Topic: Support of ATI HDTV Wonder device (Read 10485 times)

Yaobing · « **on:** October 06, 2004, 03:58:18 pm »

Here is a heads-up for those who are interested:

I recently have been working on supporting high definition TV devices in Media Center. In particular I have been working on ATI's HDTV Wonder device. Soon in one of the new MC 11 builds you will see support for this device. It will not be complete yet, but playback of high definition TV should work. Recording and other features will come later.

ATI HDTV Wonder is a TV card that works with both analog TV and HDTV. I have seen other HDTV cards before, but those have device drivers that do not conform to DirectX standards, and thus are hard to code into Media Center. ATI's device is thus the first one we are trying to support. It costs less than $200 and is available from various sources.

This is available only in MC11. It's in beta (30 day trial) near the top of this board:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** October 06, 2004, 04:22:31 pm »

Here's an article about the card:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6122986/

DivX · « **Reply #2 on:** October 18, 2004, 06:41:55 pm »

Great news on support for this card. I am eagerly awaiting the update.

Griff · « **Reply #3 on:** October 29, 2004, 04:17:48 pm »

Hi Yaobing

Thanks for supporting this card.

Question

The TV Wonder cards all have been mono in the past.

This one seems to sup. Stereo?

Since you got one,

Does it?

Thanks
Griff

Yaobing · « **Reply #4 on:** November 01, 2004, 08:50:34 am »

Quote from: Griff on October 29, 2004, 04:17:48 pm

Question

The TV Wonder cards all have been mono in the past.

This one seems to sup. Stereo?

Griff,

Yes, this card supports stereo sound.

Another TV Wonder card that also supports stereo sound is "TV Wonder Pro".

Yaobing

JimH · « **Reply #5 on:** November 11, 2004, 03:10:58 pm »

Yaobing just got time shifting working with this HD card. It should be out soon in an MC11 build. Pause, rewind, and fast forward should work now.

Thanks, Yaobing.

Griff · « **Reply #6 on:** November 11, 2004, 10:41:08 pm »

Hi Yaobing

Thanks for the stereo info.

Quote

Yaobing just got time shifting working with this HD card. It should be out soon in an MC11 build. Pause, rewind, and fast forward should work now

Thanks again Yaobing.

Dont have this card yet, but been thinking on it.

Just pick up a Samsung 47 inch hdtv Rear proj.. (After much hunting, Plasma, dlp, lcd and ect.)

Beautifull !!!

But that another thread.

May I ask what video card you ran the Hd wonder card with?

Thanks
Griff

Yaobing · « **Reply #7 on:** November 12, 2004, 09:01:33 am »

Quote from: Griff on November 11, 2004, 10:41:08 pm

May I ask what video card you ran the Hd wonder card with?

Hi Griff,

I am currently using ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 PRO.

Yaobing

Griff · « **Reply #8 on:** November 13, 2004, 02:51:18 pm »

Thanks Yaobing

The 9600 series, was what I was thinking about, to match the Wonder HD with.

Along with the Dvi to component, to feed the HDTV.

Griff

ttriplett · « **Reply #9 on:** January 03, 2005, 12:42:29 pm »

I have d'loaded the MC11 trial ver to see how it works with my ATI HDTV wonder. Works pretty well. I like the interfaces. It is very nice to have an app that auto switches between the digital and analog tuner inputs on the card based on what channel is selected.

Only a couple of problems:
A bit of A/V stutter (I think the app is dropping a frame or two every few seconds).
Also sometimes it takes too long to change from an analog to digital channel or vice versa. (I would expect some delay since it has to change inputs but often the delay is much longer than others).

Thanks for supporting this card. Yours is the only 3rd party app that supports a digital tuner card (except for MCE2005 which has too many shortcomings for me).

ttriplett · « **Reply #10 on:** January 03, 2005, 12:56:38 pm »

Oh yeah... my system specs:

nForce2 mobo w/ integrated C-Media audio using SPDIF
Athlon XP 2600+
512 MB ram
160GB 7200 rpm HDD
ATI 9600 pro 128MB
ATI HDTV Wonder
Windows XP home SP2
Samsung 61" DLP display

Yaobing · « **Reply #11 on:** January 04, 2005, 09:28:19 am »

Quote from: ttriplett on January 03, 2005, 12:42:29 pm

Also sometimes it takes too long to change from an analog to digital channel or vice versa.

