SysOpt > Features > Graphics > Digital TV Goes Mainstream: TV Wonder 650 Review

Digital TV Goes Mainstream: TV Wonder 650 Review- Page 6/6
October 13, 2006
By Thomas Soderstrom

The TV Wonder 650 brings quality out of typical analog television signals while providing ATSC digital broadcast reception to at least some owners. Par for the course for ATI, we believe this to be another superior hardware solution. But going beyond hardware, you still need software -- and here is where the TV Wonder 650 package comes up somewhat lacking.

Users accustomed to Windows Media Center can take the hardware and run with it, as the TV Wonder 650 is ready for their next upgrade with a Vista Premium certification. But while those users are all set for the future, the rest of us have to consider the value of ATI's Catalyst Media Center. We had nothing against the former Eazylook distance-viewing interface, but desktop users are not interested in trying to view large-font menus from close-up. ATI's MultiMedia Center offered both interface styles -- but it's not compatible with this new card.

This situation isn't helped by the disappearance of MulTView. All-In-Wonder owners, especially, take note: The TV Wonder 650 makes your current tuner appear outdated, but you (rightly) might not be prepared to give up its functionality completely. Until ATI fixes MulTView, this will be your sacrifice!

We question ATI's reasoning for this "throw the baby out with the bathwater" approach: It must have cost the company big money to develop a replacement for the nicely mature MultiMedia Center, and if ATI was looking to steal market share from a competitor with new software, it might have considered what market it would be turning away first!

This still leaves us with the good hardware, making it clear that when the dust settles and every tuner on the market is either devoid of software or using MCE-cloned interfaces, we'll still be relying on ATI to deliver solid product on the hardware side. Eventually, we may even forget what we've lost along the way.

Pros

• Superior tuning of weak and dirty signals
• Good S-Video and Composite video reception eases the conversion of analog media to digital formats
• New software features built-in Avivo video encoder
• New interface may be more appropriate to first-time users
• Moderate Price includes free ATI remote or half-priced MCE remote offer

Cons

• MulTView is MulTBroken
• Completely incompatible with current MultiMedia Center software
• Users who wanted ATI's remote will need to pay additional shipping

The Verdict: Great hardware, but the software needs to bake a little longer: It's still a bit raw. A price similar to software-free "media center" cards makes it a good value to MCE users.

Tools:

Add www.sysopt.com to your favorites Add www.sysopt.com to your browser search box IE 7 | Firefox 2.0 | Firefox 1.5.x Receive news via our XML/RSS feed