All-in-Wonder HD TV/Graphics Card is Back for the HTPC

August 24, 2008 · Filed Under Hardware News

In the old days, the ATI All-in-wonder cards where the cards of choice for a HTPC. For those of you that don’t know what these cards are, they are basically an all in one solution card for the HTPC. It basically has a TV tuner card and a graphics card all in the one package.

When AMD took over ATI, they seemed to have stopped producing this card. The last one was released back in 2006. But now they’re back, with the All-in-Wonder HD being released. So how good is it?

Well the first thing about these cards, is that you essentially get 2 cards in one. This saves money as you don’t have to buy 2 separate cards, and space, which is always essential in a HTPC.

Unlike the old All-in-Wonder cards, this card has to handle High Definition TV, and it does so very well. It has support for many of today’s standards, so you’ll get a full HDTV experience. It has really good picture quality, showing detail and being smooth in most playbacks.

It is also built around the ATI HD 3650 graphics, which is a great graphics solution for the HTPC. This GPU is powerful enough to handle everything that a HTPC needs to handle, without being overly powerful that it is too big for a HTPC, costs too much, or produces too much heat.

Gaming wise it’s not the best card, so if you are going to game on your HTPC (hey, some people like gaming on a big screen – I know how that feels), then you should probably forego this card and get a separate TV card and Graphics Card.

This card is nice a thin, though it is a bit long if you have a small HTPC case. Because of how thin it is, it means that it is good when it comes to airflow in your HTPC case, keeping it nice and cool (meaning less cooling so your system is quieter). The card itself is also very quiet, making it great for a HTPC.

The main problem with the all-in-wonder HD card, is that it only supports a single HD tuner. You can get a dual digital/analogue hybrid card, but no dual digital tuners : (. This means that you can’t watch HD TV on one channel, and record HD TV on another Channel.

So overall this is a good card for the HTPC, having an entry level graphics card, and a good TV tuner, all in one efficient and well priced package. However it does have shortcomings in both the graphics card and video card area, being a low end graphics card and having only one tuner. So if you want either of these, you are better off going for something else.

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