CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

bbfarmht · Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:01 pm Post subject: Ati all-in-wonder cards

I am currently getting my 4dtv receiver up and running. While searching for info on aligning my big dish I found that I can buy an add on so I can use Sagetv as a pvr. This got me to wondering if I am using a pc to record shows why not get a ota tuner card. I found the Ati All-In-Wonder cards also acted as video cards.

I know some of you have more experience with building htpcs. So what is your take on these cards?

bbfarmht · Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:38 pm Post subject:

I'm hoping that maybe one of these cards will have enough processor to do what I want. I don't plan on doing a whole lot with the pc. I want to find a cheap motherboard. I don't think I would need a sound card since the particular A-I-W card I am looking at has hdmi on it. I think having 4 gig of ram would be fine and the largest harddrive I could find, I have found terabyte drives for 80 dollars.

Basically this pc will only be a tuner/pvr, so the cheaper and fewer components I can use the better. Maybe I could get a barebones pc and go from there.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:49 am Post subject:

What OS system?

bbfarmht · Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 7:42 am Post subject:

Well if I buy a barebones pc it would be Windooze. If I start from the ground I will use Ubuntu-linux.

akajester · Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 927 Location: Wisconsin

If I can give my opinion, I would say stay away from any AIW type card, including ATI. Your best bet is to stay away from onboard video as well. Get a nice mobo with lots of pci express slots. I believe the one I picked out was a gigabyte, about $75 on newegg, for amd processors. It has onboard audio, spdif out, which works fantastic. Get a nice seperate video card, like an ati 4350 (has hdmi out and is under $40 now) or a comparable nvidia card. Then if you want an OTA tuner, get a decent hauppauge card. I got a 2250 which has dual tuners over the same wire and has onboard accelerators, so processing stays on the card. Driver support is awesome and it's supported by every PVR app available including linux stuff. When playing OTA HD my cpu is at 5%!!! I got an amd quad core cpu that was $99 on newegg and 4gb of ram ($25). Works awesome.

But in the last xyz years of working on stuff like this, I'll tell you that onboard video is bad (shares system ram) and causes all sorts of problems. And I've never had an ATI AIW card I didn't have problems with. ATI driver support is hideous and they just don't play well with alot of apps out there on the market.

have fun!

bbfarmht · Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 2:49 am Post subject:

I would never get a mobo with on board video!!!! I was taught that many years ago. Those are some great suggestions. I forgot how cheap Newegg can be with good parts.

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 3967 Location: Comedy Central

What is wrong with on board video? According to AMD, their latest chip is faster than a 6800GT. I believe all of the chips these days have HD video decode. Just put six gigs of ram in your system and you should be good to go.

OT - Adam, you need to take a look at your website. No offense, but a redesign is in order.

akajester · Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 927 Location: Wisconsin