VisionTek TV Wonder 650PCIe

INTRODUCTION

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Anyone who is into computers will not be surprised to find that it is extremely easy to watch TV on your computer.  In fact, all you need is a simple TV tuner.  These TV tuners come in variety of shapes and forms.  You can find an internal TV tuner for PCI and PCIe or an external TV tuner with a USB connector.  A TV tuner card can be as simple as a receptor to receive TV signals while a more complex TV tuner card can do more.  It can function as a personal video recorder (PVR) which allows you to record and stream digital contents.

The core of any TV tuner is the chip that is designed to receive the signal.  Currently, there are various chips that are designed to receive different signals.  If you have purchased a TV tuner two years ago, you are most likely to have a card that only receives analog signal.  Lately, the newer tuner card comes with digital tuner receivers which receives DVB or ATSC transmissions.  Many newer and more expensive tuners even come with both tuners (combo) where users are able to receive both signals.  A combo tuner is different from hybrid tuner.  A combo tuner can receive both digital and analog together to allow users to watch TV coming from both signals while a hybrid tuner can only receive one or the other.

AMD (ATI) was the leader in the PVR with their All-in-Wonder graphic card (where a powerful graphic card that function as both a gaming card and PVR).  Unfortunately, AMD has decided to abandon any further development of All-in-Wonder all together and focusing on gaming graphic cards.  Luckily, AMD has not totally abandoned their development of multimedia add-on cards as their hardware can be considered as some of the best.  Their latest TV Wonder 650 line-up has combined many proven technologies into one of the arguably best TV tuner card found on a consumer desktop.  Today, we will take a look at one of the best of the bunch, courtesy of VisionTek—The VisionTek TV Wonder 650 PCIe.

THE COMPANY

VisionTek is a leading supplier of 3D graphics cards and PC enhancement products to retailers and Consumers. Based out of Inverness, IL, VisionTek brings the most innovative and best performing products to the PC enthusiast consumer market. We are further committed to exemplary customer service and support for all of our products. VisionTek is a "Premium Retail Partner" of ATI for North America and our award winning brand of graphics card solutions continue to set the standard for excellence in the US retail market. VisionTek products can be found at Best Buy, Circuit City, COMP USA, Fry’s electronics, Micro Center, Wal-Mart and other leading retail/e-commerce sites in North America.