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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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 really do find the lack of attention given on this site to Linux solutions a bit puzzling. Linux really isn't all that hard to get going, particularly for enthusiasts. And Anandtech does aim, I believe, to cater for enthusiasts.
Tiorapatea - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
trey007 - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
I have the ATI HDTV Wonder, but I haven't built nor bought a MCE PC because I'm waiting for more confirmation that it will work with my HDTV Card.Also, if I'm not mistaken, it comes with a standard TV Tuner as well, so this article confused me when it said I would need both.
Kishkumen - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
Something to keep in mind, if you have any thoughts at all of using MythTV at some point instead of MCE, you probably want to stay as far away from the ATI cards as possible. Hauppaugue cards have very good drivers, support and knowledge base for both MythTV and Linux in general. ATI TV cards... mmm... not so much... Then again, there are already HDTV based Linux cards with pretty good OTA and QAM capability fully supported under MythTV. You may not even need a crappy analog card. Although a PVR-150 will probably be useful for a while with those obscure analog holdouts on the far end of your cable listings.ChiefNutz - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
Finally, Someone did a comparison review with several cards!!! I've been waiting for ever to see tests run against that ATI Elite & the Hauppauge / NVTV forever.. I do agree with #19 though... but i thought MCE 2005 doesn't support mpeg 4 anyways.. Thanks anadtech for fullfilling my wishes!!! yesoverclockingoodness - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
#24 (Cygni): I agree with your comments, but I disagree with your ideas behind AnandTech. AnandTech is a business, and a successful one at that. If I am not mistaken, AnandTech makes at least $1.2 million a year from ad revenue.And for Anand and his editors, this is a full time. It's not a hobby anymore. :)
BikeDude - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
So... Which one of these cards features Win64 drivers...?--
Rune, soon to enter a TV-free reality...
Cygni - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
Im glad I get to battle through 30 "OMG U LEFT OUR PRODUCT X, THE WHOLE REVIEW = WORTHLESS" posts in every single AnandTech comments thread.A) The PVR-250 Retail is $140 on Newegg.
B) The 150 ISNT IN STOCK at Newegg or Mwave, and has barely been on the market at all. Again, it takes time to write a review and do all the hours of testing required (especially when you realize that THIS IS A HOBBY to everyone who writes the articles). If the card isnt available, or has barely hit the market, how is AnandTech going to have it for a review started weeks ago unless somebody sends one?
C) And ya... if it aint on Newegg, Mwave, or ZoomZipFly, i dont count it as a real price/availability. ;) Call me crazy, haha.
Cant believe how much some people complain about a free website run by volunteers just trying to help people out...
BUBKA - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
Lets Go...... Mountaineers!!!
Googer - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - link
One of nVIDIA's former Executives used to be a big wig engineer at LSI. Now can any one tell my why nVIDIA's solution is using LSI's silicon? Hmmmm....