Hello again, my name is Rodney Reynolds and welcome to another video review. Today I'm looking at the ATI TV Wonder Elite.
Included in this package is a software CD, a user’s guide, an FM antenna, a composite cable, an S video cable, and an input adaptor. At the front there are a number of connections, S video, composite video and audio. And this end gets plugged into the TV Wonder Elite. Included as well is a remote control, two batteries, a USB remote receiver, and the TV Wonder Elite.
This TV Wonder product comes with a very powerful Theater 550 chip. It also has a TV and FM tuner. And right here is where the cable gets connected, FM antenna, and the input adaptor.
Now let’s take a look at the remote Wonder Plus remote control. Due to the Power Cinema software, there are a number of buttons which are not used. Here are the programmable buttons, help, open/close Power Cinema, launch the default DVD player, FM, TV, maximize/restore the foreground window if possible, the thumb pad which will allow you to move the cursor around the screen freely, right mouse and left mouse button. You can increase or decrease the volume as well as increasing or decreasing the channel. Mute, rewind, fast forwarded, play, record, stop, pause, up/down/left/right arrows and OK in the center. Finally, at the bottom is the number pad.
The following Theater 550 Pro demonstration was provided by ATI Technologies. Now let’s have a closer look at what this chip can do. High motion sequences. The Theater 550 Pro houses and industry leading 2D 5-line comb filter. The comb filter uses 5-lines of video to best determine how to represent each of the lines that comprise the frame. The Theater 550 Pro is a high horsepower chip with plenty of memory bandwidth, so frames will never be dropped, ensuring smooth video capture. Here is a high motion sequence in the original footage. Now with current technology, Note the drop frames. And with the Theater 550 Pro, no drop frames.
3D comb filter. Inside of the Theater 550 Pro, you will find a 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. Here is the original footage. With combing filter using current technology. And now the 3D comb filter with the Theater 550 Pro.
Accurate video capture. Thanks to the Theater 550 Pro’s built in technology, you can capture the best video possible. The IF demodulation, followed by video and audio decoding, and finally mpeg encoding are optimized to work together to produce the sharpest video possible. Here is the original footage. Now the video capture with current technology. And accurate video capture with the Theater 550 Pro.
Audio video synchronization. The Theater 550 Pro is the first ATI video decoder to implement digital audio processing. Along with the video, the audio stream is passed directly into the Theater 550 Pro chip, digitized with a 12 bit analog to digital converter and sent to the mpeg encoder. Thus the audio and video are always 100 percent synchronized as they are being captured. Software based encoder solutions cannot achieve this level of synchronization.
Gamma burst. Bright burst 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 smooths out the analog signal. Have a look at the original footage. The gamma burst with current technology. And now on the Theater 550 Pro.
And lastly, let’s take a look at noise reduction. 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 original footage. Now noise reduction with current technology. And finally on the Theater 550 Pro.
Power Cinema is a unique all in one software package that offers exceptional video, photo, TV, and radio enjoyment through an easy to understand user interface that can be navigated using a keyboard, mouse, and remote control. The program allows you to view your favorite video files and create digital photos slide shows. You can also combined everything necessary for complete media entertainment into one program that you can enjoy on a PC monitor or a TV.
Set up is very simple. Just follow the on screen step by step instructions. First select the display type. Next the audio output. Your TV connection. The country. And finally, scan for the TV channels. Now you can easily navigate what you want to view or listen to by selecting TV, videos, pictures, or radio. And there are other options available in the settings area.
Within the TV area of Power Cinema, there are a number of options. You can go full screen. You can watch recorded TV. You can schedule a program. You can adjust the settings. You can also preview all the channels in your area.
At the bottom left, there are a number of buttons. Record, pause, rewind, forward, to start a recording, to end a recording, you can decrease the volume, mute, increase the volume, also changing the channel from previous to next. There's a window mode. You can have a video desktop, and take snap shots.
As mentioned previously, this product is capable of FM radio. First the software will auto scan and find all the local stations. It will then show a complete station listing for your area. You can add a station to your favorites list, delete, add a station manually, adjust settings, schedule to record radio, and listen to recorded radio. At the bottom left are a number of buttons. Record, play, scan backward and forward, fine tune down and up, decrease or increase volume, and finally the mute button.
The TV tuner product itself is fantastic but the software is very weak. Power Cinema tends to crash every now and then. Changing channels is terribly slow. And if you want to input TV through the S video or composite video connection, you can't do it currently. I don’t know, I suspect, the Power Cinema will have some updates on the software to maybe improve a lot of these things. But I think that they should included another software package with this particular product. But overall it’s a kickass product.
Again, my name is Rodney Reynolds and this has been another video review. Be sure to check back very soon. I will have a brand new one for you then. Also pop into my website at www.3Dgameman.com. And while you're there, you can go into the forums and register. And remember, registration is completely free. Also keep in mind, you can find a lot more on this product in the forums. And as a final note, if you love watching my video reviews, please help support 3Dgameman.com. Until the next time, take care.