- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 22 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Great card for my setup"
Pros: Looks fantastic in HD - no frame drops yet
Cons: Their software
Summary: Your experience with this card may depend on your setup (hardware and software) and how you use it (recording cable, over the air, over the air digital, etc.). I am using Media Center 2005 to record over the air HD content. I'm playing the recording back on an Xbox 360 hardwired to my network and connected to a HD TV. Do not bother trying this through a wireless network, it wont be fast enough (I had to sell my Xbox 360 wireless adaptor because it wasn't even close to being fast enough). I have an N router by Belkin and an N desktop adaptor and it is barely fast enough and only when I have maximum signal strength. I will probably end up hardwiring the PC as well.
When you install the drivers (and software if you don?t have Media Center) don?t forget to disable your antivirus (I had problems with System Mechanic {Kaspersky}). (Quick side note to Kaspersky owners ? do not ever use their stealth mode with their firewall, it really messes with your ability to connect to your Xbox 360)
The card works really well in my setup but looks terrible on my PC because even though my video card meets the minimum requirements it is no where near ready to deal with over the air HD content. I can play HD content (720P or 1080P) downloaded off the internet but the video card doesn?t have to work as hard to display that. Recording and displaying analog TV is very easy and looks about as good as a high end VCR. TIP, if you don?t have cable (like me) and just want to do over the air (OTA) make sure you split the cable and attach to both the CABLE input on the card and the DTV input on the card. It will help you during setup and it will allow you to display both the digital and analog channels in your area.
I talked to ATI and the recall was for boards that showed great signal strength but couldn?t actually pull in the signal very well. My board pulls in signals as well as both of my OTA set top boxes.
I really recommend this card and for those of you thinking about other software and/or ways to display it on your TV I really recommend getting a copy of Media Center and maybe even an Xbox 360 ? I bought both on e-bay.
