ATI Theater 650 Pro & Catalyst Media Center Preview

Configuration with Windows XP MCE 2005 Smooth Sailing

Installation of the Theater 650 Pro based reference card was surprisingly fast.  In the past, we've found the installation of ATI multimedia products a bit lengthy at times, especially with All-In-Wonder products.  With the Theater 650 Pro, however, installation was very quick.  The drivers installed in less than a minute and, after an obligatory reboot, we were ready to run Windows XP MCE 2005 through its configuration wizard.

While running Windows XP MCE 2005's initial setup, we should note that the Theater 650 Pro's analog tuner was all that was detected.  While the card does support DTV, Windows XP MCE 2005 did not detect this and behaved like a single analog tuner was installed.  This appears to be intentional as the setup documentation simply states to run Live TV and makes no mention of both tuners being available in Windows XP MCE 2005's interface.  To view DTV signal, the Catalyst Media Center software must be installed.

Under the More Settings menu of Windows Media Center 2005, ATI includes an Avivo TV Settings screen for fine tuning picture quality.  The menu is rather simplistic, with a simple slider to apply varying degrees of noise reduction to the image on screen.  There is also the option to adjust the input volume of the TV audio signal.