The concept of being able to watch TV on your computer has been around for quite some time now.  In fact, there are already quite a few TV cards available in the market today.  Some of the more well known brands include Hauppauge as well as ATI.  ATI’s TV tuners can be found separately in the ATI TV Wonder series or integrated in video cards in ATI’s All-In-Wonder series.

Unfortunately, the idea has not been as appealing to consumers due to several reasons.   First of all, if you were to compare the picture quality on the same standard TV signal, you would immediately notice that picture quality looks better on a regular TV as opposed to a computer screen.  This is because the TV signal is not quite appropriate with the resolution on a computer monitor.  In addition, there isn’t much visibility of these kinds of products in a retail store because you rarely see a computer demonstrating TV capabilities on a computer. Companies have taken a slightly different route with the introduction of LCD screens with built-in TV tuners.  This is great in bringing awareness of being able to watch TV on your computer, but it still has the same poor picture quality.

Today, I will be reviewing a revolutionary product that attempts to change the TV-viewing experience on your computer.  It is called the ATI HDTV Wonder.  HDTV technology is starting to become standard in the latest types of digital televisions costing upwards of thousands of dollars.  Now ATI is bringing the same experience of HDTV to the computer user with their HDTV Wonder package which retails for $200.
 

After everything was working properly, I opened up the DTV program by clicking the icon on ATI Multimedia center toolbar on the right of my screen.  I was running version 9.0 of the DTV program.  A window popped up helping me to get started.  After selecting the proper country, it started to auto scan by retrieving channels available for viewing.  I noticed that there multiple channels with the same names.   That is because the same channel may be broadcasted in multiple formats.

Your experience with this product will depend on where you intend on using it.  Since I’m situated in San Francisco, there are quite a few public digital broadcasts available for viewing.  It is your responsibility to find out what kinds of public digital broadcasts are available in your area.  This will help determine if this product is right for you.

Image Quality
This is the part of the review most of you are probably waiting for.  How does it look?  I can definitely say that the picture was stunning on my 21 inch CRT monitor.  The picture was very crisp and clear.  And the sound was excellent.

Keep in mind that this product still suffers from the old-age aged problem of using an antenna.  Some channels may turn out well, while others may receive poor reception.  Also, since different channels broadcast at different resolutions, I have included different screenshots to show the image quality.  Most of the channels did look much better than the standard TV resolution.  Some looked even better than the quality you’d expect on a DVD movie.  When you have poor reception, the picture will either freeze or stutter and the sound will also stutter.  Notice that on poor reception on a standard TV, you will see noise as well as a distorted picture.  The picture quality on digital TV is always clear even at times of poor reception.  The TV images are on the left and the digital HDTV pictures are on the right.
 

Performance
Because a HDTV digital signal involves much more bandwidth and data being transferred, I found that switching channels took several seconds longer than a standard television.

If you have both the HDTV antenna and a standard TV antenna plugged into the card, you will not be able to watch both at the same time.  You can only run one application at a time.

Total Remote Control
I remember having an older TV tuner card.  It did come with a remote, but the problem was that I would still have to use my mouse to use certain functions.  That takes away from the purpose of using a remote.  If you are going to use a remote, you should have most or almost all control with just the remote.  The remote included with the package is a full-sized remote.  It has all the standard buttons, as well as important buttons which give you more control while watching TV.

Sometimes, it is necessary to use the mouse when watching TV.  That’s why the remote has buttons specifically designed to mimic the functions of the left and right mouse buttons.  This is useful for selecting options in the dialog boxes within Windows.  If you can’t find a button that you need, no problem!  Just use the provided Remote Wonder software to be able to customize the function of a button.  There are extra buttons called ‘A’ and ‘B’ which allow you to set custom actions to those buttons.  From my experience with TV-viewing with the remote, I used my computer the least while watching TV and actually used the remote more.

Since remote is based on radio waves rather than infrared technology, direct line of site between the remote and receiver is not necessary.  It even works through walls if for some reason you need to control it from that far away.
 

A Personal Video Recorder
One of the main attractions in having a TV tuner is being able to record content from the TV and being able to store it in your computer.  This is great for those who like to repeatedly watch their favorite TV show episodes or clips.  The way it works with ATI’s HDTV Wonder is that you open up the DTV program.  With one click of the mouse, it will immediately start recording.

The important part is being able to take the raw video file and convert it to a video format that you are most comfortable with.  I recorded a 5 minute clip off of the PBS station.  Then I opened up the Library program and it immediately showed my recorded file.  I found the Library program to work extremely well.  Although the video was recorded in some strange .VCR file, I had the option of being able to export the video onto my hard drive in SVCD format.  You can convert to various types of MPEG2 formats as well as the new MPEG4 standard.

What makes it a powerful video recorder is that you can record based on a variety options.  For a simpler task, you can allow the program to record a channel for a specified amount of time such as half an hour.  Or you can also tell it to finish recording once the show finishes.  The true power of the video recorder is with its integrated TV guide.  With the Guide Plus+ program, you will be able to view the daily TV listings based on your area once you provide your zip code information.  Once all the channel listings are shown, then you just click on a show, and it will automatically show what’s on the TV on the channel at the top left corner of the screen.  If there is a show coming up that you would like to record, just click on its entry and click ‘Record’.  Everything will be set for you and it will record at the right time.  Just be sure that the TV listings do match what is actually on TV so you record the right show.

A Complete Package
ATI had gone the extra mile by including other important applications that you will probably use.  There are various media players included such as being able to watch DVD’s, SVCD’s, and a general file player to playback music or other video files.  Having been used to software DVD players such as PowerDVD and WinDVD, the skins for the various applications are ok, but more skins could be provided.  Both of the skins aren’t quite as refined as I’d like them to be and could look better.

As mentioned before, there is also a connector box which can be plugged into the card to allow you record content from other sources.  With the box, you will be able to plug in devices such as a camcorder or even a DVD player.  Once you play the content on those sources, you will be able to directly record its content onto your computer.  This in a sense turns this product into a video capture card.