Customer Reviews

ATI Technologies 100-703156 Wonder USB 2.0-TV Tuner / Video Input Adapter

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I purchased this product and spent about five hours trying to follow the support information on ATI's website about updating all the drivers, uninstalling and reinstalling in the correct order, etc. When I finally got through to a tech on the phone, I was told THIS PRODUCT IS NOT SUPPORTED (and will not work) ON WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER EDITION.

It simply comes up with an error: "Unable to start TV. The TV Player failed to initialize."

Definitely look elsewhere if you're using Windows XP MCE. And after my experience with ATI's support, I WON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM.

Installed to Sony Vaio V505 laptop with no problems. Analog signal isn't as clear as the component inputs. Hooked up the analog cable signal coming from my vcr. My XBOX is hooked up to my vcr inputs so now i can play xbox or playstation2 on my PC Monitor. Excellent product. Easy to install; load software, connect the USB connection, restart, and just like that television programs on your PC Monitor. I highly recommend this to anyone that has a laptop.

I have had nothing but trouble getting this product to function at all. Currently, I get nothing but a blank screen. Re-Installing the software leads to all kinds of errors on reinstall, which require me to fix the registry and/or reformat the system in order to repair.

Even when I can get the TV Tuner to function, the sound is delayed compared to the picture (about 2 seconds) and the video is horrible. This is being used on a computer that FAR exceeds the minimum requirements for this system, but the problem is that the TV Tuner is the poorest ATI product I have ever purchased.

They make good video cards, but bad everything else. Complete waste of my money. And before someone questions these statements: I am a professional software engineer and know what I'm doing.

UPDATE 9/26/2006: after extensive troubleshooting and work, including attempting to reinstall this device on multiple computers, I have since discovered that this is the most useless piece of hardware with the most useless piece of software shipped right with it. I have since thrown away the TV tuner (I've owned it for too long to have it repaired or returned) and will be purchasing another TV Tuner from Hauppague. Sorry ATI, but you lost a customer this time around. I hope for your quick demise.

This thing was easy to install, but it doesn't do everything it says. The touted scheduled recording function doesn't work. However, I discovered I could go through the tv listings manually and click "record" on the ones I wanted; then my shows recorded fine.

For some unknown reason, this thing doesn't track all the television stations available to me, and it doesn't give me the chance to choose the stations I want to pick up (or remove), even though that's something the manual promises. I'd like to delete some of the shows I've recorded, but I still have no idea where to look on my hard drive to PERMANENTLY delete them.

The manual is only minimally helpful. The website is even less helpful. Don't get this thing unless you're a never-say-die sort of person. You're pretty much on your own. I wouldn't buy this brand again.

Like many tech products, the overall quality is only as good as its software. I bought this about a half a year ago. Installation wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world, but it did install. On my GeForce 6800 and Athlon XP 2800+, video is choppy when watching in real time. When it works, video encoding is great. No chop or any other problems in the final movie file. The problem is that when you schedule it to record later, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I have tried to make sure that nothing was running in the background. My computer was never in sleep mode or a power save mode. I installed the newer software from the website. I even occasionally turned on the TV program and let it run so that no program would even have to load when my show came on. Nothing I do produces consistant results.

Even today I tried to record a race that was on during work, and it didn't record until I came home and, of all things, adjusted the volume on the tuner program! Sometimes it just works with no problems.

The TV listings program is also good, but it takes a few minutes to update the listings with new ones off of the internet. Downloading takes just a few seconds with my cable modem, but for some reason it takes forever to simply apply the new listings.

For your assurance, I have no other problems with my computer. Other than the above annoyances, it works great and the quality of video is great, but what use is it if you can't rely on it to record when you want? I'm now just using it to capture tapes.

I have had several vedio capture devices including ASD, WinTV, and ATI PCI. This one is the best.

Pros:

1. clean connection. There is only one usb cable connecting to your pc instead of A/V cables.

2. picture quality is better than PCI card. it is specially better than other products in recording high frequent moving pictures.

3. i always use ATI *.vcr format which is an excellent. i will convert into other format if necessary using the ATI media software.

Cons:

the only issue i have found is that it prefers the USB cable less than 9'.

Overall I am very happy with it and hope it lasts a couple of years. (my previous two ATI PCI cards died in a year)

Doesn't work at all if you install directly from cd. The drivers are outdated and do not function with newer laptops.

ATI just updated their drivers, but you can't install them if you don't uninstall EVERYTHING from ATI first. This includes your graphics card driver.... good luck finding it again!

If you do download the updated drivers/software from their site, you will no longer have the tv listings.

If you install the tv listings using the custom settings from the original cd, your whole system will crash and you'll need to refromat everything, or re-image with Ghost.

If you're not careful when you install, the temporary tv on demand files will eat up ALL your hard drive space, and you'll have to 1) First find the damn thing, it is a hidden folder 2) Change your viewing options so you can see the files 3) Delete the files while the program is turned off, or again, your system will die.

Think very very carefully before buying this product.

bought a new Toshiba M65 multimedia center laptop for christmas and the ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0. Could never get it too work. Would not initialize the device. No help from ATI. Downloaded all the new device drivers from ATI and Toshiba. Very frustrating.

consider yourself warned.

Initially, this worked great! A few months later, the quality of any standard cable (usually channels 2-20) dropped to a barely visible resolution. Then, recordings would stop suddenly, and kill the whole system. Even preset recording schedules would start, then anything between 1 and 20 minutes into the recording, it would sieze, and nothing would even appear. No live tv either. The only reason it gets 2 stars is because I can still (sort of) watch tv.

I bought it... paid over $90.

It hasnt installed. installer gives me an error. "out of strings, blah blah blah."

Very bad support from ATI.

Save your money or buy something else.