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Graphics Software Hardware

ATI All-In-Wonder X1800 XL Review 111

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the video-capture-and-you dept.
Timmus writes "With the release of the X1800 series last month, it was only a matter of time before ATI announced a new All-In-Wonder card that took advantage of it. Today Firingsquad has a review of the new board, the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL. The card features all the multimedia capabilities of previous AIW cards, giving you TV viewing and recording, timeshifting, and of course gaming. Video capture shots are provided as well."
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ATI All-In-Wonder X1800 XL Review More

ATI All-In-Wonder X1800 XL Review

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  • All the info needed (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21, 2005 @04:54PM (#14084838)
    Officially, the ALL-IN-WONDER X1800 XL carries an MSRP of $500...

    End of Line
    • Then everything from the previous generation sees a massive price slash. THAT's where the deals are.

      I still wouldn't mind an AIW, though. It'd be like my current card, but with lots of video in video out options.
    • SRP doesn't mean jack to me, it's a made-up price point to help people think they got a good deal when they pay less than that. "Street price" is the significant number.

    • Re:All the info needed (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Also,
      • No linux drivers
      • No linux support for video capture, like all ati cards
      • Non-standard video capture in Windows, so most capture apps won't work with it
      Quack quack, ati.
    • My buddy picked one up last week at CompUSA for $299.

      -pf

  • Different direction? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) * <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Monday November 21, 2005 @04:56PM (#14084858) Homepage Journal
    Higher resolutions at faster refresh rates is great, but I'm wanting video to head in a different direction. I'm sure I'm not alone.

    First, heat efficiency in getting out of control. My MCE runs fairly cool but I needed to fab my own fan brackets. I won't even look at newer video cards if they're running 10 degC hotter. I know more speed generally means more heat but there has to be some techniques to reduce it.

    Coupled with the heat problems we're getting annoyingly loud fans on the card. In my theater I've replaced a vidcard because the fan started acting up. Not good.

    I'd love to see more support for the newer resolutions out there. My backup projector needs a 960x540 resolution which requires buying Powerstrip. My regular projector requires 1280x720. Even the newest cards I've tested ignore these fairly standard resolutions in their drivers.

    I'm not impressed with many on-board video decoders lately. Fuzzy text, artifacts that shoulder occur and (sometimes) color errors.

    I'm happy to see ATI releasing these fast cards at cheap prices but I fear that none of the future needs are being planned for.

    They should also STOP SCREAMING THEIR PRODUCT NAME.
    • Can you run this this in various modes? It seems that there should be a high power mode for gaming in which all the switching needs to occur- and a Video mode- which is relatively passive in comparison. That way- when watching movies and when not in use- the card is not very loud.
    • In your display properties (desktop-> right click -> properties) go to settings tab and click on the advanced button. Then go to Adapter, and click the list all modes button. You'll generally see a lot more modes there then you will get with the slider bar. I'm not sure what kind of success you'll get with trying the different modes.
      • Definitely tried that, but it doesn't ever list standard HDTV resolutions. I've never even seen standard SDTV resolutions/refresh rates.

        • Re:Different direction? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Spy Hunter ( 317220 ) * on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:38PM (#14085209) Journal
          On NVIDIA Quadro cards if you drill down through the control panel screens you can set fine details of your resolution and refresh rate down to the timing of various parts of the video signal. I've successfully output 1080i from a Quadro using this panel. I believe GeForce cards can do this too, but perhaps with not quite as much fine control or high-refresh performance.
        • I'm pretty sure in Linux you can use ModeLines to specify just about any refresh rate and resolution you want. Whether or not your video card an screen will accept them is another story. Is there anyway to do this in windows, possible through the registry, or editing some text file?

    • Re:Different direction? (Score:5, Informative)

      by iso ( 87585 ) <.slash. .at. .warpzero.info.> on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:23PM (#14085084) Homepage
      If you're looking at the high-end All-in-Wonder for an HTPC, you're looking in the wrong place. This is their top-end card that's primarily meant for gaming. It's like complaining that your sports car doesn't get 55 miles per gallon.

      If you want an HTPC All-in-Wonder, you should be looking at something like the All-in-Wonder 2006 [ati.com]. It's passively cooled, and has the same tuner bits as the last few All-in-Wonder cards. It works in MCE too.

      As for resolutions, my ATI X700 (gaming PC) and All-in-Wonder 2006 (HTPC) both support 1280x720 (it's a pretty standard resolution). I'm not sure about 960x540, but I bet you could set that as a custom resolution in Catalyst Control Center.

