Having built a new PC this last holiday season that is running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, the one item that I didn’t get at that time was a TV tuner card. After 3 prior experiences with embedded tv tuner/video card variations of the ATI’s “All-In-Wonder” series over the years, I wanted to find a higer quality tuner card that would allow me to utilize all of the benefits of the Media Center Edition, but didn’t fall into the “all in one” video card class since I am already using ATI’s X700 Pro (PCI Express) video card.
Needless to say, when PowerColor asked who might be interested in reviewing a their new Theater 550 Pro TV tuner card based on ATI’s new THEATER 550 Pro chipset, I jumped at the opportunity.
The THEATER™ 550 PRO chipset is for the home PC user who craves a superior home theater experience on their computer. ATI’s THEATER™ 550 PRO brings tomorrow’s high-end home theater technology to today’s desktop and notebook PCs. The THEATER™ 550 PRO brings stunning visual detail and impact through its many advanced video processing features, including a 3D comb filter.
A few of the chipset’s highlighted features include :
- The first hardware-accelerated video processor with both PCI Express and PCI support.
- Hardware-accelerated video processing with a high-end 3D comb filter enhances fine-detail video fidelity.
- Advanced personal video recording capabilities and superior lower-bitrate MPEG-2 encoding enables more video content to be recorded to a single DVD-R/DVD-RW disk.
- Built-in digital audio capture enables perfectly synchronized video and audio.
- Intelligent noise reduction algorithm cleans up snow and other unsightly artifacts from your video source with dedicated hardware, resulting in better looking captures that take up less disk space.
- The ability to watch the best TV quality on your PC
- Real-Time Hardware MPEG2 Encoding
- Powerful 12 bit video engine
- Hardware 3D Comb Filter
- Hardware Noise Reduction
- External S-Video/Composite input support
- TimeShifting and scheduler recording
- Listen to Stereo FM Radio
- 16MB DDR Memory
- Low-profile design
- Unparalleled integration
- Video decoder
- Worldwide stereo audio support
- IF demodulation
- DVD quality MPEG-2 encoder
- PCI & PCI Express x1bus interfaces
Features never seen before on the PC :
- 12-bit Video decoder with hardware 3D Comb Filter
- Hardware Noise Reduction
- Digital 12-bit IF demod
- First PCI Express TV chip
Additional features :
- FM Radio
- Closed captioning and Teletext support
- Integrated anti-aliasing filters
- Sharper video capture is achieved through an industry leading 2D 5-line comb filter.
- Professional quality 3D comb filter which is used to separate the luminance and chrominance components of video. The 3D filter works best on still areas of video because it is able to scan ahead a frame and determine whether the image has changed or not. It then uses this information to properly separate the luminance and chrominance parts of a composite or TV tuner signal to eliminate color bleeding or other artifacting.
- The THEATER™550 PRO’s digital audio architecture delivers 100% synchronized audio and video. Audio and video streams are processed in together in the chip and sent out packaged as a MPEG stream to the system for storage or playback. Say goodbye to bad lip synch!
- High horsepower chip ensures that frames are never dropped and smooth and fluid video is recorded, providing an ideal PVR experience.
- Bright bursts in white or color levels occur due to fluctuating signal strength and cause video to suddenly brighten and then darken. The THEATER™550 PRO prevents this problem from occurring by using a 12-bit analog to digital converter which converts and smoothes out the analog signal, along with Automatic Gain Control (AGC) circuitry.
- Most analog video sources, whether from cable TV or antenna are very noisy with snow and other distortions. The THEATER™550 PRO has been designed to tackle this real-world video and has a dedicated engine to intelligently remove noise, yet still achieved sharp edges and fine textures.
