ATi's All In Wonder Radeon 7500

FlippedBit writes "ATi has released a very affordable All In Wonder product based on their Radeon 7500 chip. For a mere $200 smackers you can get decent 3D graphics, TV Tuner, TiVO functions, and a remote that will work from another room with no line of sight."

Comments

Linux?

[L3WKW4RM]

So does ATI release Free drivers unlike the NVIDIA hell I've been stuck with the last 2 years?

I wish it were easier to turn down hardware on the same issues we can turn down software, but it seems to be a sellers' market.

Who needs 300 fps?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who needs 300 fps? The eye can only see 50 fps.

---
Yours sincerely
The "Who needs 300 fps? The eye can only see 50 fps." troll

Re:Compaqs with Radeon 8500 All-in-wonder 128MB DD

[Daniel_Carter]

The Radeon 8500 is leaps and bounds better than the 7500, even in AiW form. THe 7500 is actually based on the Old radeon chip, but with a 0.15 micron build process that allows higher clock speeds. As for the DV, i assumed that the DV was the way that they distinguished the standard 8500 from the AiW. I.E, I thought that the all-in-wonder WAS the DV. If you are looking for performance Difference between the 8500 AiW and the 7500 AiW, I have to say that the difference is quite large. The 8500 AiW is better than the geforce 3 series in my opinion, and with all the features, a perfect all round card :). If anyone can indeed clarify the DV thingy, I also would like to be put right...

problem with AIW's

[Pfhreakaz0id]

I used to have an all-in-wonder ATI card. Now I have a geforce and a separate winTV card. Here's my problem with it: When it's time to upgrade your 3d, you have to upgrade the whole thing. I do a fair amount of gaming, mostly sports and action, and while my old Geforce 2mx is great, I'm sure in a year or two I'll want to upgrade. By having the card separate, I don't have to worry. There is software (shapeshifter, below) that works as a "tivo like" thing.

That said, I'm thinking of building a dedicated "media server" box for my stereo. I have the old AIW pro laying around to use as a card, get a wireless keyboard and mouse and network it. Anyone else done this and have any advice (note: Don't bother with Linux advice. I'll run Win2k.)

Re:How is at MPEG capture?

[fwankypoo]

The All In Wonder 7500 Does great MPEG capture. It does MPEG 2 encoding and decoding on the card, so not only will it capture, but it helps you watch a DVD while doing all sorts of other things. The bottleneck here is your harddrive speed, you'll drop frames if the drive can't take all the data. But a modern IDE drive should do the trick.

As far as dual head goes, the main reason it doesn't have "normal" dual head (Analog and DVI outs) is a space issue, if you take a look at the back of the card, it's full with what it has (Analog inputs from CATV, Input for breakout box, outputs to breakout cable). However, it does allow you to run a TV and a monitor at once, so you can watch a movie on a tv with the thing and still surf on your monitor, if that's your bag.

Anyways, I have an AIW7500 as well, and I can say I'm much less dissatisfied than the grandparent.

Re:RF Remote

[elhondo]

I have one of these too, and live in a townhome community. Unfortunately, they seem to be pretty common in my neighborhood, and the working through walls, and around corners feature can be pretty irritating at first. I would actually get into channel changing "tug-of-wars" with an unseen neighbor. Had to keep my phone line disconnected for fear that he would order pay per view movies, etc. I ended up using an IR remote on my current box for this reason (yeah, I know you can change the signals... but there are a lot of dishes in my neighborhood....).

This is News???

[Kenrod]

This is news? This product was released in July 2001! I bought one of these pieces of shit a few months ago for $200 and have had nothing but problems since on my Windows 2000 box. The software is total crap, and almost impossible to uninstall/re-install correctly. I had to do a complete OS re-install to get rid of this garbage, which had sent my pc into a permanant reboot loop, not to mention the software took over every other function on my PC (like playing CD's) without giving me the option of bypassing.

I can't believe /. decided to post this story - do I smell payola???

RANT

[Stiletto]

Agreed.

Why is it that everyone who comes out with hardware with some kind of video recording ability, they tout it as "tivo functionality"? I'm not a big fan of how some companies abuse trademark law, but if I were tivo, I'd crack down on this misleading nonsense.

Just because you have hardware that records MPEGs, doesn't mean you have anything even remotely close to what tivo and tivo-like systems provide.

And to answer your question about if there are any good alternative software out there that "more or less" makes something of a decent tivo clone, I don't know of any. There are bits and pieces here and there that record and playback video, set up timed tasks, and I believe, even read program guide information, but AFAIK there is no freely downloadable software that does everything and has a nice interface.

so what IS the best TV card then?

[psxndc]

Everyone is complaining that the AIW sucks for TiVo like functionality. fine. Someone please tell me a card that works great. I don't have an AIW, but I have a Lifeview card and a STB OEM card (both bt878) and I _still_ cannot get either one to record shows under Linux. I am not a configuration guru, but after three days of changing modprobe settings, the best I could get is video with no audio while recording (the STB card, audio is present when just watching tv). I have tried changing the recording input to line1 (the tv card patches into the soundcard) to no avail. Also, this is only works on my Windows machine when dual booted into Linux. My main linux machine, with the Lifview, tries to use the Intel i810 audio with no results, and gets video only after manually modprobing it.

What is the best "plug it in and it just works" card?

psxndc