The Card - Continued
The box ATi decided to package the video card in is fairly is nothing to fancy, but still provides enough color so that you can notice it on store shelves. The design of the video card itself is not as flashy as other cards that we have reviewed, such as the MSI Ti4600-8X which sported both a red PCB and a slightly more exotic cooling system. The card, as the name suggests sports a TV-Tuner which is a Phillips version. This provides one of the main attracting features of this card, being able to watch TV on your computer.
The outputs on the back of the card consist of (from top to bottom), video/audio-in from the ATi breakout box, the TV Tuner, video/audio-out with the supplied output cable, and the DVI port which can be used as a VGA port with the supplied adaptor. The TV-in/out is handled by ATi's Rage Theater 200 chip which is found on most of ATi's newer video cards. This brings many features which we will discuss in slightly more detail later.
The Remote Wonder, which has been reviewed previously by Hubert, is a nice addition to the package. Since it was reviewed we will not go into detail about this feature. The remote worked very well, and the inclusion of the batteries was a good idea. I have actually used this accessory a fair bit, especially for watching TV, and not necessarily using the ATi TV software. The plug-in for Winamp was a welcome addition as this makes it easier to switch songs from across the room. I did find that when in the ATi TV program sometimes the channel control didn't work properly, rather I had to use the up/down arrows to change channels. The programmable buttons, all six of them, were useful especially when switching from one tuner to another in the ATi TV software (more on that later).
The manuals included in the package are good, and the quick connect page is very nice if you need to remember which cable connects where. The full manual covers all the points of setting up you video card, from installing it, to capturing video with it. Unlike other manufacturers that make one manual for all of a large series, ATi has made this manual for only the AiW Radeon 9000 series (AGP and PCI), which means that while it looks smaller than other manuals, it actually has more relevant information about the product.
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ATI All-In-Wonder 9000 Pro: ATi has been making the AiW series for the last several years. Today's review will look at one of ATi's latest but not necessarily fastest All-in-Wonder video card.
