Theater 650 Pro Discussion

[Bill T]

Hey,

herrdoktor,
Check the part number for your TV Wonder 650. You may have one of the defective units that we previously talked about in the forum. The defective issue was a poor signal, which is exactly what you are describing.

MMC Fans,
Sorry, but there is no plan to bring back MMC.

denyart
As for hardware that is effective, I believe that it is the TV Wonder 650 drivers. I have now seen this issue with ati cards, and nvidia cards. So it should not be a problem with you Nvidia card.

Anyone out there with 2 TV Wonder 650's, could you try S3 standby, and see if you have this same issue.
I think it will happen in most systems. The only reason more people aren't complaining is that most people shut down their computer instead of using S3, thanks in advance.

[denyart]

Bill, thanks for the update. I just want to reiterate that if there is anything I can do, just ask.

[mglima_brazil]

I bought a 650 THEATER a week ago. I also have an AIW 9800PRO on AGP Slot and Sapphire X1600XT on pci-e.

After many trials i succeed do use everything together. I am using the latest catalyst video and wdm drivers (for 9800PRO WDM and to both video card video drivers) and the online version of THEATER 650 WDM drivers.
The weird this is each driver i put the assemble works in a different way. (depending of wdm i cant use PVR) On 9.14 MMC my 9800 pro capture in 720x960. ehhehe Weird...

I using MMC 9.13 (this is the only one which works perfectly on my pc). The quality of 650 capture from laserdisc and S-VHS tapes por ex. is excelent. Im using 7 Mbits constant and LPCM sound. Perfect.

I think Catalyst Media Center is a robber(?).! They say that encode on h.264, divx mpeg 4 etc.. but only have the option to choose GOOD AND BEST preset.

On MMC 9.13 (this assemble of drivers thats works fine without freeze etc.) the 650 become primary and if i want to use 9800 i have to disable de 650 drivers on windows. On CMC i can only select the input...

[jonaslasky]

I'm looking for help. Previously built my own HTPC and it worked perfectly with the HDTV Wonder and 550 pro w/ MCE. Not very quiet.
Purchased an HP S7900N Slim PC. Removed modem from the one PCI slot and custom fit, (cut the backplate) a Theater 650 Pro. Using an amplified antenna I can not get all the same HD stations that I get w/ the HDTV Wonder. Also it seems all of the SD or HD stations have no red color. All reds show as blue. No skin tones. Cable channels all work fine. I moved to this new set up because it is almost completely silent and very small. I'm wishing I would have stayed with my old machine. Ideas anyone?

Yes.... one idea.... RUN!! DON'T WALK! back to your retailer and return that infernal tuner card. You'll be a happier man (or whatever you might be) if you go back to how everything was. Don't waste another second.

Jonas

[AIW_VID_FAN]

Hey,


MMC Fans,
Sorry, but there is no plan to bring back MMC.
.

Thanks for the reply Bill but I must ask again,

Doesnt MMC support the 550 ?, "officially or unofficially".

Couldnt the 650 ATSC tuner work with mmc with future 650 driver updates?
The 650 analog tuner works fine with MMC915.

Are you telling us that MMC will not be supported anymore?
I have spent many, many hours trying to get CMC working
but I still have no choice due to the CPU issue with cmcservice.exe
as well as many other problems.

Thanks in advance.

[herrdoktor]

Thought I should update. I talked with ATI support via their Toll free line. The support tech asked for my product number and confirmed that it was the reworked card. (Newer card). He asked me to fill out and run the report wizzard. I did and then proceeded to remove my Phillips HD antenna and install a set of RCA Rabbit ears. This allowed me to get most all of the HD stations. I then tried updating to the latest Nvidia video card drivers. This fixed my color problem where all reds appeared blue. i went online and cnaceled my ATI ticket.
I have come to the conclusion that because I am so close to the two main signal towers that I can't use any antenna that is directional. when I try to aim between the towers I get poor to no signal at all. My next step is a large multi-aray aluminum roof mount. If that doesn't do it then I read where some have used a splitter and two antennas aimed in different directions to get better coverage. Also just picked up the HVR-950 USB Tuner. Played with it a little in XP Pro. Great picture quality on HD stations and picks up a lot of stations just using the included antenna.

[Octavean]

Octavean,
There's not too much I can say about Vista MCE. We need to get microsoft to fix this issue for all hybrid tuners. It will likely be available in a vista update soon after the release. And if you are really desperate to switch to vista, and want to be able to switch between analog and digital easily, you can use CMC when we have it available. Either way, nothing will be ready until late January at the earliest.

Thanks Bill T

I didn’t think the Plextor PX-M402U I referred to was a tuner. I was under the impression that it was a basic USB video converter (without a tuner) but admittedly I don’t know that much about it. One of the reasons I didn’t recommend the TV Wonder 650 was because I haven’t fully investigated the audio quality of the card. The Theater 550 Pro products have a known “low audio” bug that was addressed in the TV Wonder 650. However, the TV Wonder 650 audio may still be a bit lower then other cards and Drumzac stated that “great picture quality and sound” were noteworthy features.

As I understand it, both the Theater 550 Pro and the TV Wonder 650 product line have a volume scale ranging from 0 to 255 or 256. Editing the registry showed that raising the volume from a mid level like 128 to max had no noteworthy effect. If this is true of the TV Wonder 650 then the bug is still present even if the audio is somewhat louder

The Video quality would likely be better with the TV Wonder 650 but I question the audio fidelity somewhat.