- The THEATER™550 PRO combines all the features of a TV tuning PVR card into a single chip complete with high-end THEATER™quality
Minimum System Requirements :
- 750-Mhz CPU or faster
- 128MB RAM or above
- Microsoft Windows XP, 2000, Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition
- One available PCI slot (PCI version)
- One available PCI-E slot (PCI-E version)
- CD-ROM drive
- Graphics card with DirectX 8.1 or above
- Sound card
- Cable TV signal or amplified antenna
Package Contents :
- Hardware MPEG2 – TV 550 PRO TV tuner card
- Quick Installation Guide
- Driver/Application CD
- AV cable
- FM Antenna cable
- Remote control
- Remote sensor
- Software: PowerCinema, PowerDVD, PowerDirector SE+, Power Producer DVD, MediaShow SE, Power2Go
Outside box cover (front panel) |
Outside box cover (back panel) |
Personally I really liked the professional appearance of the box that the card came in. Rather than go with the schizotypal packaging that is all too often seen in other video card companies, the colorful design of this box is clear and to the point. With a large, clear description and picture of the card on the outside front, it is easy to quickly see what the card’s abilities are, rather relying on cheesy graphics to attact attention.
As I mentioned in the first page of this review, there are 2 versions of the card, PCI and PCI Express. While the version I received was the PCI version, I can’t help but wonder what the differences might be for having a PCI Express version, other than an attempt to future-proof the card since the latest generations of motherboards are including more PCI Express and less PCI slots (reminding me a bit of where ISA was just a few years back). Looking on PowerColor’s site (www.power-color.com), I couldn’t find any other reason that would justify the need either.
Opening the box, I found more than a handful of items in the tightly pack space.
First view of the card in the box |
First view of the extras in the box |
As you can see in the pictures below, besides the card itself, inside the box I found a wireless remote with batteries and USB receiption module with mounting velcro, installation drivers and add-on software, FM antenna, A/V cable, instruction manual and dvd sampler from ATI.
The package contents out on display |
Remote control |
USB Remote sensor |
ATI A/V input dongle (top view) |
ATI A/V input dongle (input view) |
FM Tuner Antenna |
Driver and “Add-on” software discs |
ATI Demo DVD |
Installation manual |
The add-on software consisted of CyberLink’s “Power” bundle software. Included on the disc were functional versions of PowerCinema, PowerDVD, PowerDirector SE+, Power Producer DVD, MediaShow SE, and Power2Go. At this point I felt this was a nice package grouping of hardware and software to help round out the card’s feature set. Unfortunately that feeling wouldn’t last too long once I start testing out the software, but I’ll get to that shortly.
The first thing I noticed about the card was the the color of the PCB and mounting hardware. While I have seen a trend for companies to use red PCB’s more often recently instead of the older “green standard”, the deep purple of this card’s PCB stood out nicely in contrast with the gold colored mounting hardware.
Looking closer, I could easily see the new THEATER™ 550 PRO chip mounted on the center of the PCB with the Samsung DDR-SDRAM module. While 16 Mb is not a large amound of RAM, it was nice knowing that having its own memory module the card shouldn’t leech performance away from the main video card or system memory unnecessarily.
Top view of the card |
Bottom view of the card |
THEATER™ 550 PRO closeup |
Samsung DDR-SDRAM module closeup |
On the side of the card you can see the coaxial inputs for both the TV and FM radio, as well as the DIN connector for the A/V input cable. Since my prior experience with TV tuner cards were using would fall into the “all in one” category, my first thought was why there weren’t any connections to output the signal to an external source. Upon coming to my senses a moment later, I realized that since the primary video card in the PC is used for the actual output, there isn’t any need to include any on the card itself. Another nice thing I noticed was that there is no need to connect the card to anything but the PCI slot itself. All audio and video signal feeds are passed directly thru the PCI subsystem. A bonus for those of you out there who hate the restrictions of additional wiring in your system.
