Hardware MPEG2 TV tuner round-up

DirectX 9-class graphics cards have been available for some time, but a year ago, hardware MPEG2 TV tuners were only widely available from Hauppauge. This situation changed recently with the release of ATI’s TV Wonder Elite and NVIDIA’s NVTV, both of which offer hardware MPEG2 encoding. Hauppauge has also been busy revising and expanding its PVR lineup with products specifically designed for Media Center Edition 2005. But which hardware MPEG2 TV tuner reigns supreme? We’ve rounded up ATI’s TV Wonder Elite, NVIDIA’s NVTV, and Hauppauge’s PVR-150MCE-l.p to find out.

A trio of hardware MPEG2 tuners

At a glance
Before we dive further into the specifics of each card, let’s take some time to compare some of their key features.

Although all three cards feature hardware MPEG2 encoding, each uses a different encoder chip. Of the three cards, ATI’s TV Wonder Elite is the only one to use an MPEG2 encoder that was developed in-house. eVGA’s NVTV takes a different approach and uses LSI Logic’s DVXplore, which is a part of NVIDIA’s reference design for the NVTV. Hauppauge has a history of using Conexant chips, and the PVR-150-l.p. integrates Conexant’s latest CX23416 low-power MPEG2 encoder.

Since MPEG2 encoders can’t decode cable signals on their own, TV tuner cards also need a decoder. ATI’s Theater 550 Pro integrates the MPEG2 encoder and TV decoder into a single chip design, while the NVTV and PVR-150MCE-l.p. use Philips and Conexant decoders, respectively. A single-chip design can reduce board complexity, but shouldn’t offer any tangible benefits to end users over two-chip designs.

Since decoder chips need a signal to decode, each card has a tuner to interface with cable TV, over-the-air, and FM radio signals. ATI and eVGA equip their cards with silicon tuners, while Hauppauge uses an old-school analog tuner. Silicon tuners can theoretically offer superior image quality to analog tuners, but we’ll have to see if this proves true for the cards we’ve assembled today.

While we’re looking at tuners, note that all of these cards use standard-definition TV (SDTV) tuners that cannot decode over-the-air high-definition TV (HDTV) signals. This limits each TV tuner’s input quality to 480i, as regulated by the FCC.

All three cards in this round-up are physically low profile in height, but the PVR-150MCE l.p. is the only card with the appropriate back plate for low-profile cases. It may be possible to modify the ATI and eVGA cards to fit inside low-profile enclosures, but probably not without voiding their warranties.

PVR bling
ATI’s multimedia stable is divided into two product groups: Swiss Army knife All-in-Wonder cards and stand alone TV Wonder products. The product lineups co-exist, with the AIW integrating video capture and TV tuning into a regular graphics card while the TV wonder concentrates purely on TV tuning. ATI’s latest addition to the TV Wonder lineup is the TV Wonder Elite, which sits above the mainstream TV Wonder Pro and replaces the OEM-only E-Home Wonder. The TV Wonder Elite is ATI’s first retail TV Wonder with hardware MPEG2 encoding capabilities and support for Windows Media Center Edition 2005.

Aesthetically, the TV Wonder Elite strays from the norm and comes on a dark purple board. The card also features a faux-gold back plate and tuner, just like the most recent All-in-Wonder X600 and X800 cards. Bling bling.

The Theater 550 Pro chip that powers the TV Wonder Elite was announced back in September of last year and is only now finding its way into actual products. While some MPEG2 cards use separate chips for video decoding and encoding, the Theater 550 Pro packs encoding and decoding functions into a single package, reducing board complexity. On the Elite, the Theater 550 Pro is coupled with 16MB of Samsung DDR memory that it uses for video processing tasks.

In addition to its hardware-accelerated video processing capabilities, the Theater 550 Pro also features an adaptive 2D and 3D comb filter to improve image quality. The adaptive comb filter can choose between 2D and 3D filters depending on which is ideal given the source content. However, the comb filter can only be used for composite and coaxial video input, not S-Video. Hardware noise reduction algorithms and anti-aliasing filters also accompany the 3D comb filter to help clean up noisy cable broadcasts and high-motion video.