Changing to an analog channel (either from another analog channel or a digital channel) should be fast. Changing to a digital channel is a bit slow, including changing from a digital channel to another digital channel. I am not sure what causes this, but I will try to find a solution.

JimH · « **Reply #12 on:** January 04, 2005, 09:34:06 am »

Thanks for the feedback.

Can you try killing background programs to see if you can fix the stutter?

In particular, ATI has a program that intercepts keys. It's called something like atievx. It's started as a service by Windows but can be disabled.

ttriplett · « **Reply #13 on:** January 05, 2005, 12:18:57 am »

Quote from: Yaobing on January 04, 2005, 09:28:19 am

Changing to an analog channel (either from another analog channel or a digital channel) should be fast. Changing to a digital channel is a bit slow, including changing from a digital channel to another digital channel. I am not sure what causes this, but I will try to find a solution.

Channel changing on my system: analog to analog - fast, analog to digital - short delay, digital to analog - long delay (several seconds).

The HDTV wonder is my only tuner card.

ttriplett · « **Reply #14 on:** January 05, 2005, 01:16:32 am »

Quote from: JimH on January 04, 2005, 09:34:06 am

Thanks for the feedback.

Can you try killing background programs to see if you can fix the stutter?

In particular, ATI has a program that intercepts keys. It's called something like atievx. It's started as a service by Windows but can be disabled.

Found 2 instances of something like atiexx2. Killing one killled both. No change. Then killed all ATI processes. Still no change. Seems to be worse in full screen mode.

JimH · « **Reply #15 on:** January 05, 2005, 06:46:19 am »

Worse in full screen mode might point to the video card. It may be a bottleneck or it may have driver issues.

terbos · « **Reply #16 on:** January 22, 2005, 11:27:55 am »

I have an HDTV Wonder, but can't figure out how to download the beta of your s/w. Where can I try it?

Thanks,
Terry

JimH · « **Reply #17 on:** January 25, 2005, 11:42:21 am »

Quote from: terbos on January 22, 2005, 11:27:55 am

I have an HDTV Wonder, but can't figure out how to download the beta of your s/w. Where can I try it?

Thanks,
Terry

Terry,
Sorry I missed your post. And Yaobing is away for a few days.

You just need to download the latest build of Media Center 11 from a thread near the top of the MC board.

Jim

JimH · « **Reply #18 on:** January 25, 2005, 11:43:42 am »

Quote from: ttriplett on January 03, 2005, 12:42:29 pm

A bit of A/V stutter (I think the app is dropping a frame or two every few seconds).

Over at AVSForum, there is a discussion of choppy playback and video cards here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=393949&perpage=20&pagenumber=78

ocrts · « **Reply #19 on:** March 22, 2005, 09:41:55 pm »

I just downloaded and installed 11.0.220 without a hitch and am impressed so far with the feature set. I am mainly interested in using MC for my HDTV Wonder card, since ATI is incapable of getting their software right.

The problem: I'm in Washington, DC. The 720p channels come in just fine, but none of the 1080i channels work. For the 1080i channels, sometimes I get nothing, sometimes sound only (usually choppy, but not always), and sometimes sound with white or gray boxes (no decernable picture).

Signal stregth is max or close to it for all 1080i channels.

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000
RAM: 512MB
Video: nVidia FX5200
Windows XP SP2

When I run ATI's program, all the 1080i channels work (with some frame loss).

Last time I tried updating ATI's drivers, I had to do a complete reinstall of Windows XP! So I'm not anxious to do it again.

I'm looking forward to purchasing MC once this gets resolved. Any help will be much appreciated.

ocrts

Yaobing · « **Reply #20 on:** March 23, 2005, 08:44:51 am »

Quote from: ocrts on March 22, 2005, 09:41:55 pm

Last time I tried updating ATI's drivers, I had to do a complete reinstall of Windows XP! So I'm not anxious to do it again.

