ATI TV Wonder 200

• Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 10 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 1 stars

  Doesn't work

  by angryshortguy on January 28, 2007

  Pros: none, not one, doesn't deserve any praise at all.

  Cons: no scheduling, no support, remote not free, no driver update

  Summary: #1 Remote is NOT free. $10 for shipping?
  #2 Program guide does not work. It tries to connect to titantv.com, but just locks and takes 100% of CPU attempting
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  Summary: #1 Remote is NOT free. $10 for shipping?
  #2 Program guide does not work. It tries to connect to titantv.com, but just locks and takes 100% of CPU attempting to connect. There's no option to fix this or try to choose another site. Can't even edit settings in case ATI screwed up or needed to update the titantv connection settings.
  #3 No support. Don't even try to call their support line. They're either no answering or won't have an answer for you. Horrible.
  #4 No driver or software updates. Drivers are ancient. When I tried to update the media software (just hoping it would help) the software could not recognize my installation disk as legit. It then refused to install the software. This cd is right out of their box.
  #5 Their web site is useless.
  #6 Picture quality is poor at best.
  
  So if you want to make extra trips to the store to return this and go with a reputable vendor, by all means waste your time and money on this card.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 2 stars

  expensive for the cheap price

  by mcouhig on January 22, 2007

  Pros: since it doesn't work, I wouldn't know.

  Cons: Doesn't work, and there is no support

  Summary: In a world of really bad technical manuals, ATI sets a new standard. Not only does the manual simply assume I'm conversant with audio-visual technical lingo, it stops short ...

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  Summary: In a world of really bad technical manuals, ATI sets a new standard. Not only does the manual simply assume I'm conversant with audio-visual technical lingo, it stops short of telling me how to use the attendant software. I guess, like a video game, I'm supposed to spend my leisure hours figuring out how it works.
  
  The only thing worse is the on-line support documentation, which only tells me that the manual is flawed. Apparently it requires installation steps that aren't in fact required. What these are, they don't say.
  
  I'm hoping to at least cost them the price of this junk by hanging on their 1800 number forever. So far, that appears to be working. I've had their 1800 number on hold for more than 18 hours so far. The funny part is I keep hearing a recording promising that on-line I'll find "solutions to thousands of common issues." I think if I produced products with thousands of common issues, I might re-consider what I was doing.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 5 stars

  Cheap Card, Bad Software

  by ifpk454 on December 23, 2006

  Pros: Cheap, TV functionality

  Cons: TV Guide for PVR Features doesn't work

  Summary: I didn't need a really fancy card to record high quality, or to display HD - so the TV Wonder 200 was a natural choice.
  
  I wanted to use
  
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  Summary: I didn't need a really fancy card to record high quality, or to display HD - so the TV Wonder 200 was a natural choice.
  
  I wanted to use the PVR features of the card. However, their "EPG - Electronics Programming Guide" (i.e. TV Guide) is not working, so I feel that my purchase was pointless.
  
  Their customer service is slow, and they don't answer their phones. It's is ironic, because they have a flyer in the box that says "please don't return, call our free support". Then they don't answer their phones, and give you the run-around. Plus they're out for the holiday now, and I have no resolution to my problem.
  
  I wouldn't suggest purchasing this product until they get their software issue worked out - if you care about the PVR features of the product.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 1 stars

  Almost Worthless

  by alimist on May 16, 2011

  Pros: Can capture video with Windows movie maker. Can play ps2, etc. on PC monitor.

  Cons: 90% of what they claim it can do is a lie. The picture quality is awful with cable TV, has fuzzy lines. Media Center software is complete garbage. Isn't compatible with Windows Media Center. Freezes up often, my computer has at least 4x the resources n

  Summary: Whomever is responsible for the software and drivers for this hardware sucks at their job. They are as worthless as the software itself, ruining what could have been a decent ...

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  Summary: Whomever is responsible for the software and drivers for this hardware sucks at their job. They are as worthless as the software itself, ruining what could have been a decent product. Because of this poor experience I will NEVER buy any ATI hardware again. There are too many choices these days, for hardware and software, to settle for junk. I couldn't have cared less about the "tv schedule" function, which doesn't work anyway. I didn't need it to play DVDs, or any of the other things it could, or was supposed to do. I just needed it to watch, and/or record TV, and composite input signals. That's was it, but it failed regularly at this simple task. I have found that a PVR is the answer to my needs. I just wish I could have all the money and time back that I wasted on this garbage. I give it a 3 out of 10, it did work sometimes.

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• 2 stars

  this is my first computer. first time useing ATI..

  by vincent welsh on May 18, 2007

  Pros: I like what i't done for my PC.

  Cons: no remote!!

  Summary: still wating for my remote tv wonder 200? please respond. vincent welsh@comcast.net thank you. bought on 03/13/07 best buy Deptford.NJ 08096 #579

  Summary: still wating for my remote tv wonder 200? please respond. vincent welsh@comcast.net thank you. bought on 03/13/07 best buy Deptford.NJ 08096 #579

• 6 stars

  does the job

  by topshooter187 on April 8, 2007

  Pros: good enough quality, easy install

  Cons: the software is flaky

  Summary: the only problem I have with this card is ATI's software, I recommend you use WinDVR 3 instead. quality is okay but nothing to brag about

  Summary: the only problem I have with this card is ATI's software, I recommend you use WinDVR 3 instead. quality is okay but nothing to brag about

• 3 stars

  it's kinda lame.

  by turkeyburger on March 22, 2007

  Pros: DVD/VCD burning capabilities

  Cons: wonky software, system lock ups, mediocre picture, defective channel listing

  Summary: I bought this tv tuner card on a technology closeout website for pretty cheap. I feel sorry for everyone that payed full price.
  
