Digital Trends

ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9800 Pro

July 29th, 2003 | by Douglas Hall

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Packaging was probably the finest example of clear and usable labeling we have seen. Here is a shot of the warning and a picture describing the installation process that was very easy to understand.

ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 PRO packaging

It is apparent from the start, that this graphics adapter is targeted towards the high-end video enthusiast and not just the gamer or average PC user. First of all it only has one monitor port which is a DVI connection and not the usual one analog and one DVI as with most cards that want to add flexibility to their offerings.

This particular video card was designed for the high-end market from the start. 6' composite (RCA) video cable, 6' s-video cable, 4 jack AV-output +S/PDIF cable, 4 jack AV-input cable  (PURPLE 5' LONG), AIW 9700/9800 HDTV cable, and one DVI to analog converter as well as the Remote Wonder setup which uses a small RF receiver about the size of a tic-tac container which plugs in to a USB port. Quite the list compared to some other manufacturers. The All-In-Wonder Radeon 9800 Pro is the perfect addition to any HTPC.

ATI -All-In-Wonder Accessories

Output from the card is in the form of DVI and a converter port (10 pin) to plug in the special cable adapter for S-video or HDTV. Input consists of a cable-in for the TV cable and a converter port (8pin) both of which resemble PS2 plugs like you would use for your mouse or keyboard. The cable configurations are quite extensive and you can use just about any conceivable combination for today's most popular video setups. The remote itself is a nice addition as you can use your PC as anything from a DVD player to a TV tuner to a video editing machine with very little hit to resources compared to older models. Also included are Morrowwind, Pinnacle studio 8, Matchware Mediator 7 for creating flash and HTML CD-ROM based presentations, Muvee Auto producer, Guide+ which is a TV guide and the Driver / application CD.  The API from ATI is still the basic interface familiar to fans of this manufacturer and seems to have had little improvement over the last few years.

ATI's EAZYLOOK setup

The ATI's software CD player is still the same without the addition of a CD writing or equalizer capabilities as most other players have. However you can disable the power saving settings from the setup menu and it is DIVX compatible too. We ran this with the newer 3.6 version ff the Catalyst drivers and the only problem was that the Launch pad would not always load at start-up and had to be manually started from the programs menu.

EAZYLOOK™ is the name of the software interface for use with the home theater settings that are run from the remote. Included is the ability to record and play back television as well as freeze it and use picture in a picture (PIP) capabilities as well. The THRUVIEW feature makes the control API and other on screen interaction transparent and yet still easy to see and use.