What version of the ATI driver do you have? If it really were a driver problem, you will not be able to avoid going that way. I found that if you carefully following ATI's instructions when updating drivers, it would not cause troubles.

ocrts · « **Reply #21 on:** March 23, 2005, 09:06:40 am »

Quote from: Yaobing on March 23, 2005, 08:44:51 am

What version of the ATI driver do you have? If it really were a driver problem, you will not be able to avoid going that way. I found that if you carefully following ATI's instructions when updating drivers, it would not cause troubles.

Version 9.0.1. When I tried to update to 9.0.3 following the directions exactly on ATI's site, I had to do the rebuild. What's more curious, though, is that I can get a picture on the 1080i stations using ATI's MMC and yet can't see any picture in MC11.

I will try to update to the current 9.0.6 tonight, but do you have any other thoughts as to what it could be if it's not a driver problem?

Yaobing · « **Reply #22 on:** March 23, 2005, 09:10:59 am »

At this time I can not think of other causes. As Matt has said, it works fine on his computer. It also works on mine, although I only get one 1080i station which has a poor signal (that means it gets bad in MC when it also gets bad in ATI MMC).

Also, do you have the latest drivers for your video card? From what I read elsewhere, HDTV Wonder works best with ATI video card and not as well with other cards.

Please take a look here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=2aea9ff1423943ec3cc54383d5336f59&postid=5349615&highlight=nVidia+FX5200#post5349615

Yaobing · « **Reply #23 on:** March 23, 2005, 11:51:33 am »

Just another idea:

Do you have the most updated DirectX9 on your machine? HDTV Wonder requires 9.0b. The latest at Microsoft site is 9.0c.

ocrts · « **Reply #24 on:** March 23, 2005, 12:14:26 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on March 23, 2005, 11:51:33 am

Just another idea:

Do you have the most updated DirectX9 on your machine? HDTV Wonder requires 9.0b. The latest at Microsoft site is 9.0c.

I'll check when I get home. I'm sure I have at least 9.0b and I think I have 9.0c.

ocrts · « **Reply #25 on:** March 24, 2005, 08:27:26 am »

Well, I am running DirectX 9.0c.

I followed your link to the avs forum and followed the advice there. I updated the nVidia drivers and changed the registry entry. It definitely helped. Now, I can get all channels, with some quirks. In order to view a 1080i station, I first have to view a 720p station and then switch to the 1080i. I can't go from 1080i to another 1080i nor can I start TV viewing with 1080i, although I can do these things in ATI MMC. Wierd. I also still get some frame drops, but it seems like if I switch channels back and forth, I eventually get a good "lock" on a channel without frame drops.

MC is definitely working better than ATI MMC in terms of frame drops/channel lock, but I'm obviously running into the nVidia vs. Radeon issue that seems rather pervasive. Next step is to Ghost my system and then try to update to ATI's 9.0.6.

Thanks for your help.

Yaobing · « **Reply #26 on:** March 24, 2005, 09:31:07 am »

Quote from: ocrts on March 24, 2005, 08:27:26 am

Next step is to Ghost my system and then try to update to ATI's 9.0.6.

I did it yesterday without any problems. But it is always wise to take precaution. One thing I learned about these video drivers is that they are delicate.

Make sure you update all four items from ATI.

Video_Novice · « **Reply #27 on:** June 06, 2005, 08:17:02 am »

I have searched the forum, but am not able to find an exact answer. Please tell me if MC 11, latest beta, supports recording with an ATI HDTV Wonder. Please also comment on using a Remote Wonder Plus with MC 11. Thanks very much for the help and for providing an alternative to ATI software.

Yaobing · « **Reply #28 on:** June 06, 2005, 08:40:07 am »

Quote from: Video_Novice on June 06, 2005, 08:17:02 am

I have searched the forum, but am not able to find an exact answer. Please tell me if MC 11, latest beta, supports recording with an ATI HDTV Wonder.

Yes, recording is supported. It is done using the native MPEG-2 format. Not configurable though.

Quote

Please also comment on using a Remote Wonder Plus with MC 11. Thanks very much for the help and for providing an alternative to ATI software.

I personally have not tried RW Plus. But I believe it should work with MC. There have been quite some discussions on ATI Remote Wonder on Media Center Forum.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Support of ATI HDTV Wonder device (Read 10485 times)