Reviews for VisionTek TV Wonder HD 650 USB TV TunerUSB - NTSC, ATSC - MPN: 900193 
By member:
tengst
- Jan 7, 2008
Decent TV Tuner...Strengths: Easy install, easy setup Weakness: Not particularly fast Having used many of ATI's All-In-Wonder cards I was VERY unhappy when they decided to not make drivers for Vista. After months of grumbling and not finding any other TV tuner receive better than average reviews, I broke down and purchased another ATI product but went with USB in order to avoid the PCI/PCI Express issue. 100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
timbrill
- Mar 3, 2008
Decent tuner for use with good signalStrengths: compact, quality image Weakness: included multimedia software, price Having run out of PCI slots in my HTPC I needed a external tuner so I decided to try the Wonder HD 650 USB. Being an external tuner installing the hardware was easy, driver installation was easy too. The only problem I found during installation was that the tuner is so lightweight that it moves around when you attach a cable to it. At first I tried a indoor antenna and got a very poor signal. Then I hooked it up to a outdoor antenna and got much better reception. The multimedia software that Visiontek (ATI) provides is subpar and I'd recommend using something else. I'd also recommend using a outdoor antenna if you live any distance from the TV transmission towers. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top 
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TV Wonder HD 650 USB TV Tuner
Strengths: With proper antenna picks up HD and digital stations well. ATI Catalyst Media Center seems to work well also for viewing and recording.
Weakness: Installation instructions for software was a bit lacking as there are two disks one for ATI and one for AMD.I was confused about witch one contained the drivers for the USB device.
I have used other ATI TV Wonder products in the past and allways had problems with driver installation causeing computer crashes and the remotes not working properly but this one seems to be spot on. The big power button on the remote sends my whole computer into shut down mode. I guess
this is what it i supposed to do but there is no mention of how to use the remote in the printed instructions but maybe on the disk.
I have hooked a roof top type antenna to the box and in a channel scan found lots of HD and digital channels. The antenna is on a 25 foot tall tellephone pole. I guess this is helping some.
A few times the last two channels were jumpy and skipping some but it later cleared up this was most likely due to reception strength but having more ram would also help. I have 512 MB ram running XP Home with service pack 2.
Over all I am very pleased with the product.
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