Thoughts
The bad points of the first OmniChrome offering far outweigh the good. No multi-sampling on the GPU while playing games (pretty essential for low-end GPUs, that usually play at aliasing-friendly lower resolutions, where good AA would help most), no stereo audio on TV signals, no integrated program guide for non-North American users (and a poor one at that) and comparatively poor upscaling image quality all massively detract from the good points of the package. TV quality is great, performance is fine, basic GPU ability is decent, the price is great and the Home Theater 2 software is very good. The remote rounds off the good side of things.Overall, S3 still need to do some serious work with OmniChrome to bring it up to scratch. If you can suffer the downsides, great; it's cheap and does the basic TV-tuning-with-good-softwre-and-remote job fine. But those downsides are pretty dire in a 2004 TV tuning product. HDTV input and output don't save it for me. If you have the basic facility to actually record or watch HDTV signals properly, you've got the need for something more than mono audio from the TV tuner.
Close, but ultimately so very far away. Steer clear until the next version comes round. S3 are pitching OmniChrome as having better basic GPU performance and HDTV features as a 9200 All-In-Wonder from ATI, for the same or less money. It doesn't matter that it's a true statement, the failings make it moot.
S3 provided a list of UK stockists for the OmniChrome, but none are listing it as yet. When we get word that they are, we'll update you.
Pros
Good TV image qualityGood remote
Cheap
HT2 is a good front-end
Good 3D performance (sans anti-aliasing) for the price
HDTV input and output
Cons
PCB is too big for Shuttle's XPC and other SFF systemsOnly mono audio from the TV tuner
Poor TV guide integration
No multi-sampling AA
Poor upscaling image quality in current drivers
Thanks
VIA/s3Graphics and Axalia Communication for the sampleHEXUS Right2Reply - Nadeem Mohammad Product Marketing Manager S3 Graphics Inc
Hi Paul,
Thanks for taking time to look at our new OmniChrome multimedia solution and also for giving me an opportunity to comment on the review.
I always enjoy reading your reviews because of your attention to detail.
The OmniChrome board is all about providing great value for money and a balance of the most important features that our customers want, your review touched on most of the key points.
Using your test results your readers would have no doubt that in terms of graphics and gaming performance the DeltaChrome S4 Nitro , running at 350Mhz engine, leads the class with some margin, beating Geforce FX 5700LE , 5200 and ATI’s All-In-Wonder . You would have also noticed that the OmniChrome did not have any compatibility issues and the driver was already very stable and full featured – quite refreshing considering this is a new chip just entering the market. In my resent meeting with HEXUS`s David Ross I also demonstrated the board running Doom3 at 800x600 at over 27 fps, perfectly adequate for the majority of PC users – and the images and texturing looked great, further illustrating that even though this is not an high end enthusiast’s card it is certainly well capable of running and providing an enjoyable experience on even the latest DirectX 9 games.
You did correctly point out that DeltaChrome S4 Nitro does not have edge anti-aliasing, but in turn does have full screen 4 point super-sampling, which is considered to provide the highest possible quality. Even though I agree that anti-aliasing is a valuable feature I have found from experience that many users choose not to enable it in exchange for increased performance – particularly at mainstream graphics price point so this negative point should be taken in the context of this market segment’s expectation.
I was particularly impressed that your review pointed out another one of OmniChrome high quality features , a quite subtle feature often overlooked– our support of 10bit per component rendering and display buffer. As you point out, this feature can provide the means of displaying and editing digital photographic in truly amazing colour . Competitor products without this feature offer 32bit modes which only have 8bit per colour , these can display a maxium of 256 shades of grey – compared to OmniChrome’s 1024 shades of grey or pure colour. During our SQA testing we have not found any applications which had any problems with this direct draw surface being made available – and should there be any issues we would be very happy to work with the developers to make an upgrade or patch available.
S3 Graphics has a long standing tradition of being one of the industries leaders in video playback quality and features – you even commented on the high quality of the TV image and video input capture quality. I was very surprised to read your comments about poor upscaling, the DeltaChrome S4 Nitro features very sophisticated 5 tap hardware scaling in addition to numerous other features to enhance software scaling – we will investigate the issues you had and will work with developer of the codec used to better leverage our hardware capabilities.
