PowerColor 550 Theater Pro TV Tuner

Reviews: Multimedia

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Richard Poelling
Kurtis
PowerColor
Feb. 20, 2005

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Introduction

TV ain't what it used to be. With the dominance of digital cable, satellite TV, and now DVR, you don't just watch TV, you control it! DVR has really come into its own over the last couple of years as many cable companies are now offering these recorders to their customers (for a fee of course). For people who aren't interested in the offerings of the local cable company, many are turning to pre-built media center machines or even building their own. It is this very trend which spurred Microsoft to create their Windows Media Center Edition version of Windows XP. As the location computer's environment changes, so must its interface and capabilities. This now leads us to the question: "What really makes a computer a Media computer?" There can be many answers to this question, but perhaps the most important feature is the ability to watch and record TV.

It is this very feature that I will be focusing on today. In my hands I have PowerColor's new Theater 550 Pro TV Tuner card. This card should allow me to convert my regular old computer into a digital powerhouse, or at least I should be able to watch a little TV with it. This card should also allow me to listen to FM radio and input various video signals into my computer for editing. Included with the card is a remote which every self-respecting media jockey must wield. But enough talk, let's kick back and watch some TV! err! I mean, test this card!

First Impressions

The PowerColor 550 Theater uses the newly designed ATI 550 Theater chipset (go figure). This particular chipset includes such features as noise filtering and a 3D comb filter which scans a frame ahead and calculates what the picture should look like. This all translates to, supposedly, a better picture with lower power consumption and CPU load. ATI seems to say it much better, stating: "Intelligent noise reduction algorithm cleans up snow and other unsightly artifacts from your video source with dedicated hardware, resulting in better looking captures that take up less disk space." So that crappy cable connection I have going shouldn't be a problem! I will most definitely be testing this functionality out later in the review.

Besides all these great new enhancements found in the 550 chipset, PowerColor has also included some of their own with an FM receiver, so you can add one more piece of equipment your computer has replaced to the list. The TV signal isn't the only signal the PowerColor 550 can handle either; using the inputs on the card, you can attach any video signal you can find the right cabling for to this card. If it has an output, then the PowerColor 550 wants it! (Kurtis' Note: This card is starting to sound sluttish!) Enough about what it is supposed to do, let's see what this thing comes with. In the package is an FM antenna, a video input dongle, a remote control, a receiving unit for the remote, 2 x AAA batteries, software and the manual. The software and the included remote are both made by Cyberlink. Besides the usual drivers and control software, they have included a disc titled "DVD Solutions." Included on this disc are: PowerDirector SE+, MediaShow SE, PowerDVD, PowerProducer DVD and Power2Go. These utilities will most likely be for editing your captures.

Your main interface into the PowerColor 550 will of course be the remote control. Looking at the included remote, I can tell that this thing is packed with features - or at least the remote thinks it is. I don't think my TV remote has this many buttons... The shape is a bit odd, but I doubt it will have any problem hiding in my couch cushions with the rest of the remotes. I do have a little concern about the remote's ergonomics, but I will not pass judgment until I can really put it through some channel surfing. Tough job.

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Page 1: Introduction / First Impressions
Page 2: Features & Testing
Page 3: Conclusion

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14 User Comments

1 - Posted by SAMSAMHA on February 21, 2005 - 2:42 am

VERY NICE card. Cool review.

2 - Posted by Rich on February 21, 2005 - 8:38 am

Thanks, yes the card is nice. Too bad the software doesn't live up to it though. :(

3 - Posted by Guest on February 22, 2005 - 3:02 am

If all you are comparing to is the USB VideoMate, you better make that clear in your recommendation - "better than the VideoMate". Please compare to other cards before saying this card could "revolutionize the quality of TV on the computer." My findings are the card is a major disappointment. Image quality was not nearly as good as the PVR150 or even the NVTV.

4 - Posted by Guest on February 22, 2005 - 8:32 am

Same as the above comment, you kept saying the software "lacks setting" for about 5 times, but other than it does not allows you to choose save video folder and bitrate(which average user has no idea what it meant), you failed to identify precisely what is lacking in settings, and what is wrong with the software for that matter. Similarly, how is MCE superior compared to it? A good review requires not only judgement but a better support of the statement.

5 - Posted by Guest on February 22, 2005 - 11:36 am

I'd like to throw my two cents in here and mention that the AIW 9600 uses ATI's proprietary Multimedia Center (MMC) software suite. This has excellent configurability, and it is a source of great consternation to ATI devotees (like myself) that the company has not seen fit to make this chip compatible with it. All the previous ATI Theater chips (100, 200) have worked wonderfully with MMC, and it was expected this new generation 550 Pro chip would be king of the heap. ATI must've had a lapse of reason on this one...
We're now waiting on the new version of MMC 9.0.6 to address this shortcoming.

6 - Posted by Guest on February 22, 2005 - 10:28 pm

Due to the time to market need, ATI only certified 550 on MCE and WinXP, not Win2K

Also, ATI did not expose proprietary functions to external software vendors, hence the lack of ability for customization.

MMC is a 2-foot application, it is not a comparable product to that of a 10-foot MCE-like application.

7 - Posted by Guest on February 24, 2005 - 8:02 am

Exactly which Compro model did you compare the PowerColor to? Was it the "VideoMate Live USB2" or an older USB model ? Also, have you compared it to The Lifeview Walker Ultra ?

8 - Posted by Guest on February 25, 2005 - 11:09 pm

How do you compare the quality of the USB2 Compro and the PowerColor when capturing VHS ? And how would you rate either with conventional methods which capture VHS as AVI or Dv and then have it recoded to mpeg-1 for VCDs ? Is there a noticeable difference? thanks

9 - Posted by SlipSand on March 3, 2005 - 4:37 pm

Do you think it would be possible to buy your own software that would use the card properly?

10 - Posted by DnD on March 3, 2005 - 10:12 pm

That would be specially made I think and cost lots.

11 - Posted by Rich on March 3, 2005 - 10:54 pm

Since this card is so new, I imagine it will take some time for third party software vendors to integrate it into their new packages. That is assuming that ATI is even willing to let that happen.

12 - Posted by SlipSand on March 4, 2005 - 6:16 pm

Ohh I was just wondering I wanted a TV tuner for football season next year.

13 - Posted by Guest on April 21, 2005 - 2:24 am

Software is so bad I have complained to ATI since I got it and it is not as functional as cheaper ATI cards. The picture is not that much better so go with another card unless all you want to do is watch TV, and if you do a cheap TV beats the picture quality anyway.

14 - Posted by Guest on June 9, 2005 - 8:38 pm

Ditto to all the previous posts. This card is so bad that I already return my to Newegg. The Cyberlink software and the immature driver development from ATI kills what otherwise could have been a great Video Card.

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