Hey, i have an ATI HDTV tuner 650 pro. I'm running vista and it works really well with the built in media center and old Cyberlink remote i have, but Vista hasn't included a patch yet to fix the issue of recognizing it as both an analog tv tuner, AND an HDTV OTA tv tuner.

There's various methods to make vista recognize it as 2 tuners so you can use them both, and i've tried these but i was just wondering if anyone else has ran into this issue? I doubt there's many people with a 650pro and vista, but hopefully there's someone.

I believe vista is going to fix this issue in service pack one, but the MCE of vista is sooo much better and faster then MCE for windows xp. Anywho, i just thought i'd ask if anyone has this set-up, and anyone know about the upcoming ATI TV wonder Digital tv tuners? Finally tuners become digital.

6/15/2007 9:46:45 AM

vista sucks go back to xp till the offer atleast 1 service pack.

6/15/2007 9:54:43 AM

^Hahaha not true. Vista rocks. I've been running it for months, and i haven't had much trouble with it at all. I have a dual boot, and i've only booted XP like 3 times in the last couple months.

Not to mention Vista 64 bit is the most secure version of windows to date, and it's incredibly fast, and the Media Center makes xpMCE look sad. It's so quick and smooth looking, and it worked right off the bat with my older cyberlink remote control, w/o drivers!!

Oh and the only people i've heard that say vista sucks are people with one of the two conditions..
1. Never ran vista for an extended amount of time.
2. Or trying to put vista on something without a C2D or 2Gigram+. (older crappy pc).

People who bash vista just because it's Microsoft's new OS are sad.
^I'm not saying you are, i'm just saying don't comment unless you've been running vista on a nice computer for a while.

It's just that whenever i mention vista people are like "oh vista sucks." And most of these people have never tried it out, they're just saying that because it's Microsoft's new os and they "assume" it sucks. Which is far from the truth.

[Edited on June 15, 2007 at 10:38 AM. Reason : .]

6/15/2007 10:22:16 AM

Quote :

"Oh and the only people i've heard that say vista sucks are people with one of the two conditions.. 1. Never ran vista for an extended amount of time. 2. Or trying to put vista on something without a C2D or 2Gigram+. (older crappy pc). "

I don't fit into either one of these categories and I think Vista sucks balls.

6/15/2007 9:11:53 PM

I have the same card, but I've only used the ATI software which is a complete nightmare.

6/15/2007 10:34:31 PM

vista has been stable as hell for me, i haven't rebooted in 70 days



and i need an HD capture card, and this does work with media center?


[Edited on June 15, 2007 at 10:40 PM. Reason : ]

[Edited on June 15, 2007 at 10:43 PM. Reason : oh never mind i want something i can connect to my cable box]

6/15/2007 10:39:15 PM

The 650pro is great with vista media center. The only problem is you have to do this easy registry edit to make the media center recognize both the analog and HD aspect of the card. Once the first service pack comes up, that'll fix it too.

6/16/2007 12:57:55 PM

they dont make tuner cards you can connect to your cable box and get hd for under 1k

6/17/2007 6:34:02 PM

os X > Vista

6/17/2007 8:14:06 PM

Quote :

"I don't fit into either one of these categories and I think Vista sucks balls."

if you don't fit into either of the categories, then explain why you "are" running vista for an extended amount of time...

i run MCE in vista as well on my mediaPC, but i don't have any experience with the ATI tuners... sorry.

i'm waiting until more digital tuners hit the market, i just talked to a guy at comcast and he said in the next couple months, everyone will be required to have some sort of cable box for digital content... all cable providers have to be 100% digital by feb '09 or something crazy like that...

^ OS X doesn't even have a media center app

[Edited on June 17, 2007 at 8:32 PM. Reason : .]

6/17/2007 8:31:21 PM

iTunes+quicktime

6/17/2007 8:42:22 PM

Quote :

"if you don't fit into either of the categories, then explain why you "are" running vista for an extended amount of time..."

I bought a new fairly high end PC from dell right after Vista came out because it was the hot new shit and I wanted to see what the big deal was. Right out of the box it had driver issues and crashing problems. I assumed it was all the dell shit pre-loaded on it, so I formatted and put a clean install of Vista on it. I tried for 3 months to get it to work but it would rarely run for more than an hour at a time without crashing (most notably in Firefox, but also in many other programs). I reformatted about 4-5 times during the course of the 3 months trying several combinations of programs to see if I could figure out what was causing this wonderful new superstable OS to constantly crash, but never had any luck. Eventually I became convinced that I had a hardware problem because I couldn't track anything down on the software side of things. As a last resort I installed a new copy of XP MCE 2005 and haven't had so much as a burp since then. That was 2 months ago.

6/17/2007 9:31:47 PM

^^ Are you serious? Itunes and quicktime are a joke, they aren't media center apps (yeah i'm actually going to PAY for tv shows. hahahahaha) . We're speaking about tv tuners and media centers. The closest thing apple has is apple tv which is a joke. Windows has had tv/hdtv OTA capability for years.

Pisses me off when i ask about a legit topic, and i either get comments on how vista sucks, or os x is better than windows. Grow up some and atleast make some comparisons if you're going to make pointless comments.

