ATI 100-715331 TV Wonder 650 PCI Interface High Definition Personal Video Recorder for PC

by ATI

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 7 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000H11RUY
• Item model number: 100-715331
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 22, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The ATI TV Wonder 650 High-Definition Personal Video Recorder for your PC is loaded with the very latest in digital TV technologies. You'll be able to schedule, watch, and record analog television, free-to-air HDTV, and FM radio stations from your home computer. This makes the TV Wonder 650 the ultimate media upgrade for your PC. Features include an advanced 3D comb filter, noise reduction, automatic color control, and edge enhancement to produce brilliant, sharp video that rivals any high-end consumer television set. This complete high-definition solution also allows you to watch the latest DVD titles, create your own DVDs, or convert your recorded television shows so you can take them with you on a portable media player. With all these media capabilities, the TV Wonder 650 expands your PC and brings your home computer out of the office and into the living room.

TV Wonder 650 brings free-to-air HDTV, FM radio, and analog TV together with your PC.

Catalyst Media Center's 3D interface is easy to navigate. View larger.

View, create, and burn your favorite movies with the built-in DVD decoder. View larger.

The TV Wonder 650 PCI card is easy to install in your computer. View larger.

High-Quality Analog TV, Free-to-Air HDTV, and FM Radio on Your PC
TV Wonder 650 enhances standard analog TV and delivers sharp, clear video images that one would expect from today's high-end consumer televisions. The advanced 3D comb filter removes false colors and unsightly artifacts. Automatic gain control rapidly adjusts the brightness, automatic color control ensures that colors remain true to the actual image, and edge enhancement sharpens video to keep it clean and crisp. All of these advanced technologies are powered by the cutting-edge Theater 650 Pro processing core that produces the best possible viewing experience.

This product allows you to view free-to-air HDTV programming through the connection of an amplified antenna. Watch your favorite TV shows and sports programming in stunning, true-to-life, high definition. And since free-to-air HDTV (ATSC in North America) requires no monthly fees, you can watch with pleasure without damaging your pocketbook. (Please note that an amplified antenna is required to receive ATSC HDTV signals). In addition, to analog TV and free-to-air HDTV tuning capabilities, the TV Wonder 650 also allows you to tune in your favorite FM stations. Keep up on the latest news or listen to music while you work, send email, or surf the Internet--with the TV Wonder 650 all you favorite entertainment mediums come together with your PC.

Video Input/Capture and PVR Capabilities
TV Wonder 650 allows you to view or capture analog video from a camcorder or VCR through the audio/video input block. This function makes it easy to digitize your home videos and preserve your memories onto your PC's hard drive, or burn them to DVDs for friends and family. The Theater 650 Pro processing core utilizes noise reduction to sharpen the incoming analog video signal, and removes the static that can occur when sending analog video into your PC for capture. Whether you enable standard analog TV or free-to-air HDTV programming, TV Wonder 650 allows you to watch, pause live TV, or schedule and record your TV programs for later viewing, just like TiVo or other personal video recorders (PVR). This device is also capable of hardware MPEG-2 compression; it offloads the work from your CPU and produces a high-quality capture that can easily be transferred to DVD. The Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) makes it a breeze to find and schedule recordings of your favorite TV programs, or search for other programs by channel and genre.

User-Friendly Interface
The Catalyst Media Center is ATI's new 3D interface that makes it easy to access the enormous number of features on your TV Wonder 650. It's large, bright, easy-to-read buttons and clear, 3D icons pave a quick path to where you want to go. Beyond its user-friendly and aesthetically-pleasing interface, Catalyst Media Center packs the TV Wonder 650 with even more media capabilities. The built-in DVD decoder adds the ability to watch DVD movie titles; the DVD authoring software allows you to effortlessly create DVDs on your won that include themed menus and your favorite tunes; and, lastly, AVIVO Video Converter gives you the choice to either capture or convert video to a format that will enable transfer to a portable media player. The capture or convert feature is available in a number of formats, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Windows Media Video 9, AVI, DivX, or H.264 formats.

The TV Wonder 650 is designed with the Windows Media Center 2005 in mind. It is the perfect complement for this powerful media operating system, as it upgrades your PC to take full advantage of the abundance of media capabilities. In addition, the TV Wonder 650 is ready for the Windows Vista operating system. In fact, this device is even Windows Vista Premium ready, which ensures that you will be able to take full advantage of the TV Wonder 650's powerhouse media capabilities for years to come.

Note: An ATI Radeon 9600 or newer graphics card is recommended for optimal display output quality.

