AMD Radeon.care@HEXUS
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About LinkBacksIf ATi doesn't release a version of MMC we can DOWNLOAD for FREE to use the theatre 550 pro cards, I'll have to do the same...
You know something's wrong when the creator of the thread, who was TOTALLY hyped for the card, wants to trash it.Originally Posted by myth
I put mine at the same place I set my old wave master at last year... (Trash can) I'm buying a NTV!Take that ATi! I had enough of this waiting around for empty promises!
Yeah, I saw it on Newegg for $94.. but... I did a search for the Sapphire Theatrix.. and I couldn't find it on Newegg, I guess Powercolor replaced it? (or maybe I was searching for it wrong?)
I did find 550 Elite is still on sale for $145...
Did you get a hold of Sapphire and requested one? I did and they sent me one, it took about five days to get to me though.. here's some info from my previous post if you need it:
Tech
Sapphire Technology
Tech Support Center
280 Paseo Tesoro
Walnut CA 91744
Fax. 1-909-594-9771
www.sapphiretech.com
Also, satnav4, did you get a response back from zipzoomfly on what your refund status would be? I know when I talked to the customer service there, they said 30 days... I still have the FedEx box that mine was packaged in just in case I get fed up with this card, the picture quality is worst than my AIW card..... anyone tried any of the Nvidia tuner cards? I have a 6600GT in my rig right now.. so I was thinking of just coupling it up with an Nvidia tuner card
This is what I have in my rig right now:
ASUS P5AD2-E Premium 925XE / P4 LGA775(560) 3.6 (ES) / KINGSTON (HyperX) DUAL 240P 512X2 DDR2 675(PC5400) / GIGABYTE GV-NX66T128 6600GT / Maxtor SATA (2x120GB RAID 0) / Maxtor EIDE (2x80GB RAID 0) / Sony DRU710A / Thermaltake Silent 775 / COOLRMSTR 450W RS-450-ACLY
***Why are you running, you're only going to die tired...***
Just to be clear, I don't detest BTV. It works alright. I prefer GBPVR more, but it won't run any ATI products. What I don't like about BTV is it's high cost and its marketing. I think it is silly to charge an extra $20 for a license if I use a 3rd tuner--$40 if I use 3rd and 4th tuners, and so on and so on. Sage TV does not do this, but they don't support ATI either.I bet the reviewer never even installed the card or tried the software
Just to be clear (for new members) all my observations were made using Beyond TV (which Satnav detests)
Jonas
Perhaps prices will come down or tuner licenses will be withdrawn given increased competition. MediaPortal is making good progress, and who knows, GBPVR support may be expanded. GotTV just went commercial, but I have heard nothing about a plan to charge for extra tuners.
S
I'm guessing newegg pulled the Sapphire (or Sapphire recalled it) because of Sapphire's failure to include the software cd. Unless Sapphire packages the Cyberlink Plus (and if you are content with crappy software), I would buy the PowerColor instead. But I wouldn't buy either card without MMC support. Here is what you need, but won't get:Yeah, I saw it on Newegg for $94.. but... I did a search for the Sapphire Theatrix.. and I couldn't find it on Newegg
Also, satnav4, did you get a response back from zipzoomfly on what your refund status would be? I know when I talked to the customer service there, they said 30 days... I still have the FedEx box that mine was packaged in just in case I get fed up with this card, the picture quality is worst than my AIW card
1) Fine bitrate control, i.e. average and peak bitrates, cbr or vbr;
2) Filter/setting controls, i.e. video soap, 3/2 pulldown, deinterlace/interlace;
3) File management, i.e. the ability to designate the save location of files to non-system drives;
4) EPG (if you get the Sapphire);
5) Input control, i.e. the ability to select s-video or composite.
I have not heard back from zipzoomfly yet. Sapphire promised the cd, but it is not here yet. Did they send you the regular Power Enema without EPG?
S.
Last edited by satnav4; 24-02-2005 at 02:28 PM.
I picked up the following discussion on the avs forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...heater+and+550
It is funny how everyone is coming to the same conclusion about the problems with the offered software and the need for promised MMC software.
