Topic: ATI and TV Tuner (Read 7192 times)

sraymond · « **on:** February 24, 2003, 08:16:57 pm »

Where do I stand vis-a-vis my problem with TV Tuner only sending the video out to the TV at half the vertical resolution, unless I start recording (in which case, even if I immediately stop recording, the video out resolution remains fixed)?

Am I the only one that has this problem?

On the other hand, it appears that TV Tuner has gotten much more stable!

Scott-

Yaobing · « **Reply #1 on:** February 25, 2003, 04:59:21 am »

I still have not figured out the cause of it, but I am working on it.

sraymond · « **Reply #2 on:** February 25, 2003, 06:19:34 am »

Thanks for the feedback - I really appreciate it!

Scott-

Yaobing · « **Reply #3 on:** February 25, 2003, 06:30:49 am »

Forgive me if you have already posted this info in the past, could you tell me which ATI card do you have, and the driver version? Also what OS do you use?

Griff · « **Reply #4 on:** February 25, 2003, 06:45:24 am »

Hi

Quote

Am I the only one that has this problem

No, I have it too.

Quote

unless I start recording (in which case, even if I immediately stop recording, the video out resolution remains fixed)?

I verified that here too.

Yaobing - Thanks for looking into the matter.

AIW 7500, both Feb,2003- 6.14.01.6292(display) and Jan., 2003 - 6.14.01.62.6255.

Griff

Ps Scott, the newest driver has more overlay controls.

sraymond · « **Reply #5 on:** February 25, 2003, 08:40:39 am »

Here's my info...

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 2/25/2003, 10:37:02
Machine name: WORKSTATION1
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 1 (2600.xpsp1.020828-1920)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: VIA
System Model: 7VTXE
BIOS: Version 1.00
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.7GHz
Memory: 512MB RAM
Page File: 416MB used, 829MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 (4.09.0000.0900)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.0000.0900 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 8500DV
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: Radeon 8500 (BB)
DAC type: Internal DAC(350MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4242&SUBSYS_02AA1002&REV_00
Display Memory: 64.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Default Monitor
Monitor Max Res:
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0001.6292 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 1/20/2003 22:45:02, 268416 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 1/20/2003 22:44:36, 569984 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-0102-11CF-266B-AB22A1C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x4242
SubSys ID: 0x02AA1002
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Not Available
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run

If you need any additional info from dxdiag, let me know.

Thanks!

Scott-

sraymond · « **Reply #6 on:** February 25, 2003, 08:41:25 am »

Griff,

Yeah, I just installed the new Catalyst drivers the other day. I haven't really figured out how the new overlay options make my life any easier yet!

Scott-

Yaobing · « **Reply #7 on:** March 05, 2003, 10:57:41 am »

Scott and Griff,

I have installed an ATI AIW Radeon 8500DV card on my computer and tried to reproduce the problem you reported here. However, I have not being able to see the problem. I use an SVideo cable to connect from the video card's SVideo output to a TV set and set the TV set as my primary display. Video displays on it normally.

How are your systems set up?

By the way, I was able to verify the crashes related to channel switching and time-shifting after installing ATI's latest capture driver and display driver. Just as Carl reported, it is related to ATI's surface allocator filter, AVBISurf.ax. After un-registering this file, everything returns to normal.

Yaobing · « **Reply #8 on:** March 05, 2003, 02:31:06 pm »

I got it. It's Theater Mode. I will look into it.

Griff · « **Reply #9 on:** March 05, 2003, 02:50:57 pm »

You got it.

Thanks Yaobing.

Griff

sraymond · « **Reply #10 on:** March 05, 2003, 03:59:02 pm »

Thanks Yaobing...

Scott-

P.S. I wish I had the bucks to buy a 9700! Did you buy the AIW 8500DV new?

Yaobing · « **Reply #11 on:** March 11, 2003, 02:46:09 pm »

This problem should be fixed in the latest MC build.

Quote

Did you buy the AIW 8500DV new?

Yes.

Griff · « **Reply #12 on:** March 11, 2003, 04:01:53 pm »

Hotdog

I did a quick check.

Looks like you did it Yaobing.

Full screen on the 32 inch TV.

I'll play with it tomorrow, when I have more time.

Thanks alot.

