ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro

Conclusion

Now that we have had the opportunity to have some hands-on time with the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro, has our opinion of the card changed since our preview? The answer is simple: No.

There is little question in our mind that the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro is perhaps the most desirable consumer video card on the market today. There is nothing else out there that can compete with the functionality and performance that the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro offers, making it every power computer user's dream. In our testing the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro lived up to our expectations; it brought exciting new functionality to the TV side of things while maintaining the performance leading speed of the Radeon 9700 Pro.

Now that the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro is out, are you missing out going with a lower end All-in-Wonder product? That depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for the fastest 3D graphics card available today and are also interested in watching TV on your computer or recording shows to MPEG format for easy replay, the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro is your best choice right now.

On the other hand, if 3D performance is not the top priority and you are comfortable going with a slower product but are still looking for video functionality, going with an older All-in-Wonder 8500DV or All-in-Wonder 8500 will probably suit you better (and save you some money). Although the video features of the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro, such as VideoSoap and hardware MPEG-2 encoding, are enticing, the differences on the video side of things are not enough to justify the $200+ difference in price (although the All-in-Wonder 9700 will carry a $449 MSRP, expect to see some online retailers selling it for just under the $400 mark within the month). The All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro is for the high-end gamer who is also looking for the best in TV tuning and video capture. The card especially makes sense if you are thinking about a Radeon 9700 Pro anyway and are considering a TV tuner as well, as the price difference between the Radeon 9700 Pro and the All-in-Wonder 9700 should be less that $100.

We do have one caveat about the card as it stands now. You may or may not be aware that Microsoft recently put the finishing touches on Windows XP Media Center Edition, a version of Microsoft Windows XP Professional that includes TIVO-type applications for watching, recording, and shifting television. We have had a chance to play around with XP Media Center Edition and are very pleased with the final product which is why we were disappointed to hear that, as it stands, Windows XP Media Center Edition will not run properly on the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro. According to Microsoft, one of the requirements for the new operating system is a fully hardware-based MPEG-2 encoder. Although the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro can do part of the encode process in hardware, it is not a fully hardware based MPEG-2 encoder and therefore will likely not work with Windows XP Media Center Edition as it stands now.

When discussing this with ATI, the company was quick to point out that Windows XP Media Center Edition is being offered as an OEM only operating systems and Microsoft has no plans to bring it to the consumer shelf any time soon, both of which are statements that are true. In fact, currently the only way to get Windows XP Media Center Edition is to buy a new machine from HP with the software installed on it, meaning that even if you wanted to get a All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro on a Media Center Edition PC you would have to buy a new computer with the OS on it, take the old video card and tuner out, and put the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro in.

We suspect that plans are in the works to bring Windows XP Media Center Edition to the consumer market, but not for a while now. In that time, the OS will likely go through revisions to make it more hardware friendly (the system, right now, is only certified to work with one MPEG-2 encoder which isn't even available on the retail channel). Odds are that when or if Windows XP Media Center edition finds its way into the consumer market it will support the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro, but we cannot be certain. Just a word of caution for those who were planning to get an All-in-Wonder 9700, Windows XP Media Center Edition, and run.

Support for an operating system that is not currently available and may never be available in the retail market should not dictate your decision on what video card to get. With that in mind, if you are an avid gamer with a high budget and are looking for the best TV tuning capabilities out there, by no means let the lack of support scare you this early in the game; take a look at the All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro.