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VisionTek TV Wonder HD 650 USB TV Dual Tuner/Recorder
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VisionTek TVWonder HD650USB external TV tuner/recorder
The TV Wonder 650 is a USB device that lets you enjoy over the air digital (ATSC and Clear QAM) TV broadcasts on your laptop or PC computer. You can also receive analog (NTSC) broadcasts by connecting your home's TV cable line or external antenna to your TV Wonder 650. Record programs while watching TV.
Features
HDTV with No Monthly Fees
Personal Video Recorder
Watch, pause, record live TV,
Fully integrated Electronic Programming Guide (EPG)
Video Input and Capture
ATI Catalyst Media Center
Built-in DVD decoder
ATI Avivo Video Converter
Interfaces:
2 x Coaxial connectors (right side panel) for NTSC and ATSC signals
1 x S-Video In
1 x display / video - composite video input - RCA
1 x audio - line-in - RCA x 2
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
AMD Athlon or AMD Sempron, Intel Pentium 4 or Celeron, (or compatible) CPU.
Sound card and speakers.
High-Speed USB Port
System memory: For Windows XP: 256 MB required, 512 MB or more recommended for better performance. 1 GB or more recommended for Windows Vista
CD-ROM drive (for installation software).
An ATI Radeon DirectX 9 compatible or newer graphics card is recommended for optimal display output quality.
Cable TV signal or amplified antenna.
Consumer Notice Regarding Parental Controls
http://ati.amd.com/products/catalystmediacenter/parentalcontrol.html
MFG: VISIONTEK
MFG Part: TVW650USB
| There are 11 review(s) for this product. | |||
Customer Rating:  04/25/2009 Disappointed by RadioTVGeek Using Windows Vista, Catalyst Media Center is slow to respond and often freezes when trying to play back a recorded show TV channels are displayed in the order in which they are found during the initial scan (in the order that they exist in the RF world), not by PSIP channel number; you cannot re-order the channels or change the channel numbers If you miss a channel during the initial scan, or a new local channel is added, you cannot add it, you have to do a completely new scan Cannot control whether a show presented on a 16:9 channel is recorded in 16:9 or 4:3 format (many reruns on 16:9 channels are actually in 4:3 format) Screengrabs can only be made from recorded TV, not live Remote control receiver plugs into a USB port, so in order to use remote, you must have two USB cables plugged into your computer FM radio is mono only (not stereo) Only FM recording option in Catalyst Media Center is WMA with a maximum 128 kbps, recordings are made in stereo even though the source is mono |
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Customer Rating:  04/20/2008 nice purchase by NYJames easy to install, good picture, easy to record program, and nice value. Just wish it included a studio video editing software. |
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Customer Rating: 04/19/2008 Typical ATI Product by Gsparky I first tried to install this on a WinXP machine that used to have an ATI video card. That card died, and replacing it required that I get an nVidia. I was wholly unable to get it to work. But before I took it back, I tried it on another WinXP machine that I use for doing repair work. That loaded fine. That machine has never had any ATI products attached (internal or external). Apparently, ATI has problems with its own products. Since then, I've played around with the FM radio, the cable TV, and over-the-air HDTV. In general, the worst thing about this product is the user interface. It is horrendous. I'm a radio engineer, so I can understand the different aspects. If I wasn't, I would probably have already taken this product back. There are no hotkeys; the only way to change the channels, adjust volume, or anything else is through the mouse buttons or the remote control. Concerning the remote control, there are no directions on its use. It uses icons many of which are unfamiliar. The only way I've been able to figure it out is through trial and error. And to give yet another example of the poor user interface, the remote has a "record" button. But if you want to stop the recording, you have to use the mouse to go to the on-screen display and hit "stop". On the FM tuner, you can use the "scan" option to have it automatically go through a store the channels that have signals on them. Except for two problems. First, it goes in 100 kHz steps; in the US, FM radio stations are spaced 200 kHz apart. Which leads to the second problem, of 14 stations it found in my area, it recording two frequencies for each, one 100 kHz below its real frequency and one 100 kHz above. In only one case did it actually record the correct frequency. Going in to change the settings was a real chore. Rather than having something simple and intuitive, such as right-clicking on the station or having an edit button on one end of the bar, you have to go to a different screen, click on the station, select "edit", change the frequency, hit "enter" then go back one more screen so that you can try it out. It's ridiculous! ATI spent so much effort, apparently, on trying to make the screen look "slick" that it created a piece of junk interface that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. That said, when it works, it works quite well. The picture clarity of the HD is stunning. I did