ATI ships HDTV Wonder card

ATI said that it has begun supplying its HDTV Wonder product, a TV tuner that can receive both analogue and HDTV signals. This doesn't bring a HDTV revolution, but it allows consumers to watch high definition television using a relatively inexpensive card.

The HDTV Wonder uses ATI's own NXT2004 VSB/QAM receiver which is designed to receive off-air DTV signals in a wide variety of challenging terrestrial singnal reception environments. The NXT2004 has features as advanced multi-path cancellation, tuner control and all-digital carrier rocevery circuit that disables the need for any other external components.

Later during the year ATI will unveil its HDTV WONDER that will support analogue NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) cable and will allow consumers to experience the new ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) digital, free-to-air HDTV broadcasts without having to subscribe to cable or satellite subscription services, according to ATI’s claim earlier this year.

“Over 50% of TV shows and growing are currently broadcast in HDTV. Over 80% of USA households get five or more DTV channels,” ATI Technologies stated.

The National Association of Broadcasters reports there are currently 1155 DTV stations on air in 203 markets, serving 99.42% of the United States’ TV households.

The HDTV WONDER sports a list of capabilities ATI’s ALL-IN-WONDER lineup has to offer, such as watch, pause and record live analog TV, DTV and HDTV and even burn HDTV to DVD’s and CD’s.

The HDTV Wonder card is compatible with graphics cards supporting Microsoft DirectX 9.0 that have 64MB or greater of memory. The price is $199, including a remote controller.

Source: X-bit Labs