MCE TV Tuner Roundup: Featuring ATI's Theater 550 & NVIDIA's NVTV
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 12, 2005 6:26 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
Without a doubt, our two favorites from this review are Hauppauge's WinTV PVR-250 and ATI's TV Wonder Elite, with the overall win going to ATI for the TV Wonder Elite. If you're buying a card for your MCE system today, the TV Wonder Elite is the one to choose. Or if you already have a MCE machine and you have the Hauppauge card, then you're also sitting pretty. After hours of watching the same loop of CNN Headline news on these cards, the first and second place winners do offer a significant improvement in image quality over the remaining contenders - to the point where it is actually noticeable in day-to-day viewing.
The problem really isn't which card offers the best image quality, but rather how much money are you willing to spend for that last 5% of image quality - and here's where the decision gets tough. In most areas, SD cable is extremely poor quality to begin with. For many people, spending over $100 on a TV tuner just isn't justified to get an improvement on top of an already poor cable signal.
More than anything, ATI faces a major issue with the pricing and the release timeframe of the TV Wonder Elite. At this point, there's no excitement in yet another hardware MPEG-2 encoder, especially not one that weighs in at the top of the single tuner price class. Although ATI has done an excellent job with the Theater 550 and the TV Wonder Elite, it may just be too late to make a difference.
If you are less willing to spend money on a TV tuner (which is quite understandable), ATI's eHome Wonder and eMuzed's Maui-II PCI PVR are both excellent, lower priced alternatives. The ATI eHome Wonder is actually about half the price of the TV Wonder Elite, which means that you can actually end up with a dual tuner MCE box for the same price as a single tuner MCE box with the TV Wonder Elite.
By the end of this year, Windows XP Media Center Edition is supposed to have CableCard support, which will enable complete HDTV support for MCE boxes above and beyond the disappointing limitation for only over the air broadcasts that's in MCE 2005. Hopefully, this roundup will be a farewell to SD as we eagerly await the first HDTV tuners with CableCard support later this year.
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vailr - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
ATI’s TV Wonder Elite vs. eVGA's NVTV vs. Hauppauge PVR-150MCEhttp://www.techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/tuner-com...
Patman2099 - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
I got a Theatrix 550, its got a theatre 550 chip, but its made by sapphire. its listed at about half the price of the ATI card reviewed. Looks exactly the same too.I love it, works flawlessly in my HTPC
LX - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
Disappointed.Lots of fluff, less information.
Where is the software compatibility tests?
Where is the comparison of the MPEG-2 encoding?
Incorrect statements like:
"For example, the WinTV PVR-250 is identical to the PVR-500, although the latter has two tuners. The PVR-250 is also identical to the PVR-250MCE and the PVR-350."
Check http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/compare_pvr.html
Anand is getting sloppy.
segagenesis - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
#37 - Yep. Ive seen piles of them at CompUSA. Not readily available... maybe in Neverland. Seeing how it IS readily available I would still count it as fair game :PsonicDivx - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
hey, Cygni. Just checked Newegg, guess what PVR-150 instockhttp://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...
mind you this is the retail version. Also the 150 has been out for some time. I've even seen it at CompUsa.
Also check out pcalchemy their prices are good. Also I trust HTPCNews or AVSForums more in terms on product reviews and knowledge on HTPC systems.
GoatMonkey - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
Why is there a sudden interest in reviewing these products just 2 weeks after I make my decision and buy something? I searched everywhere I could think of to find any information about these cards. I finally decided on a Hauppauge 500, which I'm happy with btw, but it's still annoying to get a decent review just *after* I buy something.Next up you should do a comparison of the software side of this: Beyond TV, Myth TV, Windows MCE, Chris TV, etc. How about a comparison of video capture and editing software also. I guess Anand's reviews mostly software, but maybe some other site will pick up this idea. I'm having a great time with Beyond TV btw.
bupkus - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
kjohnson,Perhaps you'd be happier in Red China where ideology police WATCH YOU!
leaglebob2 - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
How can you do a video review and post captured pictures without stating what the capture parameters were? ((of the video stream--not the stills))BTW==what were they?
And assumng capturing was done "at the best settings" how about a review at the lower resolutions for those of us who record talk shows?
You did all that work, and then stopped short.
Thanks///bobbo.
Tiorapatea - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
Oops, sorry, triple post.Tiorapatea - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
"That all changed when Microsoft released Windows XP Media Center Edition. Bringing the first true 10-foot UI to the PC..."Whilst I don't generally like to nitpick too much, I do find the lack of attention given on this site to Linux solutions a bit puzzling. Linux is really not that hard to get going, particularly for enthusiasts. And Anandtech does, I believe, aim to cater for the enthusiast.