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"comment only"
on by ScrewyluiePros top of the line card
Cons theater 200 chip
Summary I can't believe something that costs $500 is running such old technology, ati has had the theater 550 chip for sometime now on a tv tuner card that costs less then $100, but this $500 graphics card doesn't have it.
the theater 200 chip is ancient, and while it is a decent chip, it is no comparison to the 550, and no competition to the standalone tv tuner cards out there right now.
I'm very dissapointed with ATI. my suggestion, spend 400-450 on a straight up graphics card, and spend the rest on a theater 550 pro stand alone card for your tv needs. -
"Too bad. Very high price. Where's my 550?"
on by Michael VasovskiPros Killer fast 3D rendering...
Cons Sub-par tuner...
Summary I'm using the AIW X800XT. It's great for gaming. But it's using the Theatre 200 chip for tuning. I was hoping that w/ the X1800 AIW, we'd get a bump... nada. I thought for sure that w/ the X1900 we'd get the Theatre 550... sorry. The difference between the 200 and 550 is supposed to be night and day. And for guys buying the AIW series, they're obviously concerned about TV image quality as well. For a $500 card, I would've expected that little notch up.
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"Great Card"
on by sgoasaPros Easy to set up w/Media Center
Cons Very long card
Summary This card works very well with Windows Media Center 2005. Although I do not use this card for gaming (not yet), it does an excellent job as a PVR. The included software package makes this card a very good buy.
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"Vista Beta-2 Incompatability"
on by Pete5231Pros Decent graphics for gaming and PCIe functionality
Cons TV tuner not recognized by Catalyst or Media Center
Summary I am probably going to return my ATI card; it is either broken or incompatible with Vista. I did a lot of cussing this weekend trying to get the TV tuner on the ATI AIW x1900 to work but I ultimately failed. I followed the directions, made sure my chipset/PCIe bios and drivers were up to date, hardware specs met system requirements after a power supply upgrade to 460w etc.. Vista recognized the card but not the TV tuner. Even the Catalyst control center did not recognize the on-board TV tuner. I made sure that I had the mpeg2 codec and installed ATI's update for Vista2/catalyst (anything I could think of to rule everything out). The hardware device manager did not see any issues though I actually got a blue screen and a hung install several times when installing Catalyst. 39 Vista errors were generated and I sent a Vista-generated report but there were no solutions forth-coming from MS. Even when I finally won the crap-shoot of installing Catalyst on Vista the general stability of the OS went into the toilet. I noticed that Catalyst was initially trying to install components two at a time. Catalyst causes Vista's boot-up to be about 10-15% longer and seemed to slow the OS down considerably after boot-up. Uninstalling catalyst and using the base ATI drivers without catalyst resulted in a return to OS stability but Media Center does not recognize the AIW's TV tuner.
It has been my experience through my last ATI purchase (AIW 9700 pro) that ATI's catalyst software is somewhat problematic and buggy. I figured that ATI would have fixed those issues but even with the Vista patch for Catalyst, the AIW x1900 is not a viable option for users who want TV tuner functionality with thier graphics card. The video card worked fine outside of the TV tuner and without the Catalyst software but that's like saying my new off-road vehicle worked great aside from the fact that it wouldn't go into four-wheel-drive. Why isn't the TV Tuner recognized by Catalyst and how can I get Vista media center to recognize the TV tuner? I would be thrilled if ATI had a solution for this but I suspect the technology is too new and I will end up purchasing another video card with separate windows media compatible TV tuner.Updated
I was able to finally resolve the issues that VISTA was having with this card in a very obvious way. The CD that comes packaged with the AIW X1900 includes drivers and Catalyst software that did not work for my PC and Vista B2. Neither did the ATI XP MCE drivers or ATI's Vista "Beta 2" drivers. There is another set of drivers that DO WORK that ATI provides. I am unsure what the differences are between these and the ones that come bundled on the CD but the drivers I downloaded from the following ATI link DO WORK. (https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27)
XP Drivers and Software/All In Wonder/Catalyst 6.7 Windows XP - Driver Download.
Install them in order i.e. .Net 2.0, CCC, WDM, etc..., then (optionally) the AVIVO package. I had an several errors during the install that I ignored and the installer popped up with a restart option that I ignored as well because it was clearly not done with the installation.
After this I am able to use MC to manage the fully functional TV tuner.Updated
Apologies. It appears that the link I provided wasn't posted clearly.
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27
Then click "Windows XP Drivers and Software" then "All-in-Wonder" and finally the "Catalyst 6.7 Windows XP - Driver Download" link.
The specific files you want in order are the first 2 and very last download files on the page:
Microsoft .NET Framework- dotnetfx.exe
Catalyst Control Center Package- 6-7_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_34826.exe
*optional* Complete AVIVO Package (under "Additional Downloads") 6-7_xcode_34826.exe
Keep in mind what build of Vista you have, I'm using build 5231 so I can't vouch that this will work for another Vista build.Updated
Apologies. It appears that the link I provided wasn't posted clearly.
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27
Then click "Windows XP Drivers and Software" then "All-in-Wonder" and finally the "Catalyst 6.7 Windows XP - Driver Download" link.
The specific files you want in order are the first 2 and very last download files on the page:
Microsoft .NET Framework- dotnetfx.exe
Catalyst Control Center Package- 6-7_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_34826.exe
*optional* Complete AVIVO Package (under "Additional Downloads") 6-7_xcode_34826.exe
Keep in mind what build of Vista you have, I'm using build 5231 so I can't vouch that this will work for another Vista build. -
"Answers to some of the questions"
on by ttam951Pros Good proformance, Good quility tv tuner
Cons Vista Media Center, ati 550 theater
Summary About a year I purchased this for about $200 at that time it was a very good deal with good performance equal to nv7800gtx and atiX1900gt and a tv tuner. To answer some of the questions this card has been discontinued by ATI because the tv tuner longer works with Vista's Windows Media Center. How ever this is not ATI's fault this was caused by Vista's new handling of services and programs (still works with XP). ATi tried to work around this but was unsuccessful. The gpu still works normally in vista but no more tv tuner support with vista's windows media center. However if you bought this and vista you can use a third party tv tuner software, like Snaptream's BeyondTV 4.6. This plus new ati driver, say 7.8 and up will give you full tv tuner functionality. If you some how find this for sell and want to buy in I would recommend buy it if you have XP for under $150 or if you have vista and you want a new graphics card and tv tuner and you are will to spend a little bit more money right now the best deal would be and nv880gt graphics card with a sapphire 650 pro tv tuner, both can be found on newegg.com for around $300 total.
If you still want to go with the AIWX1900 I would recommend a 450 watt min power supply and make shore you have a PCI-E X16 this is not compatible with PCI, PCI-E X1 or AGP X4/X8.
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