ATI is crap

I'm serious. I wanted to get this setup ready for superbowl- the PC was together, all the components were here, and the crappy ATI software wouldn't work.

I spent EIGHT HOURS installing drivers, googling error messages, restoring the system, reinstalling drivers, downloading drivers. And ended up having to borrow an HDTV tuner. This was a brand-new installation, no other software interfered with it. And it wouldn't work- out of the box. Installation step (four hundred and) three had me install an encoder- which claimed I didn't have any hardware the software supported. So I suppose the fact that it worked with other software, and was in the device list (no error) and even ATI's own other software saw it as an ATI HDTV tuner, didn't really matter.

I had it working for a little using ATI's drivers and an 'WatchHDTV' software. But come gametime... that channel wouldn't tune. So one of my neighbors had to run home and grab his tuner. Everything else was perfect- the sound, the picture, but ATI's software was a disaster.

I'll say it again- ATI is crap. I will avoid it at all costs in the future. And considering that my favorite processor company just bought ATI, I have to question their wisdom. This HDTV tuner is going in the garbage.

Update: Tuner is fine; software is horrible