Griff

sraymond · « **Reply #13 on:** March 11, 2003, 11:28:28 pm »

Yaobing,

You're the nuts... and I mean that in the best possible sense (strange how that can be a compliment, isn't it???) Thanks a million for fixing the problem - it seems to work just fine now!

Scott-

sraymond · « **Reply #14 on:** April 02, 2003, 05:28:09 pm »

The problem seems to have returned... with .141 (and maybe sooner) I have the same problem with TV Out at half the vertical resolution until I start recording.

Scott-

P.S. Yaboing: Are you really "the nuts"? That's what I get for using PG-13 language.

10sne1 · « **Reply #15 on:** April 02, 2003, 06:27:10 pm »

Yaobing, are you the ATI problem solver? Seems I've developed a different problem in the last few builds. I can't play tv through Media Center at all any more. I never had any problems before last week! I noticed someone else had the same problem and noted it in the Media Center build 90137 thread. I tried deleting TV in the registry and let Media Center re-detect. The interesting result as I chose the correct sound settings I could hear the tv--but as soon as I double clicked a channel I got the error again.... as I described in the build 90140 thread....Starting TV...then I get error window which state "failed to play TV. (unknown error)". Then Media Center closes when I click OK. And yes, I can play TV fine through ATI Mulitimedia Center and I downloaded and installed the latest drivers today just to double check. Any ideas?

10sne1 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 02, 2003, 06:30:54 pm »

I'd like to offer my configuration. I'm using ATI 7500 All in wonder card...driver verseion 6.14.1.6307 downloaded and installed today.

Media Center Registered 9.0.141 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 1993 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1309 MB, Free - 812 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1145 (xpsp2.021108-1929) / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

Ripping / Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive F: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive H: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: No / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: chord.wav

Burning / Drive F: _NEC NR-7800A Addr: 2:1:0 Speed:16 MaxSpeed:16 Use MJ Engine:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

sraymond · « **Reply #17 on:** April 02, 2003, 08:19:26 pm »

10sne1: I had a similar problem about a week ago. I had to delete the registry key and then immediately reinstall MC. No idea why - but this did the trick. If you haven't already done so, it's probably worth a try.

Scott-

Yaobing · « **Reply #18 on:** April 03, 2003, 05:27:21 am »

Quote

The problem seems to have returned... with .141 (and maybe sooner) I have the same problem with TV Out at half the vertical resolution until I start recording.

Scott,

It works fine here, with build 141. You have not made any changes on your system?

Quote

P.S. Yaboing: Are you really "the nuts"? That's what I get for using PG-13 language.

You are the one who call me that - whatever it means. I took it as a compliment, as you said "I mean that in the best possible sense".

Yaobing

Yaobing · « **Reply #19 on:** April 03, 2003, 05:41:35 am »

Quote

Yaobing, are you the ATI problem solver?

Yes, but not just ATI. I wrote MC's TV component.

Now about your problem starting TV, did you rename or un-register AVBISurf.ax in your "ATI Multimedia\TV\" folder? This ATI file has caused problem for quite a few users here. If you have not done it, try issuing this command in Start->Run

regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\ATI Multimedia\TV\AVBISurf.ax"

assuming your ATI Multimedia Center is installed on C:\ drive.

10sne1 · « **Reply #20 on:** April 03, 2003, 07:18:54 am »

Yaobing you're a genius! My tv is now functioning again in Media Center.
I don't know what AVBISurf.ax is---but whatever you had me do worked like a charm.
Thanks for your help.

Yaobing · « **Reply #21 on:** April 03, 2003, 08:04:09 am »

AVBISurf.ax is ATI's surface allocator component. It is used in ATI Multimedia Center for their special handling of Closed Captioning. By unregistering this component, your ATI software's closed captioning may not function as desired, since it is forced to use Microsoft's default implementation. It is an ATI bug. You will have to keep this component unregistered until ATI fix its misbehavior.

Thanks to Carl for digging up this solution.

nila · « **Reply #22 on:** April 03, 2003, 08:21:53 am »

Yaob

Maybe you can help me then.

I'd guess maybe you know a wee bit about TV cards.

I bought myself a Hauppauge WinTV Theatre card ages ago. Plugged it into my comp and the picture was really grainy. I've tried it from a cable box, from a TV ariel, from all different places and it's always been really grainy.
I phoned up their support desk to get help but as soon as I said I had an AMD board they used it as their excuse to cut the support going: 'Oh, it's designed for Intel boards, sorry, no support for you young man, just buy our stuff in future'.

