ATI's HDTV Wonder - Bringing DTV to your PC
by Andrew Ku on June 22, 2004 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Test
The system requirements for the HDTV Wonder are stiffer than for ATI's TV Wonder based products. This is because the quality of HDTV technology makes it more taxing on the system's configuration.| System Requirements | |||
| TV Wonder VE | TV Wonder Pro | HDTV Wonder | |
| Processor(s): | Intel® Pentium® 4/III/II, CeleronTM, AMD K6 or compatible | 1.3GHz processor | |
| RAM: | N/A | N/A | 256MB |
| Form Factor: | PCI | ||
| FM Tuner: | No | ||
| Stereo Tuner: | No | Yes | Yes |
| Graphics Card: | Basically all cards supporting DirectX overlay | DirectX9* | |
| Audio/Video In: | Composite | Composite, S-Video | Composite, S-Video |
| TV-On-Demand: | No | No | Analog and HDTV |
| HDTV support: | No | No | Yes (and all DTV resolutions) |
| Remote: | No | No | Remote Wonder |
| MSRP: | $49 | $69 | $199 |
* Based on our last discussion with ATI. Details are being finalized, but this should be the bottom line requirement. However, Radeon 9500 or equivalent and above are recommended by ATI because of the HDTV Wonder's performance characteristics and requirements. Non-ATI cards will not be able to support the EazyLook, EazyLaunch, and ThruView features. Using something like an MX 440 or FX 5200 will just require the system to dip into more CPU resources, which is why ATI is implementing a DX9 support requirement. Support beyond DX9 is being discussed, but since it requires more time and effort, if and when it happens, it will be down the road.
Our own test setup was based on a P4 2.8GHz system with 512MB of system memory and a Radeon 9600 XT.
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oupei - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
output goes to you video card, many of which have DVI. dunno of any that have component video though...devonz - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
Why am I limited to watching my HDTV signals on my monitor instead of my nice big HDTV television? In other words, why no component output cable, or DVI? Just a thought :) -Devonlebe0024 - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
"With HDTV slowing becoming the standard"Do you guys READ the stuff you write? It's the first sentence for crying out loud.
skunkbuster - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
it looks kind of basic/generic for something that costs $200...Aquila76 - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
Great, $200 more to spend when I build my new PC in a couple months!johnsonx - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
What's ATI's position on combining an HDTV Wonder with an existing All-in-Wonder 9600/9700/9800 card? Specifically, what level of 2-tuner and PiP support will be available? Will using both together be kludgy or seamless?Those who have AIW based HTPC's will be eager to know this.
Doormat - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
Sad this card doesnt support QAM, my cable co puts out local HD channels in the clear. Then there is the new CableCard standard.Of course, if it had a firewire port and appropriate software, I could hook it up to my HD set and record software!