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TV Wonder USB 2.0

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Below you can read in depth information about the Ati TV Wonder USB 2.0. it is mostly technical information for those that wants more detail.

Today’s ATI Multimedia product line has expanded dramatically since its inception in 1996. The product line has grown to meet the needs of a wide variety of multimedia enthusiasts, with offerings ranging from our ALL-IN-WONDER graphics + TV + video editing solutions to our TV WONDER PCI add-in TV tuners to our HDTV WONDER digital TV receiver.

In recent memory, however, ATI multimedia TV products have been limited in one manner: they require a desktop PC to put an add-in card into. With the current product line offering extensive PCI and AGP solutions but no external solution, notebook users were left out of the picture. In the same vein, PC users who may not feel comfortable cracking open their case to install an add-in card (or simply do not want to deal with the hassle of it) have had no ATI option to turn to in recent memory.

It has been a little over four years since ATI offered an external PC TV tuner, but all of that changes today with the introduction of the TV WONDER USB 2.0. TV WONDER USB 2.0 is a new product for ATI and a revolutionary product for the multimedia industry.

By combining the video quality offered by the ATI THEATER 200 video decoder with the raw speed offered by the USB 2.0 (USB high-speed) bus, and putting the package together in a small and easy to install package, ATI is raising the bar on the external TV tuner market. Finally PC users can enjoy the quality of the ALL-IN-WONDER without opening their PC and notebook users can get the highest quality TV on their computer.

The TV WONDER USB 2.0 is an inexpensive and easy way to turn your LCD panel into an LCD TV with the power to pause and digitally record television broadcasts. With only 4 installation steps , it is easier than ever to get ALL-IN-WONDER quality on your computer. Plus, in addition to the advanced hardware capabilities that bring full quality video into the computer, the TV WONDER USB 2.0 is outfitted with MULTIMEDIA CENTER 9.02; ATI’s award winning software suite that gives the user the power to not only watch TV but record it, play it back, burn it to CD or DVD, or even export it to MPEG-4. Use MULTIMEDIA CENTER to automatically record your favorite shows to your laptop and play them back on the road.

The TV WONDER USB 2.0 was created to meet the needs of almost every consumer. The product was designed for those not comfortable opening their desktop PC to add in a PCI or AGP product and notebook users who, to date, have missed out on the multimedia quality that recent ATI products have offered. With the TV WONDER USB 2.0 the user gets unprecedented video quality with a compact and easy to install solution.

TV WONDER USB 2.0 customers are likely to be those who travel, multimedia enthusiasts, and those who don’t want to or are not comfortable opening up their desktop PC. TV WONDER USB 2.0 offers easy connectivity so you can take it anywhere and hook it up in a matter of seconds. Video enthusiasts can transform old VHS and camcorder movies into digital media through the composite and s-video inputs.

THEATER 200 Chip

At the heart of the TV WONDER USB 2.0 lies ATI’s THEATER 200 video decoder. This chip has proven itself as the industry leader in video decoding quality and has been present in ATI multimedia products since it made its first splash with the ALL-IN-WONDER Radeon 9700 Pro. It’s only logical that the TV WONDER USB 2.0 also harness the power the THEATER 200 holds in order to get the highest quality video into the computer.

The THEATER 200 is responsible for receiving analog video signals and transforming them into digital ITU-656 compliant video. The chip also captures sound IF or composite audio, performs audio demodulation and stereo decoding and outputs the audio via an I2S or VIP interface.

Once the signal is received from either the TV tuner or other device connected through the composite or s-video inputs, it is passed through an analog-to-digital converter. The signal is then sent through the video decoder which houses the comb filter. The THEATER 200 utilizes a 2D-3 line comb filter which is used to separate the color information and brightness information of the signal (this is the case except for when an s-video input is used).

These two signals make up what is known as a Y/C signal or luminance and chrominance. From this point, the Y/C signal is passed into the video scaler which adjusts the size or zoom rate of the video to be displayed on the screen. Both the video scaler and the comb filter are important features of the chip because if not properly implemented, artifacts and blockiness will be introduced into the video. After the video is scaled it is changed into a digital format recognized by the video card and then it is displayed on your monitor or other viewing device.

What makes the THEATER 200 better then competing solutions is a combination of the features of the chip and how it is integrated with the TV WONDER USB 2.0. The 2D 3-line comb filter is the best in the market in terms of color separation and speed. The dual 12 bit analog-to-digital converters (ADC’s) in the THEATER 200 assure that the digital signal replicates the analog to the highest degree possible (competing products use dual 9-bit analog-to-digital converters). Through years of experience implementing the THEATER 200, ATI engineers have learned to utilize the THEATER chip to its fullest potential, resulting in the highest quality video output possible on today’s video decoder chips. The TV WONDER USB 2.0 provides another example of the power the THEATER 200 holds.

