New ATI Tuner Card.

[BFever]

Theater 650 Pro is better quality than Theater 550 Pro through all connections because any input still goes to the chip.

Ok this doesn't make sense.

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.

Ok, when is the upcoming driver to be released and what can we expect from it? At the same time, since most software drivers typically can tweak hardware to their fullest potential, how much farther can the Theater 550 go to get to the 650 status?

Thanks,
BFever

ps. Thanks for not closing the thread.

[BFever]

I viewed the Theater 650 Pro demo and honestly I must say that way too much time went into the demo from a sales perspective. I have three TV Wonder Elite's now and would love to know what the NOTICEABLE feature differences are between the 550 & the 650. Obviously, the comparison feature on ATI's site isn't there yet for the 650 but even still the info typically is too vague. MMike can you do a test for us 550 owners to show us a true comparison between the two chips? Thanks.

Anandtech.com which is one of my favorite sites apparently used an old picture from the TV Wonder Elite box for a comparison. This looks a little shady if you ask me. Use the link below and scroll down to the woman's face. 550 owners will recognize this right away.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2778&p=5


Thanks,
BFever

[spacded]

Ok, when is the upcoming driver to be released and what can we expect from it? At the same time, since most software drivers typically can tweak hardware to their fullest potential, how much farther can the Theater 550 go to get to the 650 status?

Do you honestly think a company that is just about to release an updated version of a product is REALLY going to do anything that will make an old product as good as the new one!!

[BFever]

Do you honestly think a company that is just about to release an updated version of a product is REALLY going to do anything that will make an old product as good as the new one!!

Actually, no, but it appears we must re-word every question for ATI ten times before they come up with a solid answer. Look at the forum's size. Do you honestly think it takes 152 pages to answer simple questions that could have been asked just once, maybe twice?

BFever

[Multimedia Mike]

Hi,
Just a few clarifications:
- BFever, I honestly don't understand what you're asking me. This thread is about Theater 550 Pro related issues. If you have questions regarding it, please ask and I'll do my best to respond. Also try to actually read that AnandTech review rather than just scroll through the pictures. What you don't realize is that it's not just some pictures that we re-used and sent along with the reviewer packages. We sent industry-standard test clips (hence, you might recognize some of them) that are meant to be really difficult to capture and display properly and really show the strengths/weaknesses of particular products. All the pictures you see there are just screenshots from ACTUAL video that they ran and tested. So if you want to see a difference between Theater 550 Pro and Theater 650 Pro you can check out reviews like that where they post both. Regarding you not understanding my previous post about the inputs, all I tried to say was no matter what input you use (coax, composite, etc), it still has to go to the Theater 650 Pro chip to be processed and so it would be better quality than the Theater 550 Pro. If you have specific Theater 650 Pro related questions, I do ask that you post them on the Theater 650 Pro thread so that we don't get all mixed up here.

- Regarding the upcoming driver release, all I wanted to say was that there would be no release notes, that's all. I've told you guys that I've been trying to get them on and I didn't want anyone complaining that I promised something that's not there, so I'm letting you guys know ahead of time not to expect any release notes (this time). I am still doing my best to try to get them posted up for the future.

[Octavean]

Hi,
Just a few clarifications:
-
- Regarding the upcoming driver release, all I wanted to say was that there would be no release notes, that's all. I've told you guys that I've been trying to get them on and I didn't want anyone complaining that I promised something that's not there, so I'm letting you guys know ahead of time not to expect any release notes (this time). I am still doing my best to try to get them posted up for the future.

Well naturally a change log would be great if it were included in each driver release but a global history change log for ALL revisions would be great too.

I for one don’t expect much in this respect though,...

[BFever]

Hi,
Just a few clarifications:
- BFever, I honestly don't understand what you're asking me. This thread is about Theater 550 Pro related issues. If you have questions regarding it, please ask and I'll do my best to respond. Also try to actually read that AnandTech review rather than just scroll through the pictures. What you don't realize is that it's not just some pictures that we re-used and sent along with the reviewer packages. We sent industry-standard test clips (hence, you might recognize some of them) that are meant to be really difficult to capture and display properly and really show the strengths/weaknesses of particular products. All the pictures you see there are just screenshots from ACTUAL video that they ran and tested. So if you want to see a difference between Theater 550 Pro and Theater 650 Pro you can check out reviews like that where they post both. Regarding you not understanding my previous post about the inputs, all I tried to say was no matter what input you use (coax, composite, etc), it still has to go to the Theater 650 Pro chip to be processed and so it would be better quality than the Theater 550 Pro. If you have specific Theater 650 Pro related questions, I do ask that you post them on the Theater 650 Pro thread so that we don't get all mixed up here.

