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PowerColor Theater 550 Pro (cont.)Installation and Use: Installation was a snap. The card comes in PCI as well as PCI-E flavors, and my PCI version installed nicely. The low profile of the card affords you HTPC'ers the ability to use this latest ATI effort in your HTPC rigs without the worry of size constraints. As you can see, the card is simply t-h-i-n.
With the card now installed, next was the installation of the drivers and Theater Pro software. Since I already had DVD software installed, I did not need the software suite included. The drivers installed without a hitch.
Last, came the Theater Pro software (Power Cinema), which allows use of the card features.
Once the software is installed, you're ready to go.
It really is that simple.
Once the channels were scanned in, all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the TV! The picture was good (better than my television actually), and the card worked flawlessly. The controls were easy to navigate and very straightforward. I had no problems pausing, rewinding, or recording live television to MPEG2. The whole experience was a snap. Under the settings menus I could select speaker settings from 2 speakers to 5.1 and widescreen or standard formats. The only way to record video was in MPEG2 format, I did not see another format.
Next, came the radio portion of the testing. Though
much less impressive than the television portion, it did work well.
Reception and sound were both flawless. Setup and use was equally
easy. Like the TV channels, radio stations were automatically detected.
A schedule menu allows you to schedule recording times, exactly
like what a VCR can do.
Conclusion:
Installation and use were a breeze. The quality provided
was spectacular and really came through when rewinding and viewing
recorded television. I would recommend this product to anyone looking
for a terrific DVR or PVR solution. This product performs exactly
as advertised. Ratings:
(Ratings Possible: Terrible, Very Bad, Bad, Fair, Good, Very Good, Excellent)
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