notice that some stations stutter, but that is due to the nature of the HD signals. They're like any digital. They either work, or they don't. The FM stations, when tuned to the correct frequency, sounded perfect. The analog tuner (for cable TV and standard, over-the-air stations) was fine. The recorder made wonderful recordings. I've recorded FM stations, HD, and cable TV stations. When recorded, I could not tell the difference between the recording and original. However, the recording scheduler has been extremely difficult to work with. For some reason, I attempted to make a scheduled recording and was given an error message such as, "Scheduling cannot be completed. Try again." That's helpful... not. I sent an e-mail to ATI concerning being unable to install the product on my first WinXP machine. Their response was that I should "check their knowledge base". Again, that's helpful... not. I also discovered that the software will crash when starting it up. It's random; I cannot find any rhyme or reason to it. And it always takes at least 15 seconds from the time you double-click the start up icon until you have a picture on either HD or analog signals. Weird. Overall, even though the unit technically performs very well, the atrocious user interface pushes me to recommend against this unit. |
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Customer Rating: 02/22/2008 TV Wonder by heraclitus good quality, excellent picture and features, my only complaint is that the description led me to believe it was a dual tuner DIGITAL tuner... I have digital cable but only analog cable was detected. NONE of the HDTV cable channels were detected. I could only record HDTV from my cable box, which already has a DVR function. |
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Customer Rating: 01/03/2008 worked out of the box by dad2 This worked great on my Vista Computer. Get about 10 HD stations. Works great to change my VHS tapes to DVD. |
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Customer Rating:  12/26/2007 Not a complete product. by mnsc I purchased the receiver for use with my Xbox 360 as a Media Extender TV tuner. It does not support Windows Media Center. I wanted to use this product to record HD broadcasts; I could not get the program to pick up an HD OTA broadcast with out crashing. It does not support QAM without Windows Vista. I went through the troubleshooter and still was unable to receive anything but analog broadcasts. The analog reception was sufficient and used little processing power. |
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Customer Rating:  12/21/2007 Wait for bugGood Purchase @ 120 or below, not more by CTReviewer This is a good tuner for laptop owners. However, some caveats: 1. Catalyst has difficulty playing back recordings (however the recordings are fine when played in Media Player), 2. HD Clear Qam not picked up when HD is plugged in (could be my service), 3. Must have two available USB 2 slots (1 for tuner, 1 for remote). The directions are vague and come in a ten page mini-booklet. However, VTEK seems to push for solutions over returns, we'll see if they can update their software. Catalyst only accepts HD via antenna, no cable...atleast that was my experience (again, may be part of my cable provider, Cable Vision, CT). Video seems to become unstable over longer periods of time, short term sol. is to unplug coax, then replug. Over all video quality is good for analog. |
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Customer Rating:  10/24/2007 Great Product for price by TechXpert This product was easy to setup, but I recommend looking at the documentation on the CD vs the printed documentation. On Windows XP was able to install and the setup easily found my OTA HD channels. Recording shows is easy, and being able to use AMD Live to access shows via another computer on the Internet is a great feature. I get to see a lot of different gadgets and products working in a research group as a Sr Technical Analyst, and I would very much recommend this product for somebody looking for an alternative to giving cable/satellite company $5-10 per month for a DVR. |
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Customer Rating: 10/22/2007 Maybe a bit buggy by kgrr I bought one on Saturday and had to return it due to a poor fit between the S-Video & RCA jacks with the plastic housing. The poor fit made it impossible to insert cables into the box. I installed the software to test the receiver. The FM receiver worked, but both the Analog and Digital TV receivers did not work. Also, the remote control does not work until you patch the CMC with the patch for the Wonder Remote Plus v 1.0 patch 10/18. I tried a second one on Sunday and had the same problems with the case fit and the connectors and the TV receiver being out. I looked for needed drivers and have checked compatibility with my Toshiba A215-S4747 laptop. It should have worked out of the box. Needless to say, I had to return the second one. |
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Customer Rating: 10/22/2007 No cable HDTV for XP USers by IXLR8 The unit was easy enough to setup and configure. The controls, software and remote were all adequate. Unfortunately nowhere on the box, in the ad or on the manufacturers site does specify that Vista is required for clear QAM reception. |
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