Customer Reviews

ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB PC TV Tuner

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Just installed the ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB, on a Dell Inspiron with Vista Home Premium, completely in less than 1/2 hour & it works great! Great video & audio, in sync. However, the instructions are missing a key point or two. Luckily I spent some time reading reviews first. Shut down running programs and install the disk. While the disk is running, connect your cable to the outlet and the USB TV device then insert the USB TV device into your PC. Pull the battery protective tab from the remote & turn it on. When the install is done running, it will leave two icons: ATI Catalyst and BDARemote. Double click BDARemote first - it loads the USB device driver (not mentioned in the instructions!). It will appear nothing happened. Only then, double click the ATI Catalyst icon to recognize the stations and set viewing parameters. If you don't like Catalyst, you can then set up the TV on Windows Media Center.

This tuner is the best one I have used. Works flawlessly with Windows 7 32 & 64 bit. (our laptop is 32 bit and our desktop is 64 bit)I highly recommend this if you are running windows 7. You will not be disappointed! Just use the media center software in windows 7 instead of the software that comes with the tuner.

I bought the ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB TV Tuner recently through woot for $25 new. After a very LONG and poor setup of software on 2 seperate computer (1 XP and 1 Vista) found the unit runs reasonably well with old "rabbit ears"
antennas from Radio Shack. I bought this mainly for NFL Sunday as I still have yet to buy HD TVs but our current tvs still are fine for DVDs. Figure $25 to be able to watch 3-4 games a weekend during football season
is the best value. ill eventually get an HDTV anyway. Occasionally the tuner cuts out (grays out)and video gets choppy but generally that coincides to when it gets windy. Overall it was pulling down good signal for about 90% of the time. It froze up the system every once in awhile. For $25, I can excuse some misbehavior as long as the majority of the time it operates. This is using the included clunky "catalyst" SW

It's perfect exactely what i was looking for.
Very easy to use. picture is perfect, sound wonderful.
I just love it.

I bought the ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB on [...] about a year ago. I replaced my old USB tuner that didn't include the S-Video or Composite input. I use it for everyday use and can plug in my video camera if I want to convert old 8mm or VHS tapes to digital using ATI's proprietary software.

The Good:
Includes an antenna (if new) that picks up OTA HD broadcasts
Software is dead-simple to use
Doesn't take up a precious PCI slot
Works flawlessly with Windows 7 Media Center when installed correctly (see The Ugly)
Runs warm, but not hot
Tiny, not much bigger than 2 jump drives side-by-side.

The Bad:
Doesn't work with MythTV properly (audio issues due to USB design)
Without proper motherboard chipset drivers, it will lose the stream and stop recording
Software isn't pretty. It's functional, but it isn't pretty

The Ugly:
ATI refuses to write drivers for Windows 7 for this device, but continues to sell it.
[...]

HOWEVER, the great thing about Windows 7 is Compatibility Mode. Don't bother using the CD that comes with this product. Download the XP 32-bit (or 64-bit) drivers from AMD's website. Right-click on the installer, and run it in Windows XP (Service Pack 2) compatibility mode. It will install and work with the ATI (and Windows 7 Media Center) software flawlessly, no funky rewrite of drivers needed.

I bought this thing as a second hardware encoding tuner for a computer running Snapstream's Beyond TV. So, I had no interest in installing the software for the viewer or the remote. I attached the cable and plugged it into the computer using a USB extension cord. This was helpfully provided since, as they correctly state in the docs, plugging this directly into the USB port is probably not going to be physically possible. Windows was unable to find the drivers on the CDROM and I couldn't either (no directory labeled "driver" and no INF file with a deciperable name), so I was forced to run the install program. Fortunately, it allowed me to choose to install only the drivers. Did that, re-ran the setup program for BeyondTV, and everything worked fine. It does seem to run my CPU harder than the internal tuner I have (hauppauge) or the external USB (adaptec) tuner that this is replacing. Not sure why that is.

