by Anton Shilov
11/19/2003 | 04:52 PM  
 
Got a two PCs, but only one has TV tuner inside? There is a was to watch TV on both personal computers via your local area network provided that you use ?Built by ATI? graphics cards.
 
ATI Technologies Wednesday announced its new software capability called EAZYSHARE  that enables users to share TV ? live or recorded ? from a PC equipped with ATI?s ALL-IN-WONDER card with any other PC on their home network, as long as it has a ?Built By ATI? RADEON graphics card.  
 
ATI?s EAZYSHARE converts a PC with an ALL-IN-WONDER card into a video server. The viewer can sit at any networked PC and watch TV with access to all the functions of a Personal Video Recorder. They can pause live TV, skip ad breaks, get instant replays of touchdowns and so on.
 
?As home data networks have surpassed the critical ten million household mark for US households and will reach 30 million in just five years, connectivity for multimedia applications will spur dramatic growth,? said Kurt Scherf, Vice President of Research for Parks Associates, a market research and consulting firm.  
 
The combination of ATI?s RADEON based video cards and ALL-IN-WONDER with EAZYSHARE (available in MULTIMEDIA CENTER 8.8/CATALYST 3.10) delivers an enhanced home networking solution ? only available from ATI Technologies. EAZYSHARE is designed to run on any secure home networking configuration including 10/100 BaseT, Home PNA, and 802.11b/g.
 
?Given that one in five consumers in networked homes is already expressing an interest in multimedia networks, we anticipate strong uptake for solutions that leverage the processing and storage power of the home computer to drive new entertainment applications,? Scherf added.
 
Currently ATI Technologies is the only company that gives users ability to share TV between computers. It is a bit strange that the company only grants this opportunity to owners of its ?Builty by ATI? hardware, as the vast majority of graphics cards ? more than 90% according to the company?s management ? based on the RADEON graphics processors are coming from ATI?s add-in-board partners nowadays. On the other hand, official claims may not restrict end-users from enjoying the EAZYSHARE capability ? we already know examples when certain software from ATI intended to run only on ?Built by ATI? hardware worked just fine of products from third party graphics cards makers.