Advanced Micro Devices has just unveiled its ATI TV Wonder 600 high-definition USB tuner. The device has been announced quite a while ago, but it was never publicly demonstrated until now.

The high-speed USB stick resembles a pen drive, but its functions are much more complex (and entertaining at the same time). The tv-tuner manages to pull the HDTV signal over the air. It can also render regular television signals from any coaxial antenna.

The TV tuner is the size of a credit card, but it features support for OTA (over the air) HDTV, OTA digital TV, analog cable TV, and analog video capture. The USB connector is camouflaged by a cap, just like the regular pen drives. A closer look will reveal a mini port for its video in connections and an infrared receiver for the bundled remote control.

The hybrid TV tuner takes all the benefits from USB's legendary Plug-and-Play: just plug in, add a signal source to the device (a coaxial cable will do just fine), and you're ready to go. It can be hooked up to a desktop system at home or at work, as well as to a notebook PC to keep you busy wile enjoying a drink in the city.

The HDTV hybrid tuner is already available on the market for some time now, and has been selling excellent ever since. The manufacturer streamed one of the bowling games to a regular laptop during the ShowStoppers night show at CES. Moreover, the TV tuner was not even connected to a direct signal source, but instead it was receiving TV signal from the included telescoping antenna.

The TV Wonder 600 USB also supports DVR functionality, allowing you to schedule program recordings for television shows up to two weeks into the future. The software asks for the current location's zip code, then downloads the local TV schedule, which is subsequently displayed for the user to pick the show to be recorded.

The ATi TV wonder 600 is already on sale for as much as $100. Inside the package, AMD included a remote control, USB cable, telescoping antenna, composite/S-Video connector to go along with the unit.