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| Introduction and Product Specifications | ||||||
 When ATI was acquired by AMD a few years ago, one product that seemed to fall off of the new corporate radar was ATI's All-In-Wonder line of Graphics/TV-Tuner hybrid cards. This was an area of the market where ATI had exclusivity, yet we haven't seen a new All-In-Wonder offering since May 2006. Rest assured however, ATI has not abandoned the All-In-Wonder, they've simply been working on the next iteration of the Graphic/TV-Tuner stalwart, with their latest offering coming in the form of the ATI All-In-Wonder HD. Back on 2004, ATI released its first HDTV Wonder TV card and now, four years later, they've merged HDTV capabilities with a graphics card, which is the culmination of the new All-In-Wonder HD we'll be looking at here today. In the four years since the HDTV Wonder was released, a lot has changed. While its HDTV Tuner for the PC was one of the first of its kind, the market may not have been ripe for such a product, with limitations of OTA digital signal, and a bulky antenna, being a major detractor. Today however, with the change over to DTV broadcasting immanent, this could be a prime time to offer a hybrid class card that can grow with the new transmission medium of Digital broadcasting. The All-In-Wonder HD continues on the All-In-Wonder path of melding a graphics card with the latest TV-Tuner technologies into a single package. With this version, the All-In-Wonder HD breaks new ground, being the first All-In-Wonder to bring ClearQAM support to the mix. Being the first new addition to the popular product line in over two years, naturally we were eager to get working with the All-In-Wonder HD to see what ATI had in store for us this time around. Read on to follow our journey as we break it down, set up, benchmark and assess the All-In-Wonder HD's overall qualities to see what this latest iteration has to offer.
At testing time, ATI didn't have a complete retail package for us to evaluate, rather a plain vanilla factory package including the All-In-Wonder HD and some expected accessories. There will be varying options with the base card being offered and an All-In-Wonder HD Accessory kit, which will include an Audio/Video I/O daughter board to expand on the card's functionality for those looking for additional connectivity options. This could be a good approach for keeping the product competitively priced and not over producing accessories that users may never use. One item missing from this package was a remote control. To help moderate costs, ATI has opted not to pursue a remote control solution, insteading leaving it up to the company's marketing the All-In-Wonder HD to add their own as they see fit. |
| The ATI All-In-Wonder HD Up Close |
The PCIe 2.0 compliant All-In-Wonder HD is built around an ATI Radeon HD 3650 GPU with 512MB of DDR2 memory. Based on the RV635Pro, the 378 Million transistor, 55nm GPU is clocked to run at 725MHz, while its memory runs at 600MHz (1200MHz DDR). The card sports a 128-bit memory interface and 120 stream processing units, meaning it falls into the budget category with respect to gaming potential. Physically, the card is very small and thin, making it an ideal candidate for Home Theater PC (HTPC) applications. When compared to a Sapphire HD 3650, the PCB of the All-In-Wonder HD is slightly longer while offering a more streamlined cooling solution that was dead quiet through out testing. ;) ;) ;) Most impressive is the size of the TV tuner itself, with an area that is smaller than the size of two US postage stamps. This is a far cry from the canned tuners of the past, showing how refined the technology has become over the years. Backing the tuner is an ATI Theater 650 Pro which handles AVIVO, MPEG encoding, a 3D Comb filter for analog imagery, DTV demodulation, analog stereo decoding and IF demodulation, among other functions. ;) ;) ;) The All-In-Wonder HD comes with a single DVI-I connector and one HDMI output while a DVI-I to VGA adapter is included to connect to analog equipment. The card sports a single coaxial connector that feeds both Analog/Digital TV and FM radio signal into a single connection. The hybrid card supports analog (NTSC), digital/HDTV (ATSC) and ClearQAM unencrypted signals. Essentially, this model can pick up signal from coaxial cable or over the air (OTA), making it an extremely flexible digital solution. For OTA signal reception, ATI offers a telescoping antenna that is much nicer than the antenna offered when the HDTV Wonder was first released back in 2004. We should note that while the card supports WindowsXP Media Center Edition, Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate, these do not support DTV directly at this time. For the full DTV experience, ATI offers their ATI Catalyst Media Center to take advantage of this feature, which we'll spotlight in the next segment of this article. ;) ;) With Personal Video Recording (PVR) as a focal point with the All-In-Wonder line, naturally all its signal inputs are supported with time shifting, with pausing, rewinding and recording being achieved with relative ease. This works with both the TV and FM tuners. The card also