ATI All In Wonder X1800XL Video Card Review :: Drivers: Television and Radio

ATI introduced the Catalyst Control Center a couple of years ago along with the X800 series of cards. CCC is an application that controls the various settings for the video card, including the Antialiasing, the Anisotropic Filtering, the AVIVO functions and the monitor settings. CCC requires Microsoft .Net to work properly. ATI has decided to drop the CP on their drivers for the X1K series.

CCC screenshots

Navigation through the CCC control panel is easy. The standard settings can set the card to Performance (no AA no AF), Balanced, Quality (2x AA 4x AF) and High Quality (4x AA 8x AF). You can also set these manually up to 6x AA and 16x AF. There's an option for High Quality AF and Temporal Antialiasing that improves image quality in games.

MultiMedia Center

ATI's Multimedia Center is their suite of multimedia playback programs including their DVD Player, their TV Player, their File player, FM Radio player, the Video CD player and the library. If you have a HDTV Wonder installed, it will also have a launch application for Digital television. ATI is including the new MMC 9.10, the replacement for the 9.08 on their website.

One thing to note when setting up the A-I-W X1800XL is you need to have the Remote Wonder Plus receiver plugged in when installing the drivers from the CD. Without the receiver, MMC gives an error every time you boot Windows and the Multimedia Center Launch Bar is not displayed. Be aware of this when you install the video card.

TV screenshots

I hooked up my 36dB amplified antenna to the CATV-In connector. After the Initialization Wizard finished the driver install, it Auto scanned for television channels. Stations picked up by the antenna were: Ch 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 22, 28, 30, 34, 40, 46, 50, 52, 56 and 58, all of the local stations in my area. Once Television was setup, I spent the better part of 8 hours watching Primetime Television. The picture was as clear and signal quality was excellent when watching The Apprentice, The Amazing Race and some Spanish programs.

The FM Radio is easy to setup as well. Once you plug in the antenna to the FM connector, the process is simple. The Launch Bar will automatically run a setup program the first time you use the radio. To find stations you can either enter the stations manually or auto-scan for stations. The A-I-W X1800XL found all of the local radio stations with the included antenna. One suggestion might be to include AM radio as well as FM radio, but that isn't currently an option of the tuner ATI uses.

Guide+ Plus

Gemstar Guide+ Plus is the Enhanced Programming Guide (EPG) ATI includes with all of their A-I-W and Television tuner products. The A-I-W X1800XL can use Guide+ Plus as a sort of TV Guide-like program. Once a week you download a file from the Internet and the program information (Station, program name, program time, a brief description of the program, and the category of the program can be found using Guide+ Plus. With the A-I-W X1800XL you can set the card to record and or pause the show (like TiVO).

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