jtunderwood :
Hi,
I am trying to run my ATI TV Wonder 650 on Vista Ultimate 64-bit. My computer *far* exceeds the requirements and i know the card its self is not bad because i have used it before on a machine with a different configuration. The ATI Catalyst Media Center software it comes with crashed immediately, and when i try to run it on Windows Media Center the video is poor quality and choppy and generally unstable and will sometimes crash. It goes in and out of working, but is generally unstable. Does anyone know why this may be happening? Seems to me it may be a driver incompatibility with Vistax64, if this be the case, does anyone know how to fix this? Also, does anyone know of some good TV Tuner media software compatible with my card? Thanks!
I feel you! I spent much of my last weekend wasted on installing a ATI TV Wonder 650 PCIe into my Vista 64 Home premium system. It was a real pain in the butt. First, allow me to digress. The TV card uses a PCIe x1 bus slotn, which is relatively small in size. However, this TV card is long and low profile which lends it to interfere with components on the motherboard. Long story short, I had to purchase a new Mobo to get this tv Card to fit (I'm trying really hard to make this things happen here).
Ok, after installing new mobo, new operating system (3 hours), I can't get the HD digital or QAM to operate on the TV Wonder. I look on the ATI website, and notice they have a bulletin that warns that QAM does not work under Vista Media Center. WOW-I looked over the 10 page manual with this card and it mentioned no caveat about QAM and Vista. Imagine that!!!!!! Ok, so that was 1.5 hours of hardship. Luckily, MS has a hotfix, so I got that finally downloaded. In the meantime, ATI Catalyst program either locks up or issues a BSD. No problem, I'll go to the AMD/ATI website and get a new driver. After downloading the driver and loading it on my system, Vista indicates that the program MAY NOT have loaded successfully. So I repeat the process several times. Another 3-4 hours pass before I realize older driver update loads successfully.
However, the Catalyst program still is not stable and appears to lock up during the digital tune scan. This is the part that really ticks me off!!!!! AMD/ATI do not provide any status of what is going on during this scan. It sit there for hours (I waited for 3 hours) and if you try to minimize the window, the application stops running resulting in either program termination, BSD, or machine lock up! As mentioned, this would not have been terrible if there were a simple diagnostics program that could at least tell me what was going wrong; either hardware or software.
After spending almost 12 hours on this, I gave up and submitted a ticket to AMD/ATI. This was my complaint:
Ok, I'm ready to trash this piece of junk!!!! Everytime I purchase ATI, I get screwed!!!! My TV Wonder 650 PCIe still doesn't work after 12 hours of troubleshooting driver upgrading and pulling my hair out. The digital tuner doesn't seem to work. I would have not spent this amount of time if ATI had made a diagnostic program. All I know is that your crappy program hangs up with a blue screen or it simply locks up my PC. Windows Media center doesn't work and it produces errors too. Oh yeah, I've installed the 'hotfix', but I know that you suggest that I do it again anyway. I can't believe what a crappy piece of junk this is!!!!!! absolutely the worst POS I've ever purchased!!!!!
Four days later I get this reply back from AMD/ATI customer care:
Please note that AMD Incorporated enforces guidelines for inappropriate language. Therefore, your ticket is now resolved (closed) by the system. We recommend that you open another ticket and your issue will be addressed based on the language guidelines reflected herein as stated:
"We would ask that you refrain from using abusive language and/or profanity in your future correspondence."
I guess using the colorful adjective 'crap' or POS is considered profanity?
Anyway, I have deemed that digital tuner as defective and have RMA'd it for a replacement. Why? Because I have too much time on this product, and I understand that Happauge has problems, although different I don't want to waste my time on a new learning curve.
As for Windows MC, since the tuner was defective, I couldn't get it to work with the digital (QAM or ASTC) tuner input.
My thoughts- AMD/ATI has to improve customer support and provide adequate diagnostics to support this product.
Rick H