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If you're a TV junkie looking to better control your daily dose, feast your glazed eyes upon ATI's external TV Wonder USB tuner. It's basically the computer geek's alternative to TiVo, letting you view and record television programs on your PC. But the real advantage is the price: just $100.

Don't confuse the TV Wonder USB with full-blown digital video recorders such as TiVo and its competitor ReplayTV. It's also no match for more versatile (and expensive) PC card options, largely because it uses the Universal Serial Bus port, which is slower than the PCI bus most internal cards use.

What TV Wonder USB can do is make watching TV on your PC easy. Plus, it lets you browse program listings, as well as schedule and store low-resolution versions of your favorite shows.

Getting Easily Attached

The hardware is shaped like an eyeglass case and is simple to install. You just plug the unit's cable into your PC's USB port; no need to even open the lid. Next you connect your cable television line or antenna to a port on the other end of the unit. You'll also find inputs for a VCR, Super VHS, and audio cables.

Once you've plugged everything in and installed the software, you're ready to watch television, play video files, run a DVD, take snapshots of videos, or launch the interactive program guide. The device supports up to 125 different channels (standard cable has up to 181).

One feature I liked, called TV Bar, combines Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser with the ATI video feed. It embeds a mini TV screen in the upper-left corner of the browser window. I can surf and watch television at the same time. Now that's living.

The TV Magazine feature grabs closed-captioning data and saves it as a text file with or without images, which is great for a news junkie like me. You can even set the tuner card to monitor closed-captioned text for "hot words" that can alert you to a news item or program you might want to see. When it detects a hot word, the device brings the television window to the foreground of your monitor.

A Digital Video Recorder on the Cheap

All those features are nice, but what sets the TV Wonder USB apart from competing tuner cards is an interactive program guide ATI calls Guide Plus+.

To use Guide Plus+, you must log on and download seven days' worth of Guide Plus+ television programming from Gemstar. You can search this data many ways, including by actor, genre, or show.

For example, if you like Three's Company (and, gosh, who doesn't?), it's a breeze to search the listings by show name to find out exactly when and where each and every episode of that show will appear that week.

Once you've located the show you want to record, you highlight it, click the Record button, and make sure your PC is on when it airs. At least that's the way it's supposed to work.

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