Key TV WONDER USB 2.0 Features

The quality of video delivered through the TV WONDER USB 2.0 far surpasses that of any other USB TV tuner device presently on the market. One of the ways that the TV WONDER USB 2.0 can do this is via the method used to transfer information from the external device to the host. In summary, there are two types of USB ports currently available: USB 1.1 (sometimes called USB Full Speed), and USB 2.0 (sometimes called USB High Speed). The difference between these two standards is the amount of information they can transfer over the USB bus to the host. USB 2.0 transfer rates are up to 480 Mbps, whereas USB 1.1 rates are capped at only 10 Mbps. Right away the TV WONDER USB 2.0 has a clear advantage over competing USB 1.1 devices on the market; it’s ability to transfer larger amounts of high quality data to the host. The USB 2.0 standard has taken the computer industry by storm over the past few years, and because of this, essentially all computers which are newer than 3 years old are equipped with USB 2.0 ports.

Digitized, uncompressed television signals have a bandwidth of 37Mbs, which makes it impossible for USB 1.1 devices to transmit this data over the USB bus. To make up for the lower bandwidth, existing external TV devices have three options to reduce the amount of data transferred: lower the resolution of the video transmitted (usually down from 640x480 to 320x240), compress the video before it is transmitted, or both. The first option results in a loss of quality because after the resolution in reduced, the video needs to be stretched out to be displayed on a monitor that typically has a resolution of 1024x760 or greater. This results in the picture appearing blocky and blurry because the computer cannot fill in the missing data in the stretched out video.

With the advent of USB 2.0, these USB 1.1 transfer issues are no longer a problem. By utilizing the full bandwidth of USB 2.0, uncompressed video at full resolution can be transferred with plenty of bandwidth to spare for other devices. The TV WONDER USB 2.0 utilizes this bandwidth and the quality difference is very clear. For comparison sake, let’s take a look at the other external solutions on the market.

The Hauppauge WinTV USB reduces the resolution from 640x480 down to 320x240 before sending video to the PC. What about the Hauppauge WinTV PVR? Well that product uses poor quality compression to lower the amount of data being transferred. In fact, only the Avermedia Ultra TV USB 300 makes use of the bandwidth of USB 2.0, but because Avermedia does not have access to ATI’s THEATER 200 chip, the video quality of the TV WONDER USB 2.0 is still much greater.

Since the USB bus passes information directly through the CPU The data can be very taxing on the processor. Although USB 2.0 is able to transfer at speeds of 40x faster then USB 1.1, this doesn’t mean that it uses 40x the CPU utilization, mainly because the transfer methods are much more efficient with USB 2.0. Many users of USB TV devices may want to multitask and therefore CPU utilization is very important. To compare the CPU utilization, below is a chart measuring the utilization during different activities. The results are measured in percentages.

TV @ 320x240, TV @ 640x480, TV @ 1024x768

TV WONDER USB 2.0 14, 13.8, 14

UltraTV USB 300 15.3, 15.8, 15.3

WinTV PVR 16, 16, 16

WinTV USB 6.5, 8, 12.5

TV @ 640x480 – Time Shifting, TV @ 640x480 – MPEG2 Recording

TV WONDER USB 2.0 28.4, 33.4

UltraTV USB 300 29, 37

WinTV PVR 17, 15

WinTV USB --, 17- MPEG1

Overall the WinTV USB had the lowest CPU utilization in all but one test (excluding time shifting which is not available on that model). This should not be surprising, as the WinTV USB sends uncompressed, half resolution video to the host at which time it is stretched out and displayed or compressed by performing a recording. The WinTV USB is not capable of time shifting, but during MPEG1 recording the CPU utilization is significantly higher because of the MPEG encoding process. The WinTV PVR devices compresses the full resolution video before transmitting and then uses the CPU to decode the video. The reason why the CPU utilization is the same whether recoding is happening or not is that the CPU doesn’t have to undergo MPEG encoding which is a CPU intensive task. Both the Avermedia Ultra TV USB 300 and ATI TV WONDER USB 2.0 use full resolution, uncompressed transfer across the USB bus. Although the data transmission is the same, the TV WONDER USB 2.0 manages to have a slightly lower CPU utilization and a difference is seen in the quality of the video because the TV WONDER USB 2.0 utilizes the THEATER 200 chip.

ATI offers a consistent user interface allowing the end user to have ultimate control over their viewing environment, capture preferences, display options, and content replay. Easy to read on screen instructions make MULTIMEDIA CENTER easy to install and features such as Tool Tips make the application even easier to use. When you become more comfortable with MULTIMEDIA CENTER many advanced features are available to customize the applications and enhance the user experience.