As for Vista, I personally will not have a license and thus use of the OS until late January or possibly early February (unless express upgrades are shipped earlier). I’ll take the free CMC upgrade that I’m entitled to but probably will not use it since it isn’t exactly what I would consider a polished or quality product overall.

It is interesting that you should point out that “We need to get microsoft to fix this issue for all hybrid tuners”. Hopefully it is indeed an issue with Vista MCE in which case Microsoft may very well address it in short order. However, some hybrid solutions are indeed designed as an either / or analog /digital solution that can only be setup as either analog or digital at any given time (USB 2.0 hybrids for example),…..unlike the TV Wonder 650. To simply group all hybrid solutions in this way may confuse the issue somewhat. Also note that the Vbox Cat's Eye 164e is also a hybrid but has dual concurrent and configurable tuners (each can be either NTSC or ATSC). It will be interesting to see how the hybrid 164e fairs in Vista given its dual independent tuners.

Even if this is totally a Microsoft issue and there is adequate resolution, the “Erroneous Error” message bug and inadequate tuner conflict resolution which is currently present in MCE 2K5 with the TV Wonder 650 could very well manifest itself in Vista MCE, in part, due to its (TV Wonder 650) non-concurrent design.

[vddobrev]

As I understand it, both the Theater 550 Pro and the TV Wonder 650 product line have a volume scale ranging from 0 to 255 or 256. Editing the registry showed that raising the volume from a mid level like 128 to max had no noteworthy effect. If this is true of the TV Wonder 650 then the bug is still present even if the audio is somewhat loader.

I can confirm that the audio is great, and indeed there is a dramatic difference when you change the volume from 0 to 255. You no longer need to edit the registry, there is an aplet, "ATI TV Settings" that is accesible from the control panel, as well as from MCE interface.

[Octavean]

Yes the “ATI TV Configuration” utility in the Windows “Control Panel” and the MCE plug-in under “More Programs” named “AVIVO TV Settings”.

I am aware of them both, however I was paying homage to what one once had to go through in order to make such changes. Comparing the TV Wonder 650 volume and fidelity to only Theater 550 Pro based products may not be the best way to assess the TV Wonder 650’s audio capabilities.

From informal observations the TV Wonder 650 is louder then Theater 550 Pro based products but it isn’t as loud as some other tuners. Both the TV wonder 650 and the Theater 550 Pro are serviceable IMO. I have an ASUS Blackbird tuner that came with an HP MCE PC and again it is louder then both 650 / 550.

[denyart]

I also have found the 650 quieter than all analog tuners I have used (NVidia DualTV, NVTV single, AverMedia AverTV Purity 3D 500 dual, Hauppauge USB2 MCE). It is useable though. I noticed that for some reason the recording I make with the 650s are actually louder (unless I am imagining that) than live TV viewed over the 650s. I wish they would fix the standby bug, and I do beleive M$ has to fix their software for hybrid tuenrs. Right now I don't know of any ways to put hybrid tuners into the registry and get MCE to check if the analog half is in use when it wants to use the digital half since MCE completely separates the devices. They need to change how they make tuning requests.

[gordo7787]

I recently purchased the TV Wonder 650 and have been having an unusual problem with the Catalyst Media Center software. Every time I start up Windows, CLCapSvc.exe generates an error and shuts itself down. After a couple days of messing around with it, I ended up doing a reformat/clean install of Windows and everything worked fine. As soon as I installed Kaspersky AV the problem started again. So there is obviously a conflict between Kaspersky and Catalyst Media Center. I tried adding CMC to the scan exclusion scope, but still no luck. I do not know what else to try.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Has anyone found a solution for this yet, cuz i have the same problem.

[dabl]

Has anyone tried the most recent 6.14.10.212 WDM drivers posted yesterday?

Mike can you confirm/deny these will enable both tuners on the 650 to be recognized by Vista Media Center?

[Octavean]

Little update:

AIW_VID_FAN you might like to hear that MMC 9.16 has been released and you might want to try it with the TV Wonder 650 to see if digital TV is supported.

Also, I’ll just point out that the VBOX Cat’s Eye 164e Hybrid tuner has been released and is already in the hands of some users. Dual tuner functionality (whether it be Digital + Digital, Analog + Analog or Analog + Digital) on the 164e apparently works and can be configured in Vista RC and RTM. Since this is a hybrid tuner and it isn’t forced into a singular analog only or digital only configuration it is a strong indication that this issue with the TV Wonder 650 is due to its hardware design (or possibly drivers) and not Vista.

[AIW_VID_FAN]

[QUOTE=Octavean;942514]Little update:

AIW_VID_FAN you might like to hear that MMC 9.16 has been released and you might want to try it with the TV Wonder 650 to see if digital TV is supported.

Thaks Octavean;
Wow,
Im trying not to get too excited but I had been checking daily for a MMC update,had almost given up since hearing Bills last comments.
Thanks for the update info, will try and post my findings soon.

[Octavean]

Well good luck but don’t expect too much. I seriously doubt that it (digital) will work.

[denyart]

I tried the new srivers and they made one of my tuners not work at all. I am using a pair of 650s for analog only in WinMCE. I tried restarting the computer and chencking to make sure the hardware was enabled and both instances had the latest driver. I redid the TV channel setup in MCE. It just wouldn't work with both of my tuners. I eventually gave up and rolled back my driver to the previous version. I have both tuners working again with this driver, but I still have the standby issue.