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Brand | AMD |
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Model | 100-715331 |
Type | TV Tuner Cards |
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Others | Sound Card and speakers Cable TV signal or amplified antenna for NTSC TV signals Amplified antenna for ATSC HDTV signals and FM Radio Installation software requires CD-ROM drive DVD Authoring requires DVD Burner DVD decoder is included with Catalyst Media Center Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 requires use of a compatible remote control (not included) |
TV Tuner | Combo Tuner |
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TV Standards | ATSC / NTSC |
Remote Control | No |
PVR | Yes |
Interface | PCI |
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FM Tuner | Yes |
Video Format | MPEG 4/2/1 |
Processor | Intel Pentium 4, Celeron, AMD Athlon Sempron or compatible |
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Memory | 256 MB or more of system memory |
Available Slot | Available PCI slot |
Operating Systems Supported | Windows XP Home Edition Windows XP Professional Edition Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 ATI Certified - Windows Vista Premium Ready |
Features | Highest quality analog TV on your PC "Free-to-Air" HDTV with No Monthly Fees FM Radio Video Input and Capture Personal Video Recorder Feature-packed, User-Friendly Interface Made for Windows Media Center 2005 Ready for the Future with a Windows Vista on your PC |
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Package Contents | 100-715331 Driver Disk FM Cable ATI Input Adapter |
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Date First Available | October 16, 2006 |
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Pros: Low prifile card, quality build. Picture quality on the analog side is better than my TV tuner (Samsung HDTV with Comcast Cable) which was a surprise! Better yet, the digital, over-the-air HDTV signal quality was EXCELLENT! Even the girlfriend let a WOW slip out when she saw The Bachelor in HD. Tunes stations fast!
Cons: A little expensive compared to other tuners, but worth every penny in my book. I wanted something that would play nicely with my Radeon X1650XT and have AVIVO support. Haven't tried the FM tuner (have no use for it) so can't comment. In general ATI doesn't have the greatest software/driver support for their hardware but with Vista, the drivers were located and downloaded automatically.
Overall Review: I purchased the TV Wonder 650 for my HTPC upgrade which included Vista Media Center. Was concerned from some reviews about difficulties setting up and utilizing both digital and analog tuners within Vista Media Center. Once installed, the TV Wonder 650 was instantly recognized and the drivers installed alongside the latest Catalyst drivers (Ver 7.3). I fired up Vista Media Center and set up the tuners according to hdtunerinfo website (google "vista Kram") for setup guide. Worked like magic! Switches back and forth between analog and digital tuner, allows recording and EPG controls like a single tuner would. For you other HTPC enthusiasts my setup: Abit Fatality F-I90HD, Core 2 Duo E6400, 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 (unbranded), HIS Radeon X1650XT (fanless version), Terk Amplified HDTV antenna