 ATi's
extremely successful "All-In-Wonder" series of graphics
cards has garnered critical acclaim for many years now, with
its highly integrated offering of Multimedia, TV and Digital
Video capabilities. Where most all other manufacturers
opt to handle TV Tuner and Input/Output Interfaces in
discrete external solutions, ATi's packs it all on one
standard AGP implementation. The only other vendor
that was able to deliver this level of integration, was the
now extinct
3dfx, with their impressive at the time,
Voodoo3-3500TV.
Since then times have changed dramatically and there are
fewer competitors in the mix. OEMs like
Haupauge
have entered the fray and
nVidia
has their own solution with with their
Personal Cinema. However, these are discrete
solutions that provide the TV Tuner and I/O Blocks as
external components. Certainly, there is a fair amount
of flexibility to the discrete approach, especially with a
completely separate TV Tuner card like those produced by
Haupauge. For example, you could elect to only upgrade
your 3D card, if need be, without the need to upgrade your
TV/DV section for several years to come.
However, the name of the game
these days, is "convergence". We've touched on this
marketing buzz word several times before here at HotHardware
and perhaps that is because we are all pretty much
convergence freaks. If you can pack more technology
into a smaller space with equal or better performance,
then we are all for it. Mind you, like most red
blooded American's (especially those New York types), we
want to have our cake and eat it too. With this in
mind, we've taken a look at ATi's All-In-Wonder Radeon
8500DV, an AGP Graphics card boasting strong DX8.1 compliant
3D, TV, Digital Video and Editing capabilities and as the
name suggests, "all-in-one" tightly packed single AGP card
solution. Let's have a look.
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Specifications Of The ATi
All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV |
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DirectX 8.1 3D Gaming,
TV, Digital Video and Editing, all in one... |
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All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV Features and Specs
- Powered by the RADEON?
8500 GPU @ 240MHz.
- 64MB DDR memory @
380MHz. DDR
- Features ATI's TRUFORM?,
SMARTSHADER?, SMOOTHVISION?, and HYPER? Z II
technologies
- Supports DirectX® 8.1
- Supports OpenGL® 1.3
features
- Dual monitor and Video
output support
- Industry-leading DVD
video playback
- Digital Flat Panel (DVI)
support
- Supports 3D
resolutions (32-bit color) up to 2048x1536
- AGP universal bus (for
AGP 2X/4X systems)
- Connect a digital
camcorder to a PC
- Digital and analog
video capture & editing
- Radio-frequency remote
control
- Stereo TV-tuner
- TV-ON-DEMAND? Time
shifting
- Interactive Program
Guide
- DVD video playback
with Dolby® AC-3 digital audio output
TV and
Digital Video Features:
- Stereo TV tuner with
125 channels
- TV-ON-DEMAND?
- Pause live TV or
record live broadcasts and watch them later
- Get instant replays
of favorite programs
- Click through the
transparent live TV window to access your desktop ?
no more moving the TV window to get to your work!
- Use the integrated
Gemstar GUIDE Plus+? Interactive Program Guide1 to
view and search TV listings by category,
actor/performer, or date. Schedule and record programs
at the click of a mouse - all the benefits of a
Personal Video Recorder without the monthly fees
- TV Magazine* -
images and text from TV programs allowing you to
read and archive TV programs
- Hot Words* -
real-time notification when selected words are
detected in programming
- Zoom & pan ? zoom in
on the action on-screen and choose your own
close-ups
- Intelligent Teletext
on your PC
- Industry-leading DVD
playback with AC-3 Digital Audio output to enable
Dolby® 5.1 surround sound
- ATI?s VIDEO IMMERSION?
II technology integrates industry-leading digital
video features for unprecedented video quality
- Control the TV, video,
DVD and gaming features of the ALL-IN-WONDER® RADEON?
8500DV from another room in the house using ATI?s
remote control
- No need to point the
remote control at the receiver ? connect your PC to
your TV and watch DVDs, search channels, or record TV
shows from your couch
- Connect a DV camcorder
to your PC to view and edit true digital video using
the IEEE 1394 ports and cable included in the box
- Capture still images
and digital video at up to 720x480 30
frames-per-second resolution with no loss of quality
- Powerful video editing
software allows you to add effects, transitions,
sounds, and more to digital video footage. Create your
own personal productions.
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The
AIW R8500DV kit is a very well rounded bundle. You get
the card, a break-out I/O pod, remote control, USB RF
Receiver Adapter, all necessary cabling, drivers, assorted
DV Editing software and Valve Software's Half Life.
The card itself is an extremely dense design. Not only
is their a slightly toned down R8500 chip on board (240MHz.
core and 380MHz. memory clocks) but there is a TV
Tuner section, ATi's Rage Theater chip for TV-In/Out, DVI
Output Connector and an onboard Fire-Wire Adapter Controller
with connector, for hooking up Digital Camcorders on a
direct input line to the desktop for digital editing.
There is literally no other card on the market that offers
this level of integration.
Let's talk
Hardware Design Engineering for a moment. No don't
worry, we're not going to make you break out your scientific
calculator for this one. We'll spare you the
head-aches. Leading edge Electronics Hardware
Engineering is often a game of trade-offs, trade-offs in
functionality versus cost budget, trade-offs in
"real-estate" or available PCB area versus functionality or
performance and in many cases all of the above. Take a
look at the header plate on this shot to the left here.
You can bet the Hardware Engineers (especially the layout
designers) had an absolute migraine when putting this board
together. On the header plate itself are 4 connectors,
TV Co-Axial Cable Input, DVI for Flat Panel or CRT Output
(with the included converter), I/O Pod Connector, and the
Fire-Wire port. Just getting the pins down on this end
of the board alone, must have been no small feat. Once
again, we were thoroughly impressed with the hardware design
implementation of ATi's product. The layout on this
board is so tight and precise, it's obvious that ATi was
targeting a highly efficient design from both a cost and a
real-estate standpoint. Furthermore, due to significant
advancements in chip level technology, ATi had the ability
to pack a level of functionality and feature set into this
card, that historically would have been split up into 2 or 3
complete discrete and individual products. The
addition of a Fire-Wire port on the AIW R8500DV will attract
do-it-yourself home digital movie jockeys and professionals
alike.
The I/O Pod that
ATi designed to take in or output all of the various source
signals, is an impressive custom solution with a very
non-standard pin connector hooking it up to the back of the
graphics card. It has S-Video inputs and outputs as
well as composite in and out, DV in and Audio in and out.
With this pod and the board's fantastic array of A/V
functionality, you can perform pretty much any editing task
from external sources like a VCR or Camcorder, with relative
easy and accessibility. On the other hand, the cable
is relatively short and we would have preferred at least a
6ft extension. However, we realize that cable length
affects picture quality adversely with various output
mediums, so we won't whine too much about this issue, since
it may have just not been practical or feasible with good
quality.
The
last small detail we would like to call you your attention
to, is this little chip that resides on the back side of the
board. While it is sitting inside of a footprint of
soldering pads that would normally house a much larger chip,
this little number from Micronas Corp. does all the TV
Audio work. It actually has the capability to process
MTS (multi-channel TV sound) as well as Digital TV Audio and
Dolby DBX Noise Reduction. Once again, ATi has
differentiated themselves by not only supporting full stereo
TV sound but going the extra mile by providing support for
many of the latest technologies in TV Audio reproduction.
Alright then,
with the hardware side of things firmly in our grasp, let's
try and install all of these bells and whistles.
Remote Control, Setup and Drivers
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