ATI Launches HD Reception and Editing on PC

[Gregg Lengling]

ATI Technologies Inc. had a big week, rolling out a new video card for over-the-air HD reception and demonstrating HD desktop editing on a PC at a forum on San Francisco.


The new video card--the HDTV Wonder--enables reception of over-the-air HD signals on a PC, and offers personal video recorder (PVR) and digital video recording (DVR) capability on the PC. The Wonder incorporates ATI's VSB/QAM receiver technology with multipath cancellation, tuner control and all-digital carrier recovery circuitry that eliminates the need for external components.


Starting this spring, Wonder will be available as a standalone product, bundled with selected All-In-Wonder video cards, or incorporated into Hy-Tek's Tekpanel 300HD and 370HD Widescreen PC displays.


On the HD editing side, ATI together with Intel and Pinnacle Systems demonstrated HD video editing on the PC at the Intel Developer's Forum in San Francisco. The demonstration incorporated the accelerated high bandwidth, symmetrical data transfer capability of PCI Express, a real-time HD engine being developed by Pinnacle, a ATI PCI Express visual processing unit (VPU) with the PCI Express interconnect incorporated directly into Intel's graphics chip.


ATI said the configuration would allow real-time HD editing on PCs, eliminating the need for more expensive machines. The products are expected to be offered to OEMs.