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ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0 Reviewed
An anonymous reader writes "ViperLair reviews the ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0, a sort of low-rent option for those you want to add a TV tuner or video-in to their machines, but would prefer an outboard piece of equipment instead of cracking open their case and dropping in a daughter board."
Well, you forget all the notebook users. They just "crack open their case" when it falls from the starbucks cafe table on the marble floor.
So for them external tv is nice of course.
IAAL
I've got an AverMedia USB 2 external tv tuner. Its nicely made and does deliver good video over USB2 HOWEVER I'm disappointed with the fact that:
:)
- it uses the PC sound card for the audio
meaning more cables, a little clipping as
my laptop only has a mic level input and less
than perfect sync. All that USB2 bandwidth and
they dont use it for the audio???
- All the PVR software I've tried (apart than
the buggy software that comes with it) is unable
to control the tuner, though if the card is
alredy set to a channel it feeds the other PVRs
OK.
I wanted to setup a TV server for a short while. I ended up connecting the AverMedia to a VCR to guarantee the channel would not lost when the PC rebooted (VERY likely with Windows Media Encoder
So, the review shows screen shots. I think there should be a sentence at the end of EVERY review for us Linux users -
"This device DOES/DOES NOT have drivers for Linux available/in the package/on the website".
That way - we dont have to hunt it down, and we know right away which companies to support.
= Grow a brain...
I saw something quite remarkable the other day.
A set of jump leads for a car.
Nothing special there you might think, but these were jump leads from cig lighter to cig lighter.
The claimed benefits included not having to get under the hood, and not getting dirty.
Thinking outside the box is not always a bad idea, I can think of many many people who wouldn't know what the battery in their car even looked like. Sure this isn't for everyone, and purists would shudder at the thought, but its a product that has a market.
With usb2, and firewire as standards for moving video data around, why should we worry about having to risk damaging the computer by opening it up?
One other aspect to it, how can I crack open my computer and put in a tv card if I bought a tiny silent desktop, or a laptop computer that has no room for expansion?
Using usb/firewire is much more expansive and practical than your closed view.
I'm pleased your internal card works and your happy with it, but just because your happy/comfortable/able to install the card internally doesn't mean everyone else is.
liqbase