New with TV WONDER USB 2.0 is a special configuration utility, found in the configuration page of MULTIMEDIA CENTER.

Since TV WONDER USB 2.0 is an external device, these settings will allow the user to customize the transfer settings between the PC and the device. Users will have the option of changing transfer modes in order to minimize CPU usage and maximize the quality of video while ensuring compatibility with a wide number of system configurations.

Depending on the speed of your system and the different peripherals you have connected, the performance of your TV WONDER USB 2.0 may be affected. To ensure that the TV WONDER USB 2.0 works on all systems MULTIMEDIA CENTER gives the user the ability to switch between ISOC and BULK USB modes. ISOC is the default setting and means that the TV WONDER USB 2.0 will share equal amounts of the USB bandwidth with other devices connected to the system. When switched to Bulk mode, any other USB devices connected to the system will be given less bandwidth and the TV WONDER USB 2.0 will use an increased amount. This will increase the quality of playback on slower systems, or systems which have many USB devices connected.

The Use Reduced USB Bandwidth feature gives the user to option to change the resolution of the video being transferred across the USB bus. Rather then transferring at 640x480, the video is scaled down so that less information needs to be transferred. The reason why some faster systems may have trouble transmitting full resolution is that some USB 2.0 implementations do not offer the full bandwidth stated by the USB 2.0 specification, and therefore the system has difficulty transferring at the full resolution.

Another feature of the TV WONDER USB 2.0 is that it is Hot Pluggable. This means that it can be plugged in at any time even while the computer is already started. As seen in the picture above, the user can choose whether or not to start TV when the device is initially plugged in. This is yet another feature in ATI’s never ending goal to enhance the user experience. If the TV application is launched when the device is not plugged in, the user will receive the following error message.

When using MULTIMEDIA CENTER with TV WONDER USB 2.0, you will have access to the same suite of applications available with ATI’s ALL-IN-WONDER products.

The TV application offers a range of Personal Video Recorder (PVR) functions, such as TV-ON-DEMAND (time shifting) which allows the user to pause, rewind, and record live TV. Below is a screenshot of the control panel when TV-on-Demand is active. As seen in the picture, the TV is currently in Live mode. With the touch of the Pause button, the PVR will begin recording video and then by simply pressing play the video will continue where it left off. The jog shuttle bar is there for the convenience of searching through the recorded content. The user also has the ability to customize recording options and apply VIDEOSOAP to their recordings.

VIDEOSOAP is a MULTIMEDIA CENTER feature used to clean up a noisy or distorted video signal.

When the TV WONDER USB 2.0 is used with ATI’s REMOTE WONDER™ ( it is not included but can be purchase separately), users will have the option of using EASYLOOK™ which offers the ability to use MULTIMEDIA CENTER applications from a distance and easily navigate through the entire suite of applications.

The MULTIMEDIA CENTER Library allows users to easily manage all of their multimedia content. It prevents recorded shows from eating up hard drive space, integrates CD and DVD burning and allows users to transcode any previously recorded video so that it can be put onto a DVD, or shrunk so that it can be viewed using your portable media devices.

Other features available with TV WONDER USB 2.0 include full closed captioning, Teletext support, on supported models, and TVTV for PC in Europe.

MULTIMEDIA CENTER is in constant development to enhance the user experience. Users are able to download an online upgrade monthly to ensure they have access to all of the latest and greatest features of MULTIMEDIA CENTER. By coupling the TV WONDER USB 2.0 with this award winning software, users have all the resources needed to fulfill their wildest multimedia desires.

The TV WONDER USB 2.0 is ATI’s first external TV tuner since the original TV WONDER USB four years ago and rounds out the TV WONDER product line. By utilizing the new USB 2.0 architecture and proven THEATER 200 technology, users are able to get ALL-IN-WONDER quality on their computers without the hassle of opening up the system. The TV WONDER USB 2.0 is intended for users who are looking for portability and ease of use in their products, but still desire the quality of an internal desktop solution. The TV WONDER-series products are currently the best selling TV add-in products with over 70% of the market space.

TV WONDER USB 2.0 FAQ

1. What is the TV WONDER USB 2.0?

TV WONDER USB 2.0 is a high quality, low cost external TV tuner solution that easily plugs into both desktops and notebooks.

2. What video formats does the TV WONDER USB 2.0 support?

TV WONDER USB 2.0 captures video in a variety of formats including: AVI, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and WMV.