The Elite uses a silicon tuner for cable and FM tuning. Aside from taking up less board space than most analog designs, silicon tuners can offer superior image quality to their analog brethren.

Like most other ATI multimedia products, the Elite has a Barney purple breakout box for audio and video input. S-Video and composite cables are also included with the package. The bundle also includes some software that we’ll get into in a moment.

ATI’s new Remote Wonder Plus also comes packaged with the TV Wonder Elite. The new remote resembles the Remote Wonder II, but the Plus’s narrower width fits more easily into my hand. However, the Plus is also thinner than previous designs, which makes it harder to wrap one’s hand around than the original Remote Wonder.

The Remote Wonder Plus uses the same responsive mouse divot as the Remote Wonder II. The divot is within thumb’s reach on the remote and provides fast cursor tracking with user-defined acceleration. All of the remote’s other buttons have a neutral feel and response that’s neither too soft nor too firm. Goldilocks would approve.

At first glance, the Remote Wonder Plus’s receiver bears some resemblance to the old Remote Wonder I receiver, but looks can be deceiving. The new receiver works at up to 60 feet, a range previously only possible with the Remote Wonder II’s larger, bulkier receiver.

Despite the new design and feel, the Plus still uses the same driver applet we’ve become accustomed to with existing Remote Wonders. The Remote Wonder Plus’s software comes with the same four pre-installed plug-ins as its predecessors, though two of them are for ATI bundled applications that don’t come with the TV Wonder Elite. Since the Remote Wonder has been around for a while, plenty of third-party plug-ins are available, as is an SDK.

The Remote Wonder software also allows users to assign keyboard events and applications to each of the remote’s six programmable buttons if a suitable plug-in isn’t available.

The TV-friendly user interface resembles the original Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003 interface. It features links to TV, video playback, picture browsing, and radio capabilities. However, the PowerCinema suite lacks music ripping, music playback, and DVD playback capabilities, all of which are simple necessities for a home-theater PC.

PowerCinema’s PVR capabilities are also relatively primitive. While time-based recording works, the app functions more like a VCR than a TiVo. With time-based recording, users have to manually input the date, time, and channel for each recording rather than selecting the program from a program guide. PowerCinema can’t automatically record all episodes of a favorite show or automatically adjust a recording schedule based on changes in a program guide.

Strangely, ATI doesn’t bundle a program guide with the TV Wonder Elite, nor does PowerCinema include one. Usually, when PVR applications lack an integrated enhanced program guide (EPG), a third-party solution like GemStar’s Guide+ is included. No such luck with the TV Wonder Elite. Instead, PowerCinema has a TV preview feature that shows a single frame from every available channel. This feature isn’t particularly useful for programming recordings, and it doesn’t help identify shows during commercials, making it less useful for channel surfing. A fully featured program guide would have been a much better and simpler solution.

Fresh competition
Since eVGA was one of only a few manufacturers that produced Personal Cinema cards, it’s no surprise eVGA is tackling NVIDIA’s NVTV tuner card. While the Personal Cinema was targeted directly at ATI’s mid-range All-in-Wonder products, the NVTV is a standalone tuner aimed squarely at Windows XP Media Center Edition PCs.

Unlike the single-chip TV Wonder Elite, the NVTV is a two-chip design that uses the same Philips SAA7173HL decoder chip as eVGA’s Personal Cinema FX5700.

An LSI DVXPLORE encoder coupled with 16MB of SDRAM takes care of MPEG2 encoding. The DVXPLORE supports hardware MPEG1 and MPEG2 encoding with LSI’s Perfectview encoding algorithm for multilayer motion estimation, which can produce better compression by determining the extent of changes between successive frames of a video sequence and guessing motion vector directions. Variable bit-rate encoding is supported, allowing the DVXPLORE to select an optimal bit rate depending on the composition of a scene and the desired quality level. The DVXPLORE can also reverse the telecine process to bring films recorded at 24 frames per second but broadcast at NTSC’s 29.97 frames per second back to their original frame rate.

