What does this mean? (ati 8500 hdtv ready)

[ivwshane]

I was looking at the ati faq page for their all in wonder radeon 8500 series and it had this question and answer;

Q9: What does ATI mean when they say that the RADEON? 8500 is "HDTV ready"? What can a user do with the RADEON? 8500 HDTV decode capability?


A9: RADEON? 8500 is capable of decoding all of the HDTV formats with reduced CPU utilization and of directly driving both analog and digital high definition displays. RADEON? 8500 achieves its decode capability through motion compensation and iDCT and without the need for any external hardware. When RADEON? 8500 is used with the appropriate DTV tuner and DTV demodulator software, the user is be able to view HDTV on their monitor or TV.

By DTV tuner what are they referring to? Is it an external decoder box or simply software?

If I have an HDTV ready set like a Sony XBR and an all in wonder 8500 with the vga-to-component dongle will I be able to output HDTV signal to the tv, what about a DVD will it be in progressive scan? How about just the normal computer desktop will it be at high resolution?

 

[Viper96720]

DTV is a Digital TV Tuner. But the way they word it sounds like its software their talking about.
When RADEON? 8500 is used with the appropriate DTV tuner and DTV demodulator software. So are they saying it's all software or the demodulator is software and the tuner is hardware.
ATI has this for hdtv http://www.ati.com/products/pc/hdtvadapter/