TvWonder650
Latest
ATI delivers TV Wonder 650 Combo USB HDTV tuner for Mac
Ok, it may not be the beloved CableCARD we so quickly learned to love in our Windows Media Center PCs, but we certainly wouldn't kick ATI's new TV Wonder 650 Combo USB for Mac out of bed. We're not sure why ATI didn't just announce it along with the PC version a couple of weeks ago, but this dual tuner package does what's expected for your Mac, including ATSC and NTSC and playback via its tvPORTAL software. It'll run $150 when it hits retailers later this month.
ATI releases TV Wonder 650 OTA HDTV tuner card
Just in time for those immensely popular MLB playoffs and NFL kickoffs, ATI is dropping a new OTA HDTV tuner card that it apparently hopes will catch the eye of those who have been fence-sitting the issue of making a high definition DVR out of their PC. The TV Wonder 650 is based on the Theater 650 chip, including a "motion-adaptive 3D comb filter" as well as noise reduction, and touts the ability to work in Vista systems, even though it's still questionable whether the rest of your system will. Aside from recording over the air HDTV signals in MPEG-2, DivX, H.264, MPEG-4, and WMV9, the card also sports "Avivo image quality enhancements" for those less stunning SD broadcasts. ATI gives you the ability to record / watch two shows simultaneously via the MulTView functionality (if you own two cards, of course), and touts the nifty ThruView technology that displays content in a translucent box as to keep from interfering with all your (presumably) important background tasks. Although nothing here is really groundbreaking, this just might suffice as a stopgap for ATI's CableCard-ready OCUR, and costing just $129, it probably won't hurt too bad to hit the play button on those lingering HTPC plans. [Via HD Beat]
