AGC working for s-video or composite capture? The reason I wasn't sure if it was there: after all the SW problems with the 550 I tried several other capture card solutions and they all produced similar output. Furthermore, captures with extremely low source levels didn't really have their gain adjusted much at all. Lastly when a feature is mentioned, there's usually a tiny bit of documentation about it. Like what it does, or whether it's even on, or when it is enabled vs. not enabled. For the 550, at least at the time I bought it (6-9 months after launch) there was practically no information about AGC at all, except that it was listed on the box as a feature.

[Multimedia Mike]

Hi swiego,
I just want to clarify a few things for you because there seems to be some confusion. AGC works on all inputs, including Composite and S-video. It's automatically on all the time so you don't need to worry about turning it on or off or adjusting it or anything. Regarding documention, this feature is not a unique ATI feature. It's more about how we do it rather than what it is. Most things in this industry have AGC, but it's all about its quality. You can get a quick description and pictures of it in the Theater 650 Pro Whitepaper. Its AGC is similar to the Theater 550 Pro one with some improvements. You can download the whole Whitepaper at:

http://www.ati.com/products/theater650pro/index.html

[Octavean]

Why were there no dual tuner Theater 550 Pro cards and ATI motherboards with on board Theater 550 Pro chips?

[spacded]

Question for multimedia Mike

Im happily using a 550pro from a STB via Svideo= v good picture etc.

Will the 650 pro offer a considerably better picture using the same connection?

[bubbaganoush]

Why were there no <snip> ATI motherboards with on board Theater 550 Pro chips?

This was asked at the Rage3D chat. The ATI person told us to ask the mobo manufacturers to create such a board. He seemed to like that idea though.

[ayds_]

hi, I was wondering if there are any video quality differences between ATI TV Wonder Elite 550 pro and MSI Theater 550 pro. I noticed that they are both 550 but is there really any differences between the two (video quality wise) ? sorry im a noob at tv tuners

Also, one more question -- Are 550 tv tuners way better than msi tv@nywhere plus when it comes to video quality? or are they almost the same?

[jonaslasky]

There are no differences between the different brands based on the T 550 chip. But whatever you do, DON'T buy any of them. Instead wait till the Theater 650 based tuner cards come out. Better yet... buy an HDTV tuner card from other manufacturers. For more information on the T650 click this and read through.

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=77340


Jonas

[spacded]

550 pro is dead long live the 650 pro

this thread is CLOSED!

[Multimedia Mike]

Hi,
Just a few quick responses to you guys:
spacded, Theater 650 Pro is better quality than Theater 550 Pro through all connections because any input still goes to the chip. For descriptions of improvements check out the Theater 650 Pro thread and its ATI webpage (link on the thread). Now, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but nothing is dead and this thread is not closed

ayds_, there shouldn't be too much difference between the ATI and MSI Theater 550 Pro products because they both have the ATI Theater 550 Pro chip in them. The main difference is that the boards are done by the respective companies and you gotta check maybe there's some different software/goodies packaged. Overall though, in terms of TV quality, they should be almost identical. Regarding that tv@nywhere thing, I personally have never used one, but I just looked it up and according to its features, it seems a lot worse than any of the Theater 550 Pro based products. Do keep in mind though that our newest generation is Theater 650 Pro and you'll be able to get products with that in the near future. So if you're looking for the best possible quality, that's definitely the way to go (and it does both analog and digital TV).

Just a note for everyone, I've been doing my best to get release notes for Theater 550 Pro drivers, but realistically it doesn't look like they'll be in the upcoming driver. I'll keep pushing and hopefully will get them out for the one after that though.