^First of all Firefox didn't come out with a vista compatible version until recently. Second of all, you should have been running the early pre-releases of vista to check system compatibility but since you bought a pre-built desktop with vista installed of course you wouldn't have known if everything would have worked. I've had vista running for other 3 months with no crashes or bluescreens or any trouble at all. Media center works perfect, and it's fast and stylish compared to XPMCE.

Well it sucks you've had trouble with vista, i've installed it on 3 desktops, and 2 laptops without any trouble, and everyone tells me they love it. If you're going to buy an OS right when it comes out, atleast have the respect to build a desktop with parts you know are compatible, and don't just trust dell to make that decisision for you.

Not to mention you should have just installed a dual boot with vista/xp and trouble shooted from there. Never install a new OS as your only OS on a system. Hell i have vista, xp, and fedora up right now.

^^^Yeah the senate decided on an early date in 2009 for the switch. Everyone is going to be required to have digital tv tuners for thier tv's or an HDTV/SDTV tv (more than 28 percent of households already have HDTV's). Also after this date all the over-the-air stations are going to stop being broadcast in analog, and switch over to digital. So everything over the air will be digital SDTV/HDTV.

^^^^^Not true, an external/internal ATI Wonder is currently out in OEM versions where you can hook it directy up to your cable and get unlocked digital channels from any cable provider as well as all HD and SD channels.

Not to mention you can pick up an HDTV over-the-air tuner for under 100 bucks and get local HD for free (ABC, NBC, FOX, etc...). I watch late night shows, and the Office for example on NBC in great 1080i while at the same time pausing/recording them with vista MCE, all very much faster than any DVR or Tivo.

[Edited on June 18, 2007 at 9:01 AM. Reason : .]

6/18/2007 8:33:27 AM

--Oh another thing about apple, they were behind when it came to MP3 players (Creative was far in the lead and sued apple for taking thier idea). They're slow coming out with games (probably pointless to mention, still don't have any). They FINALLY just started integrated tv tuners, and the worst part is they make everything look new and affortable. All this stuff was around for a lot cheaper years and years ago. Yes yes, apple needs thier "trial" periods to make sure everyone 55 and over (average apple user) is able to click "play" on itunes before claiming it's the first. Still i'd rather build my own system with the parts i choose, and get technology when it comes after, not years after in a simplified format that makes me feel like i'm 5.

6/18/2007 9:01:53 AM

You can get a QAM tuner card such as the ones from Dvico and capture any of the local broadcast channels through cable or over the air...I bought one awhile back for $150 and it works great (Im sure they are a bit cheaper now too). As for the encrypted channels, youre out of luck at this time, although I did read an article about a Vista compatible cablecard (which would allow you to receive any encrypted channels youre subscribed to on your PC)...only problem is they are only being made available to certified Windows Vista machines (ie, prepackaged with Vista preinstalled). Of course, the article detailed the mass amount of people that entered this guys apartment to install it and how after 3 days, they had gotten nowhere (needless to say, this was a TWC install).

^^All unencrypted HD channels you mean?

6/18/2007 9:15:27 AM

^Yeah correct. Yeah the tuner you're talking about is the newer ATI Wonder QAM card, and it's going to start showing up as OEM versions on newegg.com for example.

^Also there are currently some digital tv tuners that allow you to receive unscrambled QAM digital cable and HD channels over cable, but the locked channels still require a deal with the cable company (which is to come with the newer ATI cards.)

[Edited on June 18, 2007 at 9:21 AM. Reason : .]

6/18/2007 9:18:48 AM

Quote: Not true, an external/internal ATI Wonder is currently out in OEM versions where you can hook it directy up to your cable and get unlocked digital channels from any cable provider as well as all HD and SD channels.

Thats spiffy! I suppose I'll have to hold off and buy one of those instead of a tv wonder 650 for my HTPC.

6/18/2007 4:15:26 PM

It might take a while for the newer QAM ati tuners to get the bugs worked out of them. I have the 650, and it works great, and looks amazing with HD OTA. Anyway you could always hook up a digital cable box to a computer monitor, if you want digital tv on your computer.

6/18/2007 4:35:31 PM

There's no way in hell you can recommend Vista in one breath and then in the very next say something like you wouldn't recommend running it as your standalone OS on a brand new computer. It's either ready for use or it's not. And right now, even according to what you are saying in this thread, it's not.

Plain and simple.

6/18/2007 4:41:47 PM

Quote :

"I bought a new fairly high end PC from dell right after Vista came out"

That's your first problem. You ONLY buy oem computers with a new os after they've been around for a while. You should only have been running vista on a custom built computer with a dual boot right after it came out.

^where on this thread did i ever say vista was not ready for use. All i said was i wouldn't buy a desktop in the first place without researching to see if it actually works with vista. Well i wouldn't buy a desktop anyway. Just build one, cheaper and you know everything works. There's a difference between buying a desktop and building one. This thread is more for the later. Don't complain about vista unless you built the computer, and installed it yourself. There's plenty of problems with dell and sony, and everyone else trying to run vista on their computers, but that's a whole different story.