The Club3D OmniChrome Package contains full versions of InterVideo’s Home Theater 2.5 and InterVideo’s WinDVD Creator 2.0 – in addition to the DVD version of Colin McRae Racing Game. This software package together with the full function remote and 128MB , 128bit OmniChrome S4 Nitro AGP8x board – makes this solution tremendous value. The boards DVI and Hi-Def progressive component output adds flexible connectivity simply not available on any of the other solutions in this class.
Our unique business relationship with InterVideo allows us to provide an online upgrade service to our customers - so as and when features such as the EPG get enhanced we will be able to provide online solutions. Your feedback about the program guide has been shared with the InterVideo Management team.
Our native HDTV component output feature was often considered to be only of value to North American and Japanese users, but during my recent trips to stores in UK and Europe I have found an increasing number of TV sets which offer progressive modes via component input, and playback devices with component output. Also to my surprise many of these sets offered compatibility with 720p and 1080i - in addition to the PAL Progressive modes. The ability to connect to big screens using the high quality component input opens up a huge wealth opportunities – I can leave it up to your readers to assess the value of computer monitor like clarity on your family room TV.
Your media tests would have show great TV visual quality and very accurate video / audio sync. You mentioned the pause TV and recording work well – and you liked the ease of use of the Home Theater software – these are all the key features our customers will value and appreciate. The video capture from external sources is also of equally high quality , enabling users to capture video from their Hi-8 and other camcorders to capture , edit and produce DVD , VCD and even Divx.
You did correctly point out the TV sound is mono , we will take your feedback and add stereo for all future OmniChrome solutions – but I would debate if this single feature negates the many high lights of this product. The importance and weight of both high lights and low lights of any product is a very subjective and I hope your readers draw their own final conclusions knowing the facts.
Once again many thanks for reviewing OmniChrome and I look forward to seeing you again soon.
Best regards,
Nadeem Mohammad
Product Marketing Manager
S3 Graphics Inc. Ltd., Fremont. California
HEXUS.afterburner
Our Paul Dutton gives his take:
S3's DeltaChrome and OmniChrome continue to show great potential and we find Nadeem Mohammed's genuine enthusiasm and conviction in his products both refreshing and infectious.
We hope that VIA, and it's Associate Vice President of Marketing, Richard Brown, remains fully committed to supporting the development of S3 Graphics products.
We're of the view that, perhaps especially, with the onset of forthcoming technologies inherent within Microsoft's Longhorn, there will continue to be end-user benefits with a broader choice of innovations beyond those offered by ATi and NVIDIA alone.
With both DeltaChrome and OmniChrome our observation is that the prime issues for S3 Graphics achieving increased commercial success, appears to be time-to-market and endorsement (read availability) from AIB partners.
Obviously getting its technology developed and out of the door faster, ultimately rather comes down to hard speculative investment, but perhaps an increased commitment from key players within VIA internally, would fully maximise the cost-effectiveness of such current investments?
After all, at the heart of one of its corporate statements, VIA cites its 'Digital Brilliance' initiative as a key part of its company vision.
So as the overall market does seem to be moving towards a convergence of home entertainment devices and PC functionality, surely the fiscal return for VIA in promoting the rapid development of S3 Graphics won't be long coming?
Desktop DeltaChrome and OmniChrome products are presently only available from a sole AIB partner in Europe, Club3D; but perhaps VIA can increase its efforts in this area, and maybe leverage its relationships within its broad customer base of mainboard manufacturers, with a view to adopting S3 Graphics products into these companies product portfolios?
I think it was some time around the introduction of its nForce2 400 Ultra core logic that NVIDIA itself attempted to encourage its graphics card and mainboard manufacturing customers to take both NVIDIA GPUs and NVIDIA chipsets; indeed firm intelligence at the time suggested that NVIDIA was 'nSISTing' on this as a prerequisite of continued supply of either...
The subsequent technology difficulties it experienced shortly thereafter aside, perhaps NVIDIA would have been more successful in its own such endeavours if its approach had been a little different, and those within the VIA crew we know, are generally easy and friendly people to work with.
So, whilst in its current form, S3 OmniChrome, like the DeltaChrome variants presented to the Press before, is so 'almost there', we feel that ATi's All-In-Wonder products – despite its clumsy and tired MultiMedia Centre interface – is still in a one-horse race.
That said if, as Nadeem suggests, S3 can deliver a timely refresh to OminChrome which builds upon the competitive advantages that Ryszard has highlighted, and retains its high value focus, then we see the potential for ATi to be seriously challenged.
