ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner: AMD and Dell Bring CableCARD to PCs
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 3, 2007 11:37 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Platform
Given the requirements, we couldn't test the ATI TV Wonder DCT without the help of an OEM - that OEM being Dell in this case. Dell will be one of the first OEMs to ship an OCUR enabled PC with the TV Wonder DCT, starting sometime in late April/May.
The system Dell sent was a decently configured XPS 410 - you can read our earlier review of the XPS 410 for additional details about the system. The XPS 410 is actually one of three validation vehicles used by CableLabs for OCUR.
This XPS 410 came equipped with a Core 2 Duo E6700 and a GeForce 8800 GTX, the latter being overkill for our purposes but welcome nonetheless. Under operation, the system was whisper quiet as befits Dell's M.O., but the combination of the 8800 GTX and the E6700 resulted in an extremely warm system. Rounding out the system configuration is 2GB of DDR2-800 memory and two 500GB hard drives running in RAID-0, as you can guess to maximize the amount of storage for recorded HD content. Dell included both a DVD-RW as well as a Blu-ray drive.
As with most Dell systems, accessing the inside of the case is a simple process of unlatching the rear and opening the side panel. Cramped quarters is what you'll find inside the XPS 410, but it's all very well organized.
The XPS 410 features a hefty amount of USB 2.0 ports (6 on the back, 2 on the front), which is very useful given that we needed five just to set up the system. We had two TV Wonder DCT units, each requiring its own USB 2.0 port, plus a USB Bluetooth receiver for Dell's keyboard/mouse. Another port was taken up by the cable going to the monitor's hub (which sort of cancels out the use as the monitor provides four more USB ports), and the final one was for the IR receiver for the included remote control.
The included keyboard was actually quite nice; it has a compact layout that just feels right (and everyone that used it while it was set up seemed to agree). Our only complaint was that it was wireless, which caused power management to kick in during idle periods - meaning there was a bit of wakeup lag noticeable when you first hit a key.
Our feelings on the included mouse are not as good unfortunately; the mouse is awkwardly long and takes a little too much effort to click the buttons. It definitely looks cool but we'd prefer a standard Microsoft or Logitech offering. Again, the wakeup issues with the mouse were also annoying. While we understand the attraction to wireless keyboards/mice, we'd prefer a wired alternative in this case.
Dell shipped the system configured with 32-bit Windows Vista Ultimate; there's currently no support for the TV Wonder DCT under 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. Although Dell has done a good job of reducing the amount of pre-installed software on its machines, it's still not perfect. The icing on the cake was Dell's pre-installed copy of Google Desktop Search; that may have been useful under Windows XP but under Vista it's just a tad redundant.
Dell didn't stop with the XPS 410, as its OCUR setup will most likely be sold as a bundle (including installation). Dell shipped us its 27" 1920 x 1200 panel, the largest single-link DVI LCD monitor Dell currently offers. We're working on our review of the panel so we'll save comments on it until then. The bundle was topped off with a pair of Creative Labs E-MU PM5 bookshelf speakers.
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n7 - Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - link
I am amazed at how restricted this is.I was looking forward to the day when i could get a tuner capable of high def support to add to my PC.
And now i see that the once again, the consumers are basically getting royally ******.
I'm incredibly disapppointed.
Thanx very much for this article though...does an excellent job of showing just how retarded DRM has become...
Cygni - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
Thank you for this article Anand. When you first reviewed Vista, i asked for a review of its MCE component, to which you replied such an article was comming. I was beginning to think you forgot about writing that article! :DI am in the shrinking majority of non HDTV owners. I have a 32in Sony CRT TV that ive had for at least 10 years. Its still one of the best looking TV's around, in my opinion. I use MCE to function as a recorder so that I dont have to pay a monthly fee to anyone. I feel thats ridiculous. I bought a $50 ATI TV card and with MCE, can do everything a TIVO can, AND save money, AND burn what programing i want and give it to who i want.