For testing purposes I installed the card into a newer PC that I built this last holiday season consisting of :
- Asus P5GD2 Deluxe (reviewed here)
- Intel LGA 775 Pentium 4 540J (3.2GHz)
- ATI X700 Pro PCI-Express 256 MB
- 1GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-5400 RAM
- 120GB Seagate Baracuda 7200.7 SATA Hard Drive (x3)
- Sony HS94P-S 19″ LCD with 12ms refresh rate
- Logitech Z5300-e 5.1 speakers using the C-Media High Definition 5.1 output from the Asus motherboard
Since I had been looking to add enhanced multi-media capability to this PC, I installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with XP SP2 and have since updated all post SP2 patches released to date. Additionally since I previously purchased a Toshiba laptop that included Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003, I had on official MCE remote control that I will be using in addition to the included CyberLink remote.
My existing Media Center Edition Remote setup |
Installing the drivers for the card was pretty simple and straight forward. The first system boot after installing the card, XP’s “New Hardware Found” message poped up asking for the drivers.
New Hardware Found Wizard |
Cancelling the wizard |
Fortunately for me since I hate drawn out instructions, the installation manual gets straight to the point of what to do. Nobody that I know of likes reading manuals, but since this was my first independent TV tuner cards, I thought it might be in my best interest to “RTFM” as is usually stated by those *helping* few when encountering a problem. That said, I simply followed the instructions and cancelled out of the hardware dialog that had opened.
Next I inserted the installation driver cd into the PC and ran the driver installation manually.
Starting ATI driver installation |
The license agreement |
Choosing installation type |
Custom installation options |
Installing the ATI driver |
Once completed, I rebooted my PC and went on to install the included PowerCinema software.
Starting the PowerCinema Installation |
The license agreement |
Entering registration info |
Choosing file locations |
Choosing program folder |
Final confirmation screen |
Installing the software |
Install complete |
When I first loaded the PowerCinema software to try out the TV tuner, I am given the option to run a first time setup, which I choose. This is your standard “wizard” type walkthru that prompts you with a series of questions and answers to help you configure your setup.
Choosing display type |
Configure speaker setup |
Choosing your country |
Preparing to autoscan for channels |
Autoscan in progress (Note the inability to capture live tv screen) |
Option to scan for music files |
Enter registration info |
Registration completed |
Now one thing you might be able to see in one of the shots above, when the TV channels were scanning I was able to see the channels change, but every attempt to grab a screenshot would render the image black where the TV was being shown. This issue was later duplicated when attempting to grab a screenshot of the TV playing once the software was installed. On the TV tuner tool bar there was a “Snapshot” button that could be pressed, but there wasn’t any explaination as to where the file might be saved. Unfortunately the help documentation wasn’t much help either as you can see by the screenshot below. As you can see, the reference to the “Snapshot button” only offers 2 unreleated topics and no hint to where the files might be saved.
Help Documentation Problem |
By pure chance I happened to stumble across the location where the images were being saved a few days after capturing the images. In Windows XP, under your “My Documents” folder there are several common folders that can often be found including “My Music”, “My Videos”, and in this specific need “My pictures”. Under the “My pictures” folder there was a set of folders starting with “Snapshot” and then “TV Snapshot”. Additionally, going thru the various configuration screens for the PowerCinema software, I was still unable to find any reference to this location.
TV Snapshots Folder Location |
Once I had located the folder, I was able to start taking a look at what had been saved and to be honest, I expected to have better image quality then what I found. The images were saved in JPEG format at 640×480 resolution, and this was done no matter what the original screen size was being rendered on screen at the time the snapshot was taken. Comparing this to what I could grab using the TV tuner found in Windows XP Media Center Edition, I did find the PowerCinema software to be a bit lacking. While the PowerCinema software provided the easy “Snapshot” button, it couldn’t compare to the image sizes I could grab using the old standby “Alt + Print Screen” to capture the active window to the clipboard, and then pasting into Photoshop.
