Rating: Summary: If you run Windows XP - DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT Review: If you run Windows XP DO NOT BUY this product. Flat out do not buy this unless you are a massochist. I know what you're thinking, this guy is just some idiot that probably had to call Dell just to setup his first home PC. Consider yourself lucky to have been smart enough to read this review and others like it before wasting your Sunday afternoon trying to get it to work like I did. After spending 7 hours straight downloading drivers from the ATI website then downloading fixes from the Microsoft website, re-installing the product 4 times, after it totally [messed] up my operating system (thank goodness for the XP "system restore" ) I finally gave up and will be returning this product. After about the third hour of trying to get this to work, I finally got XP just to properly recognize the new hardware - only to have the application freeze up every time I started the "TV" panel. Looks like a cool product, if it only worked.
Rating: Summary: Product doesn't work as indicated Review: On the box it says it works with NVidia video cards. But when you're trying to troubleshoot the installation, it says buried in the help file, "An ATI Rage Pro or LT PRO is the minumum acceptable configuration for full multimedia playback support." So it only REALLY works with THEIR video card. If you're using something else, lotsa luck. Some people have found workarounds, but should we really have to put hours of work into this? I have a Hercules 3D Prophet II (32 MB video RAM) on Win98 computer. When you started up the TV, it would freeze the computer solid and you had to hard boot. The audio would still be playing so it was definitely a video problem. I went to a help group, downloaded the latest ATI, Hercules, and Windows DirectX drivers, played with numerous settings, but nothing worked. So the card is going back. Even for those who got it working on your machine, if you upgrade to WindowsXP, watch out. Most of the problem posts I've noticed on the help groups are people who are having WindowsXP problems. This is the last time I will purchase an ATI product. I had bought an All-In-Wonder card several years ago and had problems with the fact that I couldn't record the audio (only the video). There was apparently some sort of additional connection that needed to be made but they neither supplied the connecting wire nor told you what it was. I thought maybe they had improved by now, but that isn't the case.
Rating: Summary: Avoid This Product (unless you need a doorstop) Review: Once again ATI has preserved its impeccable reputation for producing unstable products that work only intermittently, if at all. If you run Windows XP, this little gem will be useless to you, it is the only currently shipping product I know of that still has no working drivers for Windows XP. The beta drivers available on the ATI website are unstable and prone to freezing (when they do work they result in a picture with no sound). There are other TV tuner cards out there that do work very well with the various Windows operating systems, don't waste time and money on this one.
Rating: Summary: The card is a waste of money... Review: Save your money, or buy a better tv card. It never works, I tried Windows ME, Windows 2k and Windows XP, and never works. I downloaded the ATI "update" and again it did not work (The update is very difficult to install).
Rating: Summary: Hardware works as advertised but software is buggy. Review: So after buying this product in Circuit City and running into problems with this from the getgo, I looked up the reviews on this product to see if others had experienced the same or similar issues as I was. My symptoms included the software freezing up on shutdown and sometimes keeping the computer for shutting down properly (system would hang at 'Shutting Down'). I am running a WinXP for those of you who are curious. First thing I did was uninstalled the software including the drivers and replacing them with the newest versions from the ATI website (rebooted in between uninstall and install when asked). Nothing improved. Finally, I found in my research on the web that users had experienced issues with their video card not being of ATI brand and the software that comes with TV Wonder. Per one user's suggestion, I uninstalled just the TV Wonder software (not the drivers) and installed a trial version of Cyberlink's PowerVCR II. Worked like a charm and haven't had a problem since! Hope this helps some of you who may have problems currently and/or those who may end up buying this product. If you have a ATI video card (or plan on getting one along with this product), you may be fine with ATI's own TV Wonder software though I was not able to rule that out in my own tests since I do not own an ATI Video Card.
Rating: Summary: An excellant deal Review: The ATI Wonder VE is an excellent addition to any computer. Don't believe some of the stories about compatability issues with Windows XP. If you download the drivers from the manufacturer's website, there should be no problems. The instructions are clear and written by someone who is fluent in English. That can be a rare case with this kind of product. To conclude, the ATI Wonder VE gives high picture quality and functionality for a very low price.
Rating: Summary: Poor software Review: The card itself functions just fine, however if you have windows xp you will be out of luck. The software from ATI has multiple obvious bugs and the task scheduler crashes everytime it is used. The most recently updated software is a beta from July provided as is. If you do buy the card and you have XP try using DScaler and VVCR as your viewing and capturing programs.
Rating: Summary: Drivers Update Review: The card works just fine once you dnld the updates from ATI and MICROSOFT.Just make sure the drivers are installed B/4 you install the PCI Card.I had a hard time un-installing entries to the Registry.Otherwise its a very handy add-on for under $[money].
Rating: Summary: Don't buy this card Review: This card does _NOT_ work with WindowsXP. Do not buy it if you have, or plan to have, WindowsXP. After purchasing this product, I was able to install the drivers, but then only received audio on one channel (NO video). Also, I used the latest available drivers off of the ATI website, not the ones included on the outdated cd. I am using an nVidia video card. Look elsewhere if you want anything more then that. My only wish is that I could assign a ZERO star rating. This product will be returned tomorrow.
Rating: Summary: Very Cool Gadget Review: This card is a very handy add-on. The ability to digitally record broadcast programs makes this thing a very inexpenisive TiVO-like instrument. Being able to record anywhere from DVD-quality to Video CD quality is useful (about an hour of VCD video fits on a CD-RW for playback in most DVD players). The installation is easy and painless, though the software is a little buggy on my Win 2000/AMD Duron machine (the software fails to close properly on occaision, leaving remnants of the program open hogging memory until you log off your machine). The latest versions of the drivers and software were included on my CD (purchased in Oct 03). Overall, this is a great, inexpensive computer add-on with a very small inconvenience for its software annoyance.
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