Sapphire Theatrix - ATI Theater 550 Pro

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

"Paul Davis" <pjay.davis@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:30f27eF2u2192U1@uni-berlin.de...
> I'm considering getting a Sapphire Theatrix TV card to complement my 9200
> VIVO, does anyone know of a UK supplier as I can't seem to track one down.
> The Theatrix uses ATI's new Theater 550 Pro chip.
>
> Also, I have completely failed to get the Video In component of MMC to
> work
> on Windows ME with my VIVO card - Rage Theater - (despite trying a wide
> variety of driver versions and DX 8.1 through to 9c) I've heard of AIW
> problems too. Does anyone have any experience of running a Theatrix tv
> tuner
> under WME, does it work?
>
> I was also wondering whether two Rage Theater chips (the 550 Pro in the
> Theatrix and a standard Rage Theater in the VIVO)would co-exist happily on
> a
> single system (I remember the Brooktree ones tended not to).
>
> Thanks,
> Paul
>
Thanks for the "heads up" on that product - its looks exactly like what I've
been looking for but I have some concerns.

1. That 550 chipset uses Hardware MPEG 2 Encoding whereas the Rage Theatre
(and Theatre 220) rely on software encoding through ATIs MMC Software (or
other software designed for it). I doubt current ATI software would cope
with such a mix (but I'm not sure) - perhaps someone has tried it?

2. Availability in the UK - I note the website photo shows a US/Canadian
card with the threaded aerial connectors. ATI products with tuners usually
turn up firstly in NTSC format for (predominantly) the US and Canadian
markets. Unfortunately the PAL/SECAM version usually turns up several months
later - who knows though, perhaps Sapphire is more on the ball than ATI in
this regard and already have a PAL version being made. The ATI Tv Wonder Pro
has been out for many months (if not a year) in the US and Candian markets
yet a PAL/SECAM version hasn't even been made yet!

My email has been sent to the sales address for the UK agent (on their
website).

Paul (another one).