ATI TV Wonder Issues

Hello,

I just bought an ATI TV Wonder VE card and have some issues. Tech
support hasn't responded yet but these are probably common problems.

1). I have digital cable (with a large company hq'ed in Philadelphia).
I get channels with numbers that go up to 370. The tuner has 125
channels but appears to be restricted to the channels whose numbers go
up to 125 (as opposed to the first 125 that I get). I'm trying to use
this card like a Tivo and a lot of interesting channels have numbers >
125. Is there a way to get the tuner to accept channels whose number
is >125?

2). If I plug the cable right out of the wall, I can get almost all of
the channels with no problems. However, HBO (which I pay for) is still
scrambled. If I use any connection out of the cable box, it only shows
me the one that the cable box is currently showing (which I can see
thought channel 3 on my pc). I have this same issue with my VCR. Great
design, huh? Does anyone know of other ways to hook things up to avoid
this problem?

3). When I recorded some video as a test, there was a loud hissing
noise on the resulting mpg. I don't get the hiss when I just watch the
TV. Any ideas?

At worst, are there other tuners out there without these problems?

Thanks in advance,

Max

On 4 Jan 2004 13:40:02 -0800
xam72001.TakeThisOut@yahoo.com (max) wrote:

 > Hello,
 >
 > I just bought an ATI TV Wonder VE card and have some issues. Tech
 > support hasn't responded yet but these are probably common problems.
 >
 > 1). I have digital cable (with a large company hq'ed in Philadelphia).
 > I get channels with numbers that go up to 370. The tuner has 125
 > channels but appears to be restricted to the channels whose numbers go
 > up to 125 (as opposed to the first 125 that I get). I'm trying to use
 > this card like a Tivo and a lot of interesting channels have numbers >
 > 125. Is there a way to get the tuner to accept channels whose number
 > is >125?

If your cable company is providing an analog signal then your AIW should
be able to decode all non-scrambled channels without difficulty, but
there will be at most 125 of them. If the cable company is providing
digital content (which, since you claim it is "digital cable" they will
be), the AIW cannot receive the digital content until it is decoded by
the cable company's box.
 >
 > 2). If I plug the cable right out of the wall, I can get almost all of
 > the channels with no problems. However, HBO (which I pay for) is still
 > scrambled. If I use any connection out of the cable box, it only shows
 > me the one that the cable box is currently showing (which I can see
 > thought channel 3 on my pc). I have this same issue with my VCR. Great
 > design, huh?

Yes, it's a great design for the cable company. They scramble the
signal for a reason you know. And the only way you can look at it
unless you are up to cobbling up your own illegal descrambler is to have
the cable box tune and decode it for you.

 > Does anyone know of other ways to hook things up to avoid
 > this problem?

Yes, some hackers know how to do this.

 > 3). When I recorded some video as a test, there was a loud hissing
 > noise on the resulting mpg. I don't get the hiss when I just watch the
 > TV. Any ideas?

Dunno about that one.

 > At worst, are there other tuners out there without these problems?

What you are describing is not in the realm of "problems", it's in the
realm of the system being designed to work in a manner other than that
in which you would like it to work. If you want it changed, you need to
talk to the FCC and the senior management of your cable company.

 > Thanks in advance,
 >
 > Max


--
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->