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ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB  (Source: ATI)

ATI TV Wonder 600 PCI Express  (Source: ATI)
ATI launches TV wonder 650 Combo USB, 600 PCI and 600 PCI Express TV tuners

ATI announced three new TV tuners today that enable HDTV on the PC. The tuners are called the ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB, TV wonder 600 PCI Express and the TV Wonder 600 PCI.

The TV wonder 650 Combo USB carries an MSRP of $149 and has two TV tuners inside allowing for users to watch one channel of over-the-air TV/HDTV and record another. This is the USB version of the PCI Express tuner launched in July. The USB tuner is also capable of recording unencrypted digital TV (ClearQAM).

The TV Wonder 600 and TV Wonder 600 PCI Express are the same card utilizing different PCI interfaces, both of which will retail for $99 and offer ClearQAM recording. The tuners use Catalyst Media Center software that offers features like place shifting to view TV programs in different environments.

The software enables unrestricted programming to be converted with one click for use on most portable video players. The TV Wonder 650 Combo USB allows users to switch between digital and analog programs and record an analog program while watching digital programming or vice versa.

“No other company offers this exceptional choice of connectivity and configuration in TV tuner PC products,” said Matt Skynner, vice president of marketing, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “Our graphics pedigree is built on long-standing leadership in TV and video on the PC. The ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB and ATI TV Wonder 600 PCI/PCI Express, offered through VisionTek, take the best of our company’s digital TV experience and enable amazing HDTV on PCs today.”

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PCI- EXPRESS!
By swtethan on 10/15/2007 4:54:49 PM , Rating: 2
FINALLY!! Now all we need is soundcards!




RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By Polynikes on 10/15/2007 5:13:51 PM , Rating: 2
Seriously, PCI-E's been here for a while. It's about time we start seeing some hardware for it besides video cards.


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By Pirks on 10/15/2007 5:54:24 PM , Rating: 1
If you don't know anything about PCI-e gigabit NICs and PCI-e 802.11g Wi-Fi cards - that's purely your own problem, fortunately ;-)


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By jtemplin on 10/15/2007 8:29:41 PM , Rating: 1
Bbbbbut A/V is so much more fun and cooler than networking and storage(you forgot RAID!)

Seriously though, I think the average consumer doesn't need add in networking or RAID cards, for the most part. Seems to me that a motherboard new enough to have PCI-E would also sport Gbit Ethernet (not that mainsteam consumers need gigabit...) as well as RAID features (not that mainstream consumers need RAID...).

A quick newegg revealed only this wireless card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

110 is hardly a mainstream price.

More mainstream-esque PCI-E stuff is great (at reasonable price points). Just saw that PowerColor made the 550 with PCI-E as posted below, so I guess we're just a bit ignorant about the state of tv tuner bus interfaces =D Anyway...just please hurry up and get rid of PCI(to: "industry")


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By Pirks on 10/15/2007 9:13:03 PM , Rating: 1
Dude, here's a newsflash for ya - there are <gasp>other stores besides newegg!</gasp> Yes, that's right, you heard it! Check out this link:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=24319&v...


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By Jedi2155 on 10/16/2007 3:36:49 AM , Rating: 2
RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By Pirks on 10/16/2007 3:05:28 PM , Rating: 1
You lucky american bastards, you always get those damn nice rebates, and us canadians always get nothing! [covering green with envy]


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By jtemplin on 10/16/2007 10:22:03 AM , Rating: 2
Go back to the bridge you came out from under.


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By Pirks on 10/16/2007 3:30:18 PM , Rating: 1
nInn


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By archcommus on 10/15/2007 5:49:59 PM , Rating: 1
ATI has offered a PCI-E TV tuner since the 550 back in early 2006, maybe even late 2005. However I owned it and it sucked, swapped it for a Hauppauge card. After hearing about the early troubles with the 650 line-up I am leary of any ATI tuners until I hear some solid reviews of a new one.


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By Reflex on 10/15/2007 5:54:02 PM , Rating: 2
Been using the 650PCI for nearly a year now in my MCE machine, no problems. The HDTV Wonder definatly had issues(I use one at work for some tests), but the 650 has been perfect. Their naming scheme is confusing though, not sure how to tell the 'old' 650 from the 'new' 650.


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By agent2099 on 10/15/2007 6:46:42 PM , Rating: 2
Not sure what happened in your case but the 550 series are an EXCELLENT set of TV tuner cards. I've been using TV tuners for over 7 years now and have owned about 6 different cards including cards from Leadtek, Hauppauge, and ATI.

The 550 PVR is by far the best I have used to date. 3rd party software however is required to get the best functionality from the card.


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By vijay333 on 10/15/2007 7:19:32 PM , Rating: 2
Same here. I've been using two 550 based cards for a 2-3 years now: one PCI based (Sapphire Theatrix) and the other PCI-E (Powercolor). Zero problems with either and ATI is actually quite consistent with driver updates.


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By Myrandex on 10/16/2007 8:43:50 AM , Rating: 2
Yea I don't know what you are talking about, I have had a Theater 550 PCIe since launch and have absolutely loved it. Its wonderful running in Windows XP MCE (ran well under Windows XP x64 as well).


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By mcq01 on 10/15/2007 5:58:13 PM , Rating: 2
Creative do a PCI Express version of their x-fi xtreme audio already!

http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/115666/creative-unl...


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By TomZ on 10/15/2007 6:13:55 PM , Rating: 2
Isn't Creative the company that made the pretty strong statement that latency problems with PCIe made it impossible to create a PCIe sound card? LOL.


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By neothe0ne on 10/15/2007 7:14:14 PM , Rating: 2
That's why what they released is their worst sound card and basically a rebranded Audigy Value?


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By scrapsma54 on 10/15/2007 9:55:29 PM , Rating: 2
Unfortunate as it is, many pci-e x1 are overshadowed by dual slot gpu's. I think if any Pci-e device be made (other than x16) it should be made into an external solution.


RE: PCI- EXPRESS!
By Myrandex on 10/16/2007 8:46:40 AM , Rating: 2
Guess what, we have dual core CPUs now too...


Tuners on the PCI-e 600?
By awer26 on 10/15/2007 6:03:23 PM , Rating: 2
When mentioning the TV Wonder 650 they specifically say two tuners, but fail to mention how many the 600 series has - I'm assuming it's 1?




RE: Tuners on the PCI-e 600?
By jtemplin on 10/15/2007 8:30:47 PM , Rating: 2
Hey man check out Page two of this short Anand article...it has a table summarizing the features.

quote:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3124


TV Wonder 600 USB??