A recent question from subscriber Jack prompted me to follow up on finding a hardware solution for decoding HDTV signals with a PC. The market is still somewhat limited in this area, but there are a few HD solutions that don’t require the purchase of a $3000 television. So far, the HDTV tuner arena is suffering some of the same mistakes found in early versions of the standard TV tuner cards. Faulty drivers and heat issues make it hard to find a card that performs reliably.
The newest addition to the list of HD tuners will quite probably be the best solution, when it hit the streets. ATI’s HDTV Wonder includes an HDTV antenna, allowing you to tune in local HD streams, without spending extra bucks on the cable service that barely delivers more. Competitors to this card currently range in prices starting at about $275. At an expected price of $200, keep an eye on ATI.
PC monitors are capable of playing back HD content out of the box. Unfortunately, the hardware manufacturers don’t do a very good job of promoting this feature. You still need an HD decoder, which until recently meant an expensive add-on card that often didn’t work reliably. With the release of ATI’s HDTV Wonder card, HD is finally priced affordably and offers the same level of reliability delivered by standard definition TV decoders.
The number of stations available depends entirely on the broadcasts available in your area. Major metropolitan areas typically offer considerably more HD content than smaller cities (for instance, Des Moines only offers 2 channels broadcast in HD). If you want the image quality of HD without investing $1000 or more in a new television, the ATI HDTV Wonder is an obvious alternative.
