ATi HDTV Wonder vs ATi 650

which is the newer version of the two? i know the 650 costs more and includeds an fm tuner, but are there any real differences?

I talked to ATI customer service about these two. I have read excellent reviews of the HDTV wonder in magazines and on Toms but have also read many poor user reports. The ATI CS guy pointed me at the 650 as the better choice but you have to buy an antenna whereas one comes with the HDTV Wonder.

Well I'm glad my opinion matters. /joke I'm not a big of a fan of the 650 over the older 550 based cards when it comes to analog signals. I deal with analog mostly so I don't feel like it was a good investment in my case. To those looking to pick up digital signals, it should definitely be considered as an option.

One feature that the 650 has, that I don't believe the HDTV Wonder has, is a FM Radio option. Other than that and the antenna, I don't believe there are any other major differences.

I have both cards. I bought the HDTV Wonder long ago. It uses a software decoder for the analog side and it is quite horrid. Very noisy picture. The HD was quite good so I thought, until I got the TV Wonder 650. The HD is outstanding. Just as good as the TV's built in tuner. The analog does use the same 650 theater tuner, so switching back and forth between digital and analog is a little time consuming. Never saw the 550, but the analog from the 650 is very clear. Makes me realize that the HDTV Wonders was not even watchable. The 650 doesn't come with the antenna because most people ended up using a different antenna anyways back with the HDTV Wonder. The Antenna that came with the HDTV Wonder is a cheap one from the Shack. The 650 doesn't come with a remote either, but you can get one from ATI for 13 bucks shipping with the serial # from the 650. Most people use XP Media Center remote, or the Beyond TV remote. ATI's software sucks, but the tuner card is not comparable from what I have seen. I am using a 30" samsung LCD for viewing. The FM tuner is actually nice. The HDTV wonder uses only ATI music decoding, so WMV's won't play. The 650 uses Windows Media Player so you have a larger selection of music to play, and get the visuals.

hi, im also considering geting the ati 650 since the revized cards are now awailable(or were for a while)

i was actualy looking for the "best" tv tuner, did some research in August, and the 650 was the choice for me, how is the overall chanel availability, what channels are there ? in lets say ny/nj/pensilvania area using a coax cable plugged into the card? btw i saw an image of teh card, and are there actualy 2 plugs for the coax cable or the other one is for FM?

btw im using curently the 200 version of the card and honestly my all in wonder 7500 had beter reception, this one has a lot of noise, and the software that came with it just sux, i cant get to pause a recording, and i cant go back betwean 2 channels(or atleast i do not know how to do so)
is the 650 software the same as the 200 version, or is it a bit more polished?

thx for any info