Software

Lets take a look at the MMC application provided with ATI’s MMC. Note for readers who viewed our X800XT AIW review, this pages is very similar to the MMC section from that article and you may wish to skip forward to *this* page

ATI bundle their own Multimedia Software with the AIW X800GT. The version we tested with was 9.09 which, at the time of writing, is the latest available. Additionally, the AIW X800GT is completely compatible with Windows MCE 2005.

ATI MMC handles almost everything you’re going to want to do with AIW from a audio/video perspective. This includes sharing of files (Easyshare), DVD playback, file playback (Player), VCD playback, CD playback, Managing of files (Library), FM Radio and TV.

Installation and setup of the software was quick and easy with detailed wizards guiding you through each aspect of the install. Once you’ve rebooted you are presented with a toolbar which allows you to configure or launch the MMC applications.

Generally they all use a very similar interface which although looks dated is very simple to use and feature full. Here is an example of the DVD interface. The CD, VCD and file player are all similar.

From each off the applications we were able to get picture/audio quality as good as any other similar applications on the internet so full marks to ATI in that department.

One of the best features of the software is the media library. In this application you can search your PC for all video, audio and picture files and then subsequently access them from within the application. The feature we found most useful was the export function, using this you can right click the file “select export” and then have Library convert the file to a different format. For example convert from ATI VCR to Mpeg2 or Avi files. This process was very easy and only required a few mouse clicks.

Of course if you are buying an AIW card the likelihood is you want it for the FM tuner or TV tuner capabilities….

The FM tuner works through the standard style MMC interface which allows you to tune the radio with ease. When tuned you can skip through to the channel you need with the touch of a button as well as record broadcasts for listening to at a later date, you can pause live radio. As with all of the ATI MMC applications all of the main features are available from the main oval interface with additional functionality (or more detailed functionality) available by right-clicking each button.

In terms of quality the FM reception was good with no noticeable difference over alternate PC radio tuners. (We used a roof top antenna for our testing)

The TV application is where we spent most of our time and as we had used AIW’s previously we were right at home with the application. For those of you who have used a previous AIW product there is only one area where the X800GT falls behind previous products in terms of “day to day” use. That area is channel changing, when changing channels on the AIW X800XT and GT (which both use silicon tuners) the change takes a second or two longer than previous models which use the Phillips tuner … such as the 9800SE. Although this is only a minor issue it is noticeable and if you are doing a lot of flicking between stations it will become a little annoying in our opinion. Audio and picture quality were completely on par with our X800XT and we could not fault the X800GT in either area, infact we prefer the image created by the Radeon to that created with the Theatre 550Pro.

One aspect of the TV software which we found most beneficial over other products (such as MCE2005) via the TV output from the AIW/MMC is “Live”. As no encoding/decoding is being applied to the broadcast your interaction with the broadcast is quicker than other applications/products. Despite this, many of the normal PVR functionality is available and it is only when Pause etc are activated that the encoding/decoding kicks in.

Throughout our use of the product for watching and recording TV it performed flawlessly, we experienced no quality issues and regardless of the settings used the card was completely stable. Trust me, we tried! Even when we tried to tie it up in knots with fast switching between live TV, pausing TV, recording, rewinding and fast-forwarding to catch up with “Live”, the AIW responded perfectly.

 

Previous: AIWX800GT

Next: Whats New? Hardware