S
Agreed. It all links back to something said on this thread: the chip is only shipping in add-on cards that are meant to be installed in MCE PCs. I suspect that at this early stage ATi never intended the card to exercise detailed control over captured streams. It represents a few man months of dev to code up all the handles needed to run this card according to the chip's spec using MMC. I guess ATi marketing boys pushed the card hard for x-mas and the developers reacted to the stupid deadline by coding up just enough functions for it work in the MCE OS and get marketing off their backs. Guess we just have to wait for the MMC code to mature: this is the obvious best decision and I strongly urge ATi to get the finger out. If they don't, or they never do, let us face that the card will ship in pre-built MCE boxes anyway and ATi will always get their money back. And most people will go: Great Picture. They won't even care that they are using less than a quarter of the card's potential.
I guess, at the time, that ATi money men viewed MMC compatibility for this card as an additional cost to them that simply wouldn't generate significant additional revenue. So when dev couldn't meet the stupid deadline, someone simply scratched this requirement (without telling some of the partners: naughty naughty). It's easy enough to do: you just adjust the criticality of the feature to low, or not required for this build, and voilà! Let us hope the developers, who must be angry to a man at these marketing ploys, are able to successfully push for the budget to work on the key aspects of the MMC code and bring this card to the forefront in the TV/capture card market. Which is where its spec suggests it should be.
Yeah, I got the unpolished turd version as well.... the picture is crappy compared to my AIW. I'll try to do some recording and convert to DVD format this weekend and see how it actually looks....
The thing I don't like about it (or I really didn't play with the settings enough to find it), is the ability to chose where to save my captures. It autumatically put it in \Documents and Settings\All User\Shared Video\My Video.... I had to do a search on my drive to find the stupid capture...
Yep, that's one of the many WTF moments you'll have using the stupid software. I did the search too, later did find them easier by going to my computer->shared documents->shared videos.It autumatically put it in \Documents and Settings\All User\Shared Video\My Video.... I had to do a search on my drive to find the stupid capture...
The problem is that the cards are priced at "power users" price point ($90-150) yet ships with a "noob user" piece of software. I'm hoping that what people are saying is right, that they only shipped it with the piece of turd software because they couldn't get MMC running with it yet but had to ship.
If anyone uses MCE 2005 you might find the following thread interesting.
http://www.xpmce.com/forum/ftopic92938.html
I would like a 2nd Sapphire card, so if any of you unsatisfied customers is willing to part with yours at a good price, I might be willing to buy it from you. It would beat letting it collect dust on a shelf. PM me if you have any offers. I really don't need it, but want it, and I'm sure my wife will balk, but if the price is right, I might just go for it.
You can check out feedback on ebay or Heatware (www.heatware.com) under user name ciregnol.
Last edited by ciregnol; 24-02-2005 at 08:26 PM.
They do make good furniture levelers and door stops.
Not nearly as good as the WinTV PCI I have. That's a quality door stop, let me tell you.
Come to think of it... I'll pay 50 bucks for your doorstops and paperweights
Providing of course that it actually works. I won't pay for
anything that's been drop kicked
Jonas
That was my thought too
Due to the lack of Theater 550 Pro overhere (PAL countries) I am testing a Hauppauge WinTv PVR-150MCE bulk card (62 euro)
One thing I noticed from the mpeg2 hardware compression is that is produces some sort of vertical lines which you do not see when displaying 4:3 but become visible when stretching to 16:9.
How is this with videocaptures from the 550Pro?
The sound is a known bug of this card it is too loud.
So it is logical that Theatrix card is having a lower sound level (referring to previous discussion in this forum)
Video capture via composite in showed ghosting (video used :Independence day)
video capture with AIW9800 (soft encoder) is somewhat better IMHO.
(especially when stretching to 16:9)
Recording with Hauppauge scheduler is also having some problems with sound,
From 4 programmed recording 2 had sound........ (PC was in standby mode)
a con for hauppauge is local support (at least here in the Netherlands)
Erik
ps: recording was done with DVD standard play (VBR max 8000, av 6400 Mb/s)
Last edited by neutron; 24-02-2005 at 11:48 PM.
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