How 2 Capture HD with ATI HDTV Wonder

[NautTboy]

Ok, finally got HDTV working on my pc. Got it from ebay for $16 free shipping. I found installation CD via torrent. The one install now is v.904. With this version, DTV capture option is only max to DVD quality. I'd tried the lasted v.916 but DTV wasn't listed in the media table. I'd also tried AVS4you videorecorder and than added tv recorder but that didn't work either. The other TV program didn't work with my card. Just wondering if there's cheap/free HD capture program out there. Tried Ulead Video v10 but that only capture DVB. Will try the new Ulead/Corel x3 soon, but that's $99.

[usually_quiet]

I hate to say it, but if the system specs in your profile are correct, there is no way that you can watch HDTV using that PC.

If you are actually using a better machine, GB-PVR shows your tuner in its supported list, although as I recall you already tried that one and rejected it as too complicated to set up. Maybe it is time to try it again. If not, given the problems you are experiencing, perhaps the best thing to do is to stop buying dubious items from e-Bay and save up for a PC that can run Vista Home Premium or Windows 7 Home Premium. With those versions of Media Center, setting up a supported card with an ATSC tuner is virtually plug-and-play, and I speak from personal experience.

[NautTboy]

Ok, profile has been updated since 2005. I'm still using pc I upgraded in 2006. Sempron 2800+ @ 2.0ghz w/ 1.25 RAM. I can watch DTV and capture just fine. Like I said, I want capture at higher resolution before I install it on my other pc which will be Athlon X2 @ 2.9ghz with 4g RAM and ATI HD 4200. I'm still waiting for my HDD to arrived so I can put it together. i will be putting Win7 64bit on it. Thanks for your input anyway. I will try different MMC again.

[DarrellS]

You need the ATI Catalyst Media Center for that card, not MMC.

[jagabo]

If you're using the onboard tuner you can't record HD from SD channels.

[usually_quiet]

It is unlikely that an ATI HDTV Wonder is going to work installed in a Windows 7 64-bit system. I went to Microsoft's website, and it wasn't on the hardware compatibilty list for either Vista or Windows 7. Next, I went to ATI's website to find drivers, and there were none. The latest drivers were for various 32-bit versions of XP.

The ATI HDTV Wonder was originally distributed with Multi-Media Center. Read http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ati-brings-hdtv-pc,882.html for more information.I don't know if it will work with Catalyst Media Center, [Edit] but I somehow doubt that it can.

I ran across this page http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/atihdtvwonder.html with more information on the HDTV Wonder. The author recommends WatchHDTV and seems to think the HDTV Wonder works with Vista, so maybe there is a small chance it will work for Windows 7.

[NautTboy]

Next, I went to ATI's website to find drivers, and there were none. The latest drivers were for various 32-bit versions of XP.

Yea, I know. If you google, you probably see me asking for help everywhere. I got a hold of the install CD(ver 9.04) from torrent. After installed. I tried just installing the ver 9.08 and it work. I think the ver 9.10+ is now call Catalys Media.

The ATI HDTV Wonder was originally distributed with Multi-Media Center. Read http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ati-brings-hdtv-pc,882.html for more information.I don't know if it will work with Catalyst Media Center, [Edit] but I somehow doubt that it can.

No, it doesn't work.

I ran across this page http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/atihdtvwonder.html with more information on the HDTV Wonder. The author recommends WatchHDTV and seems to think the HDTV Wonder works with Vista, so maybe there is a small chance it will work for Windows 7.

I came across forum that says this card works with windows 7 fresh install. I will try that and see if not, I'll just keep my old pc for old hardware. We'll see how my new pc run.

Thanks for the input guys, but I guess I didn't get my question answer. I wanted software that could capture @ atleast 720i/p. Answer I got was my card was too old. Well, maybe the answer is No, there's no software that can capture HD for this card.

EDIT: Capable of displaying/watching in 1080, you wouldn't think capable of capturing, right?

[jagabo]

You should be able to caputure HD from an HD broadcast. All the digital broadcast capture cards simply save the broadcast stream to a file. Virtually every SD capture card can upscale SD to HD for display (actually done by the software). But there's no point in upscaling for capture. You are just making more data, not improving the picture quality.

[usually_quiet]

WatchHDTV can timeshift and record TV as well as play live TV using the tuner. HD would be displayed and recorded in HD as far as I can tell. If you mean capture from the S-Video input, then I don't think it can, and that won't be HD anyway.

I have been trying to get it running under Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit with no success so far. Using Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode, plus run as administrator did not work. WatchHDTV crashes immediately. I will try uninstalling GB-PVR since I am not using it at present, and it runs in the background, but I'm not expecting any improvement.

[Edit] The HDTV Wonder was very popular at one time but has been superseded by better cards. The tuner was not supposed to be very good. For what it is worth, I am using a TV Wonder HD 650 PCIE now, which I bought new recently for $40 plus shipping. I am somewhat dissatisfied with its digital tuner's sensitivity, but it is supposedly better than your card's tuner. While it did not pick up as many channels as I expected, I had little trouble getting it to work with Windows 7 Media Center. If you read customer reviews, some people say they can't get it working, but tuner cards seem to be problematic hardware. Right now if only digital is needed, there seem to be some other bargains to be found, from Avermedia as well as ATI.

[DarrellS]

I am using a TV Wonder HD 650 PCIE now

For some reason, that's what I thought he had or the HD-AIW since the original price was $200. Then I looked at your Tom's Hardware post and the card is from 2004 or 2006. Way too old to be either of those cards.

I bought the TV Wonder 650 PCI-e a couple of years ago but after returning the first one because an electical component had fallen off the board before I got it home, I was not impressed with the second one at all and without being able to get clear QAM, I took it back and got the Hauppauge 1800. I have no complaints about the Hauppauge and after the sale price and the $40 rebate, I ended up paying $59 for it. The ATI HD TV Wonder was $128.

There aren't a lot of good capture cards today and the software is even worse. If I was to replace the 1800, I'd probably get the 1850 which is an updated model of the 1800. I've heard about too many problems with the 2250. The Hauppauge HD-PVR is on my wish list but it doesn't have a tuner.

[usually_quiet]

@NautTboy: Even without GB-PVR running in the background, WatchHDTV would not run on my Windows 7 PC, no matter what compatibility setting or permissions I used. I don't have any way to test it for windows XP, but WatchHDTV was developed for use in that environment. It may be OK if the HDTV wonder stays in your old system.

@DarrellS: Thanks for the recommendation, but if I do get another PC tuner in the near future, it probably won't be a Hauppauge HVR 1850. It will most likely be a USB device.

Not being able to tune QAM is no great loss. My computer is not normally used in a room with a cable outlet. I only planned to use the TV Wonder HD 650 PCIE with cable in the event of equipment failure.

A cable amplifier might allow the TV Wonder HD 650 PCIE to tune QAM, and will be necessary if I ever add another split. Sometime soon I am going to try an amplified indoor antenna to see if my the TV Wonder HD 650 PCIE can find the rest of my locals that way.

[SingSing]

Did you get all the DTV channels ?

[NautTboy]

I wonder if having so many capture software install prevent GB-PVR from working. This software has many recommendation and nice GUI. Only if i can get it to work. Could anyone find a tutorial?

for me: ALL DTV came in at certain time. PBS didn't come in at night time. Using Walmart Philips $10 Antenna. DIY antenna seem interesting but with parts it will cost the same as a new one at Walmart.

[DarrellS]

I was getting everything but FOX until August when FOX boosted their signal. Now I get FOX but I can't get any of the PBS channels and I lost NBC. I'm using a home made antenna out of a 2x4 and hangers. I haven't tried my Philips HDTV antenna since they switched to digital. It was working great until then but would hardly pick up anything after that. It's supposed to be UHF/VHF but obviously it isn't and it's a powered antenna.

