ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro: Multimedia Refresh
by Andrew Ku on October 16, 2003 11:38 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Multimedia Center anew — FM Tuner
Since we last touched on Multimedia Center 8.0, there has been a lot of moving afoot for ATI's Multimedia Center. First, we have the most apparent upgrade: EasyLook, which we will explore further in the review.Second on the list is the FM Player, which is perfectly appropriate, since the All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro comes with an FM tuner. The FM Player works very similar to the TV Player: adjusting frequencies, scheduled recordings, and time shifting. FM-on-Demand is always on because it is hard to know what will be playing next, since there is no one-stop place for FM listing. Therefore, you will need to go through your FM-on-Demand and clip whichever segment of audio you want to export.
Based our experience, the All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro has a range of 87.5MHz and 108.0MHz. The FM tuner has a mechanical specified range of 75.9MHz to 108MHz, but according to regionally available FM frequencies, the All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro will auto detect a range. Stations can be tuned by 0.1MHz frequency increments with the tune up/down buttons, but via the scheduling, there seems to be an ability to tune in 0.01MHz frequency increments.
Of course, ATI gives you the ability to record, though only in one format: MP3, 224KHz, 16bit, Stereo.
Because there is no universal place for FM listings like there is for TV listings, there is a need to add the station name manually.
Dual Monitor Support – What the doctor ordered
Multimedia Center anew - Integrated Media Burning & Muvee
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Anonymous User - Sunday, October 19, 2003 - link
My only question is "With this card can I finally view cable on my TV(secondary display)?". I currently own a 8500DV and find using a TV as a primary display more than a little displeasing.Anonymous User - Sunday, October 19, 2003 - link
#26Thanks you for the dumbass comment of the week.
Anonymous User - Saturday, October 18, 2003 - link
It is now clear. ATI has failed.Anonymous User - Saturday, October 18, 2003 - link
I can't comment on how good the 9700 AIW is, but you can definitely notice the difference between using a VGA adapter instead of (the better) DVI connection. It isn't a substantial degradement, but as long as you have an expensive LCD screen, you might as well use all the available features. Unless you really need the new/additional features in the 9600 AIW, I would go with 9700 AIW if you can afford it. You'll be getting a better gaming card in the process too...Anonymous User - Friday, October 17, 2003 - link
I am Considering to buy the 9600 Pro AIW. Mainly because its has everything i need. but only one problem it doesnt have a DVI. I own a LCD monitor and i was wondering if i use the VGA cable rather then the DVI. is there going to be any differents in picture quality. or Should i just go and buy a 9700 Pro AIW. if i do, i wont be able to have some of the new features they implimented into the 9600 AIW. What should i get?Anonymous User - Friday, October 17, 2003 - link
"The reason behind this frequent request is that the act of watching TV or a movie is often done in conjunction with doing something productive (like writing an article, in our case)."when i was a kid we watched television AFTER doing our work =)
Anonymous User - Friday, October 17, 2003 - link
#17: the card does fitI can send pictures if someone has a place to host them.
Anonymous User - Friday, October 17, 2003 - link
#17: The 9600 can't perform like a 9700--it has only 4 pixel pipes compared to the 9700/9800's 8. It simply won't perform the same at higher detail settings (i.e. AA, AF). Even AT's article mentions this. Still, the 9600 seems to offer much better performance for it's class and price range than some of it's competition.Pete - Friday, October 17, 2003 - link
Arrrgh! No benchmarks?! I really wanted to see if extra memory bandwidth would help the 9600 series, which has always been at a huge disadvantage to the 5600 (and now more so to the 5700).You guys need to get one of those Powercolor 380MHz DDR 128MB 9600XT's and one of those 340MHz DDR 256MB XT's, pronto! :)
Anonymous User - Friday, October 17, 2003 - link
#15 and #16Tweaknews.net indeed had more material, but most of their info is straight from ATI's website description of the product, including all PR BS: "The power to pause live TV", "industry leading digital video features for unprecedented video quality." The point of a review is not to regurgitate stuff like this, but to test and verify them. Their review read more like an ATI sponsored advertisement. NBTW, I have nothing against ATI personally (have a 9600 Pro myself) -but just wanted to point out that AT's review was simply more concise and to the point. It would have been even better with some gaming benchmarks is all....