HIS All-In-Wonder 9600 XT

There's a large suite of software included with the All-In-Wonder series graphics cards, the bundle is known as ATI MultiMedia Center (MMC). This software incorporates a whole host of tools that boast some of the best multimedia features that can be found on the market. They include the following:

• TV Player / Recorder
  
• DVD Player
  
• VCD Player
  
• CD Player
  
• File Player for Video and Audio files
  
• FM Radio Player / Recorder
  
• MMC Library (for managing your audio/visual file libraries)
  
• Eazyshare Network File / Application Sharing
  
• DVD Burning

The software is updated bi-monthly and is a free download from ATI.com. If you want to make use of the built in DVD burning feature, you will need to install the original drivers from the driver CD and then update to the latest version of MMC.

ATI TV

As expected, there are the rather standard inclusions that feature in pretty much any MultiMedia Audio/Visual software that is available in this day and age. There is both a skinned mode and a full screen mode - the full screen mode can be controlled via the remote with use of ATI's Eazylook technology, which is the Remote Wonder user interface for MMC TV, DVD and MMC Library.

It simplifies down the use of all MMC players, providing full control over multimedia content through the Remote Wonder II handset. Everything is set out in a large type which is very easy to read from the other side of the room - the software should enable even the most technically ungifted to make use of ATI's MMC software as there's a fully integrated help function. The help function provides a simple but effective system what does this button do? - you press the button and Eazylook's integrated help function tells you what it is for.

Along with the standard functions that one expects from a multimedia player, there's an included technology known as Thruview. This allows users to click through live TV windows to access your desktop without having to move the active window. Essentially, Windows XP does not know that the TV window is there and you can operate applications through it with full functionality. There are two options for this, you can either run with Thruview in a window, or for the extremists out there, there is the ability to use Thruview in full screen mode.

Some of you may think that this would become distracting after a while, but with the option of changing the opacity of the window, you can make the full screen Thruview window as subtle as one requires - whether you're coding your latest php project or working out your weekly expenditure in Excel, you can watch TV at the same time!

There's also the option to select the TV as your desktop background - we cannot see a great deal of use for this function. Certainly when I am working, I normally have multiples of windows open at once so I rarely know what my desktop background looks like.

Other Features

Along with ATI TV, there is a host of other features included in ATI MMC. The media players all follow the same similar format; obviously the DVD/VCD players have a video window as well as the standard player control panel. The applications are easy to control - they can be controlled with Remote Wonder II using the Eazylook interface that was mentioned earlier.

Eazyshare, a feature that was introduced back in MMC version 8.8, allows users to share live TV and audio/visual files with other computers on your home network. Every computer on your network that has an ATI graphics card can make use of the Eazyshare features that are provided by a single All-In-Wonder-based system card on your home network.