Vista driver/software for Theater 550 Pro

[ranger235]

Howdy'all - I'm sure this has been answered somewhere already but I cant find it anywhere in the zillions of posts. I'm running Vista RC1 and was wondering if there's any compatible drivers and PVR software available besides Windows Media Center (don't have an IR receiver and remote). I was running PowerEnema 4.0 on XP and was reasonably happy with it but it says its incompatible with Vista. The ATI site has no specific drivers for the Theater 550 either - has anyone tried the XP versions in Vista? Any help is greatly appreciated - !!

[Octavean]

Vista beta 2 and RC1 both auto installed the drivers for the Theater 550 Pro card installed in my test system. If for some reason this doesn’t or didn’t happen for your configuration you can right click the uninstalled components from “device manager” and select “Update Driver”.

You can try using XP MCE 2K5 drivers as well,…. don’t know how well that will work for you but its worth a shot. If you try it, right-click the install executable, select properties and then click the “compatibility” tab. From there select XP for compatibility mode and select run as administrator,….then run the install.

Good luck.

[ranger235]

Thanks bud that worked fine - don't spose you'd know of any compatible PVR software? I guess I could just breakdown and buy a MS remote and receiver on ebay if nothin else...

[Octavean]

I’m not really sure what you mean with respect to software.

There are PVR applications such as GB-PVR and MediaPortal that will work well with Theater 550 Pro cards. There are also applications that can burn files such as the Microsoft proprietary DVR-MS files from MCE to DVD such as MakeDVD (it will play these files too).

And so on,….

Buying an official MCE remote is best especially if you’r MCE setup uses a set-top-box for cable / satellite. Just be sure that the remote comes with a “IR Blaster”. If, however, you do not need a set-top-box then there are many remotes that will work in windows that will suffice,…possibly even one that came with the Theater 550 Pro card.

***edit***

The latest version of ATI’s MMC MultiMedia Center 9.15 will work with the Theater 550 Pro and has (officially) since version 9.09 (I think). ATI’s new CMC Catalyst Media Center will work as well but there is no word on how to acquire it.

***edit again***

Gemstar Guide Plus+ can be downloaded from ATI and will integrate with ATI’s PowerCinema.

[ranger235]

Thanks Octavean - so does anybody know if any of these applications compatible with Vista?

[Octavean]

Your welcome,…

I don’t think any of these programs work in Vista RC1.

However, the built in Vista MCE PVR application should work well with the Theater 550 Pro or at least it does for me in Vista RC1 and beta 2 before that. I’m starting to like it more then Media Center Edition 2005.

[ranger235]

Dang it - thanks for all the help bud - guess I'll bite the bullet and head on over to ebay...

[lost_packet]

I hate to dig up an old post, but I have the same issue and can't resolve it.

When you say MCE 2k5 drivers, are you talking about ones from Ati? I looked under the drivers section and there is nothing about 2k5. I typically never use MCE so I'm not aware of any changes in the OS.

I'm running the RTM version of Vista Enterprise (64 bit) and it will not detect my TV Wonder 550, nor will the software included with the card instal any drivers.

I was under the impression that Vista already had the proper driver, but it looks like it doesn't.

What can I do to get the card to install?

[Octavean]

Vista Enterprise, Vista Business Edition and Vista Home Basic don’t have the Vista MCE PVR application and as such may not bother to include a driver set for TV tuners.

When I installed the TV Wonder 650 on my Vista RC2 test system recently I simply used the “Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005” drivers for the 550 / 650. It required that I install it twice (second time with recommended settings) but it worked.

Once the drivers are installed and the tuner is operable a Vista compatible PVR software package or the like will be necessary to make use of it.

Since there are 64bit drivers for the Theater 550 Pro that’s a good sign but since the 64bit versions of Vista require that drivers be digitally signed,……………….good luck but I am thinking it wont work.

[lost_packet]

are you talking about these drivers?
ati.amd.com/support/drivers/mce/theater550-mce.html

I think I can turn off driver signing (I'm almost sure) I just need to get the proper drivers in the first place.

thank you for the reply

[Octavean]

Right, those are the ones,…

Those are almost certainly 32bit drivers though. If you can run 32bit unsigned drivers in Vista Enterprise 64bit then you should be good to go,…..

Cheers!