Who will win this year PVR card ATI 650 or NVIDIA DualTV?.

[SHS]

We know about the DualTV and for you that haven't saw the ATI announced all ready it seem ATI Theater 650 Pro should be out in soon
I'm really excited about some of the new ATI Theater 650 Pro features
There pic rigth here
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4926

http://ir.ati.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=10...983&highlight=

So JEFF are work on this ??card?? I hear that BeyondTV is going to take advantage of Theater 650 Pro so where do you stand at with it.

[paulbeers]

I voted Nvidia becuase some how I can't bring myself to buy anything ATI (okay so one of my motherboards is an ATI express chipset, but that's it I swear!!!).

[SHS]

I voted for 650 the main reason for that becuases which I hope that it has Full GraphEdit like 550 support dose unlike DualTV.

[Narflex]

We will definitely be supporting the ATI 650 card. There's a good chance it'll work already with only a minor registry edit (if even that is needed).

[dvd_maniac]

To accelerate PC-based PVR apps, there's an on-board MPEG 2 encoder. The 650 will also record or convert files to MPEG 4, DivX, WMV9 and H.264, ATI said.

I got this from HERE...

Will Sage be able to take advantage of the H.264 recording feature or is that only to record the digital signal that is already in H.264?

[SHS]

dvd_maniac it unknow as weather or not it has a Hardware Transcoder
This what I said at HEXUS.community discussion forums

So the only new Specs I see are
Motion compensated noise reduction (this most be about aliasing artifacts or may be more for about moire patters artifacts).
Edge enhancement (you should know what this is for aka jaggies line or deinterlacer)
Now I wondering if add in quilting processing to all of this that really make thing look better.
Digital audio processing (?Hmmm I wonder what is?).

This seem to be an optional
ATSC Digital TV
DVB-T Digital TV

BooBooBoo
Hardware DRM engine.

Operating System
Windows 2000 (ATI get A++ for this).

But after closely reading everything it kind sound like this card dose have an hardware trasoncoding for High Definition to Standard Definition which is more managerable without bring down even the fastest PCs to a standstill.

Press Release

- Advanced video compression and conversion settings - Record or convert to MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, WMV9, H.264

Has a bit more info but dosen't say hardware conversion.

Multimedia Mike from ATI Technologies is on this forum
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=77340

[polen]

This is what I'm waiting for.

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/...spx?i=2662&p=2

Then I don't have to rent the cable box for the firewire. All I need to do is rent the cablecard for $3.00.

-Polen

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by polen

This is what I'm waiting for.

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/...spx?i=2662&p=2

Then I don't have to rent the cable box for the firewire. All I need to do is rent the cablecard for $3.00.

-Polen

Which raises the question... Will ATI be changing the OCUR device to use the 650 instead of the 550?

[polen]

I think so, This could be why they are waiting until the end of the year to market it.

-Polen

[dbfresh23]

Well no, they are waiting to market it because there is nothing available to run it right now. You'll need to buy a new cable labs certified pc in order to use the OCUR cablecard device. So they've said all along that it will be released along side Windows Vista which won't be available until at least early 07.

[stanger89]

Yeah, it sounds like it's going to take a lot of arm twisting to get CableLabs to bless a piecewise CableCard solution. One of those cases where it's good to have Microsoft on your side

[SHS]

bad news I found out that the 650 dosen't have a hardware trasoncoder it using ref to Soft Avivo Video Converter.

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by SHS

bad news I found out that the 650 dosen't have a hardware trasoncoder it using ref to Soft Avivo Video Converter.

If that is the case, then you would get hardware accelerated transcoding IF you have an X1xxx series ATI card. Not sure what happens if you don't, because the standalone avivo converter app won't run unless you have one of the new cards.

Can someone explain to me what digital tv support in the 650 means?

[stanger89]

I think the 650 (like the 550) is both a video decoder (meaning broadcast/modulated) and an MPEG encoder. The Hauppauge cards use two chips for the same purpose, I believe a Conexant CX2388x broadcast decoder and a CX23416 MPEG encoder.

The Digital TV support means the decoder portion can understand and pass through Digital TV signals.

[SHS]

The Conexant CX2388x dosen't count stanger89
Conexant has done CX2584x broadcast decoder and a CX23416 MPEG encoder in to one chip which know as CX23418 MPEG encoder.

I'm hopong but not 100% sure but if this is a hardware feature enhancement and soft decoder thing then both Motion compensated noise reduction and Edge enhancement should give it a big egde over other PVR card.

korben_dallas digital tv is the same as HDTV and DV and reat what stanger89 said.

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by SHS

korben_dallas digital tv is the same as HDTV and DV and reat what stanger89 said.

So you need a cable or satellite set top box which outputs a digital signal? Does such a thing exist, and with the correct connector type for the ATI card?

[SHS]

So you need a cable or satellite set top box which outputs a digital signal? Does such a thing exist, and with the correct connector type for the ATI card?

You can used SVideo or Composite output from settop box to the PVR input

[thatdude90210]

Anandtech looks at the Theater 650 vs Theater 550 vs Nvidia Dualtv.

Their take is that the 650 really does excel at image quality. I'm fairly happy with my current 2 theater 550 cards (much better at sports/fast moving pictures/quick scene transition than my old pvr250's), only wish they had better color saturation and more picture sharpness. The 650 seems to have addressed those complaints. As soon as Sagetv supports it, I'll be replacing my 550's with 650's.

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by SHS

You can used SVideo or Composite output from settop box to the PVR input

That is analog output from the STB which goes into the analog input on the 650. What I'm trying to figure out is what the digital decoder in the 650 does, since it certainly isn't CableCard. Are there video cameras which output signal in unprotected digital format?

[SHS]

thatdude90210 you should see my reply comment I made

korben_dallas the RF input is both an analog/digital input rolled in to one input
There are no STB that can output over RF in digital signal format far I know of.
Let put to you this way
Take an ATI Theater 550 Pro marred it with ATI HDTV Wonder = ATI Theater 650 Pro with only diff is that it has a Theater 311 demodulator not the NXT2004.