Chovy’s Blog

Junk: nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema Review

Sun, January 9, 2005 — Category: Personal

I bought the nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema video card because it was the cheapest TV Tuner and FM Tuner card, with 256mb of memory. I paid something like $250 for it.
I had problems from the beginning. Installing the driver on Windows XP was a pain (and it’s not supported on Linux, like they claim it […]

I bought the nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema video card because it was the cheapest TV Tuner and FM Tuner card, with 256mb of memory. I paid something like $250 for it.

I had problems from the beginning. Installing the driver on Windows XP was a pain (and it’s not supported on Linux, like they claim it is - one of the reasons I bought the card).

When I finally got the regular driver to work, I had ghosts on the screen, which was causing problems for me, turns out the cable was faulty, but with a KVM switch resolution degradation was still a problem (not so on my other two pc’s also connected to the KVM switch with different cards.

Another reason I bought it was so I could record tv. Which was I was not able to setup. I connected the cable tv feed and sound loop wire to the sound card, and then the RF signal receptor (for the remote), and when I installed the nVidia Forceware drivers, after going through the hassle of downloading the tv listings, etc. ….It said “no tv tuner detected”. I removed and re-installed several times, tried searching the nVidia forums (which by the way, are not very helpful). There literally is very little info as far as forums and technical documents out there related to this particular nVidia card, so I’m going to sell it on eBay and try an ATI card (which is supposed to have good Linux support) or buy a better nVidia card.

The setup was straight forward, and even using the CDs included with the eVGA nVidia FX5700 card, could not get the TV tuner to recognize. All I really got was an overpriced graphics card.

Another problem was that as soon as I connected the cable tv feed to the card, the monitor started flickering and getting “shaky”. This was unavoidable.

Incidently, this is the 2nd nVidia card I have purchased, the first one stopped working after about 3 months. I don’t know why I convinced myself this one would be any different.

  • Post Junk: nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema Review to del.icio.us
  • Post Junk: nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema Review to digg
  • Post Junk: nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema Review to Furl
  • Add Junk: nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema Review to YahooMyWeb
  • Simpify!
  • Post Junk: nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema Review to shadows
  • Post Junk: nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema Review to Spurl
  • Post Junk: nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema Review to BuddyMarks
  • Submit Junk: nVidia FX5700 Personal Cinema Review to Slashdot

22 Comments »

214

Comment by Anonymous

January 22, 2005 @ 10:20 pm

I’ve used an ATI AIW 8500DV 64mb with much success with inputting analog video. I’m not an expert, but I believe very few frames were lost. I still have the card.

I appreciate your warning about nVidia’s entry into this area of computing. I’ve seen this card at Best Buy and CompUSA. Over the years, many people have been very satisified with AIW products.

ATI cards generally work better with a motherboard (32-bit) that does not use a Via chipset other than a KT880 (dual-channel). For 32-bit motherboards, nVidia’s recent nForce2 chipsets (also dual-channel) work best–ironic, isn’t it? I know this from personal experience with a KT400 chipset motherboard.

I’d say you may want the AIW 9600 or higher. Skip Wal-Mart’s AIW 9200–web prices for the AIW 9600 are comparable.

Recently, my Sapphire Atlantis 9600 256mb card died. I’m considering nVidia’s 5700LE or 5700 but have not totally discounted the 9600 Pro or 9800SE (or AIW 9600). Sapphire’s website is very helpful and is not censored (you do have to search through the entries, however). (Sappire’s drivers are very dated, however, so a visit to ati.com is necessary.) Sapphire makes ATI’s branded video cards….

215

Comment by Anonymous

February 13, 2005 @ 8:12 pm

I had the same problem you have had, but mine was with a GF440 MX Personal Cinema. The CD installers never helped. What I eventually did was get the WDM driver from NVidia, and it’s worked since then. Of course the only thing that’s working in Linux is the graphics portion, none of the TV stuff works. :-\

216

Comment by Anonymous

March 4, 2005 @ 2:31 am

I wouldn’t say that the FX 5700 is junk. I did have the same problem with the tuner not being detected on Windows XP. It turns out that the blame should really go to Microsoft. This was a problem with service pack 2. After removing service pack 2 and repairing the system from the corruption of the un-install, the TV tuner was fine and worked great. As far as linux goes, the 3d function of the card is good. ATI DOES NOT have good linux support. They have very limited support in the form of outdated rpms for a couple of their Radeon cards (9200-9800), but only for the 2.4 kernel which is just a little old. If you want a 3d card for linux, then there is no substitute for NVidia. They have unmatched 3d support for linux.

