Theater 650 Pro Discussion

[Octavean]

Just another heads up on a new product that might be of interest to some considering the TV Wonder 650 or like products:

HDHomeRun - Networked Digital HDTV Tuner

The HDHomeRun has the following specs:

# 8-VSB (ATSC over-the-air digital HDTV)
# QAM64/256 (unencrypted digital cable TV)
# Dual HDTV Tuners
# IR Receiver (38kHz)
# 100baseTX high speed network
# Open source drivers/support

So it’s similar to the Vbox Cat’s Eye 164e in respect to its dual HDTV tuners and OTA digital TV support but differs in the lack of dual analog support, added QAM64/256 and so on,…

The fact that its an external solution that is networkable is a plus IMO,…

At ~$169.95 the HDHomeRun isn’t much more then some other hybrid solutions and is in fact less then some hybrid solutions as well.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, Windows Media Center and SnapStream BeyondTV support is listed as a “coming soon” feature. I couldn’t entertain the notion of buying one until such time as adequate support for these apps are offered.

Anyway, yet another option available to the masses.

***edit***

Review of the HDHomeRun:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/10/30...iew-hdhomerun/

[Skylark]

It may (just may) be due to FM interference. You could try an FM trap on your cable/antenna line (preferably before any amps). Otherwise, getting that quality on most channels is doing pretty good. I only have it on a few channels. Most of mine are noisy and grainy. What kind of cable amps have you found that work good for you?

Actually, I bought a cheap one, a Magnavox 4-output 10db unit I found for $20 online, with shipping. Found it on froogle. As for the FM trap, depending on the price, I might give it a shot. I noticed that the wavy lines are more pronounced when viewing those channels through the 650s, whereas those same channels look fine when watching them through the TV directly.

[denyart]

Sounds like you may have interference in your computer, and if that is the case it willbe very difficult to overcome. If any of your devices in your computer support spread spectrum clocking (SSC) you could try turning that on. Otherwise it may help to use ferrite clamps around as many cables as you can for your computer (monitor cable, power cable etc.). Otherwise I am all out of ideas. As for the FM trap, it should be cheap. It's just a little in-line RF coupler that selectively reduces the FM frequency range by many dB. It also can effect other channels (especially low VHF), so it may be of no use if you already have a pretty good signal on most channels. Another big source of interference for RF tuners is your TV itself, but it can be a problem to get rid of that (the TV that is). Good luck!

[Super XP]

Is it worth buying the 650 TV Wonder PCI version now or wait for the faster PCIe x 1 or x 4 version later? I am sure ATI will also iron out any driver problems by then.

Later,

[Octavean]

Is it worth buying the 650 TV Wonder PCI version now or wait for the faster PCIe x 1 or x 4 version later? I am sure ATI will also iron out any driver problems by then.

Later,

There should be no significant difference between PCI and PCIe versions of the TV Wonder 650 cards (Theater 650, assuming there ever will be a PCIe version) and if history is any indication there was no noteworthy difference between the T550P PCI and T550P PCIe versions.

[vddobrev]

An update on my side regarding the stand by issue. ATI closed my 3 tickets after they posted an article regarding the stand by problem. I reopened the tickets, stating that simply stating "we know about the issue" does not mean it is resolved. They closed them yet again with the text below. It took them well over 30 days to come up with "no, this is not supported - we may fix it some time in the future" thing, so I demanded my money back, since I am unable to return the cards at the place of purchase. I also argued the "Designed for MCE" logo.

Just look at what they had to say:

"We are not sure what we can add to this. It is a known issue and a solution is not available at this time.
After reviewing the issue again, we have concluded you have two options here:
1) Wait for an update to solution.
2) Return the product to Place of purchase.
Unfortunately, Customer Care has no timeframe as to when updates will become available. You may check our web periodically for any update(d) information.
Thank you for your time.
Any updates will appear on the ATI/AMD website when they become available."

"First off 'made for use in media center' does not imply that dual tuners is supported in the OS. One tuner is genrally used in the OS.
I understand that the use of 2 tuners is supported by the OS's mentioned, but again from an ATI standpoint the configuration is not currently supported. Maybe somewhere down the line it will. Plus the use of 2 tuners in XP or Vista is not an advertised feature either stated on the box or on the ATI site.
If the product was purchased from the ATI online store then it can be returned for a full refund within a 30 day period from the online store. If the product was purchased from a vendor other than ATI, then you have to return the product to were you purchased it from."

