Digital Trends

ATi All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500 DV April 17th, 2003 | by Ian Bell

Installation and setup

Even though this is a very complicated card, the installation and setup were extremely simple. The physical card itself is very small when you think about everything that is on it. The TV tuner itself is ¼ the size of previous integrated TV tuners on AIW products. The software and hardware setup was very intuitive, often detecting things automatically without having to tell it. The TV tuner auto detected our cable connection and station line-ups automatically! One problem I found was that my area had about 6 different cable programming options, so I had to list which station I received on which channels so the integrate Gemstar Guide+  would know my line-up. I have to look up by area code to find it. So if you live in a large metropolitan area I would recommend calling your cable provider and asking what channel line-up you have before installing this card. I put the blame clearly on my lack of knowledge versus the 8500DV's ability. The card did what it was supposed to do.

Audio and Video performance

The Radeon 8500 DV provides excellent audio and visual performance. The sound was very crisp and clear during both our headphones and 4.1 system tests on both computer and home theater speakers. Using the adapter dongle, the video and audio were both excellent as well.

I wish that the SPDIF output were on the back of the card versus being on the dongle because the cable just looks tacky in my opinion. The AIW 8500DV provides AC-3 Digital audio output for Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The decoding is done by your receiver, not the card itself so unless you have decoding abilities in your receiver (most receivers do by now) don't expect 5.1 sound.

One thing that is very misleading is how ATI advertises the 8500DV as having HDTV support. So while the card DOES provide HDTV decoding via the iDCT there is one little problem, the 8500DV does not ship with component video outputs and even as of this writing (June 2002) they do not provide any component video options. On their site ATIsays a component output package will not be available until sometime in 2002. Well, 2002 is here, where is this package? This will be a HUGE disappointment for those building an HTPC or those demanding the latest in technology. This is very confusing to the consumer and could be considered false advertising. My rant is over, but I cannot express how disappointed I was when finding this out.

There was something that surprised me in the Radeon 8500DV package and that was the inclusion of an RF remote control. The remote is very easy to use and has an extremely long range. The buttons are easy to read and you can even control the mouse pointer with the remote. I found that my computers mouse still worked even though the remote could control the mouse as well. There were no compatibility issues. I do think the buttons on the remote are the cheapest I have ever seen to date. They smooshed down as though they were filled with air! The remote has a clean and sleek-silver look; the buttons though, leave something to be desired.

Plugging in a camcorder or digital camera was a snap. With the included firwire IEEE1394 ports in two convenience locations you could have a CD-burner plugged into the card and a digital camera plugged into the external adapter. The included video editing software is easy to use and very intuitive.