Anyway, just wondering - any idea's why I might get a really grainy picture??

My system spec is:
Media Center Registered 9.0.141 -- C:\Program Files\Media Center 9\

Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1666 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 450 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1145 (xpsp2.021108-1929) / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

Ripping / Drive H: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive I: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive J: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: No / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: chord.wav

Burning / Drive I: LITE-ON LTR-52246S Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:52 MaxSpeed:52 Use MJ Engine:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

Any suggestions would be hugely welcomed. If it's purely down to a faulty TV card I'd consider buying a new one but when I have no idea whether it's the TV card, or something else in my system or what then I'm not going to waste the cash buying a new card that might have the same problem.

Thanks

KingSparta · « **Reply #23 on:** April 03, 2003, 08:26:24 am »

>> any idea's why I might get a really grainy picture??
buy there stuff in future

Yaobing · « **Reply #24 on:** April 03, 2003, 08:47:09 am »

Quote

Yaob

Hey, the ing in my name is not optional.

Quote

Maybe you can help me then.

I'd guess maybe you know a wee bit about TV cards.

Unfortunately my knowledge is not big enough to help you on this one. It seems to be indeed a hardware problem. I looked up the system reqiurement on the box of my Hauppauge WinTV card, and it says that it requires Pentium processor (90MHz minimum).

Aren't ADM processors compatible with Pentium? If they only work with Pentium, it tells a lot about the quality of their product. Yea, I will buy from them in the future!

If you can find another computer with Pentium processor, try it on that. If the picture becomes better, then maybe the Hauppauge tech support told you the truth.

nila · « **Reply #25 on:** April 03, 2003, 09:25:14 am »

Aww,
Thanks!

But I have a feeling their support team were doing what BT (UK's biggest telecoms company and the provider of ADSL) did when I phoned them.
DNS wasn't working and wasn't resolving certain addresses and the moron in tech support told me that functional DNS servers were not a part of what I was entitled to as part of my service from them.

Boy did I let him have it. Their DNS servers still suck thou

sraymond · « **Reply #26 on:** April 05, 2003, 07:39:11 pm »

Quote

on Apr 2nd, 2003, 9:28pm, sraymond wrote:The problem seems to have returned... with .141 (and maybe sooner) I have the same problem with TV Out at half the vertical resolution until I start recording.

Scott,

It works fine here, with build 141. You have not made any changes on your system?

Yaobing: I haven't changed anything I can think of... how might I go about resolving the problem?

Scott-

Eiffel · « **Reply #27 on:** April 06, 2003, 12:52:22 pm »

Just a FYI,

I used to have the compressed in half picture issue with MC9 (and no picture unless the timeshift function was enabled)... after a clean install of everything, its is now working as it should (I still don't quite understand all the subtilities of the TV functions, and whether instant replay is available or not... but at least I have a picture

)

-FYI, I'm using a FusionHDTV card which comes with WDM drivers... of course MC9 only works with analog (NTSC) TV, but it is still very good news (and the bundled application takes care of my HD needs for now)

sraymond · « **Reply #28 on:** April 26, 2003, 06:03:17 pm »

Yaobing,

The problem is present in the latest beta... I get half the vertical resolution (compressed) until I start recording. Then all is well.

I even uninstalled all ATI drivers (no easy feat!) to make sure I didn't have something corrupted. No joy.

Suggestions?

Scott-

Yaobing · « **Reply #29 on:** April 28, 2003, 06:20:32 am »

Scott,

I have not seen the problem on my machine lately. However I will put my Radeon 8500DV in again and test sometime today.

Yaobing

sraymond · « **Reply #30 on:** April 28, 2003, 08:24:48 am »

Yaobing,

You mean you have an AIW 8500 DV just sitting around collecting dust? I'm thinking about building a dedicated HTPC, so if she'd need a nice home, let me know! In fact, maybe I'll call the Department of Social Services and see about filing an abuse complaint.

Scott-

Yaobing · « **Reply #31 on:** April 28, 2003, 08:59:24 am »

Quote

You mean you have an AIW 8500 DV just sitting around collecting dust?

No, its not collecting dust, and you can not have it! No way!

