The New Theater 650 TV Tuner Solution from ATI
by Josh Venning on June 14, 2006 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
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Introduction
TV Tuners are becoming more and more popular as home theaters and computers start to merge. Already, many countries outside the US are making the move to integrated computer and home theater/entertainment centers in their homes instead of separate components, particularly in parts of Asia where space is limited. Of course, many people in the US are also beginning to see the benefits of combining their TVs and computers into one unit, and it seems reasonable to predict that this will be the norm in the near future.
We recently reviewed NVIDIA's DualTV Media Center Edition TV tuner card, and in the article, we looked briefly at the ATI Theater 550 Pro (again). ATI has had success with their Theater cards in the past, and now they are unveiling a new addition to the series, the Theater 650. This is the newest TV tuner chip/card from ATI, and like the 550 it's still a single tuner card (unlike NVIDIA's DualTV MCE), but there are some new features with this one that set it apart from the rest.
One of the most notable features incorporated into this card is that it has digital capabilities and is one of the first solutions to properly combine digital and analog TV reception, recording, and encoding in hardware in one solution. It boasts much better filtering capabilities as well; for example, it has a new motion adaptive 3D comb filter for better image quality. There are a few other features of the Theater 650 and of course we'll be looking at all of them further in the review.
We've chosen to limit the comparisons to only cards that are compatible with Windows Media Center Edition, in order to keep consistency between TV tuner applications. We will be comparing the Theater 650 to the older Theater 550, as well as NVIDIA's DualTV MCE. We'll be looking at not only image quality, but also CPU utilization between these three cards.
We were very appreciative of all of the comments and suggestions from the last TV Tuner article (the NVIDIA DualTV MCE) and hope to provide better coverage of this card and it's features this time around. Reader feedback is very important to us here at AnandTech and we are very concerned with what our readers want to see in a TV tuner card review. That said, in this review of ATI's Theater 650, we'll be looking at the card, its features and how it compares to a couple of other solutions in both performance and image quality. So without further fanfare, let's look at the ATI Theater 650 Pro.
TV Tuners are becoming more and more popular as home theaters and computers start to merge. Already, many countries outside the US are making the move to integrated computer and home theater/entertainment centers in their homes instead of separate components, particularly in parts of Asia where space is limited. Of course, many people in the US are also beginning to see the benefits of combining their TVs and computers into one unit, and it seems reasonable to predict that this will be the norm in the near future.
We recently reviewed NVIDIA's DualTV Media Center Edition TV tuner card, and in the article, we looked briefly at the ATI Theater 550 Pro (again). ATI has had success with their Theater cards in the past, and now they are unveiling a new addition to the series, the Theater 650. This is the newest TV tuner chip/card from ATI, and like the 550 it's still a single tuner card (unlike NVIDIA's DualTV MCE), but there are some new features with this one that set it apart from the rest.
One of the most notable features incorporated into this card is that it has digital capabilities and is one of the first solutions to properly combine digital and analog TV reception, recording, and encoding in hardware in one solution. It boasts much better filtering capabilities as well; for example, it has a new motion adaptive 3D comb filter for better image quality. There are a few other features of the Theater 650 and of course we'll be looking at all of them further in the review.
We've chosen to limit the comparisons to only cards that are compatible with Windows Media Center Edition, in order to keep consistency between TV tuner applications. We will be comparing the Theater 650 to the older Theater 550, as well as NVIDIA's DualTV MCE. We'll be looking at not only image quality, but also CPU utilization between these three cards.
We were very appreciative of all of the comments and suggestions from the last TV Tuner article (the NVIDIA DualTV MCE) and hope to provide better coverage of this card and it's features this time around. Reader feedback is very important to us here at AnandTech and we are very concerned with what our readers want to see in a TV tuner card review. That said, in this review of ATI's Theater 650, we'll be looking at the card, its features and how it compares to a couple of other solutions in both performance and image quality. So without further fanfare, let's look at the ATI Theater 650 Pro.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
The T650 does support DTV (see page 2). Also note that SDTV is still digital in nature, so what you really mean is that all new analog tuners keep coming out. Even when we are all running 100% DTV, we will still have lower resolution broadcasts (unfortunately). Anyway, reviewing cards that do DTV reception is more of a case of reviewing software and interfaces as opposed to hardware; as long as the signal is strong enough to get reception, you get the pure digital content. I suppose better tuners might somehow deal with lower quality signals, but there's only so much that can be done before you just can't reconstruct an image. (I can't test OTA DTV in my location because I don't get reception - at all. Good thing I can get HDTV via Comcast... though I wish there were more HD content as opposed to SDTV, and more HD channels would be nice as well.)scavio - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Digital does not equal HDTV. Analog does not equal SDTV. Fortunately, the well paid folks at ATI know a lot more about where TV is going than you do.DigitalFreak - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Again..."Basically, the Theater 650 provides digital TV support in ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) for US, Canada, Mexico, and South Korea,"
If you can pick up an HDTV station, this card can tune it in.
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Uh... Did you read the article? The card DOES support HDTV. For some reason, AT did not review that part of the card.JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
As far as I know, the http://www.anandtech.com/multimedia/showdoc.aspx?i...">two HD cards in this review represent the only QAM capable cards currently on the market (not counting earlier versions as separate cards). Rather unfortunate, though the Fusion5 has gotten a bit better in the past 6 months.fanbanlo - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
This is indeed a much better review. Hope to see a follow up once the Catalyst MMC is available.Thank you.
defiantsf - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Can't wait to get this new card even though I have the HDTV Wonder already. Would the Wonder and the T650 work together to effectively give me two tuners for watching and recording two different channels?Regarding MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoding via the MMC, will it be real-time or need to be transcoded non-realtime from MPEG-2? Hardware based or uses the CPU to do so? AVC is of utmost interest to me since I want a PC-based SD/HD video server for my HDTV :)
Looking forward to the MMC follow-up review!
darkfoon - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
I'm really interested in purchasing one of these, however, I do not plan on making a dedicated Media Center PC, so I wonder if this will work with a computer that doesn't have windows XP MCE(I prefer to use win2k, personally) ?So, will it work with, for example, Sage TV on a "regular" desktop?
DerekWilson - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Beyond TV 4.3 released last week supports the new Theater 650 in both digital and analog mode.darkfoon - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Will there be support by any of the free TV viewing applications?