ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner: AMD and Dell Bring CableCARD to PCs

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.