Software and Test System

For those who have owned ATI’s Theater 550 Pro tuners, ATI’s Catalyst Media Center may seem like a rip off of Cyberlink’s junky PowerCinema software. This is true to some extent. The visual interface was almost exactly copied. The only difference is the obvious ATI theme. Even the setup options are exactly the same. The three basic setup windows ask for screen aspect ratio, signal type, and source.

First you select whether you have a standard aspect (4:3) or widescreen (16:9). Because widescreen PC monitors are 16:10, you will have thin black bars on top and bottom. Also, for some 17” and all non-widescreen 19” monitors which are 5:4 aspects, you will have to set the 4:3 aspect and will have moderately sized empty black bars on the top. Next, you select the signal type. Unless you buy a special antenna for HDTV, you’re all going to use standard cable, or an analog signal. Finally set the analog signal type which would be cable for 99% of users. Nobody should have OTA antennas now. The reason you have to set the connection type is for the next step where the program searches for channels. Finding channels on a TV tuner is different than finding channels from an antenna signal.


Once again, the layout of ATI’s Catalyst Media Center is similar to Power Cinema. However the main difference between the two programs is that one actually works. Sometimes, when changing your aspect ratio from widescreen to standard, or vice versa, nothing would happen. Other settings also didn’t change or reversed when Power Cinema was shut down. We made sure ATI’s Catalyst Media Center options worked. One more difference between the two programs is that ATI’s Catalyst Media Center has the DVD authoring software integrated. Just click on the Video button at the main menu. Cyberlink’s Power2Go is a separate DVD authoring program. Both are similar in function, but Cyberlink’s variant is much easier to use. You can just buy it yourself if you don’t like ATI’s solution.

Our Test System:

Athlon XP 2800+
Albatron KX180D
512MB RAM
80GB Seagate SATA
128MB GeForce 6800 AGP

ATI Theater 650 Pro PCI
MSI Theater 550 Pro PCI

The reason our system is so relatively low spec is because most home theater computers are not very powerful either. They are usually secondary rigs transformed for entertainment purposes. When you see your low CPU utilization usage, you can compare your CPU to ours. If you have newer a processor, such as a Pentium 4/D, Athlon 64/X2, or a Core 2 Duo CPU, then your CPU utilization should be even lower.