So I decided I wanted to update my TV Capture card. I use it only for one thing – to capture my camera for live streaming. I don’t care about remote controls, I only care that it had an antenna and S-Video input. I got a deal on an ATI Theatre 550 capture card – which is a PCI Express card – And should push the video better than my old Hauppage card I bought years ago.
I have yet to be impressed.
Let’s start out in saying I stopped buying ATI years ago because their video has always had problems. I had an ATI Rage 128 card and the performance never hit what I expected. I ended switching up to NVidia graphics cards and never looked back. NVidia has some solid hardware and software that has never really failed me.
But my last ATI card I bought was years ago. Maybe things changed – ATI was bought out by AMD, new technologies and advancements could make things better. It didn’t.
I got the card yesterday. I need to preface this by saying it is a OEM card. I was able to download and install the main drivers. However, the other software wouldn’t install. It kept telling me I need a specific piece of software.
I went to the webpage and scoured for software. The pages took me from ATI pages to AMD pages and back. When I finally got frustrated, I found the customer support phone number. Only thing was it is AMD’s support, not ATI. I called the number and AMD said that there was another phone number, but it wasn’t on the website. He gave me the number and said that they were on the East Coast and are closed for the day.
This morning I called to find out what I can do. Instantly after I mentioned the card the support agent goes “This is an OEM version”. He then told me that ATI doesn’t support and there is no way to tell me who I can get the drivers from.
I was floored. Not the fact about the OEM part – OEM items are sold to companies like Dell to put in their machines. There is usually no support from the main company. I WAS floored that he couldn’t turn me in the right direction.
What is more annoying is in this day and age software and drivers don’t take up much webspace and could easily be cataloged for customers. So what if it’s OEM? Put it all on one FTP site.
I did download some free software that lets me tune into my video feed. When I went to broadcast, the video was latent. When I spoke, the audio came through first, then 2 seconds later the video pushed through.
The funny part is after this guy pretty much locked up his stance on the card, I said “Ya know, I stopped using ATI years ago because of quality and support. I guess things haven’t changed”. He replied with “Thank you.” We ended the call there.
I took a chance at getting an OEM card. Granted, I didn’t spend that much, however, when I ever bought other OEM cards I have always been able to find drivers and software and never had a problem. I am switching back to the old card and taking that ATI card back.