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by ATI
Introduction With the popularity of smaller form factor and home theater computers, there is an increased demand for full function multimedia cards. One of the largest producers of integrated multimedia graphics cards is ATI with their All-In-Wonder line. The latest card from ATI is the All-In-Wonder Radeon 9600 Pro. In many respects, one might think this is a backward step for ATI from their All-In-Wonder Radeon 9700 and 9800 Pro cards, but there are a number of innovative features to the 9600 Pro card that make it stand out from its more expensive siblings.  ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9600 Pro Retail Box Specifications and Packaging ATI's All-In-Wonder Radeon 9600 Pro board uses the same exact graphics core as the standard Radeon 9600 Pro card. This means that the basic specifications remain unchanged except for one thing. ATI has increased the speed of the memory clock providing an overall higher memory bandwidth. This should help in some aspect of 3D gaming performance, but the overall performance will be on par with a standard Radeon 9600 Pro board.
The first thing that most people will notice when they pick up the box for the All-In-Wonder Radeon 9600 Pro is how heavy the box is compared to other video cards. This is because it is packed with a large number of cables and attachments.  Contents of the Retail Package
The Connectors  External Connectors of ATI AIW 9600 Pro Board The thing that probably stands out most for people is that there are no standard VGA or even DVI connectors on the board. So how on earth does one connect a computer monitor onto the board? ATI has addressed this by creating a specialized connector in the middle of the card and connects a custom video output cable to the board. This allows for more connectors off the limited space of the video card. Of course the drawback to this is the amount of cables that protrude from the back of the computer.  Output Cable on Back of a PC  Connectors on Output Cable This cable features a total of six connectors that plug into the single output on the video card. From left to right on the picture, the connectors are: Composite Video Out, Audio Pass Through, VGA 1, VGA 2, S-Video Output and S/PDIF Output. This cable highlights one of the major additions to the All-In-Wonder Line, multiple monitor support. Conversely, the cable also showcases of the major drawbacks to the card, no DVI monitor support. Anyone with a DVI monitor or looking to get one will not be able to use this card. Going back to the connectors on the card, the two F-Type connectors on the upper portion of the card are for a FM tuner and TV Tuner. This is another major first for the All-In-Wonder line of cards. The Radeon 9600 Pro model is the first to support FM radio along with radio on-demand, a personal video recorder like feature for FM radio. The remaining connector on the lower portion of the card is the video input connector. This allows the connection of the purple video input box to be plugged into the card for video capture from sources such as a VCR or video camera. The video input box has input connectors for S-Video, RCA composite video and RCA Audio.  Video Input Box Connectors Remote Wonder A recent bonus to the All-In-Wonder cards from ATI is the addition of the Remote Wonder UHF remote control and receiver. This adds a lot of functionality to the card when it is used in a multimedia system. The software and installation are very straightforward. Simply run the software installation program on the CD to install the software and then plug in the USB receiver.  ATI Remote Wonder Controller and Receiver Most of the functions of the remote are intuitive. There are some areas where it gets confusing. In particular the VCR controls at the bottom of the remote for play, forward, reverse, pause and stop do not always work the way one might expect. In some cases, they don't function at all. Use of some of the functions on the remote also enables the EAZYLOOK feature. This is a full screen display mode that includes text displays for channel labels, program names, times and features in a simple to read format. This is very nice for those using the system with a home entertainment system, but it is annoying when viewing a TV program in a window and you want to use the remote to change the channel. Doing so enables the full screen mode. Next page > Multimedia Features, Performance and Conclusions > Page 1, 2
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