Just bought ATI HDTV Wonder

[mikejaner]

So, I went to CompUsless today, and I saw the box sitting on the shelf. I decided that it was time to try out HD recording, even though I knew Sage didn't support it yet. I got it home and installed it and recorded part of the Seatle-StLouis game in High Def using the ATI software. Then exported it to MPG, which apparently just strips the ATI stuff off of the stream. Loaded it into my media library, and went to imported videos in Sage and started the file.
IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!
The NVDVD4 Codecs, to just as well as my HDTV does at displaying OTA straight off the antenna. I was very impressed. My wife was very impressed, cause she is now imagining CSI and being able to pause, ff, rew, etc.... just like with SDTV.
At that moment I realized one thing..... The audio was not playing. I tried every combination of audio codecs and output options on SageTV that I could, but still no sound. I then went to the ATI player, and played the file. Sound works. What the heck?!?!?!?

Anybody have any ideas?


Also, Dan, Jeff...... If HDTV support were to come in the future, is there any reason for you to believe that the ATI HDTV wonder could not be supported with Sage? I want to know, so I can return it if I have to in the next two weeks.

Mike

[stanger89]

Just bought ATI HDTV Wonder

I'm sorry

In a way I hope they don't support it, from everything I've read it's about the worst HDTV card available (worse than the Fusions, and that's somewhat of an accomplishment).

That said, I imagine, the easiest way to get HD support into Sage would be to support the BDA driver spec (ala MCE) and that would get support for both the Fusion and HDTV Blunder.

Oh, and on to something constructive, did you actually play one of the HD clips in Sage? How did it work? Was that with nVDVD 4 decoders (it sounded like it)?

[mikejaner]

I hope the ATI card is not one of the worst. In what way is it bad? I had no problem tuning channels and recording.
Yes I did playback the file in Sage, that's where I got no audio, but a beautiful picture. In the ATI app, it worked fine.
Mike

[mikejaner]

Update: I installed the latest updates to the ATI software off of the website, then re-exported the video to my Sage Library, and it works!!! Video and sound is now working perfectly.

Mike

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

I hope the ATI card is not one of the worst. In what way is it bad?

You're just exceptionally lucky.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ht=hdtv+wonder

Originally Posted by ExtremeTech Rescinds Rating for ATI's HDTV "Blunder"

However, based on our experiences over the past week with the shipping version of the HDTV Wonder...the product is now widely referred to as the HDTV "Blunder"... Even though we gave it a good rating of 7 out of 10, based on subsequent testing, we've lowered that to a 5.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1641020,00.asp

I had no problem tuning channels and recording.

Sounds like you should buy a lottery ticket

Yes I did playback the file in Sage, that's where I got no audio, but a beautiful picture.

That's cool, Sage has always had trouble with HD files, maybe Jeff has fixed something.

[mikejaner]

v\That's cool, Sage has always had trouble with HD files, maybe Jeff has fixed something.
I got sound working. I think it was the older ATI software which came on the CD which didn't output it right. All is good now for exporting HDTV to play in Sage

Mike

[stanger89]

Last time I tried playing HD files (I have a small collection of whatever demo HD content I find on the web) something less than half of them even import into Sage, some don't play (just black screen) and almost none are smooth.

I may have to give it a try again though.