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| Date Reviewed: 12/03/2002 |
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 I assume that anyone interested in this card is in ... Strengths: When it works, its great
Weaknesses: Flaky drivers and software means it doesn't work a lot of the time
Summary: I assume that anyone interested in this card is interested for its multimedia capabilities. I only wish ATI had more competition in this space, as this might get them to pay more attention to the quality of their software. The drivers that came with the card were flaky, causing regular system lockups under Windows XP (in fact ALL of my system lockups are attributable to the ATI driver). The last time this happened, XP gave a message after booting saying that there was updated software at ATI's website that would fix the problem. I installed the software, and found that I no longer had any video recording capabilities. The first time I reported this to ATI I got a stock "read the FAQ" response. I tried again, pointing out that I have 20+ years of systems software development experience and had read the FAQs already. Eventually I got told to unistall everything, boot into safe mode, delete some registry settings, reinstall the drivers, etc etc. Not a great user experience for the average Joe. I did all of this, and then could pause live TV, but still could not record. Furthermore, after playing one DVD, the TV stopped working, and I had to reinstall yet again (however, the card recorded fine when using Windows Movie Maker; it's just ATI's own software that's broken). I could go on, but won't - you probably get the idea. Be prepared for lots of pain if you buy one of these.
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| Date Reviewed: 09/29/2003 |
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I've had a great deal of frustration with the prod ...
Strengths: Nice marketing pitch - promises a lot.
Weaknesses: ATI shipped the product before drivers/sw was in shape. Now extorting an extra $20 to get it to work.
Summary: I've had a great deal of frustration with the product, pounding my head against the keyboard for months. With great frequency (at times days apart), new drivers became available. I'd waste time loading/unloading & configuring. The most recent set of video drivers seem to be supporting Monitor & TV pretty well. The real pisser, however, is that the latest multimedia software requires me to *BUY* a new v8.1 CD so that I can install latest version 8.6. I bought the thing 6 months ago but I can't get the latest working software unless I give them more money - really disgusting on the part of ATI.
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| Date Reviewed: 11/25/2002 |
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Strengths: EVERYTHING!
Weaknesses: Nothing
Summary: 2003-02-06 23:03:09 Simply wonderful card. Very inexpensive for all the features it has. Very sharp graphics and cool software. Never fell in love with hardware like I have with this All-In-Wonder. :) Well, other than Asus motherboards...
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| Date Reviewed: 07/22/2002 |
- SONY
from NY
- Member Since:
Jul 2002
View Member's:
Reviews
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Strengths: Cheap, and Great Deal!
Weaknesses: no 128MB
Summary: Simple to use, the remote works well, you can even turn your pc off with it. I'm wery happy with this purchase. This card does it all. Good gamer, with smooth vibrant video, good dvd player. The TV tuner works well on cable. Good video capture from analog camcorder. The tivo is a great, also you can record from TV with no problems (and watch it later). Cable+ is really nice - much better than what TimeWarner digital offers. It comes with all the software and connectors you could want. It will take a while to fully explore all the capabilities. A really neat toy. If you are thinking of trying desktop video, or just want to watch some TV while you work, this is a great setup.
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| Date Reviewed: 04/03/2002 |
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 On the plus side, when it works, it works pretty w ... Strengths: TV Recording/Tuning, RF Remote, Video capture
Weaknesses: NOT designed around Windows XP. Software doesn't compare to a real TiVo.
Summary: On the plus side, when it works, it works pretty well. However, the biggest problem is that the DVR software was NOT built with Windows XP in mind. There is a scheduling program used to set the VCR to record that runs as a user-level process, so it only works under the user that set the recording. I use XP's fast user switching, and whenever a diff user is active, the digital VCR will NOT record. The DVR crashes and until the setting user is logged off entirely, it will not function. It sometimes doesn't record anyway, which may or may not be related to the screen saver. There used to be a message that it could not draw the video, but after the "Windows XP Capture Driver Update" from a few weeks ago, that message disappeared. Having been using a real TiVo for over a year now, the guide software really stinks. Don't get the impression that it's a replacement or "as good as" a TiVo. It's not. It is a Digital VCR only, and you must set recordings like any VCR (and schedule them). Plus the guide seems to be missing channels (not even on the config util!), and must be updated manually (one week of data ony). If you want a TiVo, buy one, don't get this instead. There are also audio problems, in that when live TV is on, I cannot control the volume, and "paused TV" plays back both live and previous audio simulaneously (uses sound card line input for audio). If they iron out the XP bugs, I'll be happy with it, in the meantime, it's a decent card, but not fantastic.
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| Date Reviewed: 03/13/2002 |
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Strengths: great video input and output and TV input
Weaknesses: NA
Summary: a little flakey playing Comanche 4, some graphics flash from time to time and slows down a little with a lot of activity on the screen. All in all, very happy with this one so far!
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