      And for what it's worth, ATI has been calling it an "All-in-Wonder" (not "ALL IN WONDER") for a while now, so it's only this review that's "screaming" the product name, not ATI.

    • Why no HDTV and CAbleCard support?? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why havent they supported HDTV and CableCard specification?

      There's no reason to get this card considering it will be obsolete in a year or two.
    • Since when was 960x540 a standard res? Still, 1280x720 is pretty standard HDTV and should be supported by most new mid-high end cards with new drivers. You would be supprised at the features removed from low end cards, quite a few new sub $100 cards ship without HDTV support, even if they have DVI.

    • Heat dissipation (Score:3, Insightful)

      by phorm ( 591458 )
      I might add something to this:

      Heat is bad for the card, yes. Bad for the inside of the case yes. Adding fans controls is yes... but you must factor many other things.

      a) Where does the heat come from: Electricity, generally being wasted, and therefore upping your power bill

      b) Where does the heat go: In the summer my main machine if left on overnight would noticable raise the temperature in the room. Over a few days it would become sweltering. Getting the heat out of the case doesn't always get rid of t

  • Printer Friendly (Score:4, Informative)

    by TubeSteak ( 669689 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @04:57PM (#14084865) Journal
    But without the pictures

    http://firingsquad.com/print_article.asp?current_s ection=Hardware&fs_article_id=1756 [firingsquad.com]

    Just thought I'd point out the first thing I wanted to know:

    Just below the ALL-IN-WONDER X1800 XL lies the ALL-IN-WONDER X800 XL (PCI-E) and ALL-IN-WONDER X800 XT (AGP), which both carry a pricetag of $400. For the mainstream market, ATI then provides the ALL-IN-WONDER 2006 (AGP) and ALL-IN-WONDER X600 PRO, both of these boards officially carry an MSRP of $200.

    Not everyone has a PCI-E mobo, and I assume this one isn't AGP

  • Coral Cache link (Score:3, Informative)

    by The Lerneaen Hydra ( 885793 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @04:57PM (#14084867)
    http://firingsquad.com.nyud.net:8090/hardware/ati_ all_in_wonder_x1800_xl/ [nyud.net] Coral Cache link

  • Linux/Myth support? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by olddotter ( 638430 )
    So any chance we have Linux support out of the box?

    How can a hardware review be posted on slashdot without a list of compatible open source OS's?

    • Re:Linux/Myth support? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Soko ( 17987 )
      ATIs support of linux has been a Myth.

      "No 3D for j00, Mythter!", Hit and Myth, bad in mythical proportions... whatever.

      I personally haven't used an ATI card in years, but anyone who I talk to says linux support is still bad. YMMV.

      Soko

      • OpenBSD/Solaris Support? (Was: Re:Linux/Myth supp? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by quarkscat ( 697644 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @06:04PM (#14085437)
        So long as ATI refuses to recognize that there are other OSes that consumers use besides MS Windows Latest & Greatest(TM), I shall continue to avoid purchasing their products. NVIDia is barely better, what with their binary drivers which always seem to be one or more kernel releases behind the times.

        I do (really!) hate to have my comments modded to flamebait, but there are actually "OTHER OSes" besides x86 GNU/linux (really, there is!). Without reasonably complete source code drivers available, PPC||MIPS||ARM||other GNU/linux as well as *BSD, Solaris will never stand a chance against the WIntel behemouth.

        Barring the possibility of obtaining source code drivers for the latest video cards (or other geeky kit), rather complete hardware documentation should be made available so that the F/OSS community can "roll their own" drivers. Major vendors appear to be so concerned about providing any insight to their hardware designs to their competition that they are forsaking a growing segment of the consumer market.

        Recent news regarding MS Windows "rootkits" showing up in heavily DRMed product should illuminate the dangers of reliance upon one convicted monopolistic company "owning" a nearly ubiquitous portion of the market. Those companies that band together in support of a single platform risk alienating their consumer market when "extremely bad things" crop up to destroy that market.

        Alternative OSes exist; alternative sources of media/content exist; and alternative hardware exists -- when consumers start voting (in droves) with their cash, the current industry "leaders" will likely be caught by surprise. I suspect that those most surprised will not survive.
         
        • "Alternative OSes exist; alternative sources of media/content exist; and alternative hardware exists -- when consumers start voting (in droves) with their cash, the current industry "leaders" will likely be caught by surprise. I suspect that those most surprised will not survive."

          Unfortunately, "alternative hardware" in the high-end VGA world only barely exists, and not with any serious contention. There are really only two players, and the older parties that used to be alternatives (such as Matrox and Vo

        • Alternative OSes exist; alternative sources of media/content exist; and alternative hardware exists -- when consumers start voting (in droves) with their cash, the current industry "leaders" will likely be caught by surprise. I suspect that those most surprised will not survive.

          I know I'm a bit late on this discussion but the fact is that consumers are not going to "start voting (in droves) with their cash" for a long time to come. There is obviously a reason you feel the need to point out alternative OSs
    • I was wondering the same thing. We always expect it to work with windows but what about Linux?
    • So any chance we have Linux support out of the box?
      You must be new to Slashdot...
      The proper question is...

      Yes, but does it RUN linux?

    • How does asking about linux support for a new piece of hardware become flamebait?

      Someone please, PLEASE explain this to me.

  • Not enough X's! (Score:5, Funny)

    by kidcharles ( 908072 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:00PM (#14084888)
    There are only two X's in this product name. I refuse to buy a video card that only has two X's in it's model number. Give it a name like "ATI XXL 81200X XP X-Treme Edition" and I'll consider forking over my money.

  • Macrovision (Score:5, Interesting)

    by drxenos ( 573895 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:01PM (#14084901)
    I've always like the ATI TV tuners. Very easy to use. But I've always hated that their software won't record signals that have Macrovision in them. I had bought an ATI a few years ago to copy my VHS tapes to DVD. When one plays that is protect by Macrovision, the record button disables. Luckily it is (was?) only in the software, and their cards work well with all the open source stuff out there (virtualdub).

  • Linux drivers? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cybergrue ( 696844 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:03PM (#14084923)
    What I want to know is have they released proper Linux drivers that support all the functionallity this time, unlike eith previous AiW cards.
    • Linux? What's that? Nobody uses Linux because the cards don't work there! Linux can't handle an IOMEM port and an interrupt it's just unfathonable! :-)

      That said I have no clue. I've long since stopped caring about ATI products since they told me my ATI RADEON MOBILITY U1 [listed on their website] graphics chip in my laptop was not an ATI GPU and they wouldn't support it.

      Maybe they'll release the interface specifications and let an OSS developer make a free driver?

      HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

      Tom

  • Depricating a perfictly good tuner... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MrRogers2 ( 538216 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:10PM (#14084980)
    I've never really understood the AIW's popularity. While maybe it's nice to have it all on one card, when it comes time to upgrade, which comes along depressingly fast for video, you've got to trash a perfectly working tuner. Why not get the video card and a seperate tuner [ati.com]?

    More cost up front? Maybe, but my ATI TV Wonder is still working *years* after its purchase.

    • A very valid point. I'm sitting with a Nvidia Geforce FX5700 in my machine because I wanted to keep up with the gaming scene a while back but couldn't afford the All-in-wonder that would do the job. Now i have TV tuning capabilities sitting useless in the box the 5700 came in because they were tied to my gaming video card.
    • Umm, because this the ATI TV Wonder is mediocre? I'll admit, my TV Wonder is still working too, but the people who buy this card are not looking for upgradeability. If you want to go with an external TV tuner, Hauppage makes a better card. Besides, the target audience for this card is probably not looking for "always the best" video - they want what is the latest with all the other features *plus* 3d-video.

      My ATI All-in-wonder 7500 is still a great card, but the system it's in plays no games other than my
      • uhmm, no...

        Point 1: The AIW's TV capture is not better, they are the same, at least they were the last time I looked into these things. Owning both a AIW 7000 and a TV Wonder PCI, I've seen the both myself.

        Point 2: Hauppauge makes a better card, this is true, as it includes hardware mpeg support. But this isnt about the Hauppauge, this is about the AIW vrs the TV Wonder.

        Point 3: Ever try getting a AIW to work in Linux? Good luck, go over to the Gatos page and see the pain that AIW's are in linux. The TV won
    • Well, not tying up the PCI bus throwing video over it would be one logical reason...
    • All the PCI slots in my machine are full. I love my AIW because it means I don't have to take out one of my other PCI cards if I want a TV tuner in the machine.

  • But how are the drivers? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mr. Flibble ( 12943 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:15PM (#14085025) Homepage
    I own an ATI All-in-Wonder 9800 pro. It is great, when it is working... It is fast, and all the features work well, but updating the drivers and sofware is a nightmare. I really miss the Nvidia unified drivers that I use on work machines.

    The problem is that there are 3 files that need to be upgraded with every driver change - and while I understand this, the process is annoying. If a new driver comes out for video, and I install it, but neglect to install the other drivers for the card, the DVD viewing software, and the TV software break.

    This, again, is understandable, but the process is annoying. ATI really needs to simplify their driver installation (and hell, having better Linux drivers would be neat too... but that is an aside)
    • Yeah, this problem exists even with their separate cards. I have a Radeon 9700 Pro and a TV Wonder Pro. I've forgotten many times to remember to go get the new DVD decoder, and have the TV option disappear from the media options.
    • They haven't really updated the non-Catalyst stuff in a while. I haven't had any trouble just going to the website and selecting the High Speed (one download), as opposed to grabbing the low speed (three files) ones. The High Speed option is on the same page, and is, in fact, above the low speed options. It's been this way for months and months; perhaps you haven't grabbed an update for a long time?
      • However, that one download contains the 3 files - you have to install each in order, and reboot between installs.

        If I just want to download the latest driver for high speed gaming it breaks my other apps.
        • I'm running an AIW X800 (before that i had the AIW 9700) and updating just the display driver has never given me any problems. Here's my process:

          1. Download the "Display Driver, Control Panel*, WDM Driver" integrated package. *the new "Control Centre" is crap and I don't recommend it.
          2. Uninstall the "Control Panel" (no reboot) then uninstall the "Display Drivers" (reboot).
          3. Install the Driver Package and reboot when completed. (for me this package only asks to reboot after installing all three drivers)

          Thi

  • Another review at Bjorn3D (Score:4, Informative)

    by G3ckoG33k ( 647276 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:18PM (#14085049)
    The article [bjorn3d.com] summarizes: "Quite simply this is the card I would like to put in my MediaPC".

  • Linux support? HDTV? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kimvette ( 919543 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:22PM (#14085071) Homepage Journal
    Will it run Linux, or will I be just as screwed on it as I've been with the ATI-TV (ISA), AiW 128 Pro, AiW 7500, AiW8500DV? I'm sure it runs great on Windows, which is great and all, only I want to punt Windows from my system and not have a dual-boot configuration.

    Also what is up with offering only analog/NTSC reception on this side of the pond? NTSC broadcasts are supposedly dying soon, so why don't they offer HDTV-capable cards yet? They advertise high-definition output, which is just wonderful, but what's so great about an upsampled NTSC picture?

    • Re:Linux support? HDTV? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I have never understood the popularity of the AiW cards myself. I am further puzzled as to why this article is posted here. If you want to run Linux and watch high-def, buy an HD-3000 tuner card and the video card of your choice (pick your poison).
      • Why AiW cards are popular:

        A) yes, if you do your research, you can probably find a good separate tuner card. If you do a half-assed job, however, you end up slave to MSI's TV@nywhere Master: neat hardware, proprietary design working only with proprietary software (seriously, no F/OSS solution existed as of a year ago when I through the thing into the bin). Said proprietary software was done by intervideo, but someone seems to have left out the phrase "deliver properly tested, stable software" out of the
    • NTSC broadcasts are supposedly dying soon, so why don't they offer HDTV-capable cards yet?

      ...and that is why this review was crappy. they kept saying "IT DOES TV! OH JESUS! YOU CAN WATCH TV!" "TV" is a completely ambiguous term these days. they only barely mention at the end, "oh wait. it only does the archaic, crappy kind of TV."--the kind i can get on a $20 used hauppage card.

    • NTSC broadcasts are supposedly dying soon, so why don't they offer HDTV-capable cards yet?

      Yeah, your right. That's a genius idea. They should offer a card that does HTDV. They could call it a HDTV Wonder card. [ati.com]

      The HDTV market is still small. That's probably why they have a card especially for that niche (as of yet) market, rather than add the expense of those components to their more mainstream cards.

      • The market is small because there are few HDTV devices. Well, few for less than $1,500.

        There are few sub-$1,500 HDTV devices because the market is small. Well, few PC and few portable devices. It's a catch-22 situation.

        HDTV is not growing because of product availability. Product availability is not growing because HDTV really isn't here yet in full force. Repeat et al, reworded in many different ways, it's still the same darn situation.

        Actually, I can't find ANY portable HDTV receivers - and yes, I've loo
        • Why can I not get an HDTV version of the AiW card

          For exactly the reasons you already listed. HDTV really isn't here yet in full force. It isn't broadcast everywhere, not everyone has a big TV which takes HDTV input, so why include a reciever for it in all your products?

          Posters in other threads have already complained about the extra expense of the AIW over the regular game cards. Now you want to add in the expense of HDTV tuner and they will really start screaming. Yes, the Catch-22 situation sucks

  • Why bother: ATI SW is unstable and evil (Score:3, Interesting)

    by denis-The-menace ( 471988 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:24PM (#14085092)
    What's the point of running software to tape shows when the software makes the box crash after 3.5days? When I don't use the ATI SW, it stays up for at least 10days (don't trust it more than that and force a reboot)

    On top of that, some shows that I ask it to tape get deleted at the end of the show for no reason. It's so bad that I have to setup a process to copy the file before the ATI SW deletes it!

    It seems anolog copy protection on Cable TV was working well even 3y+ ago!

    (BTW: It's All-in-one radion)
    • I watch TV on my 9600 Radeon AIW every day. I haven't rebooted my machine in almost two months (it doesn't crash). I've never had it delete a show I recorded. Maybe you need to try a different version of the drivers.
      • I watch TV on my 9600 Radeon AIW every day. I haven't rebooted my machine in almost two months (it doesn't crash). I've never had it delete a show I recorded. Maybe you need to try a different version of the drivers.

        No, it's you that needs to try different drivers. By the sounds of it you are currently missing out on the full ATI experience. What's the point of even having an AIW if it doesn't make your PC unstable, delete all your movies and set fire to your dog? You may as well have just bought a cheap Ha
      • I have tried more recent drivers 2ys ago when they came out with their new "catalyst" drivers. They made the box unusable.
        I'll probably try again but I have no faith in ATI drivers.

        My next TV-tuner card will not be an ATI because I can't use any other less flaky SW with an AIW.

  • AiW < VGA + TV (Score:5, Informative)

    by courtarro ( 786894 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:34PM (#14085165) Homepage
    As the owner of two older AiW cards, I stopped buying AiWs because it just doesn't make fiscal sense to consistently upgrade your TV tuner with your VGA card. The tuner features improve more slowly than gaming cards, and most of the study in this article covers the card's in-game performance, with TV tuning and its quality mentioned as a side note. Personally, I'd rather go with a cutting-edge gaming card for VGA, and a separate tuner for TV, since I won't be forced to part with either if I decide to upgrade the other. Additionally, the tuner chipsets in the AiW often have little 3rd-party support in the drivers, forcing users to use one piece of software to handle TV (ATI's Multimedia Center), often with little support in Linux (I know that MythTV dislikes most of the older AiWs, and I doubt this one will change that). Do yourself a favor and buy a TV Wonder instead (or, of course, a non-ATI product!).
    • It makes more sense to buy a separate tuner card if you're any sort of serious gamer. The life cycle of a capture board is much longer than your graphics chipset. Since we're talking ATI here, I would recommend one of the boards based on the Theater 550 chipset which can be had for less than $100. A review and comparison of three of these boards can be found here [firingsquad.com].
      Personally, I own a Sapphire Theatrix Theatre 550 and I have to say this card is great for ripping home movies from the video camera and I also us
    • about two years ago I finally came up with a hardware configuration that lets me have it all, I think.

      ("All" meaning, everything *I* want and need.)

      I run dual monitors on my main PC with an nVidia card ... and I run my old AIW 8500 on my No. 2 PC, plugged into the second input on one monitor. So the tuner is the flick of a switch away, on one monitor. And I'm running all the ATI drivers/apps one box removed from anything they might screw up ... like real and sound editing apps.

      Will I ever upgrade the

    • Ditto to that. I got the AIW 7500 (Was only $200 I think so nowhere near as insane as this one). "It seemed like a good idea at the time"......... I regretted it after a while. AIW's are traditionally pretty crippled for games even in comparison to there numerical equivilants that aren't AiW (As is seen in a review of the newest one that I have seen, probably the one in the article). It was really a pain in the ass when I realized it wasn't cutting it, and had to get another TV tuner in addition to a n
  • What is the best PC to TV setup?
    Cheapest with mild quaility trade-offs?

