ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB observations...

[NJRoadfan]

I managed to run across one cheap NIB, so I decided to do some quick testing. My initial testing with color bars shows that this capture stick (at least the one I have) appears to have chroma thats a bit more blurry then my AVer HD DVR card. Testing was done with the color bars on the AVT-8710 and the S-Video with the driver's proc-amp settings at their defaults.

(see zip file for lossless PNG samples without compression artifacts)

ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB:

AVermedia HD DVR PCIe:


Notice that the 600USB isn't quite as sharp around color boundaries. Adjusting the onboard proc amp's sharpness did nothing to correct the problem. I'll repeat that I have not tested this USB stick with actual video yet, so stay tuned. The ATI may need some tweaking of the brightness/contract control as well, but thats best adjusted with bars coming off of a VCR before capture. As with any card, results are subjective.

Also, these USB sticks DO NOT use the ATI Theater capture chip. They are actually based on the Empia EM28XX series chips, the same chips found in the often copied "EZCap" USB cables found on ebay. This chip lacks nice features like a 3D comb filter on the composite input. Looking at ATI's spec sheets, the later 650 and 700 appear to use the Theater chipset, but they have known AGC problems.

If anyone is looking for a replacement video input dongle, the original AMD part numbers direct off the bag it came in is below. It might be possible to order direct from AMD or third party vendors like Diamond.

AMD PN: 6110025700G
MFG PN: R3CGG161100190L

Finally, Catalyst Media Center is indeed pretty crappy. Its a re branded version of Cyberlink Power Director. Whats worse is it refuses to work with my HD 600 at all, it complains that the TV Tuner can't be found (apparently a very common problem). The ATSC tuner does work fine with Windows Media Center. The reception compared to newer tuners is very poor however. I'm normally able to get all the area TV stations using a set of rabbit ears and a UHF loop. The same antenna connected to this tuner only barely picks up one station.

[lordsmurf]

How did you manage to open the USB stick? Mine is sealed.
Or did you find schematics for the internals from some reliable sources offline or online?

[NJRoadfan]

Easy, I looked at the information embedded in the drivers, no dis-assembly required. I saw various references to Empia/EETI as the manufacturer for the main capture driver. That lead me to this page: http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/VIDEO_EM28XX.html The HD 600 USB's vendor ID/device ID is the 2nd one on the list.

[Steve(MS)]

When I installed the 600 usb on my computer, CMC only gives me 3 choices for capture....I forget the terminology,
something like good, better and best....
I was looking for a high bitrate setting, say, 1 hour setting but it didn't have that.
So unless something is wrong with the way I installed the prog. or my computer doesn't allow for fine-tuning the bitrate,
I was disappointed with the choice it gave me for mpeg.
I did a few Vdub caps with it, they turned out better.

Roadfan, it looks like the 600 cap-screen colors are slightly saturated but I must admit I haven't used my 600 hardly at all.
I was getting as good or better results with my various JVC DVD or JVC DVR/DVD recorders.
But part of that I am sure is my ignorance of capping with computer and in particular with the 600.
I wonder if some tweaks can make it look better...I was hoping for a guide on the 600 to iron out some of mysteries of using it....

[lordsmurf]

You can manually set bitrate. I need to get that guide published. It's there as an option, I promise. It's just not obvious because the program treats you like an idiot, and tries to hold your hand too much. As such, it both hides options and limits what is possible.

Like anything else, the capture card isn't 100% 1:1 for color, but it's pretty close.

I plan to investigate the hardware a bit more, when time is available.

I've been using this card for a few years now, very good results. And I'm not at all easy to please, in this area.