New HDTV card from ATI

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New HDTV card from ATI

hdtvcard HDTV cards for PCs have been out for a couple years now, but are frequently priced in the $300-500 range. Today that all changes. ATI is one of the leading graphics cards manufacturers with a long tradition of producing TV capture cards, and they've recently released the HDTV All-in-wonder card for $199 with an included antenna. I assume due to the mass market nature of ATI's operations, they could finally bring the prices down compared to other cards in the market.

Now, this will only record over-the-air broadcasts from the major networks, not cable or satellite HDTV programming, and depending on where you live that is likely to mean half a dozen channels of standard network shows. ExtremeTech has a so-so review as well as HotHardware's favorable review.

by Matt Haughey June 24, 2004 in News

Comments

also anandtech review of the ati HDTV card...

I wish the HDTV stuff would standarize a little bit more so we can get HDTV cards that support HDTV over cable/sat/etc the myriad of levels of QAM and encryption schemes makes it unlikely in the near future...

MAybe the new fangled mandated firewire port will be the way to pull hdtv quality streams from your cable box to your PVR... broadcast flag nonsense not-withstanding...

*Shrug*

rampy

Posted by: pvr at Jun 24, 2004 8:15:50 PM

Hi,

I'm a bit of a newbie to this stuff, so sorry if this is a silly question. Do you guys recommend going the TiVo route or using a card like this to record things onto your computer? Is one easier to set up or more economical? Thanks!

Posted by: Lindsay at Jun 27, 2004 12:54:06 AM

well... A tivo doesn't record things on to your computer...

A tivo (or replaytv) works awesome right out of the box and such a great entertainment appliance...

however, if you want to do different or more things than your Tivo will allow (like burn shows to DVD for example) and you aren't afraid of PC innards and software config/tweaking and tinkering then there is some value to building it yourself...

but it's hard to call it more economical.. a 40 hour tivo after rebate + lifetime (of the unit) subscription is like 425 dollars... unless you re-used your existing PC you'd be hard pressed to get a homebrew PVR built for that price (although it *can* be done... if you are frugal)

hope that helps... you can get more info on homebrew do it yourself PVR's from my site, and well you can get info from tivo.com and replaytv.com (or support pvrblog by clicking on some of the links he has on the right nav bar)

*Shrug*

rampy

Posted by: pvr at Jun 27, 2004 6:25:52 PM

For mac users - HD DVR:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/index.jsp?epi-content=GENERIC&newsId=20040628005818&newsLang=en&beanID=202776713&viewID=news_view

Posted by: jbelkin at Jun 28, 2004 7:14:31 PM

The MyHD MDP-120 by Macro Image Technology is $90.00 more and has full PVR functionality, does not have as high a hardware requirment as the ATI card (the MDP-120 needs a Pentium II 400MHz or faster processor, 64MB or RAM, and Windows 98 SE, ME, 2000, and XP), supports D-VHS VCRs, and has TitanTv integration.

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/mdp120.asp

It's based on the same hardware as the Hauppauge WinTV-HD, but MIT actually writes software to support their product.

Posted by: Oujdeivß at Jul 2, 2004 8:49:22 PM

Okay this HDTV stuff is so confusing.
I want to watch HDTV on my LCD monitor. I would like to able to record it on my computer.

Will say the ATI/HDTV Card work? It has component inputs and an HDTV cable tuner box from Time Warner has component outputs - so shouldn't this work right?

Or do I need a different card? I see everyone wants to skip the cable box. But I DONT CARE. I will pay the extra 5 bucks a month for the HDTV cable box. Big deal.

Pete

Posted by: Pete at Jul 15, 2004 3:05:45 PM

Unfortunately Pete, these cards only decode over the air (OTA) HDTV broadcasts. In other words, they only get content from an antenna. I don't believe there are any HDTV cards for the PC that have the proper codecs for HDTV commercial cable systems, but I could be wrong.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Jul 15, 2004 4:35:51 PM

When are these cards supposed to show up in stores?

Posted by: mirko at Jul 16, 2004 10:26:54 AM

I've recently read that in 2005 the only hdtv cards sold will be hampered by DRM, so I've decided to buy a card before this happens.
Is there a card that provides cable and/or satellite support?
I'm so confused.

Posted by: Curt at Jul 28, 2004 6:12:19 AM

Posted by: tres at Jul 28, 2004 6:13:53 AM

Curt/tres, read this post to learn more about that.

http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2004/07/stop_the_broadc.html

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Jul 28, 2004 9:44:06 AM

Thanks!

Posted by: Curt at Jul 28, 2004 1:38:31 PM

I have a HDTV set top box that works fine going to my TV. But I would like to go to my PC. Please recommend a graphics card if that's what I need? yep i'm confussed.

Regards

Dave Bratton

Posted by: dave bratton at Aug 7, 2004 8:35:14 AM

I have a HDTV set top box that works fine going to my TV. But I would like to go to my PC. Please recommend a graphics card if that's what I need? yep i'm confussed.

Regards

Dave Bratton

Posted by: dave bratton at Aug 7, 2004 8:35:51 AM

Will Either the ATI HDTV Wonder or the MDP-120 Also record from analog sources??? (such as none HD DirrectTV) -Also ATI in the past has had huge issues with linux and drivers... Either card I go with needs to work 100% with Linux as I'm looking to build a MythTV setup, has anyone heard about this?

Thanks

Posted by: john at Sep 17, 2004 2:28:53 PM

This ATI card is a nightmare. I have yet to get the HDTV portion of this card to operate on 2 machines, multiple fresh installs of XPSP1 and upgraded drivers. It is a complete failure and ATI ought to be ASHAMED to put this card out with the amount of compatability problems. STAY AWAY FROM THIS CARD

Consider yourself warned...

Posted by: Scott Albright at Nov 17, 2004 10:11:28 AM

Still messing with my ATI HDTV card on MCE2005. Getting a bit frustrated.

Posted by: FDLBEar at Mar 24, 2005 1:50:52 PM

New HDTV card from ATI

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