OK, cool.

I'm not doing HDTV, so it shouldn't be a big deal for me.

I mostly got the Wonder for capturing MPEG-2 video off of my VHS-C camcorder. The ability to watch TV is a wanted, but unnecessary, bonus. However, I want to watch DVD's and the Wonder install freaked out when it couldn't find a hardware DVD decoder.

However, I thought I noticed XP installing drivers for a Phillips TV Tuner, which would lead me to believe it's hardware-based? Maybe I'm just a moron.

By the way, has anyone here using the AIW9800 had problems with sound being out of sync?

I run the diagnostics and it says that my sound card has an unstable clock. (> +/- 0.2%)

Nope. What kinda card are you using?

Soundblaster Live Value.

I went out to the Creative message boards and found several people with other Live/Audigy boards with the same issue.

1. There's no HDTV on the AIW, just the HDTVW.
2. HW DVD decoding is a bit of a dinosaur these days. Not even sure there are any mainstream cards doing it. SW decoding that uses the video card's resources efficiently is pretty much the standard, and that's what you're getting with the AIW. Just guessing, but I imagine it's because the SoTA in decoding moves so fast, it's easier to update the SW than pump out a new card every 6 mos or mess with flash updates.
ATI, NVidia, Nero, Interactual, PowerDVD, Sonic, are just some of the decoders out there. A lot of people like the NVidia, because it's closest to/most compatible with WMP 10.

Oh and I should say, this happened with a Live Value and my Nvidia GeForce + TV Wonder Pro.

I haven't gotten the AIW9800 yet, so I don't know if the problem will go away or not.

I've gotten the same warning from the diagnoistics [I have Soundmax on board]. Never had a problem with synch.

1. I know that. I wasn't needing one.

2. Yeah, I guess I should have said that different. The AIW (and most of the new 3D chipsets from Nvidia etc.) do DVD decoding in SW, but by offloading processes to the video card, to save resources. The Intervideo (WinDVD) decoder is purely software and I don't like the player, nor do I really like WMP 10. I was doing it out of necessity. With the AIW, I want to view DVD's in the same (general) interface that I watch TV on. With the TV Wonder, it had no ATI hardware to offload the decoding to, so the ATI software for viewing DVD's simply would not install.

I love my Nvidia GeForce for playing games. It's definitely the baddest 3D card on the market. But yes, I'm switching out for a Radeon chipset solely because of the AIW. I look at it like the difference between an F1 racer and a regular car, say a Jag or a Mercedes.

The Nvidia is fast - super fast - but in the end, it's a for games and that's about all it can do. The ATI is still fast, and besides that, it can do all of these other things.

Yeah, I took it from your earlier posts that you weren't looking so much for TV or HD.
Sorry to dwell on the MCE and TV/HD stuff, I'm just a little high on the experience. MCE rocks so HARD, esp w/HD. All the Fx of TiVO, on my computer. MMC [ATI's version] is OK, but MCE brings in the TiVO functionality [ability to be on look out for episodes of shows wherever they might crop up. Keeping track of, and not recording, episodes you've already seen, recommended shows, one touch recording, etc. and STABILITY].
It also integrates your music [including going online and getting you all the info and cover art for whatever you have on your comp or stick in your CD player], DVD, video clips, pictures, and if you have the right card, FM radio. Though I'm limited to S-Video quality, I can connect my satellite and use media extenders to control the satellite through Windows too. A set of Component/DVI cables, a SPDIF cable and the remote and you can hook it into your HDTV and Receiver to have a full-on media server [save cassette, LP, SACD, etc]. If I had the scratch for more HDs, I coud put all 1200 of my CDs and all 75-ish of my DVDs on the HD and could then pack them up and put them in the attic.
If you decide to switch to MCE, let me know and I'll guide you through getting the AIW to work.
BTW - I went to Best Buy last week, and they had an encap s/u of a MCE machine. TV and FM were working, as well as everything else. Only thing not utilized is getting info off the I-net. Very informative.

I saw MCE at Best Buy this weekend and they had an LG 23" LCD monitor on the thing...the monitor alone was like $4k :D

Nice thing about the AIW is you can send it out to any TV or HDTV you might have, or wish to have. Composite, S-Vid, Component and DVI outs.