ATI HDTV Wonder

The ATI HDTV Wonder is a PCI card which enables your PC to receive free-to-air HDTV broadcasts. As well as allowing you to pick-up free-to-air HDTV, the Wonder will also receive analog TV and free-to-air SDTV and EDTV.

The card also has the capability to act as a personal video recorder, allowing you to watch, pause and record TV broadcasts onto your PC's hard drive. You can then burn them to CD or DVD.

The ATI HDTV Wonder package includes the PCI card, a regular antenna (you'll need to supply your own antenna for HDTV broadcasts), the Remote Wonder remote control, a coax connector, ATI input connector, and ATI's Multimedia Center software.

In order to use it you'll need a free PCI slot, a Microsoft DirectX 9 hardware compliant graphics card with at least 64MB RAM, and Windows XP. In addition, the remote control requires a spare USB slot for its receiver.

The ATI HDTV Wonder is a very cheap way of accessing HDTV content. Typically a dedicated HDTV television set will cost from $1000, but the Wonder sells for less than $200. Add a set-top antenna for around $30 and you're good to go. If you've got an LCD monitor connected to your PC via a DVI connection, you'll have an all-digital HDTV display for a fraction of the price of an HDTV or projector.

It's important to note that the ATI HDTV Wonder can only be used to view free-to-air HDTV programs, it's not compatible with satellite or cable HDTV transmissions.

If you're thinking about buying one, it may be worth reading reviews of the ATI HDTV Wonder on Amazon.