Remember that high-end Gateway XHD3000 30-inch Extreme HD monitor we wrote about earlier this year, the one with 1600p resolution that blows past even Blu-ray? You know, the one so cutting-edge that we couldn't find a PC to drive it to the max? Well, ATI has told us of their latest does-everything video card, the All-In-Wonder HD. And yes, in addition to a variety of features that will make a home theater-savvy PC enthusiast drool, it does indeed offer output at up to an astonishing 2560 x 1600, what ATI is calling "Ultimate Image Quality," and rightly so. If perchance we have access to native 2560 x 1600 content, it will be delivered via the dual-link DVI output, but lesser signals can also be upscaled by the All-In-Wonder HD to that über-resolution.
The "All-In-Wonder" brand refers to these cards' ability to serve as both a CE-style home entertainment device plus a high-end ATI Radeon graphics card for the latest games, one of the most demanding applications for any PC. The single onboard TV tuner is quite the multitasker, able to receive our choice of standard-definition analog (NTSC), digital (ATSC, including free over-the-air HD) and unencrypted digital cable signals ("ClearQAM," when using Windows Vista). Time-shifting/DVR functions can be used with any of the above signals, and an FM radio tuner is built-in as well.
The card offers a native HDMI output, for connection to popular HDTVs or home theater receivers. Inside, the dedicated hardware MPEG-2 encoder means that our CPU which might otherwise be burdened with the arduous chore of video encoding is free for other digital pursuits. The adaptive 3D comb filter removes false color and renders sharper video, while the unified video decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC and VC-1 video formats supports of playback of Blu-ray, and HD DVD for us legacy fans. Hardware-based MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and DivX decode acceleration also makes for a smoother video experience.
ATI is also proud of their ATI Avivo Video Post Processor, which offers a slew of advanced tweaks. Among them are color space conversion, chroma subsampling, horizontal and vertical scaling, gamma correction, de-blocking and noise reduction filtering, inverse telecine (a.k.a. 2:2 and 3:2 pull-down correction), bad edit detection, and advanced vector adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing. The official price starts at $199, although individual resellers such as Diamond Multimedia and VisionTek offer their own packages, some bundled with a daughter card for more connectivity, and even an optional remote control.
Where to Buy:
More information:
