ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO Preview September 30, 2002 Brandon Bell

Introduction

Page:: ( 1 / 8 )

ATI has been hitting on all cylinders this summer. In the value space, ATI’s RADEON 9000 family is the most feature-packed solution on the market, and it can already be found for under $100 online. NVIDIA’s GeForce4 MX series never really took off with gamers like its predecessor, even with its impressive Quincunx anti-aliasing performance.

In comparison, RADEON 9000, and even the higher performing RADEON 8500/8500LE offer all the benefits of true DirectX 8 cards and compelling performance in all of today’s latest games on the market. Therefore, we don’t see anything competing with ATI in the sub-$100 market for the immediate future.

In the high-end space, ATI’s RADEON 9700 PRO owns a similar lead over its competition. Like RADEON 9000, RADEON 9700 is one generation ahead of NVIDIA’s closest part, GeForce4 Ti 4600.

It also possesses the performance you’d expect from a next generation graphics card. Its eight-pixel pipeline architecture is capable of pumping out 325M triangles/sec (in comparison to 136 million in GeForce4 Ti 4600), while its 256-bit DDR memory interface provides up to 20GB/sec of bandwidth to the RADEON 9700 PRO core. NVIDIA’s answer to both of these products has yet to be announced, and with Q4 rapidly approaching, NVIDIA is quickly running out of time.

What’s new for this fall

To further strengthen its position, ATI plans to make a few additional moves in the mainstream segment (in the form of RADEON 9500) as well as the multimedia sector. We’re here today to discuss ATI’s latest moves in the latter market, as ATI has implemented quite a few changes in its ALL-IN-WONDER family for the last half of this year.

The most significant change is the new product we’re here to tell you about today, the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO. As expected, ATI is now ready to unveil the details on this upcoming card, and based on what we’ve seen, we think it will be just as highly anticipated in the multimedia segment as ATI’s current RADEON 9700 PRO is desired by gamers and hardware enthusiasts.




SIDEBAR: The original ALL-IN-WONDER debuted in 1996.

Specifications

Page:: ( 2 / 8 )

[image]

The list

RADEON 9700 PRO Visual Processing Unit

Notes

Based off the RADEON 9700 PRO core, the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO sports all the DirectX 9 goodies we could ask for. While clock speeds for the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO have not been finalized, we’ve been told by ATI that they plan to get them as close to the regular RADEON 9700 PRO as possible. Our literature mentioned a 310MHz core clock frequency, with the memory at 325MHz. This puts it pretty close to RADEON 9700 PRO, which features a 325MHz core/325MHz memory combination.

One new addition is the THEATER 200 chip, which replaces Rage Theater that has been used for generations of ALL-IN-WONDER cards. A new comb filter has been implemented, as well as new 12-bit converters. This results in improved audio and video quality when recording.




SIDEBAR: ATI drops the “RADEON” designation from the ALL-IN-WONDER moniker this time around. I guess they figured it was getting a bit too long.

Theater 200/RC Unit

Page:: ( 3 / 8 )

THEATER 200

For ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO, ATI has replaced its popular Rage Theater chip with an all-new part, the ATI THEATER 200. The keyword for THEATER 200 is quality. For you see, the THEATER 200 chip takes the same features found in Rage Theater to a new level of visual and audio quality.

With Theater 200, ATI has implemented its third generation comb filter, an adaptive 2D 3-Line Comb Filter. By moving to three lines, THEATER 200 can more accurately process composite video signals, resulting in a cleaner, sharper picture. In comparison, competing solutions use 2 lines for NTSC, and 4 lines for PAL. ATI claims their new comb filter algorithm is optimized for video and text.

The stereo TV tuner itself is capable of supporting up to 125 channels, the same number as previous ALL-IN-WONDER products. Unlike ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 8500DV, ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO sports an analog TV tuner.

On the audio side of the equation, ATI has also kicked things up a notch. The THEATER 200 chip now boasts dual 12-bit analog-to-digital converters. By moving up to 12-bits, audio quality is increased. Other products on the market only offer 9-bits or less with their offerings.

Another new change is the component video output via the YPrPb adapter, which is now integrated on the RADEON 9700 PRO chip itself. As a result, there is no external conversion circuitry or encoder chip present on the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO board. The component output supports HDTV televisions; resolutions of 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i are supported. So connecting your PC to the big screen in the family room should be no problem.

REMOTE WONDER

ATI’s REMOTE WONDER lives on in the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO. This product made its debut with the ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 8500DV late last year. Since REMOTE WONDER is an RF remote, line of sight is not required and it can even work through walls. It is because of this feature that ATI has added unique remote IDs for each remote control unit. Those of you living in dorm rooms or apartment complexes with neighbors who also happen to own their own REMOTE WONDER control will appreciate this feature in particular.

