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
The Platform
Not everyone is looking to build their own MCE box, and luckily, prices have come down tremendously on pre-built MCE machines. For this review, we had a chance to play around with WinBook's PowerSpec MCE 410 - a $999 MCE 2005 system (after $200 mail-in rebate).
The system is configured with a Pentium 4 530 (3.0GHz), 512MB of DDR400, ATI X300SE, a 160GB hard drive and a 16X dual layer burner, all on a FIC 915G motherboard.
The case of the MCE 410 is a little too shiny for our tastes, but still very subtle and it looks quite at home in your home theater. We would've preferred something with a matte finish or maybe even something with a silver/aluminum finish, but the MCE 410 is one of the nicer looking systems out there.
A jog dial controls the volume
Front mounted card reader...
...and front mounted USB/Firewire/audio ports
Because of the low profile, the MCE 410 can't really function as a gaming box - you can only install low profile graphics cards, which limits you to the X300 class of GPUs at this point. Thanks to a riser card, you can install two normal height PCI cards, but they can't be longer than about 6.5"; otherwise, they will interfere with the DVD drive.
Low profile X300
The performance of the Pentium 4 530 is more than acceptable for an MCE machine. The program guide is quite fast and responsive and we didn't have any hiccups during our use of the system.
Quite possibly one of the biggest attractions to the system is the fact that it relies on a single fan, the power supply fan, to cool the entire system (including the CPU). Because of this, the Samsung SpinPoint HDD is the loudest component in the system - which, for the most part, means it's pretty quiet and you get absolutely no fan noise.
Also priced at $999, WinBook offers a 30" LCD TV with a 1280 x 768 native resolution. WinBook sent us the display to try out with the system, and while we thought that the panel itself was decent, our biggest problem with it was its native resolution. At 1280 x 768, there's inherently a small amount of scaling for 720p content, which isn't desirable for the role of a LCD TV.
Now, you have an idea of our test platform. Although, a custom built MCE box would do just fine as well, so let's get to the contenders...
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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.