Will be getting a ATI tv wonder ve

[awdark]

I will be getting an ati tv wonder ve soon.
I would like to know if there are any freeware pvr programs with timeshift support.
Also, are higher resolutions (640x480+) supported in the new versions of the capture software?
Lastly, do you have any recomendations on software or utilities I should put on it, say reception fixes (dunno if that exists), macrovision kill, or anything that you guys think will be useful.

(I will use this card primarily for tv recording, and the secondary use will be to convert from vhs to vcd)

Thank you!

[vhelp]

hi awdark,

If you can, I would skip the VE and go search for the ATI-TV Wonder pci (ATW)
card.

This card (IMO) is better because it has S-Video, while the VE only as RCA.

Also, the ATW has a break-out box. A 6' purple dong w/ all the connections
in front so that you don't have to crawl in the back of your pc case.

This break-out box has: RCA; S-Video; and Sound at your fingertips.

About the only problem you would tipically encounter are the:

* IRQ issues
* installation and driver issues (it's a VFW driver/card)
* framedrops
* audio sync

All the above can effect your (but so can the VE) or some of them can.
It all depends on your pc.

This card works best under Windows 98 (and possibly 98SE) but w2k and XP
were not around at the time of this cards premier. But drivers may be available
on their (ATI's) website.

One other issue, is beware of the WDM driver issue. If you are running
under w2k/xp, you may run into problems, because this card is really ment
as a VFW type card.

Also, beware of the "WDM to VFW" wrapper. It has bugs and may most
likely have one setting, unacceptable to most.

Just some things to ponder,
-vhelp 2051

[haloblack]

Also, the ATW has a break-out box. A 6' purple dong w/ all the connections
in front

Wow.

And I thought my AIW 9700 was impressive...




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[awdark]

The breakout box does sound nice, reminds me of my first ati all in wonder video card (in all its 8megs of edo glory). But I want to basically just use this for tv recording, so I dont need the svideo connector as much.

Do you know if it is at least a decent tv recorder?
Software that makes it a decent pvr?

running
win xp pro
athelon xp 2600+
512 ddr
Gainward Geforce4 Ti4200 64mb (cant afford a Radeon All in wonder)
160gig wd hdd 7200rpm 8mb cache
one dialup modem plugged in (so hoping there wont be irq issues)

[Metaluna]

Unless they've changed it recently, be aware that the TV Wonder VE does NOT have a stereo TV tuner. It will record TV broadcasts with mono audio only. For VHS captures it should be okay because you use the composite in for video, and then just connect the VCR's audio out directly to your sound card for stereo recording. You could also use the tuner in the VCR for TV recording and get stereo that way, but then you lose the PVR features since the card can't control the VCR's tuner.

Unless you really want the ATI MMC software, in my opinion there are better cards in the VE's price range that are based on the exact same capture chip and so should work with the same third-party capture apps. One that comes to mind is the Leadtek Winfast TV 2000 XP (or something like that). This has both a stereo/FM tuner as well as S-Video in, but doesn't work with ATI MMC, of course. It does come with its own PVR software, but I've never used mine as a PVR so I can't say how well it works -- it's probably adequate but nothing special. I think it's called WinFast PVR or something like that.

As for freeware apps, two of the most common for this class of cards are DScaler and VirtualDub.

[lordsmurf]

I like ATI cards, but only those with the Theatre Rage or Theatre 200 chipsets, not the BT or Conexants.

I think this one has a BT chipset.

[vhelp]

* ATI-TV Wonder pci is a - BTx
- - Stereo; RCA; S-Video; VFW driver

* ATI-TV Wondre VE is a - Conexant
- - Mono; RCA; WDM driver (posibly VFW)

per my cards chips.

-vhelp 2054