New ATI Tuner Card.

[jonaslasky]

Beyond TV 4.0 is now out!!!!

There is a FREE 21 day trial that you can download:

http://www.snapstream.com/download/beyondtv/

The BTV4 upgrade is only $29.99 for BTV3 users. BTV3 SE users with no subscription , monthly subscription or yearly subscription must pay $49.99. However, if you have a lifetime subscription you pay only $29.99.

Naturally, BTV4 should support the T550P just fine as well as HDTV support.

Yeah I got an e-mail from them a couple of days ago (since I've just installed BTV on a newly reformatted hard drive). I'm not going to immediately upgrade though... I'm going to wait another week or two so I can take full advantage of the additional 21 days he he.

Another notable feature is the UNLIMITED tuner support. Some of you might recall that Snapstream started out with single tuner support, then went to two tuner support. I'm glad they've seen the light and decided to make it unlimited. I'm definitely going for a two tuner set-up... possibly three. I know some of us here.. I think SatNav has three tuners already installed. HDTV support also makes a lot of sense. The new look seems pretty good... but then I've only seen screen shots

Jonas

[Octavean]

I know what you mean, I have only come across a few screen shots of BTV4 and what I would like to see is a full review. I didn’t know about the unlimited number of tuners. That’s a great move on the part of snapstream.

BTW, it just occurred to me that there might be some good deals on BTV3. Perhaps, just perhaps, there are shrink-wrapped copies of BTV3 going around at a really good price. Even if it is not eligible for a free upgrade to BTV4 or the $29.99 upgrade fee, BTV3 is still a great program. I think I came across a deal for BTV3 for $9.99 after rebate but that’s probably no good now (USA only vender Fry’s).

You have to wonder if or when they will start bundling an upgraded version with products that currently ship with BTV3 SE, like the Visiontek Xtasy Theater 550 Pro (MCE or non-MCE versions).

[jonaslasky]

You have to wonder if or when they will start bundling an upgraded version with products that currently ship with BTV3 SE, like the Visiontek Xtasy Theater 550 Pro (MCE or non-MCE versions).

The very thing I was wondering about before I place an order for the Xtasy Theater 550 Pro. I imagine there are a lot of units in retail "channels" that have BTV3 so it might be a while before you luck out and get a version 4 with your purchase. I looked for a Sapphire at the zipzoomfly.com web site... but they were completely out. they usually have those for less than 80 US dollars.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=320832

They had the Xtasy for US$ 84.50 with a US$20 rebate that ends today but then.. they're out of those too.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=327002

However they still have the MSI for US$77.99

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=321947


Jonas

[satnav4]

The very thing I was wondering about before I place an order for the Xtasy Theater 550 Pro. I imagine there are a lot of units in retail "channels" that have BTV3 so it might be a while before you luck out and get a version 4 with your purchase. I looked for a Sapphire at the zipzoomfly.com web site... but they were completely out. they usually have those for less than 80 US dollars.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=320832

They had the Xtasy for US$ 84.50 with a US$20 rebate that ends today but then.. they're out of those too.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=327002

However they still have the MSI for US$77.99

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=321947


Jonas

The MSI has a remote; the lesser expensive Xtasy does not. The MSI has PowerEnema; I believe the Xtasy has the BTV3 lite. This may be common knowledge.

BTV4 is a real improvement in my opinion, primarily because I have become a Divx fan. I record so many shows, my 200 gig hard drive fills up quickly. With Divx "catch and release", the source mpeg2 file is deleted after Divx conversion if you select that option..

S.

[jonaslasky]

The MSI has a remote; the lesser expensive Xtasy does not. The MSI has PowerEnema; I believe the Xtasy has the BTV3 lite. This may be common knowledge.

BTV4 is a real improvement in my opinion, primarily because I have become a Divx fan. I record so many shows, my 200 gig hard drive fills up quickly. With Divx "catch and release", the source mpeg2 file is deleted after Divx conversion if you select that option..

S.

I don't really care about the remote.... but I thought the Xtasy would have been a great buy at around $65US after rebate.