Unfortunately I had to put other more inferior cards in for testing. Going through all the installation and uninstallation is a pain in the ...

sraymond · « **Reply #32 on:** April 28, 2003, 09:17:04 am »

Well, you'll just have to build another "home" around it then. HTPC anyone?

Scott-

Yaobing · « **Reply #33 on:** May 01, 2003, 06:41:34 am »

Scott,

After trying for an entire afternoon yesterday, I finally got my AIW Radeon 8500DV back in my machine and working again. Boy that was frustrating.

I started with a clean install from ATI CD, which gave me 6.13.10.6094. Since I saw you were using 6.14.1.6292, I uninstalled the version from CD and installed this version following ATI recommended steps. All was well except I could not use Theater mode. Even ATI multimedia center TV would not display on second display. Last time I used this version everything worked fine. This tells you how fragile this video driver thing is.

So I finally gave up and went for the latest version available at ATI, that is 6.14.1.6307. Now It works. MC TV goes to full screen on second display (TV set) without problem - at least not at the starting. Do you see half height video on TV immediately after starting TV? Also, was Still Picture Capture option on or off?

I see the problem coming back sporadically after going to configuration dialog, but not when starting to play. I will have to talk to ATI people to get to the root of this.

sraymond · « **Reply #34 on:** May 01, 2003, 09:38:31 am »

Yaobing,

I'm using the Catalyst 3.2 drivers, although I've seen on the rage3d forum that the 2.5 drivers are supposed to be the most stable for the 8500. I'm going to give that a try tonight or tomorrow and see if it helps anything. The 3.2s are giving me some weird problems when playing AVIs in MC (a total freeze with weight vertical bands on a mostly black background).

The problem with half-height manifests almost every time I first start the TV play. I can almost always get it to fix by starting to record (and then stopping - I don't have to continue recording). I get the screen "heebeejeebee" (I don't know what the right word is - but it's when the monitor goes blank and then sort of restarts) and all is well. I've also noticed that going to the configuration dialog also causes a "heebeejeebee" which usually fixes the problem.

The "still picture capture" doesn't seem to have any effect on the problem.

I agree: the ATI drivers are too fragile for my tastes! Getting a clean install is *very* difficult, if you don't have the procedure down pat. Are you sure you got a clean install? You can check the forum on www.rage3d.com for a tried-and-true method...

Thanks for helping solve this problem!

Scott-

Yaobing · « **Reply #35 on:** May 02, 2003, 09:57:41 am »

Scott,

Please try today's MC build 9.0.167.

Yaobing

sraymond · « **Reply #36 on:** May 02, 2003, 10:15:44 pm »

Yaobing,

You've done it again! The problem is no longer present. Thanks!

Scott-

P.S. Is there any chance of getting an MMC_COMMAND for the shift-ctrl-F that switches video formats? I'd love to make it remoteable.

sraymond · « **Reply #37 on:** May 06, 2003, 06:04:05 pm »

***IT"S BACK***

I installed Version 9.0.169 yesterday and now have the problem with half-height vertical resolution again.

Scott-

Yaobing · « **Reply #38 on:** May 07, 2003, 04:48:45 am »

Quote

***IT"S BACK***

I installed Version 9.0.169 yesterday and now have the problem with half-height vertical resolution again.

Scott-

Oh boy. It just does not want go away uh?
There has been no change in TV component from MC 9.0.167 to MC 9.0.170. They all use TV 3.0.185.0.

Yaobing · « **Reply #39 on:** May 09, 2003, 01:48:29 pm »

Scott,

Does it still happen without regard to whether "Still Picture Capturing" is enabled? Does it still happen when you start viewing TV?

I can not reproduce the problem on my machine the way you described it. The only way I can produce a half-height video is to a) Turn on still picture capturing; AND b) keep tearing down and rebuilding the DirectShow graph. b) is achieved by going to TV configuration and change recording profile, and click OK. It occurs sporadically, maybe once every 8 - 10 tries. I have reproduced this behavior using Microsofts provided sample program too. So it most likely is something ATI has not done right. However, on my machine not even once did I get a half-height video on TV at the start of TV program.

sraymond · « **Reply #40 on:** May 09, 2003, 07:09:33 pm »

I'll turn off still picture capture and see if it comes back... that may be the one variable I'd overlooked of late.

Scott-

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Author Topic: ATI and TV Tuner (Read 7192 times)

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

nila

nila

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond

sraymond