[image]

MM Center 8.0

Page:: ( 4 / 8 )

ATI’s Multimedia Center 8.0 is a suite of applications that bundles many home entertainment functions into one easy to use and convenient software package. The applications provided by Multimedia Center 8.0 include a TV player, DVD player, VCD player, CD player, file player (which allows you to playback audio files, PVR recordings you’ve made, movies, etc), multimedia center library (manages all media files, including disk cleanup), and Gemstar’s GUIDE PLUS+ TV listings. We’ll start with the TV player first.

TV Player

For those of you who really want the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO for its TV tuning capabilities, the TV player would be considered the heart of Multimedia Center 8.0. One new feature that has been implemented in Multimedia Center 8.0 is mulTView. This refers to the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO’s ability to support dual TV tuners (once your ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO is paired with a second TV tuner card such as ATI’s TV WONDER) bringing picture-in-picture support to the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO. In fact, while you’re watching one channel, you can also be recording another thanks to the mulTView functionality.

Like a conventional TV with picture-in-picture support, audio plays for the main screen, while a smaller screen in one of the corners of your monitor displays the second channel. You can channel surf on the smaller screen and then if you find a different program you’d rather watch, switch the selected channel to the main display.

[image]

VideoSoap

No, the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO doesn’t ship with its own soap opera, rather, VideoSoap refers to the improved video filtering for higher quality video capture. This is accomplished by using the RADEON 9700 PRO core's pixel shaders to clean up the video as it is being encoded.

Filters for blurring, despeckle, sharpen, and two comb filters are now available to get your vid caps looking as sharp as possible. Tabs are present for each of these filters so you can adjust their strength individually. Even a handy CPU utilization graph is provided so you can see if your system has the horsepower to handle the settings you’ve made. The green represents you’ll be okay while yellow indicates caution. If your settings have you in the red, you’re tapping a significant portion of the CPU resources and may want to reconsider some of the settings you’ve chosen.

[image]

TV on your PC

Page:: ( 5 / 8 )

TV-ON-DEMAND

ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO’s TV-ON-DEMAND feature refers to its ability to record live television broadcasts, just like a digital video recorder such as a TiVo or ReplayTV unit does. The program is saved to your hard drive with a certain level of quality, which you predefine, with higher quality recordings requiring more hard disk space.

You’ve probably seen the commercial where the football fan pauses the football game before the game-winning field goal kick is attempted, runs to church so he can pray, then comes back and presses the “play” button to see his team make the kick and win the game. With TV-ON-DEMAND you can pause live TV while you take a phone call, the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO will then save the television program to your hard drive so you can watch it later. Once you’re free again, simply play the recording back just as you would with a normal VCR, only now you’ve got a fast forward button that is much more powerful than any available on any of today’s VCRs.

For Multimedia Center 8.0, the functionality of TV-ON-DEMAND remains unchanged. However, ATI has now made saving files much more flexible. As a result, identifying programs you’ve recorded becomes much simpler, automatic filenaming is also available.

[image]

Closed caption search

Tying in to the TV-ON-DEMAND functionality is Multimedia Center 8.0’s new closed caption search feature. With it, end users can search the closed caption database for certain keywords. Say for instance, you’re interested in keeping up with the latest developments surrounding Iraq on CNN.

[image]

Gemstar GUIDE PLUS+

Of course, having all the television streams in the world means nothing if you don’t have an easy interface to manage the programs you’d like to watch. With this in mind, ATI has licensed Gemstar’s GUIDE PLUS+ Internet TV listings for use with the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO. GUIDE PLUS+ will search and provide programming listings based on title, actor, category, or date. You can also have GUIDE PLUS+ automatically record your favorite programs for the entire season, which is helpful if you tend to forget such things.







SIDEBAR: The “Cobra” engine uses enhanced variable bit rate algorithms and more robust motion estimation algorithms to allow for higher quality video with lower CPU utilization.

Audio/Video players

Page:: ( 6 / 8 )

While the rest of Multimedia Center 8.0’s applications are pretty self explanatory, we’ll briefly go over each of them.

DVD player

As the first vendor to offer motion compensation, iDCT calculations in hardware, and adaptive de-interlacing, it goes without saying that ATI has been at the forefront of DVD playback for some time. And with its S/PDIF output, all those with 5.1 speaker setups can enjoy the Dolby Digital experience on their PC.

The new addition to multimedia center 8.0’s software DVD player is relatively minor: dual subtitle support is now available. So those of you who are watching DVD movies with friends that speak different languages can all enjoy the movie, provided the DVD offers multiple languages.

Multimedia center 8.0’s still capture function allows you to capture still images during DVD playback, which can then be saved to a stills gallery for later viewing. In particular, you can go back and zoom in on certain portions of the screen or save the image to your desktop.

[image]

CD player

Multimedia center 8.0’s bundled CD player offers all the functions you’d expect from a traditional player. The ability to shuffle songs is available, as well as looping your favorite songs so you can hear them over and over again (and thus annoy anyone who may be working nearby). Gracenote’s CDDB music recognition service is used to retrieve the title of each track on your CD automatically.

VCD player

For playing Video CD’s and karaoke ATI bundles its VCD player with multimedia center 8.0. Features supported include mute, zoom, and the ability to capture still images, just like the DVD player.