I've loved DivX encoding since it first came out and it's only gotten better over the years. It would be really great if ATI included HARDWARE DivX encoding in the next generation Theater product. There's already a tuner card that does that but their overall video quality isn't very good... so I'm waiting for one that has a good tuner section PLUS hardware DivX encoding. Recording in MPEG-2 then transcoding just isn't the same.... not to mention it's time consuming.

Jonas

[satnav4]

I don't really care about the remote.... but I thought the Xtasy would have been a great buy at around $65US after rebate.

I've loved DivX encoding since it first came out and it's only gotten better over the years. It would be really great if ATI included HARDWARE DivX encoding in the next generation Theater product. There's already a tuner card that does that but their overall video quality isn't very good... so I'm waiting for one that has a good tuner section PLUS hardware DivX encoding. Recording in MPEG-2 then transcoding just isn't the same.... not to mention it's time consuming.

Jonas

Ditto that.

FYI, the BTV4 Divx conversion is set to perform between 2 and 7 in the morning. It can be adjusted, so it is almost painless. However, I have not found a way to fine tune the Divx parameters like I can with GK. BTV4 seems to use the same parameters as Divx itself publishes on its website software converter. It, too, does not appear to be configurable.

I have the MSI 550 in the box waiting for install with my Sapphire and one of my Hauppauge 150's. I found encodes with the 150, while sounding very good, come out a bit too dark.

S.

[jonaslasky]

I have the MSI 550 in the box waiting for install with my Sapphire and one of my Hauppauge 150's. I found encodes with the 150, while sounding very good, come out a bit too dark.

S.

Does anybody here have a setup of two Theater 550 based tuners with BeyondTV 3? I've noticed a strange consequence of this arrangement. Whenever a recording starts while another recording is already in progress... the first recording session loses its audio. This doesn't happen if both recordings start at the same time. Snapstream has an excellent searcheable troubleshooting database and I found this:

Quote:

A user finds that when recording two shows at the same time, only one will have audio.

This problem also sometimes manifests itself when one recording is in process (as in an hour-long recording beginning at 3PM and ending at 4PM) and another begins (as in a half-hour recording beginning at 3:30PM and ending at 4PM). In this case, the latter recording will seem to "steal" audio from the former, so that the hour-long recording has 30 minutes of audio, and the half-hour recording will have audio throughout.

This problem manifests itself with the Hauppauge WinTV PVR models 150 and 500 on computers whose motherboards use VIA chipsets, and with the ATI 550 series of tuners.

If using the Hauppauge PVR-150 or PVR-500 on a system with a VIA chipset, download and install the VIA "Latency Patch," which is attached to this knoweldge base article.

If using an ATI 550-based tuner, upgrade the drivers from ATI's website. Be sure to delete and re-create the video source after updating tuner drivers.

End Quote


However I've already done this on my own... and it did nothing to fix the problem. Now I'm wondering if this fix will work if I upgrade to BTV4. I'm a little skeptical though A related problem is that it's impossible to manually start two recordings of programs already in progress since one can't press two show at the same time on the EPG window. So you press one then you press the other and at that very instant you lose audio in the first one.

Jonas

[yasdaz]

Jonas, there have been a lot of threads on various boards that mention the audio loss problem. The best thread I know of that details this problem is http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/show...hlight=550+pro. In a nutshell, it is apparently an ati driver issue. The folks on that thread keep waiting for the next new drivers to come out to fix the problem. Ati, apparently, has said that they have fixed the problem but just have not released the drivers with the fix yet. Who knows? I am suspicious given that the problem does not show up with, you guessed it, MCE. Apparently power enema does not have the ability to have two tuners. Anyway, take a look at the thread if you want. Also, does anyone else here have BTV, two 550 pro tuners and no audio problems? What about MCE? I am interested in this too as I want to get another 550 but won't unless the audio problem is fixed (get the hint, ATI?). Cheers, yasdaz

[jonaslasky]

Jonas, there have been a lot of threads on various boards that mention the audio loss problem. The best thread I know of that details this problem is http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/show...hlight=550+pro. In a nutshell, it is apparently an ati driver issue. The folks on that thread keep waiting for the next new drivers to come out to fix the problem. Ati, apparently, has said that they have fixed the problem but just have not released the drivers with the fix yet. Who knows? I am suspicious given that the problem does not show up with, you guessed it, MCE. Apparently power enema does not have the ability to have two tuners. Anyway, take a look at the thread if you want. Also, does anyone else here have BTV, two 550 pro tuners and no audio problems? What about MCE? I am interested in this too as I want to get another 550 but won't unless the audio problem is fixed (get the hint, ATI?). Cheers, yasdaz

