ATI All-In-Wonder HD Is Back
Now stop me if you have heard this one before! What do you get when you cross a tuner card and a video card? Yah, I have no idea! I wonder what it is?
Just when you think the All-In-Wonder is dead, ATI drags it from the depths of despair and add HD to the title. The AIW of years gone by was a sketchy addition, at best, to your HTPC. However, this time around it looks like it is a solid offering.
The AIW HD combines the Theater 650 capture card, which we know to be of pretty good quality with QAM tuning, and the HD 3650 video card for $199. The price, in my opinion is a little steep. If we take a look at the cards seperately, it wouldn’t amount to much over $125. Pricing gripes aside, the combination of H.264/VC-1 acceleration technologies with a capture card can only be a good thing.
How would I change the AIW? I think they got the combo right. A cool running video card with a quality card. In this case, I would lower the price somewhat. I might even combine it with the 3850\3870\4850 (once it is cooler running) for a better 1080p gaming experience.
Secondly, I would pay the $199 if the AIW had component capture to H.264 :). That, my friend, would light the HTPC world on fire. Hit the read more for the full press release.
Sunnyvale, Calif. — June 26, 2008 —AMD
(NYSE: AMD) today expanded The Ultimate Visual Experience™ for North
America with the ATI All-In-Wonder™ HD, combining award-winning ATI
Radeon™ Premium graphics and ATI TV Wonder™ HD tuner technology card in
one PCI Express® 2.0 solution. As the newest multimedia powerhouse to
join the long line of All-In-Wonder offerings, ATI All-in-Wonder HD
transforms the PC into a highly immersive digital video recorder for
HDTV1 and analog TV, plus expands the realm of exceptional
gaming with cinematic HD graphics for mainstream PCs. Blu-ray™ disc
playback can be enjoyed in full HD glory (1080p) thanks to ATI
All-in-Wonder HD’s unified video decoder (UVD) technology, ensuring
movies play back smoothly and with incredible detail2.
AMD LIVE!™ Ready and Certified for Windows
Vista®, ATI All-In-Wonder HD has a manufacturers suggested retail price
(MSRP) of $199, includes capabilities to watch and record free-to-air
HDTV, unencrypted digital cable programming3, and superb
analog TV reception powered by ATI Theater™ 650 Pro hardware MPEG-2
encoding technology. All-In-Wonder HD merges the best of the ATI TV
Wonder™ product line with ATI Radeon Premium Graphics to deliver The
Ultimate Visual Experience.
“Never before has this level of HDTV and
graphics performance been seen in an all-in-one PC multimedia
solution,” said Matt Skynner, vice president of marketing, Graphics
Products Group, AMD. “The award-winning ATI All-In-Wonder lineage is
built on long-standing leadership in TV and video on the PC. For the
hundreds of thousands of owners of previous ATI All-In-Wonder models
and for those hungry to realize the full potential of their PC, we’re
excited and proud to introduce the newest addition to AMD’s PCTV
product family.”
ATI All-in-Wonder HD prepares you for brilliant
TV, sharp images and smooth playback on a wide variety of HDTVs and
displays. With support for Microsoft DirectX® 10.1, gamers can play the
top HD games with life-like 3D graphics, stunning realism, and great
shading effects. Full support for PCI Express 2.0 technology allows for
twice the throughput of current PCI Express 1.0 cards, which means
gamers will be ready for demanding graphic applications.
ATI All-in-Wonder HD further expands TV viewing
capabilities with support for Windows® Media Center bundled with
Windows Vista® Home Premium and Windows Vista® Ultimate editions, as
well as Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005. The ATI All-in-Wonder HD
complements media-rich AMD LIVE! PCs.
Featured with ATI All-in-Wonder HD is ATI
Catalyst Media Center™ software that provides an easy path to view TV
programs in a variety of entertainment environments and mobile video
devices. Recorded TV programs and home videos can be quickly converted
into the most popular formats for viewing video on portable media
devices4. Digitize and preserve priceless moments and start
building your video library. ATI Catalyst Media Center software
includes a scalable TV interface with integrated TV programming info,
DVD video authoring and movie playback, and video conversion
technologies5. A second bundled AMD LIVE!™ Entertainment
Suite CD includes AMD LIVE!™ On Demand to access the DVR from any
computer with broadband connectivity and AMD LIVE!™ Explorer that
provides an immersive way of managing and interacting with your
entertainment library. Explore your complete digital collections of
music, photos, and videos in a single window, in full 3D6.
With Home Theater environments in mind, ATI
All-in-Wonder HD provides expanded connectivity with built-in support
for six channel (5.1) Dolby Digital® surround audio transmission
through HDMI, native dual-link DVI-I for high resolution panels, and
optional component video connectivity.
Available through Diamond Multimedia and
VisionTek at leading computer retailers and etailers across North
America by late July, ATI All-In-Wonder HD is designed to take home
theater PCs to the next level of multimedia performance.