217

Comment by chovy

March 4, 2005 @ 3:42 am

I didn’t have SP2 installed when I tried to get the card to work. Maybe i’m a dummy, but I tried for hours and finally gave up.

I ended up getting a cheaper nVidia card, everbody on forums.gentoo.org said the same thing you did about ATI.

As for a TV Tuner, I will be getting the WINPVR 350, which works with MythTV.

218

Comment by Anonymous

March 10, 2005 @ 1:02 am

Hey, I read your comment and I have the same experience with FX 5700 Personal Cinema 256 MB DDR, 8X AGP. Nothing computer can do to detect that stupid TV tuner ! I tried to download update file or driver…nothing works ! I already contact the company who made that video card…I will hope that they will give me the solution if they doesn’t…I will ask them for refune cuz video is made to bring me the tv on my computer since it fails I must have money back !!!

219

Comment by Anonymous

March 26, 2005 @ 2:41 pm

I have the Nvidia FX 5700 Personal Cinema working under Windows XP using the drivers supplied here: http://www.pny.com/support/
drivers/?prod=personalcinema

TV quality is breathtaking and the Forceware PVR makes quality recordings. Linux support is not yet available (I have a bt878 based PCI card for that). The channel guide is nicely done and seems to work well for programming up recordings so long as your clock is synced with the internet. (I.E. internet sync under set date and time, enter ntp.(yourisp).net or ntp.nasa.gov)

The program does however use a lot of CPU power, so don’t plan to work on anything while it’s recording. I’m hoping later driver and software releases will lower the CPU load, but for now the system is highly stable and usable. Be sure to update your guideplus by rightclick->Tools->Update in forceware.

Hope this helps. Happy viewing!

220

Comment by Anonymous

March 26, 2005 @ 2:59 pm

Oh, Another note. My success was with SP2 installed and all the other MS updates as of 03/26/2005

221

Comment by Anonymous

April 18, 2005 @ 7:03 pm

How did you get your 5700 to work with SP2?

I think the card would be great if i could SP2 to install (and if i could stop having to reinstall the remote)

222

Comment by Anonymous

May 25, 2005 @ 10:51 pm

I have the PNY boxed FX-5700 and I’m not too happy about the video quality. But I blame(d) this on the DVI to SVGA adapter running through a KVM switch of questionable quality.

My one main problem with the Forceware TV mode (after manually starting a recording for a two hour show tonight) is that I can’t stop the record function! I click the STOP button, I see it change to the red record dot ever so briefly and the on-screen words “Stop Recording”, but it does NOT stop!

223

Comment by Anonymous

July 7, 2005 @ 12:25 pm

Hey guys use the HOT FIX Patch for XP SP2 !!! http://www.evga.com/downloads/ForcewareSp2UpgradePatch.exe.

Now if they can fix the speed of channel surfing this thing would rock!

224

Comment by Pugilist

July 25, 2005 @ 9:39 am

Wow, we could not have had two (2) completely different experiences.

I purchased the PNY FX 5700 personal cinema card from Newegg on 7/18/2005. My youngest son had finally outstripped the abilities of his Geforce4 Ti-4400 and wanted to be able to input video from a camera.

Installation on 7/22/2005 went something like this:
-Unistall current video drivers
-Power off PC
-Remove old card
-Install new card
-attach all cables
-Power up PC
-install new drivers (from website, not disk)
-Configure Tuner/FM
-confirm composite input
-Turn my son loose on it

I had zero problems. Everything works as advertised and the remote functions like a mouse.

I’ll be positng a complete review in my blog, just stumbled on yours while researching the card for my review.

as a side note, I own four (4) nvidia cards and have had no unresolved problems with either of the 5900s, the new 5700, or the ti-4400.

