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View Full Version : ExtremeTech Yoinks 7/10 Rating for ATI's HDTV Card


Jason Dunn
08-31-2004, 04:40 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1641010,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1641010,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"...With Dish Network and DirecTV and TiVo's HDTV DVRs costing a $1,000, we saw the $200 add-in-board as a fascinating bridge to time-shifting HDTV for the rest of us. However, based on our experiences over the past week with the shipping version of the HDTV Wonder, and supplemented by user experiences chronicled on AVS Forum and Rage 3D that mirror our results, we cannot recommend the HDTV Wonder at this time. In fact, the product is now widely referred to as the HDTV "Blunder" by users on both forums. Even though we gave it a good rating of 7 out of 10, based on subsequent testing, we've lowered that to a 5. Here's why, from editor-in-chief Jim Louderback's first-hand experiences."</i><br /><br />Ouch. This is not the kind of publicity you want to get if you're ATI and launching a new product. 8O

James Fee
08-31-2004, 05:12 PM
No doubt.... I was excited about the card, but having an nVidia graphics card, wasn't in a hurry to go out and buy a new ATI card. Sounds like for now I'll stay away.

mcsouth
08-31-2004, 11:18 PM
I hadn't really considered this option, because:
- only a few local channels are broadcasting in HDTV locally
- I'm not in a terrific area for OTA reception
- there isn't much on 'regular' TV that I watch anyways; most of what I watch is on cable

That being said, this was an interesting-looking product, because it represented the future to me. Looks like the future isn't quite ready yet, although I wouldn't be surprised to find that wide variations in HDTV standards may be part of the culprit in this case.....