Digital Trends

ATI All-In-Wonder X800 XL

November 1st, 2005 | by Ian Bell

Setup and Use

Installing the AIW X800 XL can be a daunting task, so make sure to set aside a hour of your time and pay close attention to the instructions. The manual is not without errors.  It shows you connecting a HDTV to the connection block which features the component video connections. The problem is that ATI does not include a connection block with component video outputs; instead they give you a HDTV adapter cable which is completely separate; so make sure you catch that. We like that ATI decided to put the DVI output directly on the card instead of using a dongle like they did on their older 9600XT All-In-Wonder card. This makes connecting a monitor much easier and takes the stress off of the small connector.

If you plan on outputting the AIW X800 XL to a television make sure that you read the instructions. The AIW X800 XL does not come with an integrated HDTV tuner despite having component video outputs. You will want to purchase ATI's HDTV tuner card separately for that. And although ATI has you believe the AIW X800 XL supports dual tuner capabilities, it doesn't directly out of the box. But if you pair up another ATI TV tuner card, then the software that comes with the AIW X800 XL will give you dual tuner playback. We also need to make one thing perfectly clear - the AIW X800 XL integrated TV tuner will only work with your analog cable connection. So if you have satellite or digital cable and expect this product to work, it won't.

ATI has updated their startup GUI to mimic a sort of Windows Media Center Edition Look, only it's horizontal instead of vertical. But that's OK because it looks good and is easy to navigate. One issue is that once you click on an option, application kicks you out to an external program. It's not a huge deal, but it would have made for a better user experience if everything was seamless. The Guide Plus+ software that comes with the AIW X800 XL works well, but it looks seriously outdated; we are talking Windows 3.1 days here if you catch our drift. The ATI media player also looks identical to previous versions of the All-In-Wonder line-up. Give it a facelift folks!

Video playback using our Comcast analog cable signal was good, but not nearly as good as the ATI TV Wonder Elite card we reviewed earlier this year. Why you say? Well sure the AIW X800 XL is a new product, and costs more, but it uses the older ATI Theater 200 video decoder instead of the Theater PRO 550 chip that the ATI TV Wonder Elite uses. Very poor move on ATI's part. It sort of makes us feel like they are fooling the consumer into buying a cutting edge product when they aren't. Sure the GPU is new, but only gamers can appreciate it, multimedia enthusiasts are left out in the cold. If you don't care about gaming and have an older AIW product, hold onto it until the next-gen AIW line comes out; maybe then the decoder chip will be updated. The Remote Wonder remote control worked well and was fairly responsive. It uses IR technology so you need to make sure that you have clear line-of-sight to the IR receiver if you are going to use it.

The AIW X800 XL acts like a regular television in that you can browse up to 125 cable channels and set parental controls so that the youngsters aren't watching inappropriate content. The AIW X800 XL also doubles as a TiVo replacement allowing you to record programs and play them back later on. You can control the quality of the recorded content to various levels of visual performance. If you have a powerful system with a large hard drive, you may want to set the recording quality to high, where areas if you have limited space, you might want a lower quality so it doesn't use up your precious storage space. You can record shows in multiple file formats like MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI, Windows Media and ATI's own VCR format. You can also record FM radio broadcasts for playback later.

As far as other included software goes, ATI bundles Pinnacle Studio 9, Muvee AutoProducer and Matchware Mediator 8 with the All-In-Wonder X800 XL package. All of these software programs carry a hefty price when purchased separately, so you save a considerable amount of money if you purchase the All-In-Wonder X800 XL and plan on using this software. Pinnacle Studio 9 alone is a relatively advanced program for video editing, and those with a knack for video capture should be more than happy with it. The Muvee Autoproducer and MatchWare Mediator 8 programs are designed more for those that want to make quick home videos, slide shows and photo albums.