ATI TV Wonder 650 Recall

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BrynS

Regular
Heh, it's not just a recall... it's a total recall, according to DailyTech. :oops:

It could be something fairly innocuous, but together with much of the griping I recall in various threads about the Theatre 550, this doesn't bode well unless there's a quick replacement. Hopefully some sort of official response will be forthcoming in this Hexus thread, where ATI Multimedia personnel are active.
 
From the few threads I've read at various other forums, the card has all sorts of problems, the biggest being that you'll get almost no OTA channels unless you have an amplified antenna. People that are currently getting 10+ OTA channels are reporting zero bars of reception on every channel with the 650. And even with an amplified antenna, people aren't getting all the channels they got with previous cards.

On top of that, you can't use the ASTC and NTSC tuners at the same time, so no recording HD and watching SD at the same time with this card (or vice versa).

Can't believe they would release something this bad, especially since the 550 has turned out to be a very nice card, with very nice SD picture quality. I've had my 550 for a few months now, and it's worked perfectly with MCE 2005.

It looks like the VBox 164e is going to be the card to get when it comes out. Dual tuners, both of which can be configured as ATSC or NTSC, and you can use both tuners at the same time. Price is expected to be around $200, so it's not much more than the 650.
 
It's as if people think they never tested their parts and just released them willy nilly...geez.

It was most likely a fault introduced on the production line...they sampled enough working units, everything seemed good to go, and something probably went pair-shaped along the way that they missed. It's entirely possible (and normal), and it happens. At least they're acknowledging it, unlike some other certain green company that can never seem to admit its mistakes.

I for one say Kudos to ATI for the swift response. Shows they care.
 
There is a final test at the end of the production line, the failures shouldn't ever go by unnoticed. Not an excuse.

I think it was rather something else, possibly some minor design failure.
 
Hmm...if so, what could the cause of the fault be that would allow it to somehow evade their testing procedures? I suppose we have no idea what their procedures are, but surely they're thorough enough to ensure all facets of the device function as expected.

Is it something to do with the way signals from affected channels are interpreted versus the channels (if any) they test themselves? :???:
 
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