The New Theater 650 TV Tuner Solution from ATI
by Josh Venning on June 14, 2006 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
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Final Words
One thing many people commented on in our DualTV MCE article was the fact that we didn't include a Hauppauge tuner for comparison. We haven't included one in this review either, but we've looked at these cards in the past. To recap, the Hauppauge PVR-250 (and 350) is about the same as the Theater 550 in quality. What you get with a PVR-500 is also going to be similar to the DualTV MCE because of the dual tuner capability.
While software support might be a factor to consider when comparing the DualTV to the Theater 650, for the most part both of these cards work with a variety of TV applications, even though the DualTV is marketed more towards those with Windows MCE. The actual size of these cards might also be a factor for those with small cases, as the DualTV is double the height of the Theater 650 (and 550); however, the DualTV is still shorter than most GPUs.
Overall, the ATI Theater 650 does seem to provide better image quality than the NVIDIA DualTV MCE due to ATI's advancements in things like 3D comb filters, noise reduction, and edge enhancement. We would even say that the Theater 550 comes out ahead of the DualTV in some tests, and in terms of image quality they're about a tie (along with the Hauppauge PVR-250/350/500). The fact that the Theater 650 has support for DTV also gives it an edge over the others, and we also like the added control over things like sharpness and filters that ATI has provided with the new multimedia software.
The 650 will be available sometime in July according to ATI, and unfortunately we aren't sure what the final price will be. The NVIDIA DualTV MCE is still currently only available on the NVIDIA website for $169, while the Theater 550 has gone down in price slightly to around $70. Of course the price of the Theater 650 will be a big factor in the overall desirability of the card, so we will have to wait and see before we can completely assess its value. It would seem to us that a price of $90 to $100 would not be unreasonable for a card of this type with this feature set (i.e. DTV). Things like software bundle and remote control may change the package price somewhat, but this would be a fair price for the card itself in our opinion.
Taking everything into account, there are a lot of positives about the Theater 650. With all of the new features and enhancements, it looks to be the best TV tuner solution right now in terms of image quality. It's true that it doesn't have dual tuner capabilities like the DualTV MCE or Hauppauge PVR-500, but with two Theater 650s in your system not only would you achieve the dual TV ability, but you would also get higher image quality at the same time. This would of course require more space in your system and probably draw a bit more power, and you also need to make sure you have a motherboard with two available PCI slots (CrossFire/SLI users with dual slot GPUs need not apply), but for those serious about a home theater PC setup this should be possible.
The Theater 650 Pro may indeed be the best quality analog TV Tuner when it becomes available, but we have to bear in mind that this is still a growing technology, and cards like these still can't compete in all areas with a digital cable/satellite box hooked into your TV. Hopefully this will change when we see retail availability of CableCard products. With their introduction it's likely that tuner cards like the Theater 650 Pro and its successors may become even more important. If we are to believe all the convergence hype we've seen come and go, eventually we may replace all of our home entertainment needs with a PC. In the future, we expect to see real consumer electronic quality available on the desktop. Until such products become available, this card will be the card of choice for those users looking for the best TV tuner card for their computer/home theater setup, and we applaud ATI for the advancements they have made.
One thing many people commented on in our DualTV MCE article was the fact that we didn't include a Hauppauge tuner for comparison. We haven't included one in this review either, but we've looked at these cards in the past. To recap, the Hauppauge PVR-250 (and 350) is about the same as the Theater 550 in quality. What you get with a PVR-500 is also going to be similar to the DualTV MCE because of the dual tuner capability.
While software support might be a factor to consider when comparing the DualTV to the Theater 650, for the most part both of these cards work with a variety of TV applications, even though the DualTV is marketed more towards those with Windows MCE. The actual size of these cards might also be a factor for those with small cases, as the DualTV is double the height of the Theater 650 (and 550); however, the DualTV is still shorter than most GPUs.
Overall, the ATI Theater 650 does seem to provide better image quality than the NVIDIA DualTV MCE due to ATI's advancements in things like 3D comb filters, noise reduction, and edge enhancement. We would even say that the Theater 550 comes out ahead of the DualTV in some tests, and in terms of image quality they're about a tie (along with the Hauppauge PVR-250/350/500). The fact that the Theater 650 has support for DTV also gives it an edge over the others, and we also like the added control over things like sharpness and filters that ATI has provided with the new multimedia software.
The 650 will be available sometime in July according to ATI, and unfortunately we aren't sure what the final price will be. The NVIDIA DualTV MCE is still currently only available on the NVIDIA website for $169, while the Theater 550 has gone down in price slightly to around $70. Of course the price of the Theater 650 will be a big factor in the overall desirability of the card, so we will have to wait and see before we can completely assess its value. It would seem to us that a price of $90 to $100 would not be unreasonable for a card of this type with this feature set (i.e. DTV). Things like software bundle and remote control may change the package price somewhat, but this would be a fair price for the card itself in our opinion.
Taking everything into account, there are a lot of positives about the Theater 650. With all of the new features and enhancements, it looks to be the best TV tuner solution right now in terms of image quality. It's true that it doesn't have dual tuner capabilities like the DualTV MCE or Hauppauge PVR-500, but with two Theater 650s in your system not only would you achieve the dual TV ability, but you would also get higher image quality at the same time. This would of course require more space in your system and probably draw a bit more power, and you also need to make sure you have a motherboard with two available PCI slots (CrossFire/SLI users with dual slot GPUs need not apply), but for those serious about a home theater PC setup this should be possible.
The Theater 650 Pro may indeed be the best quality analog TV Tuner when it becomes available, but we have to bear in mind that this is still a growing technology, and cards like these still can't compete in all areas with a digital cable/satellite box hooked into your TV. Hopefully this will change when we see retail availability of CableCard products. With their introduction it's likely that tuner cards like the Theater 650 Pro and its successors may become even more important. If we are to believe all the convergence hype we've seen come and go, eventually we may replace all of our home entertainment needs with a PC. In the future, we expect to see real consumer electronic quality available on the desktop. Until such products become available, this card will be the card of choice for those users looking for the best TV tuner card for their computer/home theater setup, and we applaud ATI for the advancements they have made.
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Mumrik - Thursday, June 15, 2006 - link
Still, why didn't you touch on the Hardware DRM?None of us know what this element means for the card and it MIGHT just be the deal breaker that makes this card WORSE than the 550.
You need to look into stuff like that, or somebody's going to make a purchase based on this "review" and quite possibly be very disappointed.
LoneWolf15 - Thursday, June 15, 2006 - link
Below are the updates I found for the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150, the card that has mostly replaced the PVR-250 with better quality and a single chip solution
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_pvr...">http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_pvr...
Name: pvr150_500_basedriver_2043_24103.zip
Size: 2.2MB
Updated: April 13, 2006
WinTV2000 application update for the WinTV-PVR-150
Name: wintv2k411_23347.exe
Size: 2.5 Mb
Updated: Dec. 15, 2005
WinTV video decoder update
Name: hcwsmd05_23290.exe
Version: 5.0_23290
Size: 1996K
Updated: Oct. 17, 2005
I'd call that updated in the past year. When video cards are updated, Anandtech and others test to see if increased performance and/or image quality results. Are you saying the same should not be done with TV Tuner cards?
P.S. I could be wrong, but I don't recall you testing the WinTV PVR-150, which is considered by most HTPC enthusiasts to be a much better replacement of the PVR-250. If I'm wrong, apologies. If I'm right, then Hauppauge's cards have changed indeed since you tested the PVR-250.
BigLan - Thursday, June 15, 2006 - link
"The Hauppauge cards haven't really changed at all in over a year. Do we need to include socket 754 Athlon 64 and Pentium 4 478 in current CPU articles? Do we need to talk about the Radeon X800 and GeForce 6800 cards in new GPU reviews?"Two problems with this, Jarred. First is that the Hauppauge 250 got replaced with the 150, which offered better image quality and a lower price. Anand has never compared the 150 to the 550, or any other card. Sure you can say it's similar to the MCE500, but you didn't mention that in this article, only the 250.
Next up is that you actually did compare the X800 and 6800 cards to modern GPUs in the Oblivion article.
Crucial - Thursday, June 15, 2006 - link
If the S754 and S478 cpus were the last ones to be made and still the more popular cpu your darn right you do. The comparison to video cards and cpu's doesn't hold up because there aren't new tuner cards coming out every 6 months. Many people here don't agree with the statements that the 650 screenshots look better. Just because somethings new doesn't mean it's automaticaly better.
As for that comment, are you writing these reviews for yourself or for the readers of the site? With an attidude like this it's no wonder the review doesn't cover half of what it should.
Basically it sounds to me like you only have a Theatre550 card and dont want to take the time or spend the money to review a hauppage card. That or ATI is pulling the strings and won't let you. If thats the case just say so and alot of the flack will go away. You can try and justify your attitude towards these reviews but it is not what a majority of the readers want to see.
hondaman - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Thats some seriously flawed logic. In every review, one _always_ compares, HEAD TO HEAD, the king(s) of the hill vs. the newcommers. This goes for cpus, video, hd's, and yes, even capture cards.
The bottom line duty of a capture card is to capture video. It doesnt matter an ounce that you previously reviewed a card. Image quality is something we must see for ourselves, and allow us to decide what looks best. That means running the SAME tests on the SAME capture cards.
jeremyk442 - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Am I the only one who seems to think that the 650 looked worse than the 550 on the tomato shot? The differences in the stills were extremely subtle and give no indication of how much difference you would notice while using it. And this whole review felt like an advertisement for ati's new chip rather than a valid comparison (especially the image quality).JNo - Saturday, June 17, 2006 - link
I agree. The 650 was praised (vs the 550) for warmer colours but in actual fact, the 550 shot was the only one where the woman's skin tone seemed more natural and you could make out extra *details* on her that were smoothed over in the other 2 cards e.g. just above and below her lips if I remember correctly. "Brighter" colours aren't always better if they just create colours that aren't in the signal. Hey, we could all just turn up the colour bar on our TVs for a better picture if that were the case...BigLan - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Looking closer at the tomato shot, I think there's something messed up in the GualTV test. It looks like there's some ghosting going on, which is either a problem with the tuner chip or a problem with the setup. I don't believe that the dual tuner could have that big an issue tuning channels without the community having noticed by now, which suggests the test setup is wrong.mostlyprudent - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
This is a relatively new area of interest for me. Can some one point me to some information on which, if any, of these cards supports a signal from setalite sources? I have a dual tuner receiver and want to use my PC as the other output (my DVR is filling up and I would like to capture some of the prgramming to archive on my hard drive). Wow, I feel like a newbie!SHSPVR - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
No it do not supports a signal direct from setalite LNB you must used a sat receiver and I hate tell you but dual tuner sat receiver suck becuase of the fact that there are NO Blaster that support UHF Transmit signal so there for your SOL with 2nd TV output but you can setup the 1st TV output becuases it base on Standard IR Transmit signal.