New ATI Tuner Card.

[satnav4]

PowerColor is a perfectly reputable brand, and their card (like all the other Theater 550 Pro based cards) is a clone of the ATI card. It's almost silly to even worry about their English. All these cards are made in Taiwan. Lest some ignorant idiot make some stupid comment about Taiwan... 90% of all computer parts are already made there, so get over it. Although increasingly, a lot of parts are now being made in China.

Jonas

No Taiwan basher here; having visited Taiwan 2 years ago, I determined their English is much better than my Chinese.

S.

[kev]

kev

I have seen much worse. The images do not look too bad to me. Please remember, it is difficult to get your more demanding computer monitor to make the images look as good as it does on your TV. I know this sounds silly, but you don't sit 2 feet away from your TV set. What monitor are you using? I am using a 17in LCD Samsung 712N.
Can you burn a DVD then play it on your TV? Give that a shot and see what you think.

That is alot of cable splitting. Are they pcb board splitters, or cheap Philips or RCA? You might want to change some out. If you can sub in a 3 way for 2 2-ways, you might also fare better. Some people like signal boosters. I have never had any luck with them, just getting boosted artifact.

S.

19" Dell M992 Moniter is what I have. You have very good advice on the aspect of sitting to close. Anyways, this is what I did, and I can say I am now really happy with my tv tuner. Bought a 4 in 1 today, ran it straight from that spillter to the tuner, and what a HUGE difference. 80% of the channels are like watching live tv. Like you said, as long as you sit back and enjoy the show. I am sure I will play around some more, thanks for all the suggestions.. Now if I could only get the remote to work with Beyond TV

Kev

[digitalravi]

True, true. I am again in touch with Komplett.no, as originally they refused me shipping outside of NO. Since it appears they still have some of the original 30 units shipped them beginning March, maybe now they'll relent and ship to Europe at least. Their price point is much better, plus they state it is the "full retail" package.
Funny Komplett UK still doesn't have it. Guess they've been reading this thread...

If you find any European online shop who can ship out of Europe, please tell me.
I want to buy the card from any UK shop, if they can ship the product to Tokyo.

Thanks in advance.

____________________
DigitalRavi

[blakev]

PowerColor is a perfectly reputable brand, and their card (like all the other Theater 550 Pro based cards) is a clone of the ATI card. It's almost silly to even worry about their English. All these cards are made in Taiwan. Lest some ignorant idiot make some stupid comment about Taiwan... 90% of all computer parts are already made there, so get over it. Although increasingly, a lot of parts are now being made in China.

Jonas

No offense taken, jonaslasky, but I seem to remember someone else telling us all to do this: "Exactly, this card was clearly designed with MCE as the Main software basis. ATI have now come out and said MMC is not on the list , get over it!!"

My point was simple, isn't silly and bashes no-one. It's a heads up. If you want to sell successfully in someone's market, you hire one or several consultants in their language to represent you in person or on the web. Don't do it, and you risk not making the right impression to the client and appearing unprofessional in their market.
It is arrogance to do otherwise. So Asian companies that don't hire anglophone consultants are just as bad as anglophone companies that run their Asian side of affairs in English only.
Lot's of translators out there and we now work for peanuts too. Lots of Asian electronics companies with faultless commercial presentations in multiple languages out there too. It's a heads up, that's all.

Of course you're right that the PowerColor offer (Tul?) is a perfect clone of the Sapphire, albeit with a rather complete ULead software suite on option, in addition to the unfinished PowerCinema soft on the ATi CD.

Why I'm still wondering what is happening to Intervideo. Obviously they are not going to ship until ATi gets the finger out on MCE support, which appears, sadly, to be our our last hope in this sea of ATi broken promises.
Smart companies don't leap into the Lion's den.
I can only assume Intervieo's delay is good news.

[blakev]

If you find any European online shop who can ship out of Europe, please tell me.
I want to buy the card from any UK shop, if they can ship the product to Tokyo.

Send a mail to overclockers about the PowerColor version, they'll probably ship to you in Tokyo, for a price.

[x4mer]

Bought a 4 in 1 today, ran it straight from that spillter to the tuner, and what a HUGE difference. 80% of the channels are like watching live tv.

Don't be surprised if you start having intermittent internet problems using that 4-1 splitter. Cable modems need a strong signal compared to a TV. Cable modem installers are supposed to split the household cable feed @ the entry point with a 2 way splitter. One side goes to the cable modem, while the other side gets split again depending on how many TVs there are in the house. This ensures that the cable modem gets half the signal strength, while under your new config the modem is only getting a quarter of the signal strength.