PowerCinema Live TV Capture |
PowerCinema Live TV Capture |
While using the PowerCinema TV software, I also found a few other things annoying at times. For example, when changing channels I experienced a 3-4 second delay between stations. While part of this could be attributed to using the analog signal from my cable provider to watch TV, my prior experiences with ATI’s multimedia center TV tuner software in other systems or with this TV tuner running under the Windows XP Media Center Edition “Media Center”, I would typically see a 1-1.5 second delay using the same cable connection. My best guess would have to be that this is an issue that is related to the PowerCinema software, and not an issue with the hardware itself.
Also, while not critical, the lack of any built-in channel guide feature made finding shows hard and deciding what to record next to impossible. Without any form of interactive channel guide, all recording options are limited to manually defining the channel and times to record. Compare this to using the channel guide features in Windows XP Media Center Edition where not only do you have an interactive tv guide that goes out 2 weeks ahead of the current date, but the ability to use the Tivo like ability to record entire seasons of shows. I would have to highly suggest that anyone who really wants to get the most out of the tuner should invest in a copy of Windows XP Media Center Edition or upgrade to the full version of CyberLink’s PowerCinema TV Plus.
Lastly, while the remote was more than functional within the PowerCinema sofware, it was rather confusing to find that several of the buttons did not function as I might have expected. Possibly due to my using Windows XP Media Center Edition, but instead of launching the PowerCinema software the Media Center software was loaded when any of the direct access buttons (e.g. “Live TV”) was pressed. Also, buttons like “SAP” and “CC” and “Info/EPG” failed to perform any action in either Media Center or PowerCinema. Lastly since neither the instruction manual or PowerColor website had any additional information on how to use the remote control, I ended up testing the individual buttons using “trial & error” methods to see what would or wouldn’t happen when pressed. A list of button functionality would have been very helpful here.
As I mentioned on the previous page, my best experience was found using the TV tuner with Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005. Besides the tuner changing channels quicker then when using the included PowerCinema software, the built-in TV guide makes finding shows to watch and record a breeze. However, since this review isn’t about Windows XP MCE I won’t go too far into detail, but I did include a few screenshots below that I captured using the TV tuner with Windows XP MCE.
Loading “Live TV” |
Viewing current channel info. |
Viewing the channel guide |
Viewing the channel guide |
Viewing selected show details |
Viewing additional show times of the same show |
Viewing similar shows/movies |
Viewing scheduled programs |
There are several features that make the extra expense of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 worth the money, though there are restrictions to obtaining a copy. Typically you must purchase a system that includes this version and cannot upgrade existing systems that were not initially installed using a version of XP Media Center Edition, but you can purchase the OS and remote control separately from several online retailers (NewEgg is but one). Individual retailers should have more information regarding pricing and purchase restrictions.
Lastly, there are a few non-Microsoft information sites related to using Windows XP Media Center Edition online containing additional information. A couple I would recommend are www.xpmce.com and www.thegreenbutton.com.
ATI’s THEATER™ 550 PRO chipset definitely brings a needed update to prior generations of TV tuner cards with the addition of the hardware based 3D comb filter and noise reduction. The promise of better picture quality is visible, but the included software hinders the ability to get the optimum experience out of the package as delivered. The addition of the FM tuner was a nice bonus feature that isn’t often seen in a TV/Video card combinations. The remote control was functional for basic use, though a bit confusing at times. If there was anything that stands out as needing correction, it would be the included software that could use improvement. Fortunately other software packages like Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and CyberLink’s PowerCinema TV Plus are available to fill in the missing feature gaps.
Overall I am very satisfied with the PowerColor Theater 550 Pro TV tuner and would like to thank Power Color for sending me their package for the review. If you are looking to add or replace a TV tuner to your PC, I would highly recommend that you put this card at the top of your list to consider.
Rating
I was a little split on how to rate this package since I really liked the hardware itself, but the software just didn’t quite do it for me. With this in mind, I split up the ratings into individual sections to get a better overall average. The final score came out to 9 out of 10 which means this product has earned the OCmodshop Seal of Approval.
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