AMD Launches TV Wonder HD Tuners

[Jimmy 2004]

AMD is expanding its TV Wonder product lineup that enables HDTV on the PC. Available through VisionTek at Best Buy stores across North America, ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB, TV Wonder 600 PCI and TV Wonder 600 PCI Express transform PCs into exceptional high definition digital video recorders. The TV Wonder family of products is AMD LIVE! Ready and Certified for Windows Vista -- delivering The Ultimate Visual Experience and strengthening the value of multimedia PCs.




ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB, with a manufacturers suggested retail price (MSRP) of $149, includes two TV tuners allowing users to watch and record off-the-air Digital TV/HDTV, unencrypted Digital TV (ClearQAM) cable programming, analog TV, and listen to FM broadcasts. TV Wonder 600 PCI and TV Wonder 600 PCI Express TV tuners break new ground by offering ClearQAM at a value of $99 MSRP.

"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."

AMD's strong lineup of USB, PCI and PCI Express tuners includes the previously announced ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI, ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo PCI Express, ATI TV Wonder 600 USB, and the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner - the only solution to enjoy premium digital cable shows , such as HBO and Showtime, on the PC.

Catalyst Media Center software, available with the ATI TV Wonder products, features placeshifting to view TV programs in a variety of environments. Unrestricted recorded TV programs can be quickly converted with two mouse clicks into most popular formats currently used today for viewing video on portable media devices.

The ATI TV Wonder hybrid and combo TV tuner solutions easily enable best-in-class HD reception for Windows Media Center bundled with Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate editions, as well as Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. The TV Wonder products complement media-rich AMD LIVE! PCs.

"AMD's TV Wonder family makes HDTV multimedia PCs a reality," said Michael Innes, EVP & COO of VisionTek Products, LLC. "The ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB and ATI TV Wonder 600 series deliver exceptional performance at a great price for PC owners who want to experience HDTV in their home, office or dorm room. We are thrilled to offer our customers the greatest selection of best-in-class TV tuners for the PC."

"We're excited by the collaboration from AMD and VisionTek that brings HDTV tuners to the PC just in time for the new fall TV season," said Dean Jahnke, Sr. Buyer from Best Buy. "HDTV demand is very strong and with the outstanding lineup of ATI TV Wonder tuners, BestBuy can provide customers with a broad range of priced-right solutions."

The ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB is a combo-tuner DVR (digital video recorder) allowing users to switch between analog and digital TV to watch and record a digital TV program while watching/recording an analog TV channel. The ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB features ClearQAM tuning to receive unencrypted digital content from local cable television providers. The new offering also features high image quality, advanced 2D and 3D comb filtering, and FM tuner powered by ATI Theater 650 Pro.

The ATI TV Wonder 600 PCI and PCI Express add-in TV tuners feature: ClearQAM; powerful PVR based on ATI Theater 600 Pro video decoder; world-leading ATI Theater ATSC reception technology; and, analog TV reception.

ATI TV Wonder products feature Catalyst Media Center software -- an easy-to-use big-screen TV interface with an advanced electronic programming guide, DVD authoring and playback, video conversion and AMD LIVE! OnDemand to access the DVR from any computer with a broadband connectivity.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[lemonadesoda]

Great. It was time for ATI to update its video in/out TV offering. Finally, I can rip some old VHS tapes to DivX and chuck the video recorder

 

[WarEagleAU]

yeah, their new cards with the UVI or whatever it is, also can do this, to an extent. But at this time, unless they updated the drivers, they still are buggy as hell.

 

[kgrr]

ATI TV Wonder 650 combo USB - install report

I bought an ATI TV Wonder 650 combo USB yesterday and attempted to installed it into my Toshiba A215-4747 laptop running Vista 32 bit OS.

I find the fit between the plastic outside of the box and the RCA connectors and S-Video connector to be off-center, making it impossible to connect external cables to the box without forcing things. I don't know if this is a poor case design or shoddy assembly. <---- But it prevents me from using the external connections to capture from my camcorder with standard cables (not fancy, oversized monster cables).

Nevertheless, I have connected it to Comcast Analog cable, USB to my laptop and power to the wall. Then I installed the Software from the CD 100 / 180-V01126-100 and run the Catalyst MC.

I enter the following settings in the setup wizard:
1) Aspect Ratio: Standard 4:3
2) It does look like it went away while detecting the hardware, but it did not report that it detected a Wonder 650 combo box
3) Tuner: Analog
4) Antenna Connection: Cable
5) Region: USA
6) Autoscan for TV: Clicking on the bar seems to do something for a few seconds, but the TV channels that it finds are not reported, nor does the circle-arrow GIF indicating activity turn.
7) EPG: Titan (no other choice)
8) Scanning for FM: This looks like it's doing something - scanning, please wait and there is a progress bar that goes from 0 to 100%

Then when running the Application:
1) TV: The TV Function cannot be opened <--- cannot get to TV
2) DVD: Seems to work
3) Radio: Seems to work
4) Extras: Seems to work
5) Settings: Seems to work

Due to the connector issue, I will return the unit and see if I have better luck with another one.

Question to the group: Do I need to update the drivers, or did I miss something in the install?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and assistance!