ATi All-In-Wonder Radeon PCI

A superb graphics card boasting video recording, DVD movie playback and faster 3D games.

Price: £150

Manufacturer: ATi

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Verdict

It's not the fastest on the market, but it's quick enough for most users and well worth every penny. It has good documentation and software, and will transform your PC into something much more useful.

Jason Jenkins, Computeract!ve 11 Feb 2002

ATi's All-In-Wonder has impressed us many times before. It's a graphics card that lets you edit videos, watch and record TV on your PC, watch DVD movies with Dolby Digital sound, and it speeds up games too.

This version fits into one of your computer's general purpose PCI slots rather than the dedicated AGP, so it will work in most PCs. Fitting the card involves opening up your PC but the task is made easier by the instruction manual.

The most novel feature is the ability to watch and record TV. Plug in a TV aerial and the card tunes in all the channels available. From here, broadcasts can be watched or recorded to the hard disk. You can pause live TV, make a cup of tea, come back and carry on from the same point.

You can watch the footage the card has recorded while it is still recording the live action. Capturing video from an analogue camcorder is also a simple process, as is recording playback from your video recorder. Make sure that you have plenty of hard disk space though, because you're going to need 745Mb for 30 minutes of recording.

The All-In-Wonder can also receive Teletext. While you're watching a channel, the card stores Teletext pages on your hard disk. This means that you don't have to wait for each page to load up.

DVD movie playback using the card is superb. The quality of the picture produced is up there with the best and if you have a suitable home cinema amplifier, you can plug straight into it from the card. Connecting your PC to your TV is simple too, providing it has a Scart or S-Video connector.

As a straight performance graphics card, the combination of a year-old Radeon chip and PCI interface means it lacks the teeth of the latest, greatest and dearest on the market, but it's still very capable and a marked improvement over the integrated video cards common to older PCs.

The All-In-Wonder is an upgrader's dream; it turns your PC into a flexible home entertainment device for £150.

Contact: ATI 01628 533115 www.ati.com

Also consider:
ELSA GLADIAC 511 PCI
Great for PCs without an AGP slot. £100.

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