Digital Trends

ATI HDTV Wonder

October 17th, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

Features and Requirements

ATI's HDTV Wonder comes in a unique triangular box, a shape made necessary because of the indoor digital TV antenna included in the package. This antenna hooks up to the HDTV Wonder card with a coaxial connector and a six-foot cable which is required to receive over-the-air digital TV broadcasts. Also included in the retail packaging is the card itself, ATI's Remote Wonder (version 1), the usual purple ATI input connector (with S-Video, Composite Video, Left and Right analog audio), and a manual and software CD.

The HDTV Wonder can only work with PCs running Microsoft XP with Service Pack 1 or higher. ATI suggests at least a 1.3GHz processor, 256MB of RAM, and a 64MB or higher video card. However, after testing, we find it hard to believe that anyone with a 1.3GHz processor and 256MB of RAM will have an enjoyable experience with the HDTV Wonder. As you'll see later in this review, the product really is a resource hog.

With a 70 channel capacity, the digital tuner can tune in more stations than you'll probably ever need - in most areas you'll be lucky to get more than five to seven digital broadcast channels right now. With digital TV comes digital sound and if you have a 5.1 channel sound card, you can watch your digital programs in surround sound. The stereo TV tuner has the ability to tune in 125 analog cable channels and must be used independently of the digital tuner. If you want to watch both analog cable channels and over-the-air HDTV channels, you'll have to switch back-and-forth between the applications.

Included with the HTDV Wonder are the same applications you'll find with ATI's All-In-Wonder graphics cards and other TV tuners. ATI's file player allows you to play most types of music, image, and video files and its EAZYLAUNCH application provides an easy to read and easy to navigate front end for TV viewing or file playing. You can use the PVR software for both the analog tuner and the HDTV tuner and you can use ATI's scheduling software to program recordings. Sticking to the same formula as their All-in-Wonder cards, the HDTV Wonder uses Gemstar's GUIDE Plus+ onscreen interactive program guide for the analog cable tuner. There is no guide available for digital broadcasts so if you want to record HDTV, you'll need to look up the shows you want and manually create a schedule. As noted in our Radeon 9600 All-In-Wonder review, GUIDE Plus+ still suffers from some annoying issues, such as its requirement that you manually download the latest guide on a weekly basis.