sports a dedicated Unified Video Decoder that helps direct HD decoding processing from the CPU to the GPU. The All-In-Wonder HD supports Blu-ray and can upscale as high as 2560x1600. The Audio/Video daughter card expands the All-In-Wonder HD's capabilities, offering Composite video, S-Video connections as well as component outputs and stereo audio inputs for maximum connectivity potential. With so much technology packed into a small design, there are a few areas where we found the All-In-Wonder HD to be lacking. First, the card doesn't support Crossfire, which is unfortunate since the card is already at the lower rung of the 3D performance ladder. However, this is not too surprising, considering this card's primary target application. Second, the TV tuner is a single tuner, so if you are recording one program, you cannot channel surf for something else to watch. To us, this is a key feature that takes away from a rather impressive design. We're fairly certain that most consumers would be willing to forgo the FM tuner in favor of a second TV tuner. |
| Setup, Configuration and ATI Catalyst Media Center |
Physically installing the All-In-Wonder HD is as simple a process as installing any other add on card. Once inserted into a PCIe slot, connect the monitor and antenna source and the system is ready to be booted to continue the configuration within Windows. ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) One final note, the Extras menu is where AMD-ATI provides additional video editing software to compliment the All-In-Wonder HD, including Media Deluxe Pro, Cyberlink Live and Magic Director. |
| HH Test Setup & FutureMark 3DMark Vantage | ||||||||||||
As we noted in our configuration text above, 3DMark Vantage was run with the "Entry" preset. While we originally ran 3DMark Vantage in its default "Performance" mode, at the conclusion of the benchmark, 3DMark Vantage reported that the results were not a true representation of the card's performance and suggested that the "Entry" setting be used instead. Essentially, 3DMark Vantage's default test was too taxing for the All-In-Wonder HD. To be consistent, we ran all tests with the "Entry" option, as suggested by the software.    With respect the GeForce 8600GTS, the performance margins were broad compared to the All-In-Wonder HD, with the NVIDIA card holding a fair lead in all three segments. With respect to the Sapphire HD 3650, the margins narrowed, but the All-In-Wonder HD trailed the Sapphire card as well. Keep in mind, however, that the Sapphire card is clocked with an 800MHz GPU and 1800MHz of GDDR3, helping the Sapphire card to hold the lead over the All-In-Wonder HD with it's 725MHz GPU and 1200MHz of DDR2. What we can glean from these results is that from a 3D gaming standpoint, the All-In-Wonder HD appears to fall-in where we would expect a graphics card of this caliber. However, we'll have to run more gaming benchmarks before drawing final conclusions. |
| Gaming with Half Life 2:EP2, UT3 & Crysis | ||||||||||||||||||
 The beauty of the Half-Life series is that it both looks and runs good, even on entry level hardware. While the frame rates were low and certainly the lowest of the three cards tested, the game appeared smooth and quite playable on the All-In-Wonder HD, with excellent imagery.
 Once again the All-In-Wonder HD trailed the Sapphire HD 3650 and GeForce 8600 GTS, with the Sapphire model taking the top position. When factoring in the clock differences, the All-In-Wonder HD actually competed well and at a respectable level.
 With all settings on medium quality, Crysis looked a bit more like the original Far Cry, lacking the realism the updated gaming engine has proven that it can deliver. Nonetheless, for cards of this class to run such a taxing test, image quality had to be reduced. In the end, the All-In-Wonder HD fell just short of the GeForce 8600 GTS, trailing roughly 3FPS at both resolutions. Those margins jumped to an average of 5FPS when compared to the Sapphire HD 3650 with its overclocked GPU and memory. |
| HQV Video Quality and Power Consumption | ||||||||||||||||||
HQV is comprised of a sampling of SD video clips and test patterns that have been specifically designed to evaluate a variety of interlaced video signal processing tasks, including decoding, de-interlacing, motion correction, noise reduction, film cadence detection, and detail enhancement. As each clip is played, the viewer is required to "score" the image based on a predetermined set of criteria. The numbers listed below are the sum of the scores for each section. We played the HQV DVD using the latest version of Cyberlink's PowerDVD 8 Deluxe, with hardware acceleration for AMD AVIVO HD and NVIDIA PureVideo HD extensions enabled.  Since the Sapphire HD 3650 is based on the same technology as the All-In-Wonder HD, we left this card out of the HQV testing, choosing to focus on a direct comparison with the GeForce 8600 GTS for reference. We found the overall performance of the All-In-Wonder HD to be on the same level as the GeForce 8600 GTS. All lines were sharp, details were excellent and noise reduction was significant. The only area where the two card didn't earn top scores were with the Jaggies 2 test.