I have one big question i wanted to ask, however. Did you try Vista Media Centers multi screen performance? I use Svideo to connect my TV and computer, and i enjoy working on one screen while having MCE going in the other. However, MCE 2k5's performance in this situation is pretty bad, and the MCE team itself admitted that they hadnt thought of this scenario.
feraltoad - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
So let me get this straight the ONLY people that really want OCUR (people with media center PCs) will be the ones that can't get it? WTH! Bad enough you need HDCP monitors and Video cards, but even when you do upgrade everything it still won't be enough until you buy a ready made box (and if you have a HTPC that is used as a Media PC then it is probably DIY). So the people that this things is going to marketed to will be people that 1)Have no idea it exists 2)Don't/Won't want it 3)Apparently will be better served to pay $10 a month to rent something that will "just work". I have a MCE2005 pc, and it looks pretty obvious which way the wind is blowing: HD-DVR here I come.Also, besides a rant I had a question. What if you have ONE HDCP compliant monitor(HDTV) and one non HDCP LCD (that doesn't merit replacement yet). Will it still work and let you play the content on the TV? Or will the non hdcp monitor "break" the compliance and thus the functionality.
thestain - Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - link
AMD's kissing Microsofts rear is a recipe for an american made disaster.Is there no hardware company that is willing to give customers ownership of the hardware they buy anymore??
AMD/Daamit would do better getting the cpus and gpus out that have been delayed and delayed.. or nVidia and Intel will destroy AMD.
Wolfpup - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
That wasn't mentioned in the article. In two years I'll have to get some sort of ATSC replacement for my NTSC-only S2 Tivo.Also-is this for real that you can't burn real DVDs with this setup? I presume that means you can't even copy files to another computer to watch (only stream them to a 360)?
In that case this doesn't work for me. Hope there are more ATSC solutions available by the time I need them...
Smilin - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
Your #1 mistake was activating the card on a different device first. This caused you major problems. The mating of the card to a particular device is not a time-warner only thing. Had you not made this pretty dumb move you wouldn't have had Dell, ATI and Time Warner dancing around like monkeys for so many days.The problem switching between SD and HD is most likely a server issue at the cable company. Unfortunately "that guy" who is smart enough to fix it is so far up the food chain you'll never reach him through the mass of standard techs.
How do I know this? Go check out the Support forums over at Tivo. The problems are everywhere. The series 3 has dual cable cards and guess what? Cable companies give it fits. In every case the cable company will push back and say it's a problem with your device. In every case this turns out not to be true.
I ran into many of the issues you are seeing with my Series 3 Tivo. After like 4 cable cards, 5 trips from techs, pulling my hair until I was bald I finally got "the guy" who said it was merely a server issue on their end. No problems since.
mwales - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
So as a Kubuntu Linux user, on a PC built from parts, and "soon to be owner" of a PS3, I feel a little left out of the party. Seriously, the amount of restrictions for a system to do this is ridiculous and makes me want to vomit.I happen to have a Windows XP running Beyond TV DVR software (it's NTSC only unfortunately). But I'm able to share my media folder and access it from Windows PCs, Linux PCs, and even both XBox systems when they run XBox Media Center. It works FANTASTIC! Even my wife can stream content and watch it on an XBox without any issues or help. Once I get a Creative Vision M, I can easily move my non-DRM files unencumbered to my portable video player. I'm also able to burn DVDs of shows I really enjoyed so I can watch them later on my DVD/DivX player.
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
As long as the content providers are allowed to dictate how and where we watch their content, these products will always be a pain in the ass to setup and use.Still waiting on the CES 2006 announced DirecTV / MCE tuners.
michal1980 - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
i'd get that 4000 grand pc if it came with all the techs to help set it up.cable card needs bi-directional support before it gets my vote though.
BPB - Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - link
This article was not at all interesting for me personally. Oh, the tech end of it was, and the fact that AMD/MS/Hollywood/the cable industry can't work well as a group was interesting. But since the technology itself is not available to me unless I buy an expensicve Dell (or equivalent), I really don't care about it. I'll continue to go along using my Cox HD-DVR and be happy. Actually, if I do want to do something like this I'll simply rent a Cox HD cable box and plug it into my ATI 650 based tuner card (which has HD support) or my X1900 AIW (which accepts HD input). So for the price of the Cox rental I can have HD on my PC, and for far less money. Then again, the way MS and the cable industry are going, I can't be sure that would work. Oh well, guess I'll have to continue using the Firewire out on my HD-DVR to copy movies to my wife's notebook, then my desktop. It's a pain, but it's cheap and easy. My dad's new HD-DVR is also a cable modem. I wonder if it can be networked? Wouldn't that be nice?