[usually_quiet]

The bow-tie DIY antennas made from coat hangers are for UHF only. They are no good for picking up VHF digital channels, and a lot of places have a mix of UHF and VHF. It pays to consult tvfool.com to find out what channels you are likely to receive and what part of the TV spectrum they use. Some changed to VHF well after the transition.

The GB-PVR Wiki contains the only set-up guide I could locate.

[DarrellS]

I was getting NBC and all of the PBS channels last summer. The only channel that I wasn't getting was Fox but since they boosted their signal in August, I can now get FOX (it's probably my strongest signal now) but I lost NBC and all the PBS channels. Seems like a few channels have lowered their signal strength. ABC-15 doesn't come in as strong as it used to.

I thought I'd try WinTV 7 to see if I could pick up any better but I cannot get WinTV 7 to install. Keep getting a message that I need the original CD and when I stick it in, it tells me there is not a copy of WinTV on the disk. The CD came with WinTV 2000 (which is supposed to work for the upgrade) but it says it's only a driver disk.

I've had WinTV 7 on this computer before which is why I can't understand why it won't install. I never had to put the CD in before. Seems like Hauppauge wants to force you to buy the CD which is bullcrap since they sold me a HDTV tuner card with software that captures analog and wants to force me to buy an upgrade that I've never had to pay for before.

I've burned three seperate discs to use and none of them work. I saw a thread on the subject at the Hauppauge forum and SHS posted a link to get 1.3 which was supposed to fix the problem but it doesn't. Guess I'll have to try and find the original version of WinTV 7 since I know it installed before.

[NautTboy]

I'd finally got Windows 7 installed. They are right, fresh install of Windows 7 will make ATI HDTV Wonder work. Gui similar to GB-PVR but easier to setup. I have to figure out why it record on it's own. I wanna know how to to setup schedule recording too. I dont know what format/resolution it is recording. I'd kinda like ATI MMC better. When I minimize, the TV play in the Wallpaper as it is the active Wallpaper. I can also set schedule and know what format it's recording as. I haven't tried installing on Win7 yet. I will try that once I find my CD.

[lacywest]

Speaking from 100 Percent experience ... YES ... Windows 7 will see the ATI HDTV Wonder PCI card and it will work 100 Percent with WIN 7 Ultimate 64 BIT or 32 BIT ... allow Microsoft Update to install the drivers ... it will work ... really.

I'm talking about it working with the Media Center that is included in Vista Home Premium and Ultimate versions ... or WIN 7 versions ... 32 bit or 64 bit ... I know because I'm doing it.

And if you can find ... ATI Multimedia Center 9.14 ... that one will work with the HDTV card ... in WIN XP.

I dont even bother installing it anymore ... the Media Center in WINXP or Vista or WIN 7 ... works just fine.

Cyberlink PowerCinema 6 and PowerDirector 8 also work but the Media Center in Windows works better ... just program the shows you want to record and it takes care of itself. Use ... DivX Author 1.5 ... if you want to convert DVR-MS to Divx ... works great. Set it to convert with the setting ... Insane Quality and the results will be very nice.

I have an antenna on my chimney ... mounted to a 15 foot pole and I get all the HD channels in the Fresno CA area.

ZIP Code ... 93230

[usually_quiet]

I'd finally got Windows 7 installed. They are right, fresh install of Windows 7 will make ATI HDTV Wonder work. Gui similar to GB-PVR but easier to setup. I have to figure out why it record on it's own. I wanna know how to to setup schedule recording too. I dont know what format/resolution it is recording. I'd kinda like ATI MMC better. When I minimize, the TV play in the Wallpaper as it is the active Wallpaper. I can also set schedule and know what format it's recording as. I haven't tried installing on Win7 yet. I will try that once I find my CD.

Windows 7's Media Center allows time-shifting while watching live TV and allows you to begin recording instantly while watching. It records continuously so that those things are possible. It does not save the recording unless you tell it to. Recordings are always in the broadcast resolution. Scheduled recordings are done using the program guide.

[SingSing]

I was getting everything but FOX until August when FOX boosted their signal. Now I get FOX but I can't get any of the PBS channels and I lost NBC. I'm using a home made antenna out of a 2x4 and hangers. I haven't tried my Philips HDTV antenna since they switched to digital. It was working great until then but would hardly pick up anything after that. It's supposed to be UHF/VHF but obviously it isn't and it's a powered antenna.

NBC is at the lower end of the DTV frequency spectrum. I solve that problem by changing one pair of the coat hanger length to 15 inches ( You can calculate the 1/4 wavelength of your NBC station, mine is at channel 7 ) Now my NBC came in crystal clear.

[NautTboy]

Recordings are always in the broadcast resolution.

Does anyone know how I can check the size and resolution of a video? I think I Super will tell me, but I haven't install it yet. The playback of my capture are very clear but not as well as LIVE. More of DVD quality.

[jagabo]

MediaInfo, GSpot

[usually_quiet]

File size should give you a clue. If the recording was from an 1080i channel, the .wtv file should be around 5.3 to 6.5 GB for a 65 minute recording.

[NautTboy]

wtv? I thought it would be either avi or wmv or something else other than wtv. I captured PBS 30min SuperWhy. I'll have to check the files size again.

Thanks again guys.

[usually_quiet]

Windows 7's Media Center and Vista's Media Center with TV Pack 2008 always uses .wtv for recordings. Windows XP's Media Center and Vista's Media Center pre-TV Pack 2008 use .dvr-ms instead. These are Microsoft's proprietary file formats. In N. America, these formats are containers for the recorded program's MPEG-2 transport stream, AC3 audio streams, closed captions and program information.

Most of the time, Media Center recordings can be freely copied and converted into other formats. While the .wtv container incorporates DRM, at this point copy protection is only applied to premium content, which is encrypted as well as copy-protected. That being the case, DDRM isn't of much concern to the average Windows Media Center user in N. America with a QAM/ATSC/NTSC TV tuner card.

I have only done it once, but when I converted a 65 minute 5.3 GB .wtv file to .mpg (video and one audio stream), the file size decreased by .74 GB. The conversion process did not re-encode anything, just got rid of all the extras.

[NautTboy]

By what I've read. The recording is only in MPEG2 720X480, which is DVD quality format.

So when you said, you got rid of all the extras, what extras are you talking bout? Are you saying that in the wtv files, it includes CC(subtitle)?

[usually_quiet]

By what I've read. The recording is only in MPEG2 720X480, which is DVD quality format.

So when you said, you got rid of all the extras, what extras are you talking bout? Are you saying that in the wtv files, it includes CC(subtitle)?

The .wtv file that I converted to .mpg was recorded from a 1080i channel and its resolution really is 1920x1080, verified using GSpot. I have a recorded program from an SD digital channel too. The 35 minute .wtv file is 793 MB. If you have a .wtv file in 720X480 resolution and it was not recorded from an SD channel, something is very wrong.

The .wtv files include closed captioning, and some program information (synopsis, run time, channel number, date and time recorded, type of program (drama, series, etc.) and featured actors). The recording's program info also lists HD if it was an HD program. I thought maybe it recorded multiple audio streams or SAP too, but I could not find an indication that it does.

[Edit] If you try to use GSpot on a .wtv file it won't provide accurate information. I used it on the .mpg file that I converted from .wtv.

[jagabo]

The .wtv files include closed captioning, and some program information (synopsis, run time, channel number, date and time recorded, type of program (drama, series, etc.) and featured actors).

The MPEG2 data is probably in a transport stream (that's what's broadcast) rather than simple MPG multiplexing. Transport streams have a lot more overhead.

[NautTboy]

I haven't try using Gspot yet. I also heard that Gspot is sometime not correct. Maybe you are right about programming guide. I recorded SuperWhy and it didn't indicate HD so it's probably just 480i. I think I just confused myself of thinking HDTV is everything HD, where's it's just digital instead of analog.

[jagabo]

Yes, digitil TV is just digital as opposed to analog. It can be SD or HD.