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Review: ATI's TV Wonder USB 2.0

by Ryszard Sommefeldt on 28 October 2004, 00:00

Tags: ATi Technologies (NYSE:AMD)

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Inside the ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0, Bundle

Inside view
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The TV Wonder's PCB is dominated by the large Philips tuner. Signals from that are then sent to the Theater 200 for processing.

Theater 200

The Theater then communicates with an Altera Acex EP1K30TC144-2 programmable ASIC, housed on the back of the PCB, which appears to connect the Theater 200 to the USB interface, acting as a helper chip. The interface itself is a Cypress CY7C68013-56PVC, which has 8K of internal buffer memory and is responsible for the TV Wonder's communication with the outside world.

With the cover back on and the requisite cables connected (TV aerial, power and USB2.0 in the photograph), the TV Wonder looks like so.

Action
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Bundle

The TV Wonder was a press sample, so as such it arrived without a retail box or bundle goodies. However it was supplied with the basics of all TV Wonder retail bundles, so I'll cover those.

Bundle
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The mains plug is an obvious necessity, with the review sample arriving with a set of interchangeable sockets, for use in countries with a different plug system. The PSU accepts universal input voltage, although it's unclear if that PSU is the one that will ship worldwide.

You also get the USB data cable, along with an RGB-to-S-Video input convertor, for capturing from an RGB video source. A nice, low-cost inclusion, increasing the value and flexibility of the package as a whole.

Retail versions will also come with the driver and software CD needed to get the hardware up and running. ATI leave it up to their AIBs after that, as far as extra software goes.