- Regarding the upcoming driver release, all I wanted to say was that there would be no release notes, that's all. I've told you guys that I've been trying to get them on and I didn't want anyone complaining that I promised something that's not there, so I'm letting you guys know ahead of time not to expect any release notes (this time). I am still doing my best to try to get them posted up for the future.

Thanks for the clarifications on the questions. I'll make sure to read the article from start to end also. )

BFever

[spacded]

Does anyone know /are there any VISTA BETA2 drivers for the 550 pro

ATI says that it is supported in vista but there are no drivers i can see
i have installed the catalyst vista drivers for radeon .

[Octavean]

Does anyone know /are there any VISTA BETA2 drivers for the 550 pro

ATI says that it is supported in vista but there are no drivers i can see
i have installed the catalyst vista drivers for radeon .

I have one Theater 550 Pro based card (Sapphire Theatrix Theater 550 Pro) installed and configured in Vista Beta 2. The card was automatically detected and drivers were either downloaded and installed or they were already a part of the driver set that the Vista beta 2 shipped with.

There should be no need to go hunting for T550P drivers if you have Vista Beta 2.

The same was true of the HDTV Wonder. It was ready to go after the Vista beta 2 install but only the ATSC component. To enable the NTSC component of the HDTV Wonder under Vista beta 2 the “MCEE” part of the infamous “Kram” mod pack is needed.

[BFever]

Does anyone know /are there any VISTA BETA2 drivers for the 550 pro

ATI says that it is supported in vista but there are no drivers i can see
i have installed the catalyst vista drivers for radeon .

I have a TV Wonder Elite with Vista Beta 2 and it has built in drivers for the card. In device manager it shows to be version 6.14.10.121. It uses oem0.inf in X:\windows\inf

BFever

ps. It seems to record quite great. If I only could find a DVR-MS compress tool that doesn't melt the cpu, then I could put a test file up on a site.

[samwise801]

Good day everyone! Brand new user to this forum...so I send greetings and salutations to you all.

So I have a Theater 550 pro (two, actually, in two identical PCs) and I need two things from them: first, I need the closed captioning; second, I need to record the stream (audio and video), hopefully with the CC intact.

I haven't tinkered with it much yet, but just downloaded ChrisTV and am hoping it can do the trick...but does anyone have any ideas/suggestions as to which programs to go after?

Thanks!

-Sam

[swiego]

Has anyone using the 550 card for professional capture applications comparing it against something like the Blackmagic Decklink or an Aja Xena cards on the basis of SD quality?

[BFever]

Ahhh new drivers finally and a Theater 550 PRO TV Tuner Control Panel. Oh the drive home couldn't be any longer.

Theater 550 PRO TV Tuner Drivers
Version 6.14.10.173
Posted: June 26, 2006
File Size: 4.0 MB
WHQL Certified


Theater 550 PRO TV Tuner Control Panel / Visual C++ Patch, Prerequisite for Theater 550 PRO TV Tuner Control Panel INSTALL (7MB)
Version 6.14.10.173
Posted: June 26, 2006
File Size: 4.2 MB
WHQL Certified

BFever

[SHSPVR]

6.14.10.173 is Junk all ready they don't work in Win2000 is saying code 31 in the device manager and Control Panel will not install that not good at all.
Come find out the Control Panel is for MCE 2005 which dosen't work in vista but the new drivers do.

[Multimedia Mike]

Hi,
Regarding this new driver/TV Control Panel release, see my post in the thread that you started about them.

samwise801, have you tried the latest ATI Multimedia Center (MMC)? You can get it from our website.

[jonaslasky]

6.14.10.173 is Junk all ready they don't work in Win2000 is saying code 31 in the device manager and Control Panel will not install that not good at all.
Come find out the Control Panel is for MCE 2005 which dosen't work in vista but the new drivers do.

Oh...... Control Panel only works with MCE?!. Does that mean you really don't need to install the Visual C++ Patch with WinXP?

Also... give us your review of the drivers. I trust your opinions more than those so called professional reviewers.

Thanks,

Jonas