The All-In-Wonder 2006 PCIe Edition: The Latest Multimedia Solution From ATI
by Josh Venning on December 22, 2005 7:15 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Features
The multimedia aspects of the A-I-W 2006 are what take the center stage over its gaming capabilities. While it is capable of providing decent gameplay in a lot of games, we don't see the kind of over-the-top graphical performance as we did with the X1800 XL A-I-W. We do however see the same excellent multimedia features which reflect the quality ATI has put into their A-I-W products.
Video Playback and Recording is the biggest feature here, and again we find that the card is incredibly easy to install and setup for this. The card has an input for your Cable or Satellite system and once it's plugged in, a simple setup adjustment had us instantly watching live tv on our system.
The interface is the same as it was for the X1800 XL A-I-W, with a TV player which works much like a television tuner, allowing you to browse cable channels and do other things like set parental controls. The Gemstar GUIDE Plus+ is back, which is a program that comes with the card and allows you to download show schedules and record upcoming programs for later viewing on your PC. You can also pause and resume live TV at anytime while you are watching, which gives the All-In-Wonder a similar feel to something like TiVo for the PC.
There is also a feature called Thruview, which is essentially a way to watch TV in the background while typing or web browsing on your computer. Thruview is enabled through the media player options, and changes the opacity of the video playback so that it appears to be playing in the background. This "see-through" effect can be enabled full screen or be limited to a box that can be resized. We talked before about how this effect can be slightly annoying, and our sentiments haven't changed. While it is an interesting idea and some people might have use for this feature, we find it to be distracting and too faint to be of any real use.
Another small annoying thing that is back with the A-I-W 2006 is the toolbar that installs itself with the media players and starts up with windows along the right edge of your screen. The toolbar isn't really necessary, as all of the programs listed are available in the start menu, and the fact that it's there taking up any space at all rubs us the wrong way. But the toolbar is harmless and simple enough to disable from automatic startup if you don't like it. If you spend a little bit of time looking around at install time, the toolbar can be skipped altogether (which is our recommendation).
Other small features we should mention are the ability to record or take screen shots of anything you are watching at anytime, and view or export the files later on for editing. There is also a DVD and CD player included, as well as an FM Radio tuner if you feel like recording or listening to the radio on your computer.
These are all features that were available with the X1800 XL A-I-W, and ATI seems to be staying with what works for the A-I-W 2006. As we mentioned in the last All-In-Wonder review, of all the features included here, ease of use is at the top of the list. We didn't see any lag or glitches in video playback or recording, and the interfaces are straightforward and helpful for getting the desired settings. We still like the switch from Pinnacle to Adobe for the bundled video editing software, but again, unlike the X1800 XL A-I-W the A-I-W 2006 only comes with Premier Elements and not Photoshop.
The multimedia aspects of the A-I-W 2006 are what take the center stage over its gaming capabilities. While it is capable of providing decent gameplay in a lot of games, we don't see the kind of over-the-top graphical performance as we did with the X1800 XL A-I-W. We do however see the same excellent multimedia features which reflect the quality ATI has put into their A-I-W products.
Video Playback and Recording is the biggest feature here, and again we find that the card is incredibly easy to install and setup for this. The card has an input for your Cable or Satellite system and once it's plugged in, a simple setup adjustment had us instantly watching live tv on our system.
The interface is the same as it was for the X1800 XL A-I-W, with a TV player which works much like a television tuner, allowing you to browse cable channels and do other things like set parental controls. The Gemstar GUIDE Plus+ is back, which is a program that comes with the card and allows you to download show schedules and record upcoming programs for later viewing on your PC. You can also pause and resume live TV at anytime while you are watching, which gives the All-In-Wonder a similar feel to something like TiVo for the PC.
There is also a feature called Thruview, which is essentially a way to watch TV in the background while typing or web browsing on your computer. Thruview is enabled through the media player options, and changes the opacity of the video playback so that it appears to be playing in the background. This "see-through" effect can be enabled full screen or be limited to a box that can be resized. We talked before about how this effect can be slightly annoying, and our sentiments haven't changed. While it is an interesting idea and some people might have use for this feature, we find it to be distracting and too faint to be of any real use.
Another small annoying thing that is back with the A-I-W 2006 is the toolbar that installs itself with the media players and starts up with windows along the right edge of your screen. The toolbar isn't really necessary, as all of the programs listed are available in the start menu, and the fact that it's there taking up any space at all rubs us the wrong way. But the toolbar is harmless and simple enough to disable from automatic startup if you don't like it. If you spend a little bit of time looking around at install time, the toolbar can be skipped altogether (which is our recommendation).
Other small features we should mention are the ability to record or take screen shots of anything you are watching at anytime, and view or export the files later on for editing. There is also a DVD and CD player included, as well as an FM Radio tuner if you feel like recording or listening to the radio on your computer.
These are all features that were available with the X1800 XL A-I-W, and ATI seems to be staying with what works for the A-I-W 2006. As we mentioned in the last All-In-Wonder review, of all the features included here, ease of use is at the top of the list. We didn't see any lag or glitches in video playback or recording, and the interfaces are straightforward and helpful for getting the desired settings. We still like the switch from Pinnacle to Adobe for the bundled video editing software, but again, unlike the X1800 XL A-I-W the A-I-W 2006 only comes with Premier Elements and not Photoshop.
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rob46 - Saturday, December 24, 2005 - link
Since the AIW 2006 PCIe is based off the architecture of the x1300, can any other x1300 card be used to set up a Crossfire system? There was an article a little while ago that stated that the x1300 series wouldn't need a Crossfire master-card so any x1300 card should, in theory, be able to complete the Crossfire system right?macraig - Saturday, December 24, 2005 - link
It's really bad review journalism that so many reviews are done in a vacuum. None of a product's features or characteristics have meaning as an absolute... they're only meaningful *relative* to other similar competing products. That makes perfect sense, since even human intelligence isn't and can't (yet?) be measured as an absolute. Neither has meaning except relative to a peer.I'd like to see AnandTech and all other sites offering things called reviews to save their words and efforts until they can do the job right, with a full comparative head-to-head spread. "Reviews" in a vacuum like this raise an obvious question of motivation: is this an actual objective review, or merely a verbose conspiratorial marketing ad?
Mark
Galloway1520 - Friday, December 23, 2005 - link
What I'm most curious about is if this card can OC up at least to stock X1300(445MHz up to 600MHz) engine clock. If so, then it should be able to do Crossfire, as the X1300 & X1600 do not require a master/dongle combo.It not, my understanding is that Crossfire automatically 'underclocks' the faster card, and then this combo doesn't look as promising
andlcs - Friday, December 23, 2005 - link
The review didn't mention the memory of this card.Newegg says it's DDR.
ATI Web Site says it's GDDR3.
I think it's F-BGA/GDDR2.
Questar - Thursday, December 22, 2005 - link
"The fact that certain parts (ie. X1600) took so long after launch to actually become available made us go from slightly annoyed to eventually worried that something horrible had happened at ATI to cause such delays."It's been known for months why the x1000 series was delayed. As always, Google is your friend.
DerekWilson - Thursday, December 22, 2005 - link
There are lots of reason for the general "delay" in x1000 series parts, and these have been well documented. Initially the R520 was supposed to launch this past summer and the rest of the lineup would follow in october/november. There was a circuit bug that ended up forcing ATI to push the R520 launch back to the RV515 timeframe. RV515 (x1300) was generally on time, and the RV530 (X1600) was announced at the same time as the rest of the X1000 series (early october). RV530 was scheduled to hit the streets on 11/30. All this is well and good, but it's not what Josh was talking about.The X1600 wasn't available until recently. The X1800 XT was available about 3-5 days after it was scheduled to be (11/5), but it took longer for the X1600 to show up. This is the delay we are talking about -- the delay from when ATI says something will be on shelves until the day it actually is.
We are happy to see some real availability of the All-In-Wonder 2006 today at major online retailers. It was also nice to see a few sites selling the X1800 CrossFire Edition a couple days ago.
This week is certainly a welcome change from what we are used to seeing from ATI.
Araemo - Thursday, December 22, 2005 - link
If this thing is $200 or lower at launch(and $150 or so as time goes on?), it'd be a good option for people with an "SLI" mobo, but no interest in a SLI setup. Put your gaming card in slot 1, put this card in slot 2, use this for VIVO, and the gaming card as your actual video card.Donegrim - Thursday, December 22, 2005 - link
or buy a dedicated TV card for vastly less money, and get a pci one so you wouldnt have to havee a dual PCI-E motherboard. These AIW cards seem pointless when you can get a decent TV card for about £30 ($55 ish)BigLan - Thursday, December 22, 2005 - link
For people in that situation, a pcie theater550 card would be a much better option. Hardware encoding makes a huge difference (despite what was said in the article) and the 550 is much cheaper than this card.Actually, getting a regular x1300 + theater 550 card works out about the same price as the x1300 aiw, and would be a much better option imo (faster gfx card + better TV picture.) Plus it would give you something to put in those pcie x1 slots :)
ksherman - Thursday, December 22, 2005 - link
ah but that 1x slot is inbetween my two Vieo slots... and i dont think any card will fit in there..... (DFI Ultra-D) some times, i get really angry @ DFI for their board design...