The funny thing is that Snapstream acts as if it's a simple thing to fix. They tell you to go to the ATI web site and upgrade your drivers when in fact that doesn't fix the problem. I already have the latest driver and obviously I still have the problem. There is a way around it, but I don't think we should have to device clever ways of recording manually just so the hardware/software work properly. As long as all recordings start and stop at exactly the same time, audio should be intact in both recordings. In other words if you're recording a two hour program... record it in two one hour segments (manually since the EPG won't allow you to do so) and record the other program ((presummably an hour long) with the EPG.

Jonas

[jonaslasky]

Jonas, there have been a lot of threads on various boards that mention the audio loss problem. The best thread I know of that details this problem is

I went and checked out that forum. I hope that rumor (is it rumour in Canada and Britain?) about a new driver is true.

One thing though... the members of that forum seem to think it's entirely impossible to record two programs at the same time. That is not the case. It is quite possible to do that providing they both start recording at the same time. The problem only arises when a recording session starts while another is already in progress.

Jonas

[satnav4]

I went and checked out that forum. I hope that rumor (is it rumour in Canada and Britain?) about a new driver is true.

One thing though... the members of that forum seem to think it's entirely impossible to record two programs at the same time. That is not the case. It is quite possible to do that providing they both start recording at the same time. The problem only arises when a recording session starts while another is already in progress.

Jonas

So did I jump the gun getting a second 550 card? Do you think different brand of cards will make any difference? The 150's get along famously.

S.

[jonaslasky]

So did I jump the gun getting a second 550 card? Do you think different brand of cards will make any difference? The 150's get along famously.

S.

A little bit I guess.... but if ATI really does have a new driver about to pop... no big worries mate. Presummably the problem will soon be fixed. Meanwhile... the BTV4-Theater 550 Pro combination works for the most part

Jonas

[Octavean]

Does the dual T550P problem persist in BTV4?

My guess is that it would but I am curious either way. I have two T550P cards but I thought it would be tempting fate to put them in the same system. I Guess I may have dodged a bullet there but maybe not since I am running MCE 2K5.

Anyway, some testers have reported that MMC 9.09 does indeed work well with the T550P and the new ATI Press Release for the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL has some promising features that include T550P + MMC 9.10 functionality:

– Multimedia Center 9.10 - ATI's award-winning multimedia software now works even better with existing ATI TV tuner products. Dual-tuner MulTView™ support now allows timeshifting on two TV tuners simultaneously when paired with an ATI TV tuner card, including the Theater™ 550 Pro

http://ir.ati.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=10...icle&ID=784899

Impressive,….most impressive!!!

[jonaslasky]

Does the dual T550P problem persist in BTV4?

My guess is that it would but I am curious either way.

Yup... it sure does. I've been using version 4 for three days now and it's still the same problem. Whenever a recording starts while another is already in progress... the first recording loses audio.

BTW it makes me sick when ATI taunts us with some unreleased driver and software that they take forever to release. Sure it sounds good but where the hell is it??!! The Theater 550 Pro sounds reaaaally good too... but after over a year it's still buggy.

Jonas

[Octavean]

Too bad about that BTV + 2X T550P bug and hopefully it will be fixed soon.

There may be some good news soon though because there is a rumored T550P driver update version number 6.14.10.117 supposedly scheduled for tomorrow:

ATI Unified AVStream Driver
Driver Date: 10/13/2005
Driver Version: 6.14.10.117
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher

If true, hopefully it will address this bug and a few others.

***edit***

Correction the above “ATI Unified AVStream Driver Version: 6.14.10.117 dated : 10/13/2005” is supposedly available now right here:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1269

As reported here by fanbanlo here:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthre...3798596&page=6

Apparently it is bundled with the 5.11b driver.

[SHSPVR]

Also did see it all had 64 bit drivers in it to Octavean under the RIO folder