Summary

Certification by the Imaging Science Research Labs is what Media Center PC builders have been waiting for, and ATI's new TV Wonder Elite has it. Using ATI's new Theater 550 Pro video processor, the TV Wonder Elite promises the best video quality available coming from a traditional analog cable or over-the-air broadcast. With a street price between $150 and $200 dollars respectively, the ATI TV Wonder Elite is compatible with Microsoft's Media Center Edition 2005 and other media software packages. Add to the mix PVR recording capabilities and a little taste of the multimedia environment and ATI just might have a hit on their hands. But can they can they compete with the likes of Hauppauge and other TV tuner card manufacturers?

Full Review

Features and Design

 

ATI is touting the TV Wonder Elite as one of the first TV tuner cards to be certified by the Imaging Science Research Labs (ISF RL). Similar to the way THX certifies a home theater receiver for using specific components and having certain specifications, the ISF RL has worked in conjunction with Microsoft to develop an industry standard for video quality specifications for use with Windows XP Media Center Edition. This means that ATI's TV Wonder Elite is vigorously tested to comply with the exact audio and video quality standards set by the ISF RL and Microsoft. What this means to you is that you should have absolutely no problem getting the TV Wonder Elite to work with your 2005 Windows Media Center Edition PC, and it should give you a better picture than non-certified tuner cards; at least in theory.

 

The ATI TV Wonder Elite features full hardware MPEG-2 compression, a 3D comb filter and full personal video recorder capabilities. Bundled with our review unit is ATI's own Remote Wonder Plus remote control, the RF receiver, ATI's Catalyst software drivers and a special version of Cyberlinks PowerCinema media software. With Cyberlink's PowerCinema software, you can pause, rewind, and fast forward television broadcasts and even record a show for later playback. But what makes the TV Wonder Elite so special though is ATI's new Theater 550 Pro video chip.

 

The Theater 550 Pro is the first hardware accelerated video processor to support both PCI Express and PCI interfaces. In fact everything to do with video processing is hardware accelerated with the TV Wonder Elite. This means that your computers CPU is left alone to carry out other tasks, while the TV Wonder Elite handles anything related to watching television. The new integrated 3D digital comb filter is carried out by the new Theater 550 Pro processor and video is recorded and encoded in a low bit rate MPEG-2 format allowing you to easily record content to a DVD-R/DVD-RW disc for playback on your own standalone DVD player. The Theater 550 Pro chip also handles the audio associated with cable or over-the-air broadcasts and makes sure it syncs with the video side accurately. And lastly, the most important feature the new Theater 550 Pro chip must carry out is cleaning up the incoming picture. Using a special “noise reduction algorithm” the Theater 550 Pro will remove any unwanted noise and artifacts usually associated with the incoming signal and help to make the picture as clean and clear as possible. While the ATI TV Wonder Elite is the first product in ATI's lineup to use the new Theater 550 Pro processor, perhaps we will see similar technology integrated into future versions of the ATI All-In-Wonder line.

Setup and Installation

 

There are several system requirements that you need to pay attention to before purchasing this product. The TV Wonder Elite is only compatible with Windows XP Home/Professional (with Service pack 2 installed) and Media Center Edition 2005. If you have an older version of Windows, you are out of luck. You might be able to get TV Wonder Elite to work with an older version of Media Center Edition, but it is highly unlikely and we didn't try. ATI also recommends that you have 256MB of memory for best performance, although we would always recommend more memory just to run XP alone.

 

Installing the TV Wonder Elite is as easy as finding a free PCI slot on your motherboard, plugging it in and installing the software. We plugged our RF receiver in the back of our test system and tucked the cord out of view. Because the remote control and receiver are RF based, it is not necessary to have the receiver in plain view. We were able to control our test system up to about 20 feet (the length of the room) without any problems.

 

The Cyberlink PowerCinema software that comes with the TV Wonder Elite looks and feels very similar to Microsoft's own Media Center Edition 2005 albeit with limited features. With the ATI version of PowerCinema you can pause, rewind, fast forward previously recorded material and record video just like you can with TiVo or any other Personal Video Recorder. This means that you can program the software to record a specific channel at the time you specify. There is only one major catch — the Cyberlink PowerCinema ATI edition software does not come with a program guide. ATI is promising that a program guide will be included in packaged versions of the TV Wonder Elite later this month, but until then you will have to make due with the ole paperback TV Guide or look for a website online that provides your local channel information. If you purchase the TV Wonder Elite before ATI updates it with the new program guide, than most likely you will be able to update your software via a software update — but don't quote us on that. With the PowerCinema software you can also view other video's stored on your computer, stored pictures and play FM radio broadcasts, just like Windows Media Center Edition. If FM radio is your thing, you will have to purchase an external antenna since ATI does not package one with the TV Wonder Elite.

 

Cyberlink's PowerCinema, ATI Edition

Video Playback

 

We saved the most important part for last of course — video playback. In one word “Amazing”. We originally saw the TV Wonder Elite being demonstrated at this years CES, but since we were under an agreement with ATI, we could not say anything until this review. Trust us when we tell you that we are not fans of analog cable or over-the-air broadcasts. If we had a choice, everything we watched would be 1080P, but since we do not lived in a perfect world, we have to make due with what we have.

 

The irony of the Media Center PC is that you pay thousands for a computer capable of so much multimedia, but which is limited, because of standards and laws. We would all love to be able to watch and record HDTV broadcasts using our Media Center PC, but it just isn't mainstream yet. Fortunately ATI's TV Wonder Elite helps to make things a little easier to swallow.

 

The Theater 550 Pro chip used in the TV Wonder Elite does a great job of cleaning up the incoming signal to make the image look cleaner. For our tests we used basic cable from Comcast. The TV Wonder Elite was able to eliminate the majority of the artifacts that were visible when compared to our older Hauppauge WinTV card. Edges were not nearly as sharp as we were hoping for and images appeared to be soft looking as a whole — which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Color is fairly accurate and we did not notice any excessive reds, greens, or blues. The 3D comb filter which the Theater 550 Pro chip uses does an excellent job of preventing any colors from bleeding outside of the image edges, and text is very sharp and easy to read — even while scrolling across the screen. Overall, the TV Wonder Elite makes you feel like you are watching a typical satellite feed instead of an analog cable broadcast. We can confidently say this is one of the best looking TV Tuner cards we have seen.

 

 

Hauppauge WinTV on the left, ATI TV Wonder Elite On the Right

 

 

Hauppauge WinTV on the left, ATI TV Wonder Elite On the Right

 

Starting up the PowerCinema software takes some time and can feel very sluggish while changing channels and using its recording features. We are not sure if this is a trait that can be associated with the TV Wonder Elite itself or the software. Our test system which includes 1GB of RAM and a 3.0GHz Pentium 4 processor is more than powerful enough to run the TV Wonder Elite.  Our guess is that it's the combination of the remote control, the USB receiver, the PowerCinema software and the TV Wonder Elite itself. Somewhere in the chain something is slowing the whole process down. The good news is that it's tolerable.  We have seen this slowdown with other TV tuner cards on the market, so it's not limited to the TV Wonder Elite. Hopefully one day we will see a response from the PC that is similar to a standalone TiVo or set-top-box.

 

Programming a show to be recorded

 

Recorded shows saved on your PC

 

We could probably do without the ATI version of PowerCinema since it feels so incomplete on features, but we realize that ATI has to package some sort of software with the TV Wonder Elite. If you already have Windows Media Center Edition 2005, than use that instead and do not even bother installing PowerCinema. Otherwise, we would recommend spending the money to get the full version of Cyberlinks PowerCinema which includes an electronic program guide. Other options would be SnapStreams' Beyond TV or MythTV (for Linux) which are both very popular media software packages; just make sure the software supports the TV Wonder Elite before you buy it!

Conclusion

 

The Theater 550 Pro processor used in the TV Wonder Elite really makes this product stand out from the others. The TV Wonder Elite is able to take an incoming analog signal and make you feel like you are watching digital cable or satellite TV, the picture is that good. We are glad to see ATI work with both the Imaging Science Research Labs and Microsoft to make a Windows Media Center Edition 2005 compatible product. Videophiles and multimedia junkies may be put off by the soft edges that the TV Wonder Elite produces, but if that means there are no visible artifacts, than we will take it. Look for technology similar to the Theater 550 Pro processor to be integrated into ATI's All-In-Wonder line later in the year.

 

Pros:

 

-          ISF RL certified

-          Microsoft Media Center Edition 2005 compatible

-          Dramatically improves analog cable or over-the-air broadcasts

-          Text is sharp and easily readable

-          Remote control works well

-          Software package is better than most associated with a TV tuner in this price range

 

 

Cons:

 

-          Edges look somewhat soft on images

-          Included software is somewhat limited, forcing you to pay for more features

-          Does not come with an electronics program guide (as of this time, expect one in future versions)

Specs

Specifications:

System Requirements:

• Intel Pentium 4 or Celeron, AMD Athlon or Sempron (or compatible)
• 128 MB of system memory; 256 MB or more is recommended for best performance
• Sound Card and speakers
• Motherboard with available PCI slot
• Cable TV signal or amplified antenna
• Installation software requires CD-ROM drive

Operating System Support

• Windows XP (Professional or Home, Service Pack 2)
• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

TV Tuner Requirements

TV signal from amplified antenna or cable.Versions available for:

• NTSC (North America)

Compatibility

• TV WONDER™ ELITE is compatible with all high quality graphics sub-systems supporting DirectX® overlay, including products from the following manufacturers:
  ATI
  NVIDIA
  Requires Graphics card and SVGA monitor capable of 1024 x 768 @ 32-bit resolution
• An ATI RADEON 9600 or newer graphics card is recommended for optimal display output quality.

Warranty

• 3-year limited

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