First of all this product is great...as far as the software that came along ....I haven't tried it...I actually use (vitualdub) which is free and works great. I suggest that your machine is more than the system requirements because that will affect the video when being recorded to your computer. Also when you are recording I highly recommend that you create a different "user" in your computer and whenever recording has started ...just leave your computer or laptop alone and don't run any other programs or online. As far as the TV tuner I haven't tried it either so cannot comment on that. The only reason I bought this adapter was so I could get my VHS tapes to my computer and later put them on Youtube or put it on a DVD so I can play it on my DVD player. If you decide to use Virtual Dub as the software,please be advised that the file format will be AVI. AVI will not work with Windows Movie Maker and you must convert it to MPEG or other file formats so you can edit your videos. Make sure you download a Video Converter...there are so many and free but make sure they are not trials or else your video is going to have words in the middle of the video.

I used a laptop( t8400 , 4GB, 320 GB) Windows Vista 64 Bit

I picked this up last week and hooked it up to my desktop, which I already have connected to my 32" HDTV through a HDMI connection. I have Windows 7 (64bit) on my computer and wasn't sure if this would work well with the OS. I connected it to my computer and then installed the software like the direction said to do. I read reviews that the actual software that comes with this is not the best, so I to date have only used it with windows media Center, which it actually works flawlessly with thus far. The only problems I've really had is that since I'm using it on a Desktop PC I had to use the USB exstension cable (supplied). I then had to velcro the Tuner with the remote signal end out on top of my desktop, so I can use the supplied remote. I guess if you are running this on a Netbook or Laptop that wouldn't be a problem since it would stick out on the side. The flaws so far is that the remote is not as responsive as I would like. It feels like it goes to sleep if you don't use it for a bit or have it pointed exactly right. I also noticed than when using it with windows media center scrolling through the channels can be somewhat annoying with the remote, as you have to press the button over & over to get it to scroll up or down, instead of just being able to hold it down.The USB Tuner seems to get somewhat warmer than I would expect it to, but I'm hoping that won't be a problem down the road. Another flaw for this Tuner is that it only gets HD through antenna (over the air TV/HDTV ATSC) which is also fine with me, since I don't have cable. Although if you want to use this with HD cable, I would recommend picking something else up. The antenna that comes with it is also a joke. I don't know if you could pick up any channels with it, unless maybe you lived right next to a stations towers. I just used the HDTV antenna I currently have although I'm also planning on upgrading it. I think you might be able to find this at a nicer price with a little searching but so far it has helped me complete my Multimedia PC. I can record shows when I'm not here and skip through all the annoying commercials. I would recommend this tuner almost highly.

I bought this for the Superbowl in a couple weeks since I have to be at work. I used Windows Media Center instead of the included software, and it works absolutely great. The included software is OK, and is functional, but if you have Windows Media Center, I'd suggest using that. The Media Center checks the internet to find a guide and available channels and then when you select it, it tries to find it. I can't pick up 1 channel, but I would assume this is because I am simply out of range and not the quality of receiver.
Pros-
-Great picture, the digital signal looks great
-Picks up signals easily and holds them well
-Very easy to set up and use
Cons-
-I would like to see the usb stick a little smaller. It's no bigger than a thumb drive though.
-Sometimes hard to pick up a channel(this may be due to where I am though. No issues on other channels)

I bought this primarily because we have 2 young children in a relatively small apartment and wanted another TV but with no space for one. This was the perfect solution to use on our desktop computers (both running Windows Vista 32-bit). Now when the kids want to watch some kid-movie or play games on the wii, we can hook this little tuner up to the computer in our bedroom or the dining room to watch something besides what the kiddos are watching. Purchased mine on [...] for a great price - WAY better than the price for another television!

Picture quality for just watching DTV is EXCELLENT!! I haven't really tried other functions as other people have mentioned in their comments here, so I can't speak for all the other features. We HAVE recorded (manually-not with the calendar timer the program provides) a couple television programs and the recording is excellent DVD quality picture and sound. The recording files do end up being quite large (approx. 1GB for 10-15 minutes).

The software (Catalyst) menus provided are rather clumsy and irritating to use, as the channels don't display with their channel numbers, rather they display the television station call sign (ie. KUER, KIAH, KHOU, KZDT etc.) so you have to get familiar with those. There is a definite learning-curve to scrolling through the menus, but once you figure it out, it's not impossible to use.

For strictly its TV-tuner capabilities I totally recommend it!!!