![]() ![]() PHOTO THEATER PRO REVIEW TVATI claims the Theater 650 Pro will be compatible with Windows Vista, although the future introduction of CableCard (essentially a mini cable box decoder that will be built into systems) will make that a moot point for most people who are looking to make high-quality TV recordings on their PCs. Many consumers will choose to use Windows XP Media Center Edition as their front end, and our Theater 650 reference board hooked right up to the Media Center OS with no problems. PHOTO THEATER PRO REVIEW SOFTWAREThe Theater 650 Pro ushers in additional changes ATI's long-standing Multimedia Center software has been renamed Catalyst Media Center, and notable features include support for dual analog/digital TV tuner cards a nice translucent video window effect, called ThruView and the ability to record to a number of formats, including MPEG-4, WMV9, and H.264. Still, no TV tuner for a PC-the Theater 650 Pro included-provides the image quality you get with even the most basic cable-box-to-TV hookup. On a video clip of moving patterns made up of fine black-and-white lines, we saw the expected false colors (like seeing someone in a black-and-white striped shirt on TV), but the color artifacting was less pronounced than we saw on the older 550 chip. ![]() On a standard moire pattern test screen, we were able to see fine, detailed lines that were blurred out on last year's Theater 550 chip. ![]() Watching a standard TV signal, as well as sending DVD test footage from a set-top DVD player, we saw evidence of the improvements ATI made to the Theater 650 Pro. The new chip offers enough of a boost to image quality that TV-on-your-PC fans should give it a serious look just know that CableCard technology for PCs is expected to hit next year. Tuner cards featuring the Theater 650 Pro chip will be available from manufacturers such as MSI and Sapphire, and those products should range from $100 to $150. The company's newest version of the chip-the Theater 650 Pro-was announced yesterday and offers incremental improvements over its predecessor. ATI's Theater 550 Pro video-processing chip powers the low-profile card and delivers decent TV image quality. The leader in up until now has been ATI's TV Wonder Elite. ![]()
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