ATI's HDTV Wonder - Bringing DTV to your PC
by Andrew Ku on June 22, 2004 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
DTV Player - DTV Time-shifted (continued)
If you are watching DTV content within the DTV player, you get ATI's permanent indicators like in the TV player. The only problem we had was that sometimes we didn't pick up the parental rating for a TV program, but this seems to be a result of the broadcaster rather than ATI's HDTV Wonder or DTV player.
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Because DTV streams contain more data than analog signals, broadcasters also distribute program information, which is why ATI doesn't need GuidePlus' Gemstar EPG for the DTV player. The limitation is that the broadcast program guide information is limited to the currently playing program or the one following it. For a more comprehensive listing, an EPG is still needed, which is why we were constantly referring to the installed EPG to find what and when something was playing (we just checked the equivalent analog signal in the EPG).
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Whether it is a good or a bad thing, ATI has decided to implement TV-On-Demand/time-shifting for the DTV player. This option cannot be disabled. And because time-shifting is always on, there needs to be hard drive space allotted specifically for ATI to perform temporary storage in their proprietary VCR format (format cannot be changed for time-shifting).
The preset storage location for all DTV timeshifted and recorded content (scheduled or manually recorded) is on C drive at C:\document and settings\application data\ATI MMC. If you select X drive in the set-up wizard, the DTV player will simply create a X:\document and settings\application data\ATI MMC data path for storage. We recorded a typical hour long HDTV show in 1080i format with non-HDTV commercials that ended up being 8.7GB (actually 1 hour and 5 minutes long to catch trailing content). With a 100% 1080i 30 minute segment of a baseball game, we were running at about a 4.2GB file.
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Another benefit of DTV signals is that broadcasters can send out multiple audio streams for a signal program, which is mainly a benefit for those who need to hear the program in another language.
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oupei - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
output goes to you video card, many of which have DVI. dunno of any that have component video though...devonz - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
Why am I limited to watching my HDTV signals on my monitor instead of my nice big HDTV television? In other words, why no component output cable, or DVI? Just a thought :) -Devonlebe0024 - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
"With HDTV slowing becoming the standard"Do you guys READ the stuff you write? It's the first sentence for crying out loud.
skunkbuster - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
it looks kind of basic/generic for something that costs $200...Aquila76 - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
Great, $200 more to spend when I build my new PC in a couple months!johnsonx - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
What's ATI's position on combining an HDTV Wonder with an existing All-in-Wonder 9600/9700/9800 card? Specifically, what level of 2-tuner and PiP support will be available? Will using both together be kludgy or seamless?Those who have AIW based HTPC's will be eager to know this.
Doormat - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - link
Sad this card doesnt support QAM, my cable co puts out local HD channels in the clear. Then there is the new CableCard standard.Of course, if it had a firewire port and appropriate software, I could hook it up to my HD set and record software!