"Again it is not stated as an advertised feature but usually before purchasing/installing/configuring cards, it should have been verified before purchase to see whether it will work.
If the card was purchased from ATI within 30 days then it can be returned to the online store. Anything else would have to be worked out through the vendor where you purchased the card form. If they are un-co-opertive then selling it privatly."

[denyart]

Well, if you want to pursue your own fix, you can look at all of this:

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/153478.aspx

Posted By: hveijk in Tips & Tricks
Subject: Re: MCE Standby Tool - Solving standby problems the easy way
Microsoft made a kind of command-line version of the device manager called devcon.
You can make a script that stops, starts or recycles the driver of your card.

Use something like Hibernate trigger http://www.rpi.edu/~desimn/suspendtrigger/ to run the script at suspend and/or resume.

MCE Standby Tool itself didn't fix anything for me, but the DevCOn utility and some command scripts running at startup sounds promising. I have jsut been busy (okay lazy) and not gotten around to testing the idea. If you do try it let us know the status. Good luck!

[Skylark]

I'd be willing to test it out. I've been studying up on the devcon utility, but I don't know the first thing about creating a script. How about an old-fashioned .bat file?

[vddobrev]

I am reading up on the DevCon utility and will try to figure it out.

[vddobrev]

I looked into DevCon. The (assumed) usefull commands that might help in the standby problem are:
restart
disable
enable

Unfortunately all of these commands when executed against any of the two ATI 650 cards require a reboot - as reported by DevCon.
The standby issue was not fixed and remains.

[denyart]

I looked into DevCon. The (assumed) usefull commands that might help in the standby problem are:
restart
disable
enable

Unfortunately all of these commands when executed against any of the two ATI 650 cards require a reboot - as reported by DevCon.
The standby issue was not fixed and remains.

Well that stinks, but I guess I am not going to jump to any irrational conclusions...perhaps we can look into this MCE standby tool and see if this guy will help us with this problem. He was willing to send me info on devcon, and I think if enough people are interested he may be willing to look into this specific tuner. It would be great for his little app if it could brag about fixing the ATI standby issue.

[Super XP]

Well, I do agree that ATI's drivers can be a little tricky & buggy at times. But Cyberlink is just plain terrible.

You would think that they would come out with super drivers or something?

[mrceolla]

Hello folks,

I am having some issues with random glitches in playback, and I can not for the life of me figure it out. The glitches are in the form of skipping or jumping frames, and sometimes the video goes in fast motion for a fraction of a second. During these video issues, I can also hear the audio jump/skip as well, but I never hear the audio go in fast motion.

Sometimes I will get this random stuttering while watching live TV. Then when I rewind a bit and watch that portion again, there is no stutter and it plays smoothly. So if it is recording fine, why isn't it playing back fine? Yes I have tried hitting back right away to give some pad between record time and watch time, but I still see the same issues from time to time, then rewind and they're gone.

I have tried PowerDVD 6 and PureVideo. PureVideo seemed to skip less, but I haven't done enough testing yet.

I have changed PCI latency to 94 (i think). Not sure if that's where it should be or not.

I am using AC3filter to pass the 5.1.

Can someone please explain the differences in ffdshow and ReClock? Could these be my answer?

My PC:

Asus p4p800 se
p4 2.8
1gig 400mhz
AGP 8x BFG 6600GT OC 128 MB
1x160 system - primary master
1x160 storage - primary slave
1xDVD-R - secondary master
ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI slot2 (no other cards in PCI)

Please help. I've been working on this for days. Thank you.

Mike

[Octavean]

Mrceolla, what application are you using to view TV and are you referring to standard definition TV or high definition TV?

[mrceolla]

Of course...I knew I forgot something.

I'm using MCE2005 w/ rollup 2.
I am viewing HD digital TV via the ATI 650's tuner.

[vddobrev]

Currently you have both HDDs on the same channel.
Please try and put 1x160 storage - primary slave on secondary slave.