Your tuner card is now getting 25% of the available signal strength, where before it was only getting 12.5% (disregarding loss due to line length).

[satnav4]

Don't be surprised if you start having intermittent internet problems using that 4-1 splitter. Cable modems need a strong signal compared to a TV. Cable modem installers are supposed to split the household cable feed @ the entry point with a 2 way splitter. One side goes to the cable modem, while the other side gets split again depending on how many TVs there are in the house. This ensures that the cable modem gets half the signal strength, while under your new config the modem is only getting a quarter of the signal strength.

Your tuner card is now getting 25% of the available signal strength, where before it was only getting 12.5% (disregarding loss due to line length).

If he bought a good splitter, he may have one lead with less signal loss than the others. That is why I like the pcb versions. I picked mine up at Home Depot, of all places. If he has that option, he should just run his cable internet through the strongest connector.

S.

[satnav4]

I have some good 550 news. I just authored and burned my first DVD using TMPG Author, and the DVD looks great with perfect AC3 audio sync. I did a dry run without re-encoding the audio, and the DVD files with MP1,L2 audio also had perfect sync.

S.

[jonaslasky]

My point was simple, isn't silly and bashes no-one. It's a heads up. If you want to sell successfully in someone's market, you hire one or several consultants in their language to represent you in person or on the web. Don't do it, and you risk not making the right impression to the client and appearing unprofessional in their market.
It is arrogance to do otherwise.

Sorry I should have separated my response to your specific post and my pre-emptive comment meant for those who may not know what they're talking about.

In any case.... I certainly agree with you that it's a trivial matter to hire a person who actually knows the language to write documentation in that language. I've often wondered about the very same thing for a while now. However, you have to admit some of those documentations make for some very funny reading. In the case of the Chinese or the Taiwanese (same difference), it's not so much arrogance, but practicality I suspect. The old motto "close enough is good enough" I think is in effect there. I don't think it's quite the same as when big American companies refused to adapt to local customs because they thought themselves too high and mighty to bow to local silliness. There's still a bit of that left even now.

Jonas

[blakev]

Absolutely. And I'm sure these guys have a "rough" web site up because they have low margins and are running as tight to budget as they dare. Considering the shark pool they are in, your advice to play down the importance of their presentation versus the importance of a very low price is the correct take, really. I'm a bit too much of an idealist (and I make money setting these things up and hate it/lose business when companies don't properly invest in it).

For the euro buyers here, I've got another mail from komplett Norway saying they won't ship outside of NO. Ridiculous. Mind you, the Swiss are the same. I guess those two aren't in Europe, despite appearances.

[x4mer]

If he bought a good splitter, he may have one lead with less signal loss than the others. That is why I like the pcb versions. I picked mine up at Home Depot, of all places. If he has that option, he should just run his cable internet through the strongest connector.
S.

Splitters with 'weighted' outputs only happen when the number of outputs is odd. Since his is a 1to4 splitter, each output will get 25%.

Splitters that offer more than 2 outputs, are really cascaded splitters, except it's done internally. In a 3 output splitter, it internally contains a two way splitter, which has another two way splitter hooked to one of the outputs. One of the splitter outputs is getting half the signal off the first internal split, while the other two outputs are the two outputs of the second internal split & therefore each get half of the remaining 50%.

I don't know what you mean by PCB splitters tho (never seen one). Maybe the above doesn't apply for them? Do they have jumper settings on them?

[satnav4]

Splitters with 'weighted' outputs only happen when the number of outputs is odd. Since his is a 1to4 splitter, each output will get 25%.

Splitters that offer more than 2 outputs, are really cascaded splitters, except it's done internally. In a 3 output splitter, it internally contains a two way splitter, which has another two way splitter hooked to one of the outputs. One of the splitter outputs is getting half the signal off the first internal split, while the other two outputs are the two outputs of the second internal split & therefore each get half of the remaining 50%.

I don't know what you mean by PCB splitters tho (never seen one). Maybe the above doesn't apply for them? Do they have jumper settings on them?

Good point; that is why I proposed a 3 way splitter. I meant printed circuit board, and in my experience, not all splitters have them. It is better to split the signal internally, than through a series of external splitters and cables. I do not have the jumper settings, but I do know that the ones I am using are supposed to pass up to 1 ghz (versus 900mhz).

