Digital Trends

ATI All-In-Wonder X1900

February 6th, 2006 | by Ian Bell

Features and Design

The first thing you should know about the AIW X1900 is that it uses the same GPU core as the X1900 XT and XTX. The second thing you should know is that its core clock speed is clocked slower than the two aforementioned cards, 500MHz compared to 625MHz in the XT and 650MHz in the XTX. So if you plan on buying this card primarily for gaming and just want a few extras, you should be fine. If you are a hardcore gamer, get the XT or XTX and then maybe add the TV Wonder Elite if you want a TV tuner card.

The AIW X1900 comes in the PCI-Express x16 flavor for the time being, although an AGP version might be introduced later on, but don't quote us on that. The AIW X1900 has a few new tricks that separate it from All-in-Wonder cards of the past. Using ATI's new Avivo and H.264 HD technology the AIW X1900 will give you High-Definition quality visuals on your PC depending on the content that is being played. H.264 Acceleration is used to decode Blu-ray and HD-DVD media on the PC. Please visit ATI's website to read more information about AVIVO and H.264 and to download the H.264 decoder for your PC. As we saw at this years' CES you can expect Blu-ray recorders for your PC to hit very soon, followed by players for the home. If anything, this new AVIVO and H.264 technology will give longevity to the AIW X1900; you should also expect to see it featured on future ATI video cards as well.

The TV tuner on the AIW X1900 has been upgraded several times over the years starting with a Philips tuner and moving to the Microtune MT2050. This year however, the tuner gets upgraded once again, this time featuring the Microtune 2121 chip. According to ATI, the new Microtune 2121 is physically smaller than previous tuners, yet it changes channels quicker, and combined with ATI's Theater 200 video decoder its suppose to provide better image quality when reproducing over-the-air or analog cable content. The Microtune 2121 tuner will not work with HDTV, digital cable, or satellite broadcasts; you will have to buy a separate tuner card for those. On the PCB board, the Microtune 2121 tuner box is cut in half with each half located on a side of the video card. This helps to make room for the large cooling assembly which overlaps a little bit of the tuner box. The AIW X1900 is capable of receiving up to 125 channels on your computer. If you add another tuner card, the ATI software will let you watch two programs using Picture-in-Picture.

At the heart of the AIW X1900 is the Theater 200 video decoder chip which is used to decode all of the video aspects of the card. The Theater 200 decoder has been around a long time, at least 3 or more generations of All-In-Wonder cards and in our opinion should have been replaced by the Theater 550 Pro chip on the AIW X1900. We tested the ATI TV Wonder Elite which uses the new Theater Pro 550 chip last year and were impressed with its video quality.

There are four connectors on the AIW X1900, an FM radio tuner coaxial input, coaxial/composite input for the integrated TV tuner, a DVI connector and a proprietary ATI connector that connects to a dongle (which also features an analog VGA input) for use with their stackable input/output blocks. One of the blocks features S-Video and RCA inputs, the other has S-Video and RCA outputs, and the third block features YPrPB/component video output so you can watch High-Definition content on compatible TV or monitor. You won't be able to use two or more of these connector blocks at the same time though. ATI includes the unique adapter cables you will need to get things rolling you will need top pick up the component video, S-video, and RCA cables.

ATI packages the Remote Wonder Plus with the AIW X1900 and this is what you will use for most of your television and video playback. The Remote Wonder Plus is a decent remote that gives you most of the functions you will need. It's not as robust as the Remote Wonder II, but we can understand why ATI chose it instead; it helps keep the overall price down. If you want to buy a Remote Wonder II it should work with this video card.

On the software side, you get ATI's own Multimedia Center software for recording shows for playback later, for viewing video files and for viewing television broadcasts and more. This is really where you will spend most of your time when using this card. The Media Library software organizes all of your media into one place so you can access them easily. ATI has decided to ditch the Pinnacle software in favor or Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 and Photoshop Elements 4.0. These two programs alone help to make the included software package one of the best we have seen with a video card in a long time.

Image Courtesy of ATI Technologies