Features
Video Decoder
The Theater 550 Pro utilizes a 12-bit video decoder as compared
to the competition 9 or 10-bit decoder. The 12-bit decoder offers
more precise video capture (analog to digital conversion) and
outputs more realistic colors. A 9 or 10-bit decoders will often
result in blurry and pixelated pictures, where the 12-bit decoder
found on the Theater 550 Pro will clear all these issues up.
3D Comb Filter
The Theater 550 Pro chip includes the fist 3D motion adaptive
comb filter, which is supports both NTSC and PAL standards. The
filter built into the Theater 550 Pro is based off of the filter
ATI uses in Sony televisions, so true CE quality and technology
is being transferred to your computer. The 3D comb filter is used
on low motion scenes. Examples of these are still pictures, slow
moving video or static items like the broadcaster's logo. Usually
the 2D filter was used to separate the luminance and chrominance
components of the TV signal. This can cause color artifacts around
the edges or a dot-crawl effect. The 3D filter analyzes 5 lines
of video in the current frame, and also scans ahead 1 frame to
analyze the video to see if the picture changes.
2D Comb Filter
A 5-line 2D comb filter is used on the high motion video
feeds. A 5-line filter ensures that every pixel is separated with
a high degree of accuracy. As a comparison, most other products
only use a 3 or 4 line filter. This basically means that the competition
is always at least 1 line behind when filter the displayed image.
By reading ahead 5-lines before the video is processed, the comb
filter can detect similarities in the lines and determine how
to separate the signal in the most efficient manner.
Adaptive Comb Filter
Having high quality 2D and 3D comb filters is good, but knowing
when to use them is better. This is where the adaptive comb filtering
comes into play, the Theater 550 uses a per-pixel algorithm to
ensure the best filtering method is applied for each pixel.
Audio/Video Synchronization
Most capture cards on the market today utilize a loop-back
cable for the audio stream. Not only is this a hassle, but it
is also a cause of a de-synched audio/video stream. ATI have solved
this by processing the audio digitally. All audio and video is
processed simultaneously and is time stamped to ensure constant
matching. All audio is processed through the Theater 550 Pro,
digitized with a 12-bit analog to digital converter and sent to
the sound card internally.
Automatic Gain Control
Automatic gain control is a system in which the video stream
is smoothed of any major fluctuations in signal strength or in
brightness or intensity of the light displayed. These differences
are often evident on channel changes, where the screen will become
extremely bright. The Theater 550 Pro has an advanced AGC algorithm
which smoothes out these fluctuations.
Full Frame Rate Recording
The Theater 550 Pro is capable of full onboard MPEG-2 encoding.
To accomplish this without the downside of dropped frames, ATI
has included 16MB of memory on board the card. This memory gives
the card the ability to handle MPEG encoding at up to 15 Mbps.
All of these operations occur on a DSP core, so software updated
cans be releases to improve some aspects of the video quality
and performance. With the encoding being done onboard, the system
utilization is greatly reduced, allowing you to use your system
without fear of losing quality in your video stream.
Noise Reduction
Noise/snow can be seen in lower quality signals, or video
streams. The Theater 550 Pro contains advanced dedicated algorithms
which search for a variety of noise in the signal and cancels
it out. This is also done on-chip, to reduce CPU utilization.
3:2 Pulldown Support
3:2 pulldown is the process where film content (filmed at
24 fps) is transformed into NTSC analog video (30 fps). Computer
monitors generally have a refresh rate of at least 60 Hz, meaning
the screen is refreshed at least 60 times a second. With film
content running at 24 fps and your monitor refreshing at least
60 times a second a mismatch can occur between the video frame
and the display. To avoid this, the Theater 550 Pro uses the 3:2
pulldown, where the frame rate is changed from 24 fps to 30 fps
to avoid this mismatch.
Test Setup
The following system was used for all testing:
AMD Athlon 1700+ @ 11.5 x 166 (1909MHz)
ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe Rev 2.0
512MB Corsair PC-4000
ATI Radeon X800 Pro
Western Digital 250GB IDE
NVIDIA nForce 5.10
ATI Catalyst 5.2
ATI TV Wonder Elite
Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP Deluxe
Installation
Installation of the TV Wonder Elite was very straightforward.
