Customer Reviews

AMD ATI TV Wonder 550 PCI Video Card w/PVR Capabilities

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The Hardware is actually very good. This card works perfectly with Windows MCE 2005/Vista Home Premium. The picture is sharp and clear, the channels switch quickly... It does what it's supposed to and does it well.
Hardware: 5 stars.

The "Free" Remote is NOT "Free". You have to send them an inflated S&H charge for it to be sent to you. The actual Remote works OK and seems well made once it arrives. By the way, if you buy more than one TV Wonder, they will refuse to send you a 2nd "Free" remote unless you argue the point with a representative.
"Free Remote" Fiasco: 2 Stars. (only because it is a nice remote)

Software: This is the REALLY BAD part. The included Catalyst Media Center software is so bad that it is no longer supported with no updates available for DL at ATI's site. What is on the disk is what you get. The software can cause various system problems, and is nearly impossible to completely remove once installed.
On a Fresh Install of Windows it wouldn't work correctly and the only way I found to stop the errors it caused was to do another fresh install.
You would be best advised to consider CMC as MALWARE.
Software: ZERO Stars.

As long as you have your own TV/PVR software such as Windows MCE or Vista, this is great Hardware. The "Free" Remote is NOT MCE compatible, so there would be little point in paying for it.

I had an ATI card in my old computer that included a TV tuner. I have just purchased a new machine (my old one died) and decided to add the ATI TV Wonder 550 PCI card. My new computer runs Windows MCE 2005. I was able to load the ATI drivers after three unsuccessful attempts. I could not load ATI's Media Center from the installation CD. I tried downloading a newer version from ATI but it would not install. I attempted to contact ATI several times but they never responded. I have given up and ordered another brand TV tuner card.

Buyer Beware! Stay away from this product if you have Vista, especially if you have no stand-alone video card (i.e. only on-board video). The box and user guide say "certified for Windows Vista." Don't believe it. Also, you get no "Catalyst Media Center" software, as the box promises. The drivers on the CD are only for XP. The ATI website Vista driver did not work for me. Customer support was snotty. The first hung up on me, and the second cut me off, telling me to return the item and buy a more expensive product they sell. Also, there is no FM with Vista.

See other reviews. Website will waste your time, and trying to install Catalyst will be an endless loop of installing the same product, which never installs an executable file you can run. Once you talk to one the the rude customer support people, they'll admit that you were wasting your time!

If you are planning on using this tuner in Windows XP it will work just as advertised. I tried using in with Windows Vista 64-bit with 8 gb of ram and had nothing but trouble. Lots of static and the audio would make a buzz sound with certain tv stations. I believe it was just not picking up the right frequency for the channels in Vista. I used it with Windows Media Center in Vista and had the problems.

I would not recommend using the software or drivers with this card at all, use Media Center or another 3rd party tv tuner application. The software is bloated and can severly take over your machines resources.

If you are using XP this is a great tuner, if you are using Vista it's somewhat okay but I'd recommend using one of the Hauppauge tv tuner products.

I have just purchased my third ATI TV Wonder 550. This is an excellent product. I suppose I had no expectation when it came to anything other than the hardware, I have used lots of ATI video cards and been very happy with them. My only complaint would be changing channels for Live TV is slow but I hardly watch Live TV on the PC. I have been running two cards in a WinXP Pro PC coupled with Snapstream's Beyond TV and I also bought the Snapstream Firefly wireless remote. In addition I don't use Beyond TV to watch the recordings, I use CyberLink's PowerDVD. This all works together very nicely. Now I want to add a third card in the same PC with the first two. The cards have worked flawlessly for an uncountable number of recordings most of which I have to delete because I can't keep up but at least I get to pick and choose unlike missing a show. The video quality is excellent, which I watch full screen on a 46" LCD TV. My ATI Radeon 3850 video card gives me an HDMI output to the TV for watching my recordings. Yes my TV supports HD but I plan to stick with good old NTSC video for as long as my cable company will support it and that will be a while yet in Canada. Finally I'll admit my only other experience with building my own PVR was using Matrox Rainbow Runner back ten years ago in the old VHS days. The technology has come a long way since then so I can't compare with other manufacturers but I doubt any one vendor offers the complete perfect solution for a PVR.

I cannot comment on the hardware, as I never could get it to work on my computer. The so called software included is not worth even trying, and it is impossible to find any updated software on the AMD/ATI website. I was very disappointed with this product, as I have had no problems with the ATI video cards I've had.

Graphics are very good. It does not provide computer auto shutdown after recording. The remote that is available free is worthless. It does not provide all the functions needed to control the capture card such as scheduling. When recording you do not know if it is recording or not. The software has many quirks when using the remote. I would not buy this device
again.

Apparently the company had several software CD's which were defective and did not load up automatically. I did know know this until I called for support and was walked through the process..

I bought this card because it is advertised as being windows vista certified and so that i could also play my video game consoles through the my computer moniter. When i got it and tried to install the software and drivers the only thning that would install was the remote wonder software, which is lovely seeing as it doesnt come with the remote.

now, i am used to things not working with vista, so i proceeded to go diging on the internet for the drivers, i was able to find the drivers after about 2 days of searching on ati's website.

after finding the drivers i attempted to use the opensource VLC media player(which has never failed me before) and after fighting the card for several hours i was finaly able to get the software to recognize the card's existance. once i finaly got VLC to work with the card, the video quality was horrible and there was a 3 second delay on the video, making the using the menus on my verizon settop box annoying and making playing video games through the RCA ports impossible.

once i concedeed that i could not make VLC work, i tried using VirtualDUB (also opensource) and could not make it work at all. (I later realized that this was due to the fact that ATI now Uses WDM instaed of VfW)

after that i did what i always save to my last resort, and contacted ATI.
their first response was a computer generated list of suggestions that the average consumer may not know to try, but i had already attempted.
their second response after i let them know there response was unhelpful was an email informing me that what i wanted to do was immposible without giving me a reason or explination.

IF IT CANNOT BE DONE DO NOT ADVERTISE IT AS VISTA CERTIFIED.

well, after buying another card for my computer from hauppage(which worked) i decided to put this card in my freinds XP computer, assuming it would work with the OS it was designed for.

big supprise, it didn't work.

i tried installing the software from the install CD, it would not install anything other than the remote software. i even tried manualy installing each component and it would not work.

after that i was so pissed at ATI that i gave up. i am going to throw this card in the trash. i will never buy another product from ATI again.

I bought this to replace the AVIVO feature that my ATI AIW 9800 video card had. I love that card but since my new motherboard is PCI-E I can't use it anymore. The 550 was a total disappointment.

The auto-install on the CD only completely installs the Remote Wonder software, an accessory that's not even in the box. You have to get the "working" drivers off ATI's site and if you want to use Catalyst Media Center, you need to dig through the install CD and run it manually (...CMC/CMC/install.exe). The real annoyance is that after doing all that, CMC can't even connect to the card when you choose to watch TV. It just keeps looking for it and eventually crashes. I've tried using three other programs that work with WDM cards but none of them will connect to the card using cable or composite/s-video.

After two days of this nonsense I've decided to return it and research the other capture cards. I've read that Hauppauge's image isn't as crisp as ATI's but at least they work.