3. Where will the TV WONDER USB 2.0 be sold?

TV WONDER USB 2.0 will be sold by major computer retailers as well as by www.ATI.com

4. What graphics cards can I use with the TV WONDER USB 2.0?

TV WONDER USB 2.0 requires a video card with 16-bit, VGA, graphics and a sub-system supporting DirectX® overlay. Certain features, such as EAZYLOOK and THRUVIEW, are only available when the TV WONDER USB 2.0 is used in systems powered by ATI RADEON graphics chips.

5. What operating systems will TV WONDER USB 2.0 support? Is there a version for Apple computers?

TV WONDER USB 2.0 is designed to operate with Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 2000. While no support is currently provided for Apple computer users, ATI is committed to the Apple product line and continues to support the Apple community.

6. Can TV WONDER USB 2.0 be used in conjunction with an ALL-IN-WONDER video card?

TV WONDER USB 2.0 can be used simultaneously with ALL-IN-WONDER however only one product at a time can be used to watch TV or capture video to the computer’s hard drive.

7. Will TV WONDER USB 2.0 work with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition?

TV WONDER USB 2.0 will be sold as a retail product and will support Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows XP Home and Professional. ATI Products designed for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition can be purchased as part of complete computer systems from manufacturers that support Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition.

8. Does TV WONDER USB 2.0 work in North America and Europe?

TV WONDER USB 2.0 will have be available in separate versions for North America and Europe. 9. Why is there a light on TV WONDER USB 2.0?

9. TV WONDER USB 2.0 includes a built-in light to indicate when the unit is connected to both a power outlet and a USB port.

10. Why does TV WONDER USB 2.0 need an external power supply?

TV WONDER USB 2.0 requires an external power supply to ensure the highest quality of video input to the computer. Due to power limitations on the USB 2.0 bus, a USB 2.0 connection alone cannot guarantee high quality video due to system requirements.

11. What does TV WONDER USB 2.0 connect to? Can I receive HDTV through the pod?

TV WONDER USB 2.0 features a single f-connector for connection to a cable outlet or powered antenna, audio-in with left and right RCA connectors, video-in with composite and s-video connectors, a USB 2.0 port and a power adapter port.

TV WONDER USB 2.0 is designed to receive analog signals only.

12. Does TV WONDER USB 2.0 include a REMOTE WONDER?

Although no remote control is included with the TV WONDER USB 2.0, customers are eligible for a special 50% off offer on the REMOTE WONDER from www.ATI.com

Details are found on the TV WONDER USB 2.0 giftbox.

High quality video is something that all ATI multimedia product users have become accustomed to over the past decade. The TV WONDER USB 2.0 offers the same stunning video quality offered in all ATI products. Below is a comparison demonstrating the differences between today’s competing external USB TV tuner devices.

The products included in this comparison are: Hauppauge’s WinTV USB and WinTV USB PVR, Avermedia’s UltraTV USB 300, and ATI’s TV WONDER USB 2.0. The comparison will focus on the quality of the video decoder, but more specifically on the comb filter and the overall quality of video as seen by the end user. An identical series of test pictures will be sent through each USB device so that an accurate comparison can be made.

Products comparison chart, Video Decoder Transfer, Type Compression?, Transfer resolution

ATI TV WONDER USB 2.0 ATI THEATER 200 USB 2.0 NO 640x480

Avermedia UltraTV USB 300 Phillips USB 2.0 NO 640x480

Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB Phillips USB 1.1 YES 640x480

Hauppauge WinTV USB Phillips USB 1.1 NO 320x240

What’s Inside the box:

TV WONDER USB 2.0 external device

External enclosure with a single f-connector, audio in (Left and Right RCA), video in

(composite and s-video), USB 2.0 port and power adapter port

Cables and Adapters:

1 – USB 2.0 cable

1 – 6V power supply

Setup and Installation:

1 - Installation and Setup Guide (on CD)

1 - Multimedia Center User Guide (on CD)

1 - ATI Driver and Utility CD (includes ATI Multimedia Center 9.02 software)

System Requirements:

Computer System:

Intel® Pentium® 4/II/II/Celeron, AMD(R) K6/Athlon or compatible

USB 2.0 Port

128MB of system memory

16-bit, VGA, graphics with sub-system supporting DirectX® overlay

Installation software requires CD-ROM or DVD drive

DVD playback requires DVD drive

Sound card supported by Windows

Interactive Program Guide requires internet connection (North America Only)

Operating System:

Windows XP

Windows 2000*

*Windows 2000 support requires latest updates from Microsoft

Pricing and Availability:

The TV WONDER USB 2.0 will have a SRP (suggested retail price) of $99 USD. It will be available from shop@ATI.com as well as major retailers world-wide in September 2004.

Warranty:

The TV WONDER USB 2.0 has a 3 year limited warranty.