  The image you get from this product
  
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  Summary: I bought this tv tuner card on a technology closeout website for pretty cheap. I feel sorry for everyone that payed full price.
  
  The image you get from this product is passable. The image quality is neither this systems advantage or it's weakness. The actual downfall of the system is the software. It can be difficult to navigate until you get used to the layout, it suffers from random lock ups, and the worst part is the channel listing. I'm not saying it's a bad channel listing/on-screen program guide. I'm saying it's a program guide that doesn't work at all.
  
  That feature is set up to draw tv listing data directly from titantv.com but the information never downloads. It'll be happy to use up system resources trying though. This only adds to the random lock ups I mentioned earlier.
  
  There's no option to choose another listing information provider.
  
  The video catologing system is pretty cool. It lets you watch any videos on your computer not just your recorded tv segments. So, I guess that's one thing they got right. The DVD menu creator/burning system is definately basic but works pretty good. A second point in ATI's favor.
  
  However, a few pros don't make up for the cons.
  
  I've tried to make this product function better, I've looked for updated drivers, a newer version of the card's media center software, I even signed up for an account at titantv.com thinking that I could solve some of the problems from that end but there's no help to be had.
  
  In short the 200 appears to be the lost and neglected orphan of the ATI Wonder family. No support, no drivers, no new software.
  
  Unlike some other reviews I read I believe the TV Wonder 200 could be a pretty good, functional product if it had the proper software and accompanying bug fixes but no one seems willing to put in the time.
  
  Maybe someday a brilliant hacker will write a piece of software that runs this card 10 times better but I'm not holding my breath.
  
  It looks like this card is destined to go down in history as nothing more than a dud.

  Updated
  In my previous post on this product I said maybe there's another product out there that can run the card better than the OEM software can. I found a program that I believe does just that, Chris TV. It's not perfect. It takes a bit of effort to set up but once you get the hang of it, it runs better than the Catalyst Media Center. I'm using the freeware version so I haven't been able to try all the features but it has several advantages. Including being able to resize your viewing window to ANY size and Color/Contrast adjustments. (Features that you would definately see on a conventional tv.) The only thing it appears to be missing that is available on the factory software is the dvd authoring/burning feature. However, I alread have Nero so I'm not worried about that. It kinda sucks that you have to buy the card and then buy third party software to run it but for me, it's better than throwing the card out all together.

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• 2 stars

  Doesn't work with Windows Media Center :(

  by jester5242 on March 22, 2007

  Pros: Good Hardware

  Cons: Very poor software

  Summary: I asked 2 different sales reps at the store to find out if this would work with windows media center and all said yes. But it doesn't. I don'...

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  Summary: I asked 2 different sales reps at the store to find out if this would work with windows media center and all said yes. But it doesn't. I don't know why they are selling/making cards that don't work with it because it's becoming such a standard. I'll be returning the card and checking CNet first before I buy another one. Also, after installing, updating and uninstalling the software many times I couldn't even get it to work on the provided media center software. There are many bugs in it and it doesn't give you an error so you can't even attempt to blog fix it. Nothing happened and I don't recommend this to anyone!

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• 1 stars

  Worst Product of the Decade

  by techvideoguy on March 10, 2007

  Pros: Absolutely None!

  Cons: Everything is a Con

  Summary: ATI is selling a product they know does not work. The Electronic Programming Guide does not work. They claim that it is has notified the company that produces the software, ...

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  Summary: ATI is selling a product they know does not work. The Electronic Programming Guide does not work. They claim that it is has notified the company that produces the software, but how many months does it take to fix a problem. I can tell you. More than 3 months. ATI's tech support was useless. It took me 3 weeks before I actually could get a live person. Their phone system was always down for maintenance. The person I talked to tried to push the problem off on a different company. ATI bundled the software, ATI needs to fix the problem. They were unprofessional in their e-mails, and by the end, they went full circle and tried to tell me it worked, I just needed to wait because the server was busy. I think waiting 72 hours for nothing to happen shows that they do not have a fix. They abandoned my support call. I guess they were tired of me calling for an update.
  
  Now for the part that kind of works. You get what you pay for. You pay for a cheap card, you get shoddy picture quality. The system CPU was running at 100% while running the ATI TV WONDER 200, which meant you could not do anything else without the other application running really slow. The software package is full of bugs. I have an All-in-Wonder video card (Don't get me started with the lack of support for this card), and the TV Wonder software keeps changing the video input every time I stop and start it. The software has lost all of my channels 3 times now, which means I need to rescan all the channels every time this happens. The scanning process is extremely slow.
  
  As others have said, the "FREE REMOTE" will cost you $10. Good one ATI.
  
  ATI's quality and service are lacking. Pay a little more money and buy from a different manufacturer.

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• 9 stars

  Problem Free, initial Setup is a breeze and it works great!

  by zeppedled on October 9, 2006

  Pros: Easy setup, Channel guide is nice, Pausing TV function works great, Picture and sound is clear, And as always ATI's MultiMedia Center is real nice.

  Cons: Not HD ready,

  Summary: Overall for the price I paid (On sale for $40) It works great. With ATI You always get more than you pay for. The software works great, the Picture is ...

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  Summary: Overall for the price I paid (On sale for $40) It works great. With ATI You always get more than you pay for. The software works great, the Picture is As Clear at non HD gets and the sound is excellent. The recording options and Pausing Live TV function is superb compared to other Tuner cards I have used. Type in you Zip code and chose your Cable provider and It downloads all of your Channel information and "TV guide" information. If you are looking for a Tuner for watching and recording SD TV this Card is one Bang for your Buck. ATI is a great company and as always they prove this all the more with this Tuner Card.

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  0 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

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