File player

The final player ATI bundles with its multimedia center 8.0 software suite is for playing back captured audio or video files. It uses the same familiar interface as the other aforementioned players, so end users shouldn’t get confused or lost moving from application to application. And supports the same features such as still capture and zoom. The file player supports all the common audio and video file types, as well as ATI VCR.

[image]

Skins

Finally, end users can customize each of these players with different skins if they desire. Four options are available: classic, modern (which is the default), tranquility, and Zero-G.




SIDEBAR: ATI claims that the new Cobra engine yields CPU usage savings of 10-20%.

Video capture/files

Page:: ( 7 / 8 )

Managing your files

With the ability to save so much data on your hard disk that is solely related to the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO, losing vid caps you’ve made or television programs you’d like to watch at a later date can easily occur. Not to mention the fact that multimedia buffs could quickly stuff their hard drive full of files.

To minimize this from happening, ATI has bundled its multimedia center library to help end users manage all the audio, video, and images on their PC.

The biggest addition in multimedia center 8.0’s multimedia center library is the ability to remove non-existing files (broken links), speed up the filtering process, and compact your file library to conserve hard disk space.

Also in multimedia center 8.0, end users can now search for specific files for deletion based on criteria such as the last time it was viewed, size, content type, content older than a certain timeframe (such as programs recorded six months ago), as well as protection status. This helps to keep hard disk space in check, although we still don’t doubt that many ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO owners will be stuffing their systems with hard drives of the largest capacities available.

End users can also run the recommended file deletion utility where the user can pick and chose which files to delete from a system-generated list.

[image]

Video capture

ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO supports all the major file types for capturing video, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, as well as ATI’s proprietary VCR 2.0 format. One unique benefit of the RADEON 9700 PRO core though is the added ability to create unique 3D effects using the pixel shaders provided by the RADEON 9700 PRO core. ATI demonstrated quite a few crazy examples to us that they’d created; we can see the development community going wild with the potential this will bring.

Of course, traditional 3D transitions and effects are also available, allowing end users who aren’t feeling as creative as the pros an option as well.

In terms of outputs, an S-Video output is provided, as is a composite input/output. While the omission of Firewire support may be a concern to some, keep in mind that many of today’s newer chipsets already support this technology. Therefore, if you would like to plug your Firewire devices into your PC you’ll need to make sure your motherboard supports that feature.

For video capture duties, ATI bundles a copy of Pinnacle Studio 8 with the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO.

SIDEBAR: With the launch of the new ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO, the price on the ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 8500DV drops to $199.

Conclusion

Page:: ( 8 / 8 )

ATI’s ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO is shaping up to be another smashing success for the company. ATI’s multimedia prowess shines throughout the entire package.

On the hardware side, ATI’s THEATER 200 chip offers substantially improved audio and video quality than isn’t available on the competition’s offerings. And with its component video output, HDTV owners should be quite pleased. When you combine this with the already proved RADEON 9700 PRO core, you’ve got a package that will appeal to the most extreme hardware enthusiast and gamer. Try as you might, we just don’t see how anyone could diss the hardware behind the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO.

The ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO’s software package is equally impressive. ATI’s 7 series multimedia center was already considered the best implementation in its class. Multimedia center 8.0 goes a few steps further with new features such as mulTView, VideoSoap, and the closed caption database search. When you combine that with Gemstar’s GUIDE PLUS+ TV programming guide, you’ve got a package that is very easy to use, rivaling the functionality of set-top DVRs such as the TiVo or ReplayTV.

On top of all this, pricing on the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO will be very competitive -- $500. While this may sound like a lot of money, when you consider that the RADEON 9700 PRO card alone sells for $400, you can see why we think $500 is an incredibly good deal. For just $100 more you get all the video editing and TV functionality you could ever want: you’d truly be upgrading your state-of-the-art gaming rig into a powerful home theater system that would also be capable of playing the latest and greatest games on the market. Besides, the addition of Pinnacle Studio 8 (and an unannounced game title) alone would set you back an additional $100.

ATI will also be offering a bundle that includes the TV WONDER card and Firewire support, although we don’t know the specifics of this just yet. But needless to say we wouldn’t be surprised to see many potential RADEON 9700 PRO owners simply purchase the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO instead. If you’ve got the money, it certainly is a good value.

One thing’s for certain, it takes a lot to impress us here at FiringSquad, ATI has certainly delivered the goods this summer. First it was the RADEON 9000, and then the even more compelling RADEON 9700 PRO, which is a shoe-in for our Editor’s Choice Award. And now in a matter of weeks (we've been told to expect retail availibility in the next 3-5 weeks) ATI will drop the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO in consumers laps! We certainly can’t wait to see what they have in store for the PC industry next, but right now we’re pretty amazed at what ATI has delivered with the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO.




SIDEBAR: What do you think of the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO? Does ATI have another hit on its hands or were you hoping for something more? Voice your thoughts in the news comments!