Digital Trends

ATI HDTV Wonder October 17th, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

Room for Improvement

It goes without saying that ATI's HDTV Wonder could use some improvements. While it may be the first mainstream and most affordable way to get HDTV on your computer it just doesn't seem “ready for primetime” yet.

We really wish ATI would ditch the GUIDE Plus+ software and integrate a better scheduling program such as TitanTV. Since many over-the-air HD broadcasts don't include the digital programming information, it would make sense to integrate a guide/scheduling program into the DTV viewing as well.

We're not sure what ATI can do about the hardware requirements as high-quality HD broadcasts are always going to be resource hogs. But they should be able to improve how the HDTV Wonder plays with other manufacturers' hardware. We've heard of people with the latest Nvidia cards having problems making the HDTV Wonder play nice with their system. Even people with certain ATI cards that the company says are supported have problems. We've heard more problems with AMD systems than Intel-based PCs, but again, that is something ATI should have tested or at least noted on their website or in their documentation.

Conclusion

There's no denying the incredible picture improvement of HD broadcasts over regular analog TV. The ATI HDTV Wonder does a good job of allowing you to enjoy this amazing video on your computer at a fraction of the cost of an HDTV. Of course, an HDTV is often much larger than a computer monitor and if you get an HDTV set, chances are you will just get an HD tuner from your cable company — allowing you to enjoy all of the HD cable channels as well as the over-the-air broadcasts.

Unfortunately, the system requirements are quite demanding — in our opinion more so than what even ATI suggests. Even if you have a powerful enough system, HD performance is dependent upon your proximity to a broadcast tower and other environmental factors. As a result, you really won't know if the HDTV Wonder will work well with your system and in your house until you actually try it. Considering it may take several hours to set up the HDTV Wonder and get it working properly, this is just too much time and effort for the average computer user to dedicate to such a project.

If it works, and if you have a powerful enough system to enjoy the full time-shifting and PVR functions of the HDTV Wonder, the product is a great way to introduce yourself to the drastic visual improvements of HDTV. However, until ATI works out some performance and software issues we feel that the HDTV Wonder will only appeal to a small percentage of computer users, and may be a disappointment to a certain percentage of those users.