Theater 550 cards hit the market (ATI's new hardware MPEG encoder chip)

[rbV5]

The first TV Tuner card based on ATI's new MPEG encoder/ video processor LINK is now available.

Newegg and ZZF show them in stock.

Theater 550 was launched this past fall, and I've been anxiously awaiting for cards to hit the market. I'll be picking one up for my MCE rig.

 

[Chadder007]

Wow....big price difference between Newegg and ZZF. Newegg has lost its pricing edge. 🙁

 

[Megatomic]

This looks nice, I wonder if ATI will be quick with WinXP x64 drivers for this card. I may need to ditch my Leadtek card when x64 goes gold. As it is I can't use it when I'm beta testiing new builds.

 

[biostud]

I might get one once I shift to a PCIe board. I wonder if it supports HDTV, since it's not mentioned I doubt it.

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: biostud
I might get one once I shift to a PCIe board. I wonder if it supports HDTV, since it's not mentioned I doubt it.

Nope, no HDTV.....its just a good quality SDTV tuner. It has features built in to help with the quality of the picture.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

this is tempting, thanks for the heads up

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: biostud
I might get one once I shift to a PCIe board. I wonder if it supports HDTV, since it's not mentioned I doubt it.

Nope, no HDTV.....its just a good quality SDTV tuner. It has features built in to help with the quality of the picture.

Strange, well I guess I'll wait to see if they make a HDTV tuner.

 

[Duvie]

Is this something where to get the mpeg2 encoding support to work 3rd party software makers have to write the code for it?? If so is this just another feature that is going t lack for some time???

I almost find it easier to download CSI episodes in HDTV rips to Xvid 1.3 with no commercials then me doing it myself.....

I would have like to see a HDTV tuner or maybe an HDTV input so I can use the comcast box to import it to my computer...

has anyone noticed that newer DVR boxes has what appears to be firewire or USB plugs??? Is this for easy of downloading to a computer like a external drive???

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: biostud
I might get one once I shift to a PCIe board. I wonder if it supports HDTV, since it's not mentioned I doubt it.

Nope, no HDTV.....its just a good quality SDTV tuner. It has features built in to help with the quality of the picture.

Strange, well I guess I'll wait to see if they make a HDTV tuner.

They did make an HDTV tuner....it just doesn't have hardware encoding like this SDTV card does.
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=314569&pfp=BROWSE

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: biostud
I might get one once I shift to a PCIe board. I wonder if it supports HDTV, since it's not mentioned I doubt it.

Nope, no HDTV.....its just a good quality SDTV tuner. It has features built in to help with the quality of the picture.

It's not SDTV either, which comes as quite a disappointment. This is only an analog-tuner (525-line NTSC) card. FYI, SDTV is the digital version of the 480 resolution. From what I can tell, the chip itself does not support digital television. If you already have a Theater 200 series card, I say don't waste your money on this until you get a card that has both CATV and HDTV tuners (over-the-air and cable (encrypted QAM demodulation)) on it, if that's even possible. It should be possible, because:

1. ATSC specifies the same 6MHz wide signal as NTSC.
2. ATSC just contains digital MPEG2-encoded data within its signal range.

A few extra decoding DSPs and you'd have a great card that would have CATV and HDTV on it. It's only a matter of time. Infact, the HDTV Wonder has all of this, except for HDTV cable and Dolby 5.1(?) support. Best to wait until they get cable support figured out, though I heard each cable company may have its own kind of QAM encryption.

Any of you that have bought a card containing the Theater 550 chip on-board:

Has image noise reduction improved a lot, some, or is it hardly noticable?
Is the image any sharper than other TV chips?

Some screenshots would be nice as well, and comparisons even better.