ATI TV Wonder VE- not for the timid

Be warned, This was not an easy card to set up. My install took 4 hours. I have been building my own PC's since 1990. This was a moderately difficult install. My guess it that ATI brand labels this card as the technical support is non-existant. It goes w/o saying you need to buy a 3 to 6 foot piece of coax cable not provided and connect this to a cable or satellite source.

I finished my installation of the ATI TV Wonder VE with the help of user reviews. I would imagine the VE runs off the same drivers as the full scale TV Wonder card which only add stereo output on the card and S video input. It is pretty cool to watch TV on my PC and card is working fine. It is running on a system I built my self. Nothing special. Celeron 900 with 266 meg of ram, ATI 9000 graphics card by Powercolor, FIC FB600V motherboard with VIA chipset, Sound Blaster live gold Audigy sound card . I am running Windows 98 first edition with all updates. it appears that this card has been in the market place for a few years and the date on the board was 2000. This tells me the card was designed around Win 98. I have read reviews by many in this category. It appears what will work for some will not work for others depending on your components. I believe I got my card working because I am running Win 98 and using an ATI based AGP card.

This is what worked for me.

Steps
1. Go to Microsoft updates and download and install direct X 8.0 update for video capture.
2. Shut down and unplug PC. Open case and install in available PCI slot. I am assuming your BIOS is set to plug and play and you are not assigning IRQ's Install the card. Close case, plug in and boot up.
3. The software will recognize the new device. Skip past this by pressing cancel for all the screens. Software will automatically assign an IRQ for PCI steering.
4. This is where it gets tricky. Using the same senerio that I had used to get my ATI graphics card to work. Go to ATI website and find the updated driver. Media center 7.1. Download and allow it to install. Reboot.
5. Upon reboot once again cancel trough the now device found screens. Once booted insert the CD that came with card and run set up. Do the express setup. it is gonna go to a screen that says checking system compatibility. Your system is gonna lock up. you will be able to tell as the mouse will not move. Reset your PC and allow scandisk to do its thing.
6. Do the install again. This time when windows says found new device do the setup. Search for drivers off the CD. Allow them all to install. once thru this process I shut down and rebooted again just to be sure all the devices were found and installed.
7. The ATI card should auto start the media center. Do not get excited yet. You card is still not gonna work. Ok card is installed and system recognized. To to control panel, go to device manager, expand sound video area. You should see the card installed with video capture, sound capture, Phillips tuner, etc. Verify everything is there and devices are working fine.

8. On the ATI menu bar click on TV icon. The configuration window will appear. On my first attempt it did not display the setup for the cable. only the video input and sound. In fact the TV tuner tab did not even appear. I got a video screen which was blue and no ability to even set up the tv. You may get lucky and your TV tuner will set up in initialization. I doubt it.

9. Using a tip off this page. Go back to your control panel, device manager, sound video. Select capture video input. click on properties. check the disable in this profile tab and apply. Go back to device manager screen ATI TV devices are now disabled. Do the exact opposite and go back in and uncheck the disable in this profile. Windows will pop up with recognizing a new device install drivers.
10. reinstall the drivers using the CD.
11. Go back to the ATI control panel and check the TV. You should get the TV tuner setup tab. Autoscan for channels. You may lock up. If you do hit reset and reboot. Try again. Click out of the setup screen and you are watching TV.
12. You need to stand back a bit for full screen or else it is fuzzy. I m not gonna complain for the 45 dollars I paid.

If none of this works for you I would ask if you have an updated BIOS for you board or are the chipset drivers updated.



I hope this can help save someone out there a bunch of time setting up this card. If I was of help you can say thanks at Truegs1@yahoo.com