ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 XT Video Card

Reviewed by: techdog

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Great all-around video/entertainment/gaming card. Comes with the latest and greatest ATI remote control.

Weaknesses: FM tuner is pretty bad (software issue?); TV tuner won't start a scheduled recording if the computer is locked (Windows XP)

Overall Evaluation: I don't do much gaming, but this card has been just fine for my needs. The TV tuner works well with pretty good, though not great picture quality (using cable TV). I can also play the latest games on it if I want to.If only ATI got their act together with the software, it would be a great card. For instance, the first few months I had this card, I couldn't use the FM tuner because it would turn to static after a couple minutes of play. It turned out to be a conflict with a Norton Antivirus driver. It's ridiculous that ATI let such a big bug slip through since so many people use Norton Antivirus. I'm not sure if they've fixed the issue yet (the workaround posted on their site was to temporarily disable the antivirus--unacceptable!), but I'm using a different antivirus program now and it seems to work OK. Though, the FM reception still isn't as smooth as it should be (sounds like it's "skipping" sometimes), which is probably still a software problem.Another ridiculous problem is that the ATI software won't start a TV recording that you've scheduled if your Windows XP machine is locked. For instance, if you're using Fast-User-Switching in Windows XP and the computer goes to the Welcome Screen, you're recording won't start. ATI claims they are working with Microsoft on a fix, but I don't have high hopes.Still a good value for the money if you can stand those two issues.