Quote :

"It's either ready for use or it's not"

You must be new to this whole "computer" thing right? That probably tops the funniest comments of the day.

[Edited on June 18, 2007 at 4:53 PM. Reason : .]

6/18/2007 4:49:35 PM

You're right. It is a joke to think that Microsoft would release an OS that could actually be used right out of the box. What was I thinking?

But yet, even though you and I can agree that such a concept is ridiculous, you still continue to suck off Bill Gates like some toothless $2 crackwhore.

6/18/2007 4:54:48 PM

^Haha dude in the software world nothing works perfectly out of the box. You can't expect to buy any os, whether it's linux based, mac or windows and expect it to work right after development. You realize the thousands of hardware issues and things Microsoft has to deal with. Apple has it easy, they make a OS based upon what they build. Microsoft actually builds an OS that is compatible with everything.

^Don't get mad because you spent too much on a "hot shit dell" and it didn't work the way you wanted it to. I could have built you that dell for hundreds cheaper, and it would have outperformed it, and vista would a worked. If you wanna get mad go throw your dell off a roof, don't attempt to insult me.

6/18/2007 5:01:35 PM

I'm not trying to do shit to you. Quite the opposite actually. You started off with this huge attitude when someone actually *GASP* suggested that it would be worth letting Microsoft work out some of the bugs in their new software. You got all super defensive about it, almost like you had some personal connection to it. You grouped the haters into two categories, and I just pointed out that I wasn't in either one of those categories and you continued to flame me from there.

I know I could have built the computer for a little bit cheaper (certainly not hundreds of dollars cheaper however). I've haven't owned a computer in 14 years that I didn't put together myself, but I didn't feel like doing all the research for individual parts and spending the time piecing it together. I wanted to pick out something that would work, right out of the box with no hassles. And I wanted to see what the deal was with Vista. Unfortunately the two don't coincide. It's my OPINION that Vista isn't ready to be used as a main OS yet. It is my OPINION that as it stands right now most people are better off waiting for SP1. It is also my OPINION that if I wanted to go to the hassle of doing tons of research to find out exactly what group of hardware and software is compatable with Vista and making sure I build a machine using only those components I could probably end up with a fairly stable environment. But that's not what I want to spend my time doing. So I'll end up waiting until some more of the bugs get worked out before trying it again.

If that's ok with you.

6/18/2007 5:13:05 PM

^Yeah you're right. It's perfectly legit to buy a desktop, and most people do. The only reason i got defensive was because you started your argument as "vista sucks balls". You didn't give a reason, you didn't give any evidence and you started off with a negative tone. The point of this thread was not to say "vista sucks balls." I don't mind constructive criticism, and i'm sure you're a very intelligent person, too intelligent to make a blind comment like that. If you had something to say about the tv tuner sucking balls in relation to vista i would not have gotten defensive. It's your tactics, not your content that caused me to react.

^fyi, the computer i am currently building my mom is priced around 2800 on dell.com. I got the same parts and it ran a little under 2100. So i would say that's a few hundred dollars.

[Edited on June 18, 2007 at 5:21 PM. Reason : .]

6/18/2007 5:20:43 PM

Quote :

"Yeah the tuner you're talking about is the newer ATI Wonder QAM card, and it's going to start showing up as OEM versions on newegg.com for example."

No, I wasnt talking about an ATI card, I was talking about the FusionHDTV cards from Dvico http://www.dvico.com/. Theyve had QAM HD tuners for at least 3 years now (I bought mine in October 2004) rather than being "on the way" like your ATI card.

6/19/2007 11:26:49 AM

I got mixed up. QAM tuners have been around for a while, but ati is just coming out with one that allows you to unlock all the digital channels through a cable service provider. The previous QAM tuners only allow standard digital channels.

6/19/2007 11:31:30 AM

A mac would be the answer to this predicament

http://www.apple.com/

try that link, they even have a student discount

6/20/2007 6:10:13 PM

Quote :

"vista sucks go back to xp till the offer atleast 1 service pack."

i agreed with this through the beta...i have to admit (much to my disappoint, as i do so love knocking m$), though, that i've been rather pleased with vista thus far...a few pieces of specialized hardware don't work as there aren't any drivers, but it's not that bad

6/20/2007 7:27:40 PM

^^Macs suck, my mom bought a 3 grand mac book pro a year ago and she can't get a 1/10th the work efficiency she can out of her pc desktop.

^Agree, vista rocks, and i haven't had a single issue with any drivers. In regard to this tv tuner, i had the problem fixed, it just took a little registry editing to get vista to recognize my hybrid card as two individual cards. Now i'm watching late night NBC in 1080i.

6/20/2007 9:01:09 PM

If thats true, Im all over a card that will display encrypted QAM channels, but as Ive been waiting for over 3 years for that, Ill believe it when I see it. Any links?

6/21/2007 12:21:20 PM

http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonderdigital/index.html
I'm sure it'll be pricy. Right now i don't even know if it's coming out OEM yet, but hopefully we'll see some on newegg.com pretty soon.

6/21/2007 1:42:42 PM