GeCube All-In-Wonder 9600XT 128M/TV/FM

An anonymous reader points to Hexus.net's review of ATi's newest All-In-Wonder product, writing "This looks like a rather nice product if you're running an XPC or similar." He excerpts from the review "It doesn't need an external power source, instead it's quite happy sucking from the AGP slot. The end result? Small form factor PC owners will quite happily be able to slot one into their boxes and run it without an issue. The one slot cooler and cool running RV360 core conspire to make sure heat won't be an issue in those enclosed spaces either."

Comments

No Molex connector

[GweeDo]

That is what really suprises me and makes me happy. With the relativily low power PSU that come stock in XPC's this is great. Couple this with a new AMD XP Mobile (45W) processor and you got a nice setup in your new iDeq or Shuttle :)

Re:No Molex connector

[DeathPenguin]

The 9600 models never needed a molex connector, though the 9800 model did and all products based off the newer cores from ATi.

It's an old part.

Re:No Molex connector

[Fweeky]

Don't forget AMD's upcoming low power AMD64s and (if you're rich) Opterons. 30-45W :)

Getting easier to see how they're going to cope with dual core now; at this rate they'll end up running cooler than my old 1.4GHz Thunderbird, even without clock scaling.

Hardware encoding

[kneecarrot]

I am still waiting for an ATI board with tv-tuner capability that offers hardware-based MPEG-2 encoding of the tv signal. A home theatre PC based on one of these cards will show 10 times the CPU usage and half the quality that a box based on a Hauppauge PVR-250 offers. No comparison, really.

Re:Hardware encoding

[IWKUA]

Not sure if this is what your looking for but, Nvidia's card offers that: "The products will include a TV tuner card with hardware MPEG-2 encoding"

Re:Hardware encoding

[LostCluster]

Given nVidia's historic support of Linux, I wonder if they'll ship with all of the features available on Linux as well? So far, ATI's TV products have simply ignored that market.

Re:Hardware encoding

[tsangc]

It's called the ATI eHome Wonder, a MCE2004 class (Connexant Blackbird MPEG2) card:

http://www.ati.com/products/ehome/

Not an AIW Tuner+graphics combo, but an individual tuner. It's quite well done. Hardware seems okay and it's cheap.

Re:Hardware encoding

[Mycroft_VIII]

I harware encoding is available on some AIW products. The 9600 has it.
If you goto ati's site and use thier 'product compare' feature it shows 9600 and higher as doing encoding with hardware. But not all AIW radeon models are available to compare.

Mycroft

Recentley Purchased this,

[glassjaw rocks]

My dad just recentley purchased one of these, and I put it in about 4 or 5 hours ago, the card works like a dream, the only problem is, he uses the computer for ebay.

And that's all.

Re:Recentley Purchased this,

[kevcol]

"But dad, I'm telling you- this WON'T help you snipe more auctions! Give it me, 'kay?"

Gee, that's great...

[DeathPenguin]

Now if only there was a model based off a newer core (X800) and ATi's driver support for Linux weren't so pitiful.

Dual VGA connections...

[LostCluster]

One of my complaints with earlier AIW models is that they didn't support dual display setups fully because the TV window couldn't draw on the additional monitors. The double-VGA support take appears care of this issue, but I'm not sure how it'd handle having an additional PCI card for a third monitor.

zerg

[Lord Omlette]

I know it's just wishful thinking, but I can't wait for a workstation class card that doesn't require a fan... Damn thing (FireGL X1) makes more noise than everything else in my room combined... And according to the article, this new card won't change that.

Re:zerg

[Jeff DeMaagd]

For a while, I had an ATI FireGL X1 (128MB?). I didn't experience any objectionable noise from it, even for the short times I had the side panel off.

Maybe you could complain to the maker? It might be something they can exchange.

Re:zerg

[Lord Omlette]

Actually I got it off eBay for 1/5th the price, so it would be kinda silly for me to complain... Easier to bitch on Slashdot than actually do something about it.

You say "for a while", what did you switch to?

Re:Linux?

[MikeXpop]

If you're looking for a TV tuner card for linux, ignore this. The only drivers for it do not support capture or TV-out.

A simple Do-it-yourself TiVo?

[LostCluster]

As the review points out, ATI's software is now designed to take advantage of finding an AIW and a TV Wonder PCI card in the same machine, such as picture-in-picture and having both tuners record at the same time. In addition, ATI's TV products for quite a while have shipped with Gemstar's Guide+ software that provides TV listings that are integrated with ATI's software.

This combination is about as good as it gets for people who get their signals by analog cable... but if you have digital cable or DBS, it can't control your tuner box yet. They've got to work on that issue...

Re:A simple Do-it-yourself TiVo?

[blackmonday]

I have the ATI TV Wonder, and the included software is terrible. It hijacked my other media players, it's clunky, and it looks horrible. The best solution (for Windows) is Dscaler, no other programs I've seen come close to the great simplicity of dscaler. Best of all, it's open source.

Re:A simple Do-it-yourself TiVo?

[Peyna]

I'd recommend Hauppage over ATI's AIW or Tv Wonder

Linux support?

[rsilvergun]

I know, I know, they'll be hundreds of these posts...

But still, I think what 90% of people out there want in a computer is
a) Email and Web browsing.
b) Office apps.
and c) Digital content creation. i.e. Simple Pictures and Movie editing.

Linux has the frist two, but it's lacking on the third. Yeah, the BTXXX cards work great, but it'd be nice to have a single all in one solution like this (actually, it'd be nice if it was based on a cheaper video chipset, but I digress).

Oh, and Linux needs an easy to use video editor. Cinelerra's the Gimp of video editing. It's the poster child for overkill when all most want is cut and pasting and some simple transitions.

Re:Linux support?

[geckofiend]

Sounds like maybe you shouldn't be thinking... ;)

The last AIW was recognized as just about the worst capture card on the market. All in one solutions are great for folks who don't know any better and think they're getting somethign great.

The PVR250/350, Avermedia M179 and Yuan MPG600 lines of hardware MPEG2 capture cards are by far superior and have excellent Linux support.

Easy video editor? Avidemux2 is pretty darn easy.

Re:Linux?

[LostCluster]

I don't think ATI's ever supplied a full Linux driver for their TV tuner products. They simply have never bothered to write a version of their ATI Multimedia Center for Linux. I'm sure people have tried to come up with an open source version, but since they're working from the outside in they have the deck stacked against them.

It's analog

[Bram Stolk]

Huh...
This card has no DVI, meaning that you have
to do a totaly useless digital->analog->digital
conversion when hooking up to a flat panel.

Re:Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

Try the Hauppauge PVR-250 or PVR-350 (or generic versions using the same chipset.) Linux support is fantastic (I should know, I'm the co-author of the ivtv driver) and much better than the ATI All-in-Wonder cards, if you actually want to capture MPEG video in addition to just video overlay.

Good card, but it wont work with MythTV

[Cavalkaf]

IIRC, the ATI All-In-Wonder cards don't work with MythTV under Linux.

Never, EVER Buy One of These Refurbed!

[ThePDW]

I bought a refurbed 9600 xt AIW for an XPC that I was building for a girl and I thought I could save her some money so I bought a refurb from Newegg. It doesn't come with anything but the card. No, remote, no FM antenna, no proprietary cable. I ended up spending $40 ($20 for the cable $20 for express shipping) buying the proprietary cable that you have to use to connect the card to a monitor. Even then, the tv part of the card didn't work and had to be disabled so the computer wouldn't crash. So, I hope I can keep someone from making the same mistake I made!

Re:Liking this for sure....

[sydsavage]

The single life doesn't leave me with too deep of pockets these days

If you think life is cheaper with a girlfriend, that might be why you don't have one.

So, is it obsolete yet?

[__aatgod8309]

I'd be curious to know when this review was written. The review date given is July 3rd 2004, but it states "The driver CD comes with CATALYST 4.0, RemoteWonder 1.6, MMC 8.1 and an up to date version of ATI's DVD decoder. 4.4, 2.3 and 9.0 are available respectively, so a quick trip to ATI's website will get you current."

The current Catalyst version is 4.6 (posted on June 9th, almost a month ago), and i think with the average time between Catalyst releases being around a month (i'm sure someone can correct me if i'm wrong - probably loudly, and with much flaming) that would make the review a month or two old... (and there are newer versions of RemoteWonder (2.3.0.1 posted 3/19/04) and MMC (9.1, posted 06/24/04) as well.)

And yes, i'm well aware i'm being difficult, pedantic and/or contrary.

Better solution for XPC -

[Proudrooster]

Since most XPC's have 2 slots (AGP + PCI) to me this makes more sense.
For a Dual Display with Video Capture, get this combo.

• Hauppage PVR-250
• ATI RADEON 9600SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP

For triple display, Dual VGA and TV Set, with FM radio get this combo.

• Hauppage PVR-350
• ATI RADEON 9600SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP

I was hoping to see more discussion on this thread. I have an XPC and am borrowing a PVR-250 and it works really well. Only a 10-20% hit on a 3.0GHz CPU when recording at DVD quality. To stress the system I started 3 FTP downloads (3 MB/s), started burning a CD, streamied a 128k station with Winamp, editing pics with Adobe Photoshop, watched previously recorded show, and recorded TV with the Hauppage card. The system worked fine. I thought for sure that the single IDE disk would bottleneck, but no problems.

IMHO, the ATI AIW 9600XT is out because it doesn't have hardware MPEG compression and it has another fan to make noise. I think the playback with the AIW is easier on the CPU since the overlay happens on the card, however recording must hammer the system CPU . Can anyone tell us what CPU/Disk I/O look like while recording at DVD quality on the ATI?

not an ATI card

[juventasone]

I can't believe no slashdotters have pointed out timothy's mistake of calling it "ATi's newest All-In-Wonder". This is not an ATI card, it is a GeCube card. The reviewer gets it right in all occasions, as does the poster. ATI does indeed make All-In-Wonders, but they don't make them all. While I see this mistake all the time, I don't expect it from any self-respecting geek with any hardware knowledge.