My 1st 5900 had a memory issue, was RMA’ed within 15 days. My son’s Via chipset did not like the generic drivers for his card but manufacturer specific drivers resolved that issue.

225

Comment by Pugilist

July 26, 2005 @ 12:17 pm

I see I forgot to include system specs:

ASUS A7V8X-X MB (No more Via chipset MBs)
1 gig RAM
DVD ROM
CD RW
20 Gig system HD
160 Gig Data HD
AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (thorughbred)
Nvidia geForce FX5700 Personal Cinema
1.44 floppy
17″ monitor
Powmax Case (never again - too short, too narrow) - 7 LED fans
Red Aspire keyboard
Windows XP Prof (SP2)
Logitech marble mouse
2.1 speakers

226

Comment by Anonymous

August 1, 2005 @ 8:57 pm

The hotfix posted above at the evga website works, even with the PNY make. You won’t see a difference until you restart. Other sites said that PNY would email you a patch when requested, but I tried this one out and it worked like a charm. They’d probably send you the same file, anyway.

227

Comment by Anonymous

October 13, 2005 @ 10:35 pm

“ASUS A7V8X-X MB (No more Via chipset MBs)”

Maybe if you stop blaming innocent hardware you’ll be off to a good start. When anyone gets one working on same (via or any other) chipset, even that single instance alone is proof the chipset is not the problem.

Rarely it’s a motherboard bios. More often it’s poor drivers for other hardware in the system or most likely (as always) it’s Windows’ fault.

Any system can just display 2D text, run a web browser. When you start tacking on advanced features for video capture, or gaming, or (insert random thing here), you then find out if windows REALLY was set up properly under that slick gradient GUI. most often, it’s not, and you have to go back and fix that 2% o the OS that went wrong if you’re the unlucky one that was effected by the random problem your system has.

This is coming from someone who has about 7 (lost count) distinctly different chipset based capture cards. The problem is almost always windows. Manufacturers can only test their software on reference platforms running clean windows- there is no way they can guess how your box is setup or what 1-in-a-million hardward combo you run.

228

Comment by chovy

October 14, 2005 @ 8:09 am

Would it have been too much to ask of ASUS to include a floppy with a Windows driver on it?

I think not :-P

Comment by bryce

March 8, 2006 @ 7:36 pm

ya. so idk what your smoking, but i bought mine for 60 bucks and it works perfectly. tuner, editing software, radio, and expecialy graphics. im currently looking to sell it, only becuause i dont really need the tv tuner, and im more into gaming so if i were to sell the card, i could get one with the money that i got, that would be better for gameing, no tv tuner and extras.

idk, but i think its a great card.

Comment by just me

March 11, 2006 @ 8:10 pm

Hey I have the pny version working in Windows with SP2 on an ASUS A7V8X-X (via chipset) with no problems, I have had this thing for like 2 years.

Currently I am setting up a myth server with this card, I heard rumors that you can get it to work.

Trackback by Anonymous

December 13, 2007 @ 12:27 pm

sarah socalcoeds.com…

Socalcoeds.com sarah finding exhibit. Whereby as Peaches Pornstar Daily, food. …

Trackback by Anonymous

December 18, 2007 @ 7:15 pm

Disney Sex.com…

Fat textile, nuts disney sex.com senator voices. Attending when, remark kid since came Ginger Nice?! …

Trackback by Anonymous

December 22, 2007 @ 4:38 pm

Stories Adult Baby…

Comment by Sandra Bradley

January 26, 2008 @ 10:18 am

I ordered my new Dell with the video card capable of recording TV. I still haven’t been able to make it work properly even after hours of phone support help.

Comment by Kathy

March 6, 2008 @ 4:15 pm

You get what you pay for!

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

 
Keyword Advertisers:
SEO Directory SEO Links Free Link Directory Shopping Submission Directory Gardening Tips Political Forum Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Marketing Audio Video Directory SEO Forum Web Development Blog Organic SEO Wiki Web Development Consulting

Learn more about purchasing keyword text link ads on this site.