Sapphire/TUL-PowerColor THEATER 550 PRO cards

Physically, the Sapphire and TUL-PowerColor cards look practically indistinguishable from ATI’s TV WONDER ELITE. The biggest difference between the three boards physically is the color of the PCB: Sapphire’s is donned in their company color of blue, while TUL-PowerColor is red, and ATI is purple. Sapphire and ATI have gold-plated parts, including the top of the TV tuner (the “can”), while Sapphire and TUL-PowerColor use memory modules from Hynix on their boards. (Sapphire uses 3.3ns memory, while TUL-PowerColor relies on 4.0ns memory, in comparison the TV WONDER ELITE ships with a 4.0ns memory module from Samsung.)

TUL and Sapphire cards ship with Cyberlink remote

Back of the cards

Other than these differences, hardware-wise the boards are indistinguishable. All three boards are also PCI-based, although ATI says THEATER 550 PRO also supports PCI Express. In fact, it’s pretty surprising just how similar all three boards are – not only is the hardware the same, you also get the same software bundle, right now to the same copy of the ATI Edition of CyberLink PowerCinema with all three cards.

The biggest difference separating the TUL-PowerColor and Sapphire cards from the ATI TV WONDER ELITE is their remote control unit. Both third-party cards ship with the same black CyberLink remote control unit.

The CyberLink remote is IR-based, so you will need line-of-sight to manipulate the remote control’s buttons. A small IR blaster is included in the packaging of both cards, as well as batteries for the remote.

After handling REMOTE WONDER PLUS, the CyberLink remote feels rather primitive. It’s larger and features a simpler layout, with quick launch buttons for other CyberLink products. Unfortunately, the remote doesn’t include programmable buttons, but you do get more advanced DVD playback buttons, such as changing the angle or language, as well as adding subtitles. The CyberLink remote also has buttons for timeshifting as well as navigating the submenus found within DVDs, but you don’t get a thumbpad for mouse control like you do with REMOTE WONDER PLUS.

One thing Windows Media Center Edition 2005 users should keep in mind with all three remotes is compatibility. Right now, Microsoft’s remote control unit is the only remote that can boast 100% compliance, but that doesn’t mean that other remotes such as REMOTE WONDER PLUS won’t work.