 Our results show that the All-In-Wonder HD used 4 watts more than the overclocked Sapphire HD 3650 when idle and 5 watts more under full GPU load. The GeForce 8600 GTS was the most power hungry of the three, idling 1w higher and posting 20w more than the All-In-Wonder HD's loaded results. Another test we performed was to see the impact of the various tuners on power. Below we logged the peak wattage when the All-In-Wonder HD was cycled through its video and radio content.
What we essentially see is an increase in power consumption as image quality demands increase. Overall, this shows the relatively low power demands of the All-In-Wonder HD, as it effects overall system power draw measured at the outlet. |
| Image Quality Examples | ||||||||||||||||||
In our final leg of this article, we've compiled a collection of screenshots to help demonstrate the image quality exhibited by the All-In-Wonder HD when viewing both Analog and Digital content. Keep in mind, these are merely an example and all have compression applied to conserve file size. Nonetheless, the examples are still representative of the image quality we encountered during our testing.
When it comes to subject matter and image quality, we found that food was excellent for comparison since there is a fair amount of texture involved. Note the bowl of red liquid being whisked in the analog image group. The liquid is not well defined and the image suffers from excessive motion blur. When we graduate to the digital signal over cable, the image detail improves dramatically. The detail of the crowd at the baseball game and the corn in the skillet are all much more vivid when compared to the analog signal. The true delights were revealed when we started sampling the HD content. This is where the All-In-Wonder HD showed what it is capable of, with exceptional detail in all areas while producing smooth playback at all times. We should also note that we did sample the HD content with over-the-air signal and due to limited signal availability in our area, comparisons were not possible. We did manage to land two channels in our scans, but the stream was choppy due to poor signal strength. |
| Performance Analysis and Conclusion | ||||||||
Performance Analysis: Comparing the gaming performance of the All-In-Wonder HD to other graphics cards in its class, the All-In-Wonder HD fell within the scope of an entry level graphics card. 3DMark Vantage was not able to complete without adjusting the default test from "Performance" to "Entry" and all game tests did have their image quality set to medium in order to return useful results. We were impressed with how well Half-Life 2 looked and performed, yet Crysis had to be scaled back quite a bit to be considered playable.
From a video quality standpoint, the All-In-Wonder HD returned solid scores with HQV testing while displaying excellent quality from analog through HD content. We also found the power consumption added by the tuner increased nominally when cycling through the various signals. The All-In-Wonder HD does an excellent job presenting digital video content in a quality manner without creating excessive power consumption in order to do so.  With DTV broadcasting becoming mandatory in the United States in February 2009, the time is perfect to start a marketing push for HDTV tuner cards that can take full advantage of the next defacto TV standard. With its release of the All-In-Wonder HD, ATI/AMD is poised to bring a unique product to market that will be able to evolve with the new standard come next year. Surely, those looking for a high-end gaming solution will not be satisfied with the power of the Radeon HD 3650 that sits at the heart of the All-In-Wonder HD, but for HTPC enthusiasts looking for a system that can deliver a quality HD experience with comprehensive, broad support for various display options, the All-In-Wonder HD does not disappoint. Where the card lacks in gaming potential, it more than makes up for it in its video quality. Additionally, those running multiple monitors could consider using the All-In-Wonder HD as a secondary solution, maintaining an additional, more potent graphics option for gaming. Is the All-In-Wonder HD a perfect fit for everyone? Not by any means, but with the popularity of multiple graphics slots on today's motherboards, the All-In-Wonder HD could be a consideration for those who otherwise might not give it a second look. And for the Home Theater PC crowd, this new Awiss Army Knife of a card from AMD, is a full featured product packed in a very efficient form factor. The All-In-Wonder HD is planned to be marketed through VisionTek and Diamond Multimedia with an MSRP of $199 USD. No pricing is available on the All-In-Wonder HD Accessory Kit at this time.
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