The NVTV uses a silicon TV tuner similar to the one found on eVGA’s Personal Cinema cards. Audio and video input headers are located below the tuner to accommodate front A/V ports in OEM systems. Disappointingly, eVGA doesn’t document the audio and video pinouts.

eVGA bundles the NVTV with all the usual cables and adapters, as well as a driver CD. The driver CD also includes a copy of NVIDIA’s NVDVD decoder, which is fully compatible with Windows Media Center Edition. Unlike the ATI TV Wonder Elite, the NVTV isn’t bundled with a PVR application of any kind.

Old school revisited
Hauppauge is a veteran when it comes to hardware MPEG2 encoding cards. The company’s PVR-250 was one of the first hardware MPEG2 encoding cards available, and it found its way into plenty of Media Center Edition systems. The PVR-250 is still very much part of the Hauppauge’s PVR lineup, but the company is seeking to further increase its market share with the entry-level PVR150-150MCE l.p.

Similar to the NVTV, the PVR-150MCE l.p. is a two-chip design. Hauppauge taps Conexant for both chips, pairing a CX25843 decoder with a CX23416 encoder.

Like the Theater 550 Pro and LSI DVXPLORE encoders, the CX23416 features noise reduction algorithms, inverse telecine, and support for constant and variable bit-rate encoding. Conexant also touts the CX23416 as being the industry’s lowest power MPEG2 encoder, making it ideal for low-power platforms like VIA’s EPIA systems.

Surprisingly, there appear to be few differences between the PVR-150MCE l.p. and the revision 3 PVR-250. Both use the Conexant CX23416 MPEG2 encoder and analog TV tuners, with the only apparent difference being the video decoder. The PVR-150MCE l.p. uses a Conexant chip, while the PVR-250 has a Philips decoder.

The PVR-150MCE l.p. is the only tuner in our round-up to use an analog TV tuner. The bulkier tuner takes up nearly one-third of the board and may not offer as clean an image as the silicon tuners featured on the ATI and eVGA cards. We’ll test that theory in a moment.

Hauppauge’s PVR-150MCE l.p. bundle is the sparsest of the lot, including only an FM antenna, a composite to S-Video adapter, and driver CD. Users will have to purchase PVR software separately and grab a DVD decoder if they wish to use Windows Media Center Edition.

Why Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005?
While there are many PVR software packages out on the market, we’ll be testing the tuners with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. Although applications like Beyond TV are excellent, they’re just PVR applications. Media Center rolls the functionality of Beyond TV, Beyond Media, and Windows XP Professional into a single, more cost-effective solution.

Although Microsoft only made earlier Media Center Edition revisions available in complete systems from manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Gateway, they’ve eased up for the 2005 release. Media Center Edition 2005 is available as an OEM operating system, just like Windows XP Home and Pro. This means that system builders are free to roll their own systems based on MCE, and even sell the operating system bundled with hardware. Aside from being available through system builders, Media Center Edition 2005 is capable of supporting dual TV tuners and even an HDTV tuner.

Apart from its PVR capabilities, Media Center can play DVDs and video files, display pictures, tune FM radio stations, and rip and play back music through a smooth, animated user interface.

MCE 2005 also has a detailed program guide that lists programming information for up to seven days. From here you can browse what’s currently on, select a show to record, or tell MCE to record all instances of a given program. The guide also gives a program description, TV rating, and the original air date.

Instead of resorting to an antiquated time-based recording system, MCE uses a TiVo-like recording system that keys on program names rather than a specific date, time, and channel. This allows MCE to record every episode of a given program automatically, regardless of what time or channel it happens to be on.