Installing the card itself is just like installing any other PCI
card. Find an empty PCI slot, and install the card. There are
no other connections for audio or video required. Software installation
was one of the easiest I have seen for a TV-tuner card. I am used
to my TV2000 XP card where you need to jump through a bunch of
hoops to install the card. On the TV2000 card you need to install
each of the drivers manually and then install the software. ATI
has greatly simplified this process by supplying one installer
for everything. The installer not only installs the drivers for
you, but will also install the drivers/software for the included
Remote Wonder Plus, and install the Power Cinema PVR software.
Very easy, and painless installation.
After you get the software installed, all you
need to do is just setup the PVR software for your region and
TV signal. Cyberlink have made this process very easy, and shown
below are screenshots of this process.
Once the initial setup is complete you are ready
to start using PowerCinema. PowerCinema allows you the ability
to watch TV, schedule recording, scan your TV channels, and even
listen and record the radio. Shown below are some screenshots
of PowerCinema's features.
S-Video and Composite inputs are supported, as
PowerCinema can be used capture video from a S-Video or Composite
source. This functionality can be found in the in the "Videos"
section. There may be some confusion that may stem from an expectation
that PowerCinema will support set-top boxes through Composite
or S-Video, but it does not do this at present.
Missing was some sort of scheduling program, which
is a must have for convenient TV recording. The program wasn't
available from Cyberlink at the time of the product shipment,
however, ATI are working closely with Cyberlink to enable TV Wonder
Elite owners to download the new software to enable the scheduling
function. This will be available as a free download direct from
ATI, but in the meantime, just to let you know, the TV Wonder
Elite is fully supported in Windows XP Media Center.
Image Quality
Testing was performed using both a standard analog cable
system as well as my a Microsoft Xbox as the output signals. Results
were compiled from the coax, composite and S-Video connections.
Shown below are the screen captures.
Image quality on the whole
was excellent. The Theater 550 Pro chip really shined in all testing.
All images were sharp and clear. Text was crisp, with no bleeding
of the edges. One thing that I noticed when testing both capture
cards side by side was that the TV Wonder Elite has a slight (around
a second) delay before the image is shown on the screen. This
is mostly evident when changing channels, as it takes a moment
for it to process the switch.
Final Thoughts
A good quality TV-tuner seems to be hard to find these
days. With so many options on the market it is hard to pick a
winner as it were. ATI seem to have released a very solid TV-tuner
card with the TV Wonder Elite. Video quality was excellent. The
high quality comb filters and noise reduction built into the Theater
550 Pro definitely shine in the screenshots. The image captured
is crisp and properly colored. The performance of the integrated
hardware MPEG-2 encoder is also excellent, CPU utilization usually
averaged around 15% when either time-shifting or recording shows,
with it even lower when just watching TV One of the other advantages
that the Theater 550 Pro offers is a 12-bit analog to digital
convertor, removing the need for a external/internal audio cable.
ATI has also utilized a time-stamping process so the audio and
video is always synched. The Remote Wonder Plus is a welcomed
redesign. All the buttons are easily accessible and the range
is great.
The TV Wonder Elite package is not totally great
though. I found the software, although easy to use, to be somewhat
lacking in features. Not having a digital guide makes the process
of setting a show to record seem archaic. People are used to point
and click, not having to program in a time and channel to get
something to record. The lack of ability to view video off of
the S-Video or composite lines was also a major downfall. This
rules out the ability to use a set-top box or satellite receiver
as you choice of video. If you want to use this feature you will
need to purchase a different piece of PVR software which will
add to the expense. One final thing that was a downfall was the
video delay. Your live video stream is delayed by about a second,
which can cause some problems when you change channels. Channel
surfing is very slow when using the TV Wonder Elite. In order
to make a product that will replace your TV, it needs to be at
least able to switch channels with little to no delay.
Pros: Awesome video quality,
great remote, hardware MPEG-2 encoding, no need for pass-through
audio cable, full Media Center Edition Support (including remote)
Cons: PowerCinema lacking some
features, slight delay in video display
Overall: The TV Wonder Elite
is a great package. Awesome video quality thanks to the Theater
550 Pro chip easily makes up for the somewhat lacking PVR software.
This card should be a welcome addition to your PVR project.
If
you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.