Finally, let's wait to see if his internet signal is compromised. If not, this is just an academic discussion.

S.

[Myrdhinn]

Powercolor aka TUL are the 3rd largest VC maker.... nipping on Sapphire's heels to be #2. One has to remember they are primary an asian source not Europe or NA. The asian market alone is bigger than Europe and NA combined. So we may think their English sites are bad and think they are low margin and running a low budget is far from the truth. It wasnt long ago you'd snicker at the name Goldstar and now LG is a big player in the market.

[jonaslasky]

It wasnt long ago you'd snicker at the name Goldstar and now LG is a big player in the market.

Think of how funny how "Samsung" used to sound to American and European ears. Nobody's laughing now. They make the very best in electronics. Analysts in the field are now saying they've replaced Sony as the premier brand... but wait a minute... it wasn't that long ago people were laughing at Japanese products too. My! how times change. New players always start out at the low end, but it doesn't mean they're staying there

[kev]

Good point; that is why I proposed a 3 way splitter. I meant printed circuit board, and in my experience, not all splitters have them. It is better to split the signal internally, than through a series of external splitters and cables. I do not have the jumper settings, but I do know that the ones I am using are supposed to pass up to 1 ghz (versus 900mhz).

Finally, let's wait to see if his internet signal is compromised. If not, this is just an academic discussion.

S.

So far so good, the day and a half its been, I have yet to have any internet issues..

[digitalravi]

Powercolor aka TUL are the 3rd largest VC maker.... nipping on Sapphire's heels to be #2. One has to remember they are primary an asian source not Europe or NA. The asian market alone is bigger than Europe and NA combined.

No doubt the Asian market is very much in size and in terms of the number of units
sold, but it is rather pathetic to see companies like ATI don't have any well defined
strategies to please the customers here. Forget about Asian markets, in TV tuner
market, hardly any body bothers ATI in Europe.

If anybody scrolls across the webpages of online Europe or Asian shops, in TV
tuner segments, ATI chipset cards feature no where. To me it appears that ATI is not
at all keen in Europe and Asian markets so far as their multimedia products are
concerned. Why then people like us, wait so long for their cards and make a lot of
fuss....? I feel it is all worthless. I am yet to hear about a good PAL compatible card
which has ATI chipsets. Even in AIW segment, I donot believe ATI has concrete plans
for markets other than Canada and US.

Those who have been following this thread from the beginning know how much
people are in anticipation for a PAL card of 550, and how much confusion is there
in European and Asian markets about 550 chip. The other day I came across this:::







It is the tuner of a Leadtek TV 2000 XP. How beautifully they have printed the
TV standards for which the card works. I say, these people like Leadtek are the
ones who deserve all our hard earned money. They know where the end user
can get confused. They are humble and care for their customers.

In this thread, I have seen people who purchased a 550 card in US and felt lost
after they came to know that it wont work for PAL. So why can't ATI print the specs
and the Television standards of the card and the regions where it works
on the card or atleast on the box. People would respect ATI more, if they do this
instead of plating their cards with gold. In one of my posts, I have reported that I saw
Sapphire theatrix boxes in Tokyo with specs written in all European languages, but
containing an NTSC card. No where it was written that the inside card is only NTSC
one. Any European tourist in Tokyo could easily get misleaded and buy one in the
much renowned Tokyo Electric market. Why should they mislead customers like
this...?

After much thought I decided to settle for a Hauppauge 250 or a Leadtek card.
I will not wait any longer for buying a 550 card, which no body knows when it will
be available in PAL version.

People like Leadtek, Pinnacle and Hauppauge also make business. But what I am
impressed about them::::

*** Like ATI, they dont claim that "WE ARE FIRST AND BEST AND WORLD NO 1"

*** They are easily accessible in the market, to the end user. Customers
need not get confused and buy wrong cards. Example, see this:::

Here Hauppauge has included options to shop for either NTSC or PAL
cards, separately.

http://registration.hauppauge.com/webstore/hardware.asp


*** Companies like ATI appear insensitive to their customer requests, even
after they get enough of bashing from forums like this. So after shouting for
so long, what did we achieve here....? When will ATI respond to us.....?

Making great chips is not the only one way road to top the market. One
needs be customer friendly and have good market strategies. In many forums
I have read many people screaming "I will never buy an ATI card...." Does this
not speak volumes about ATI.......?????

DigitalRavi
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