MCE’s advanced recording capabilities are accompanied by strict system requirements. While other PVR applications will work with any TV tuner and video card, MCE requires a tuner capable of capturing in MPEG2 (hardware encoding is also required for dual-tuner systems). Users will also need a DirectX 9 graphics card with DirectX VA-compatible motion compensation (MPEG2 decode assist), and a DVD decoder.

Although video and tuner requirements are strict, MCE is less demanding of CPU power. Microsoft suggests a minimum processor of 1.6 GHz with at least 256MB of ram. The company also claims that MCE will work with any processor that can watch live TV, record TV in the background with no applications running, or play back a recorded TV show with an average CPU utilization of under 60% over a time span of 30 minutes.

Our testing methods
We initially started testing with an Athlon 64 3200+ system built on a VIA K8T880 platform, but had to switch to an Intel-based system due to stability issues. The TV Wonder Elite and PVR-150MCE l.p. performed flawlessly on both platforms, but the NVTV wasn’t stable on our Athlon 64 platform, apparently due to a driver bug. NVIDIA is aware of the problem but has yet to provide us with a solution for the issue. We didn’t encounter any issues with the NVTV on our Intel-based system.

All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged, using the following test systems.

All of our test systems were powered by OCZ PowerStream power supply units. The PowerStream was one of our Editor’s Choice winners in our latest PSU round-up.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Build 2158

The test systems’ Windows desktop was set at 1024×768 in 32-bit color at a 60Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.

All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.

Multimedia CPU utilization
Since the cards in our lineup are supposed to use very few CPU cycles while encoding in MPEG2, we monitored CPU utilization to determine which card required the least amount of CPU time. All tests were conducted over two minutes using input from the card’s coaxial video inputs. In order to ensure that the tests were recording a consistent source, we used Xbox playback of pre-ripped The Lion King .VOBs as capture fodder.

Live TV recording kicks off our look at CPU utilization. For this test, we started Media Center Edition Live TV and hit the record button. MCE was set to record at the best possible quality for all recording tests.

ATI’s TV Wonder Elite is the winner in this test. However, the performance of all three cards is very close. The PVR-150MCE l.p.’s CPU utilization is only 1.3% higher than the Elite, with the NVTV behind by 3.8%.

Next, we have background recording. Background recording should use the least amount of CPU cycles because the cards can encode to MPEG2 in hardware and simply stream the MPEG2 file directly to the hard drive with little interference from the CPU. CPU utilization here should be lower than in our live TV test because the live TV test also decodes the MPEG2 stream for viewing.

For this test, we scheduled a background recording from the same Xbox source. Once again, the recording quality was set to the best quality.

Here we see similar results to our live recording test, albeit with lower overall CPU utilization. The TV Wonder Elite and PVR-150MCE l.p. have roughly equal performance, followed closely by the NVTV. All three cards utilize less than 5% of the total CPU cycles.

Since PVR’s are used for more than just static recording and viewing, we threw in a time-shifting test. For this test, we let the video run for 30 seconds, hit pause, and let MCE buffer for the next minute and a half.

In this test, the PVR-150MCE l.p. bests the TV Wonder and NVTV by roughly 1%. Although the NVTV and Elite fall behind the PVR-150MCE l.p., the CPU utilization for both hovers at a respectable 5%.

Next we have a skip and rewind test. This test began with a three-minute recording buffer and included tapping the replay (rewind five seconds) button 30 times, followed by the skip (forward 30 seconds) button five times. After one minute we repeated the same steps again. Our CPU utilization counter begins right before we began tapping the replay button.

ATI reclaims the number-one spot here with less than 18% CPU utilization. Nonetheless, the PVR-150MCE l.p. and NVTV aren’t very far behind.

TV tuner initialization
To further test the tuners’ suitability for Media Center Edition, we ran a few tests to examine live TV initialization and channel change time. We used a stopwatch to time how long it takes to initialize Live TV and change channels. The tests were run three times and the results averaged.

