( 2 reviews )
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Posted: Jan 7 2009
Tv Wonder HD 650 Blk Box Excellent equipment - HDTV on your PC, The full function remote lets you control the TV watching and recording functions of your system from across the room. - Can tune a single digital channel and a single analog channel simultaneously. Works wonderfully with the ATI Catalyst software that comes with it, but even better with Windows Media Center. I have it installed on a Vista Home Premium computer with 4 gig of ram driven by an Intel q6600 processor. As I said, I don't use the provided ATI application. WMC is just as a dvr. I am recording single episodes or the series. My wife is done with her vhs tapes now. The nice thing is that all of the processing is done in the black box. The only thing is that it really needs a high speed usb port. I have read another review about tuner not being initialized by the computer as stated in other reviews is not happening with my computer and laptop. The laptop is running XP with 1 gig of ram. I have encountered no problems. Other Thoughts: Clear QAM works great I just have a splitter with my cable company cable going to both tuners. I also used the digital tuner with a UHF antenna, with decent results.
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( 3 of 4 found this review helpful ) Posted: Dec 27 2007
Let me begin this review by saying I am a software developer and am a highly advanced computer user... The good: Installation is easy. Within about 45 minutes I was pausing live TV and recording as I was watching. If this is all you need great, but if you want to use the PVR functionality with anything other than MPEG1, watch out... The RCA inputs to capture media worked fine with my Camcorder and Personal Video Player, although they did not capture DVD input. The bad: Catalyst Media Center is software that is lacking in so many ways. I tried to burn a DVD in the background with MakeDVD, which is packaged with the software, and it never completed, not that the software would give you an error message, it gave no message whatsoever. I seriously doubt that this software has ever undergone QA. If you need to create DVDs, use Nero. The Ugly: The EPG "Titan" does not work for me (Nashville, TN). It will find my provider but it does not load the list. I have an active cable connection and internet connection, and it will download the list, but it will not update inside of the software. Again, no errors, just no data at all. The Worst: This system records as MPEG1 out of the box. Which is fine if you don't mind taking up 4GB on every file you record. I switched my "custom profile" to handle Divx AVI files (smaller files). These will record if I manually scroll to a channel and hit record. SCHEDULED RECORDINGS WILL NOT RECORD WITH THIS PROFILE. Don't expect an error message, you just won't have your recordings. It's not a disc space issue either. Without any error messages or any idea why the scheduled recordings will not begin, the only option available is to me is to box this thing up and get a more mature product that can handle the functionality that this product claims.