What's in the Box
TV Wonder 650, PCI card, FM radio antenna, A/V input block, software CD-ROM, and an installation and setup guide.

Product Description

TV Wonder¿ 650 enhances standard analog TV by delivering the sharp, clear video image that one would expect from today's high-end consumer televisions. The advanced 3D comb filter removes false colors and unsightly artifacts. Automatic gain control rapidly adjusts the brightness while automatic color control ensures your colors remain true to the actual image. Edge enhancement sharpens video to keep it clean and crisp. All of these advanced technologies are powered by the cutting-edge Theater 650 Pro processing core, producing the best viewing experience possible

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good cheap way to watch HDTV, February 21, 2007

By 

Daniel Gordon "Video guru" (CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ATI 100-715331 TV Wonder 650 PCI Interface High Definition Personal Video Recorder for PC (Personal Computers)

This ATI hd tv tuner is the cheapest way to watch hdtv right now. However, consumers will pay a price by troubleshooting their hd tuner to work. I have a fancy dual core computer with a high end graphics card (ATI 1800x).
Don't bother installing the drivers that come with the tuner because they are garbage. Go directly to the ati website and download the newest drivers because they are much better.
Firstly, the hd signal looks amazingly crisp when the signal comes in. Unfortunately, I find that I have to change the direction of my antenna for certain channels and it can take many minutes to get the signal perfect because it is very sensitive.
One very nice aspect about the hd software that comes with it is it lets you record in full native hd quality and you can keep these files for as long as youd like. Unfortunately, the software doesn't let you edit which part of the recording you would like to keep. The only way to edit what you want is to turn on and off the tv tuner in symphony with what you want to record.
The software constantly records what you watch so you can pause and rewind so this can fill up your hard drive quickly. It would be nice to be able to edit out what you don't want to record easier while maintaining the full quality of the video.
Another problem with the current software is it has very misleading indicators as to how big the recorded files are when you export them. They are completely unreliable.
I use my hd tuner for only a few shows every week but I thoroughly enjoy using it. However, it takes a lot of effort to get it to work optimally. If you don't mind the hassle, this is a great chance for you to get hdtv on your computer.
I live in Hollywood California where the reception is supposed to be very good.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Perfect, but good enough, November 15, 2006

By 

mmg (Marietta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ATI 100-715331 TV Wonder 650 PCI Interface High Definition Personal Video Recorder for PC (Personal Computers)

I gave this 4 stars because of the driver issues that I had (though I'm not entirely convinced I can blame this card). I would give it 4.5 stars if that were possible. Like I've said, I did have some driver issues. They manifested as frequent reboots, system lockups and video stutter. However, after I got it setup right all of these problems went away.

A word of advice: Start by creating a restore point of your system if you've already got your system working correctly with other cards (digital or analog). This will help you out in the long run if you need to restore and start again.

My system is now working with the drivers that came on the included CD, so updates may not really be needed (though they are highly recommended).

I'm only using the digital tuner portion of this card along with 3 analog tuners. My HD channels come in as good as my antenna allows (though the HD tuner on my TV is slightly stronger). I've noticed that I usually get only one red bar in the signal strength bar in MCE even on the channels that come in perfectly. ATI support was not able to tell me why this is. Since I continue to receive the channels clearly despite this indication, I'm not too worried about it.

So here is my breakdown:

PROS:
* Very good picture quality (the Theater 650 chip is really nice)
* Receive the same number of channels as my HDTV's built in tuner (so it's not a weak tuner like some have reported on other products)
* Free over the phone tech support
* Redesigned support site makes locating driver updates much easier than before.

CONS:
* Initial driver woes...I never did figure out why it didn't work right the first two times. Tried new drivers. Eventually got it working with included drivers.
* Signal strength in MCE is not accurate (I get a better signal with the card than what is indicated in MCE). I'm not sure if this is a CON for the card or for MCE.
* High-end graphics card needed
* Patients needed. Everything else in my system worked right the first time in. I had to fiddle with this card to get it right.

WOULD BE NICE IF
* it were dual digital rather than 1 digital + 1 analog
* it allowed simultaneous use of both the analog and digital tuners (haven't tried this yet, so who knows?)

I'm still going through my "burn-in" period since I've gotten things setup right. So I'm recording my shows both in HD and SD while I continue to test this card (and until I get a stronger antenna). So far, so good.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, January 11, 2007

By 

W. Liu (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ATI 100-715331 TV Wonder 650 PCI Interface High Definition Personal Video Recorder for PC (Personal Computers)

HD looks gorgeous. I pick up 3 or 4 channels in the cambridge area. No problems with regular cable TV input either. Works very well with windows media center