Hauppauge takes the crown here with a sub-four-second initialization time. However, the ATI and eVGA cards are only about a second behind.

Our channel change time results are similar. The Hauppauge card has a quick one-second delay between channels, and the TV Wonder and NVTV hover around 1.5 seconds.

Image quality
Our tuner comparison wouldn’t be complete without a look at image quality. Below are screen shots from playback of MPEG2 files we recorded with each tuner using MCE’s “best” quality mode. Again, our source was an uncompressed DVD rip of The Lion King played back on a modified Xbox. A Pelican Xbox coaxial output dongle was used to feed video to the tuners.

The images below are cropped JPEGs; click on them for a full-sized PNG.

TV Wonder Elite

eVGA NVTV

Hauppauge PVR-150MCE l.p.

The TV Wonder Elite produces the best image followed by the NVTV and PVR-150MCE l.p. The TV Wonder and NVTV both produce vibrant colors, but the TV Wonder’s blacks are more neutral than the NVTV’s, which are too bright. The images produced by the PVR-150MCE l.p. are much darker, and the colors look a little off.

In addition to offering a brighter, more colorful picture than the Hauppauge card, the ATI and eVGA cards’ antialiasing algorithms do a much better job of smoothing jagged edges around Mufasa’s face. The PVR-150MCE l.p. shows some artifacting, especially around Zazu’s beak. This could be a result of sub-par capture quality or poor or lacking antialiasing.

TV Wonder Elite

eVGA NVTV

Hauppauge PVR-150MCE l.p.

In our second test, the NVTV’s superior antialiasing reins supreme, although the overall image is a little too bright. Still, the NVTV shows greater clarity around Rafiki’s face and fur than the TV Wonder Elite. Again, the PVR-150MCE l.p. looks worse than the ATI and eVGA cards.

Conclusions
Hauppauge’s PVR line of cards has held the crown for hardware MPEG2 TV tuner cards for the past few years, and while the PVR-150MCE l.p. has low CPU utilization and the quickest initialization and channel change times, its image quality is clearly lacking. The bundle could also use a DVD decoder to meet Media Center Edition 2005’s compatibility requirements. Still, it’s the only true low profile card in the round-up, and at $67 online, it’s certainly affordable.

The TV Wonder Elite is a new contender in the hardware MPEG2 TV tuner market, and ATI has packaged the Elite as an all-inclusive solution that comes with everything you need to transform your PC into a personal video recorder. With low CPU utilization, good image quality, and an excellent remote control, it’s a pretty slick solution. However the bundled PowerCinema software seems like a step backwards from ATI’s old Multimedia Center, and it doesn’t even come close to the functionality of Media Center Edition 2005. At $133 online, the TV Wonder Elite is by far the most expensive tuner in this round-up. You get what you pay for, though; the remote alone is worth $50.

eVGA NVTV April 2005

Surprisingly, the best image quality comes from the least expensive tuner, eVGA’s $65 NVTV. The card’s bundled NVDVD decoder also makes the card ready to run with Media Center out of the box, provided you have a DirectX 9 graphics card. That’s something the other cards lack. The NVTV does have its shortcomings. The card’s CPU utilization tends to be a little higher than the others, although not by a significant enough margin to cause concern. The driver bug that plagued our Athlon 64 test system is also a cause for concern, although the card had no issues with our Intel test platform.

Overall, it’s hard to come up with a verdict. The PVR-150MCE l.p. is easy to discount due to its comparatively poor image quality. Although the TV Wonder Elite has great image quality, works flawlessly, and comes with a swanky remote, it costs twice as much as the competition. The eVGA NVTV, which also has low CPU utilization and great image quality, runs only $62 online and comes bundled with the NVDVD decoder, making it perfect for Media Center Edition and thus our Editor’s Choice. Just keep in mind that if you have an Athlon 64 system with a VIA chipset, you might want to avoid the NVTV until NVIDIA resolves its issues with that platform. 

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