    I got a 47" projection (not LCD) TV with HDTV (component) support.
    My pc gots an nVidia 6800 GT (256MB) video card with vga, dvi, and composite output.
    If I output through the composite to my TV, words look really fuzzy and the resolution settings are all funky in general. If I put some media player in full screen mode the picture is generally okay.
    Where do I need to go from here to get a descent PC with TV as monitor solution goi
    • any AIW card from the 9800 up will support HDTV output. I don't honesly know if any Nvidia cards support HDTV output, and unless your HDTV supports Progessive scan the words will always look grainy, because windows fonts are all based on being used for progressive scan displays. in fact, it's very hard to make text not look blurry on interlaced video.

      when looking for a TV that can be used as a monitor you always need to check the progressive scan resolution, and usually if the TV has a VGA or dual DVI port
    • 1 word: DVI. HDMI which is the newfangled connector is essentially DVI with Audio (oh and DRM). Since you have a machine that has DVI out you should be ok.
      Matter of fact there isn't a difference (well there is a difference just not a huge one) between the picture through Component and through DVI/HDMI. Now Composite is a different story.

      Well I can't really tell but is that a blessing or a curs (I would say more the former than the latter)
    • I would get a DLP or LCD projection TV as that has 1280 x 720 resolution native. Most Plasmas in the affordable range do 852x400. Look for a TV with HDMI input. CRTs are the best, but to get sizes in the 40in plus range would be more expensive than getting a projection equivalent.

  • All-In-Wonder drivers suck (Score:5, Informative)

    by realmolo ( 574068 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:37PM (#14085200)
    Everyone knows this. The hardware is nice, but the software package and drivers are HORRIBLE. Yeah, you can get other software to capture video with, but you lose a lot of "proprietary" features of the ATI cards.

    Not to mention ATIs notorious "we'll never release updated drivers for any new operating systems" policy when it comes to their AIW cards. I can almost guarantee that when Windows Vista hits, the TV features of this card won't work on it. Ever.

    Honestly, you're better of picking up one of the Hauppage cards if you really want to have TV features. They're better, better drivers, and widely supported by all kinds of third-party software.
  • Did the older All-In-Wonder cards like 9800 work in Linux for its TV tuner? I never did find one since ATI had bad drivers and no support for the TV tuner for Linux. I am dumping my 9800 AIW soon to get a separate HDTV tuner (air2pc) and going back to NVIDIA side (6800).
  • I had HORRIBLE experiences with the last round of drivers and quite frankly after 2 rounds of "software" driver problems *civ4, cough cough* I'm ready to hand in my ATI AIW9700.

    Trouble is I've been out of the loop so long and I don't know what a good card is from the "other" manufacturers. All tech-specs and benchmarks aside, anyone have any good recommendations for the $200-$300 video card that will take me into the next 3 years?

    Yeah yeah, I'm lazy and not geeky enough to do the research, consider me an a
  • ... insert comment here ...
  • those shots look really really awful. I spent 75 bucks on an old tv tuner from avermedia, and that in conjunction with dscaler has been a great experience. Why on earth would you buy a video card with all of that junk built in? Not only does it cost more for each part (combined as 1 unit), but when you upgrade your video card you lose your capability? It just doesn't make sense.
    • People like to put these into tiny cases so they can use it in their living room. Certain cases like shuttles and what not only have 2 sometimes 1 available PCI slot so if you want to use the other slots for other uses then an all in one is handy. If you are a systems builder, getting an all in one is handy too as it keeps down the number of inventory you have to keep. If you like having a lot of tuners so you can record 6 channels at once, and your computer has 5 pci slots, then you can use the all in one
  • This "review" seems to have been written by a marketing firm, not a reviewer.

    I helped a friend get his AIW X-600 going. What a pain.

    After several tries, the driver checker never did like the video driver that was installed -- it was always out of date.

    The software for viewing DVDs, watching TV, capturing video -- all different interfaces. For a casual guy to want to control it -- very hard to use. Tiny little buttons with cryptic symbols. I tried lots of keyboard shortcuts to get the menus to disa

  • I've owned the original AIW Radeon card, and it was OK for its time. Of course with DirectX 8 and 9 games, it would never work. So time came a couple years ago when TRON 2.0 was out plus Doom3 was around the corner and I needed an upgrade.

    At that time, the 9800 was pretty well regarded. But, there was about 18 different versions of that chipset in various vidcards. Many of the (online) vendors had misleading specs or prices, a lot of cards were lesser 9800 XL cards but without mentioning the 'XL' part.

  • I thought they looked horrible (fuzzy, blurry, between frames)...... I took better ones on my old ATI phillips TV Wonder card....
  • Whys everyone bitching. I'm watching adult swim on my second monitor (off my PCI 9200) from my AIW 9800Pro right now. Never had any problems with it, other than the ocasional instability when i've got the TV on and have too many browser tabs open.

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