ATI's Visit to AnandTech: All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500DV Preview & more

The new breakout box

With cards like the AIW Radeon 8500DV the method by which you connect input and output devices can easily dictate the usefulness of the product.  The breakout box that came with 3dfx's Voodoo3 3500TV was entirely too bulky but it featured all of the inputs and outputs for the card.  The breakout box for the AIW Radeon was very small in size but it only featured a set of inputs on the breakout box; the basic outputs were on the card itself and others were on a separate cable that could be easily lost.  

ATI's new breakout box (Top) vs. NVIDIA's Personal Cinema breakout box (Bottom)

The AIW Radeon 8500DV's breakout box not only features all input/output ports but it's also barely any larger than the old box.

ATI's new breakout box (Top) vs. ATI's old breakout box (Middle) vs. NVIDIA's Personal Cinema breakout box (Bottom)

On one side of the box you'll see RCA audio and video inputs, an s-video input and the second IEEE-1394 input driven by the on-board Lucent chip.

On the other side you have your output connectors: an SPDIF output, s-video out, and A/V RCA outs as well. 

And finally we have the interface to the AIW Radeon 8500DV card itself: