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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TV Tuner Comparisons
In this section, we'll look at how the ATI Theater 650 compares with the NVIDIA DualTV MCE and the ATI Theater 550 Pro. As in the past, we will be looking at power consumption for these cards as well as image quality, but for this review we will be adding a section on CPU utilization to see what kind of overhead is associated with using these cards.
Power
For power, we tested each of the three cards at four different states: while the system was idle, while watching live TV, while recording live TV, and while watching TV while simultaneously recording the broadcast. Here are the results.
For reference, the power draw of the system without a TV tuner card installed was 145 Watts. We can see from the table that the Theater 650 and 550 drew less power than the DualTV overall, which makes sense given the DualTV's dual tuners as opposed to the other cards' one. We can also see that there isn't a very big difference at all between the power consumption of the Theater 650 and 550, and interestingly, there wasn't a difference between the power load of the system while watching and watching/recording with the Theater 650.
Channel Switch Speed
We again wanted to see if there was any difference between the channel switching speed of the different tuners, as the different hardware can sometimes affect this aspect of the tuner. Here are the results.
As the data shows, there is again not much difference between the Theater 650 and 550, and each of these cards took around two seconds to switch channels (the 650 being very slightly faster). The DualTV took about a half a second longer than the other two making it the slowest of the three. As we mentioned in the last review, two seconds may not seem like much time, but when trying to flip rapidly through channels, the delay can be very annoying. Unfortunately, it appears that the new "mini-can" tuner of the 650 doesn't substantially improve the tuning speed relative to the 550.
In this section, we'll look at how the ATI Theater 650 compares with the NVIDIA DualTV MCE and the ATI Theater 550 Pro. As in the past, we will be looking at power consumption for these cards as well as image quality, but for this review we will be adding a section on CPU utilization to see what kind of overhead is associated with using these cards.
Power
For power, we tested each of the three cards at four different states: while the system was idle, while watching live TV, while recording live TV, and while watching TV while simultaneously recording the broadcast. Here are the results.
| System Power Draw (Watts) | ||||
| Idle | Watching Live TV |
Recording | Watching + Recording |
|
| NVIDIA DualTV MCE | 170 | 197 | 176 | 203 |
| ATI MSI Theater 550 Pro | 167 | 186 | 171 | 187 |
| ATI MSI Theater 650 Pro | 169 | 187 | 174 | 187 |
For reference, the power draw of the system without a TV tuner card installed was 145 Watts. We can see from the table that the Theater 650 and 550 drew less power than the DualTV overall, which makes sense given the DualTV's dual tuners as opposed to the other cards' one. We can also see that there isn't a very big difference at all between the power consumption of the Theater 650 and 550, and interestingly, there wasn't a difference between the power load of the system while watching and watching/recording with the Theater 650.
Channel Switch Speed
We again wanted to see if there was any difference between the channel switching speed of the different tuners, as the different hardware can sometimes affect this aspect of the tuner. Here are the results.
| Channel Tune Speed | |
| Time in Seconds | |
| NVIDIA DualTV MCE | 2 1/2 |
| ATI MSI Theater 550 Pro | 2 |
| ATI MSI Theater 650 Pro | 2 |
As the data shows, there is again not much difference between the Theater 650 and 550, and each of these cards took around two seconds to switch channels (the 650 being very slightly faster). The DualTV took about a half a second longer than the other two making it the slowest of the three. As we mentioned in the last review, two seconds may not seem like much time, but when trying to flip rapidly through channels, the delay can be very annoying. Unfortunately, it appears that the new "mini-can" tuner of the 650 doesn't substantially improve the tuning speed relative to the 550.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
The T650 does support DTV (see page 2). Also note that SDTV is still digital in nature, so what you really mean is that all new analog tuners keep coming out. Even when we are all running 100% DTV, we will still have lower resolution broadcasts (unfortunately). Anyway, reviewing cards that do DTV reception is more of a case of reviewing software and interfaces as opposed to hardware; as long as the signal is strong enough to get reception, you get the pure digital content. I suppose better tuners might somehow deal with lower quality signals, but there's only so much that can be done before you just can't reconstruct an image. (I can't test OTA DTV in my location because I don't get reception - at all. Good thing I can get HDTV via Comcast... though I wish there were more HD content as opposed to SDTV, and more HD channels would be nice as well.)scavio - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Digital does not equal HDTV. Analog does not equal SDTV. Fortunately, the well paid folks at ATI know a lot more about where TV is going than you do.DigitalFreak - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Again..."Basically, the Theater 650 provides digital TV support in ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) for US, Canada, Mexico, and South Korea,"
If you can pick up an HDTV station, this card can tune it in.
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Uh... Did you read the article? The card DOES support HDTV. For some reason, AT did not review that part of the card.JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
As far as I know, the http://www.anandtech.com/multimedia/showdoc.aspx?i...">two HD cards in this review represent the only QAM capable cards currently on the market (not counting earlier versions as separate cards). Rather unfortunate, though the Fusion5 has gotten a bit better in the past 6 months.fanbanlo - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
This is indeed a much better review. Hope to see a follow up once the Catalyst MMC is available.Thank you.
defiantsf - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Can't wait to get this new card even though I have the HDTV Wonder already. Would the Wonder and the T650 work together to effectively give me two tuners for watching and recording two different channels?Regarding MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoding via the MMC, will it be real-time or need to be transcoded non-realtime from MPEG-2? Hardware based or uses the CPU to do so? AVC is of utmost interest to me since I want a PC-based SD/HD video server for my HDTV :)
Looking forward to the MMC follow-up review!
darkfoon - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
I'm really interested in purchasing one of these, however, I do not plan on making a dedicated Media Center PC, so I wonder if this will work with a computer that doesn't have windows XP MCE(I prefer to use win2k, personally) ?So, will it work with, for example, Sage TV on a "regular" desktop?
DerekWilson - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Beyond TV 4.3 released last week supports the new Theater 650 in both digital and analog mode.darkfoon - Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - link
Will there be support by any of the free TV viewing applications?