ATI unveils All-in-Wonder 9800 PRO TV-on-PC card

Plus: Sony's 4x DVD+RW drive, and HP has a new iPaq in the works

Reg Kit Watch

Graphics

ATI will release its latest All-in-Wonder graphics card, the 9800 Pro, this Spring, the company said today. Beyond upgrading its family of TV-on-a-PC cards to its top-end Radeon 9800 Pro graphics chip, the new All-in-Wonder will feature an on-screen home cinema configuration system, EazyLook.

The Radeon 9800 sports a 256-bit memory interface, capable of connecting to 256MB of DDR SDRAM video memory. The chip supports eight parallel pixel pipelines, and a host of ATI technologies all with trademark signs.

Trademark signs abound in the All-in-Wonder card, which will retail in the US for $449. The 9800 PRO supports translucent video playback (what for?), programme recording and time-shift viewing, picture enhancement, closed captions, a 125-channel stereo TV tuner, and full-screen (TV) MPEG-2 video capture.

Optical

Sony has launched two 4x DVD+RW drives. Released under the Dual RW brand, the units - one internal, the other an external peripheral - support DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD-formats.

The 4x DVD+RW recording speed allows users to write a full DVD+RW certified disc in around 15 minutes, Sony said. The drives also support up to 4x DVD+R and DVD-R recording, and 2x DVD-R, 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW recording.

The internal DRU-510A drive comes with an ATAPI interface, while the external DRX-510UL drive features both 1394 and USB 2.0 interfaces. The DRU-510A will ship next month in the US for $350, the DRX-510UL a month later, for $430.

PDA

HP has a new iPaq in the works: the H2200 Pocket PC. The H2200 sports built-in Bluetooth and a universal remote control for your living room TV, DVD player, VHS etc.

Details of the H2200, which sounds like a version of the current H3900, appeared in a draft version of the user manual filed with the US Federal Communications Commission. Said manual reveals the H2200 to feature a 240x320 16-bit colour screen, 64MB of RAM, 32MB of ROM and either a 200MHz or a 400MHz Intel XScale CPU.

The device is 4.5 x 2.75 x 0.6in (11.25 x 6.88 x 1.5cm) in size and weighs 5.5oz. It contains CompactFlash and SD card slots, and an IrDA port. Ship date and pricing are unknown. ®