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The
Bundle :::...
If
you've never owned an All-In-Wonder card before you'll
probably be overwhelmed by the sheer number of bits
and bobs that come with it. "bits and bobs"
is a strictly technical term by the way and I am licensed
to use it!
In
actual fact, the picture below is missing a couple
of items. There was no Component Video Adapter in
the box I received either because Sapphire forgot
(this was a plain brown box sent out to reviewers)
or because it's not supplied in Europe, which seems
unlikely even if we're hardly leading the world in
HDTV. Also missing from the picture is the DVI-VGA
dongle because....well...because I forgot it was in
pocket okay! Happy now? ;)
1:
Installation and software utility CD
2: Full version, Tomb Raider - Angel Of Darkness
3: Full version, Pinnacle Studio 8 SE
4: S-Video cable
5: Remote handset
6: AV input breakout box
7: RF remote receiver
8: Video output dongle
9: Composite video lead
We'll
look at the software in a touch more detail later
but for now let's just say that while Tomb Raider,
Angel of Darkness may show off a moderate proportion
of the 9800 Pro's graphical prowess, as a game it
pretty much stinks. Just my personal opinion of course.
The
Card:::...
Violets
may be blue but Radeons are red, even the All-In-Wonder
variety. This is pretty much your stock Radeon 9800
Pro with a bit of a component shuffle to make room
for the Philips tuner, that big silver box in the
top left corner.
Click
for a larger image
Click
for a larger image
The
board comes equipped with 128MB of Samsung K4D263238E-GC2A
144-Ball FBGA memory which is rated at 350MHz, that's
700MHz DDR.
The
Philips FQ1216ME tuner makes a return, and although
it's now a little long in the tooth it does still
deliver the goods, at least it does for UK PAL-I broadcasts.
I'm not in a position to comment on other broadcast
signals. ATi did flirt with a more up to date digital
tuner but have reverted back to the analogue variety,
presumably for either compatibility or cost reasons,
I'm not sure which.
The
FQ1216ME has made its way onto several discrete TV
tuners and seems to have reasonably good sensitivity.
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Philips
Tuner Internal View
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The
Rage Theater 200 is actually mounted to the underside
of the card. We'll cover the function of this chip
a little further in.
The
end plate is well stocked with necessary connections
including a DVI output which of course requires the
use of the supplied dongle before you can connect
your "old" VGA monitor. I have no problems
with this in theory but the monitor's VGA cable is
quite heavy and using the dongle increases the stress
on the VGA port by increasing the leverage. I'm not
sure what a better solution would be but I wish there
was one.
Also
here is the colour coded video in port into which
the break-out box plugs, and the video out socket
into which the required output dongle connects.
The
break-out box comes with a sticky Velcro pad to help
secure it but I must admit I'd like to see a version
of the box that can be used externally or alternatively
adapted to be mounted in a free 3.5" or 5.25"
bay. I also suggest the day has come where we should
be seeing a FireWire connector offered in place of
the S-Video input if not in addition to it. Most digital
video cameras now use the FireWire interface to transfer
their video payload.
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The
remote receiver is a simple, plug and play USB device
that worked first time as you'd expect. Although a
sticky Velcro pad was supplied for mounting the break-out
box, there was nothing provided to help with placement
of the receiver which seemed odd. To be fair it's
small enough to go almost anywhere, particularly in
view of the fact it's an RF unit that doesn't need
to be out in the open, but even so a sticky pad or
something similar would have been nice.
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Remote
Wonder USB RF Receiver
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Hold
on a minute! This remote control may be a touch
large as remotes go, but the fact that it's
better made than the one that came with my £500
TV is a bit much!
Being
an RF (Radio Frequency) remote, this one doesn't
require line of sight in order to work and can
operate through walls and floors. V1.5.0.0 introduces
new features introduced with MMC8.5 such as
On-Screen Displays and context sensitive help
in addition to existing features like for programmable
keys to start specific Windows applications
or to simulate the Windows Start and Shutdown
commands, set the mouse speed sensitivity which,
by the way, is controlled using the large direction
pad, and a whole lot more.
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