New ATI Tuner Card.

[hrlslcbr]

The dolby digital encoding thing came from sapphire's website. They listed 'Dolby Digital Encoding' as part of the theatrix specs.

[jonaslasky]

Let see mike you ask for it
1: cthelper.exe still crash at boot up
2: Poor PQ at low bitrate where we see odd artfact like microblocking and strange patterns things like that.
3: Audio Tuner level still way to low even know it MAX out to 255 at lease the FM part rigth on the money.
4: The MPEG files generated by the Theater 550 Pro are not very compatible with some tools like let say Ulead DVD MovieFactory when I try set up auto 1 min chapters point it carp out after 6 min's in to it and using Womble MPEG-VCR MPEG "GOP fixer" I fine it show lot's of error in GOP time code which not good at all, But re-writing out a new files with Womble MPEG-VCR fix the problem.
5: As jonaslasky point out there no ture variable bitrate video it fix number.

Let's make it easy for the ATI techs. After all they didn't write the sales pitch .

OK let's start with the unusually low volume. I think anyone with half a brain can see there's something wrong with the volume.

Please address the lack of release notes also. That's pretty straightforward.

We'll try more complicated issues later.

If you have trouble keeping track of this thread, use that bookmarking thingy.

Jonas

[satnav4]

Let's make it easy for the ATI techs. After all they didn't write the sales pitch .

OK let's start with the unusually low volume. I think anyone with half a brain can see there's something wrong with the volume.

Please address the lack of release notes also. That's pretty straightforward.

We'll try more complicated issues later.

If you have trouble keeping track of this thread, use that bookmarking thingy.

Jonas

Good point--how could I forget that---especially since I am about to board another plane.

MM, the 550 records at a low volume, so much so that I can bearly hear recordings on an airplane. I've resorted to using my Hauppauge 150's for this purpose, which tend to be a bit loud. Also, when switching from a 550 recording to regular TV, you can blow a speaker if you don't reduce the volume used to compensate. Can ATI either increase the default recording volume, or enable a user controlled feature?

Thanks

S.

[SHSPVR]

It make no diff on what software I use even with GraphEdit as for the meaning to "true variable rate video".
For Example .25, .50, .75 and any other number
A stardrad Hardware Encoder
videobitrate = 4.5
peakvideobitrate = 6.0
But with ATI it can only do
videobitrate = 4.0
peakvideobitrate = 6.0
It can't even be setting to do stardard CVD "Chinese Video Disc" Encoding spec which call for 352 x 480/576 or aka Half D1 content with VBR 2000kb/s average, 2520kb/s maximum in ture spec but a lot folks use
videobitrate = 2.5
peakvideobitrate = 3.0

[thethinman]

The dolby digital encoding thing came from sapphire's website. They listed 'Dolby Digital Encoding' as part of the theatrix specs.

hrlslcbr, although the dolby digital encoding is mentioned on sapphire's website, it is also plainly printed on the box that my Visiontek Xtasy theater 550 came in "Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio And MPEG-2 Video encoding with advanced rate control".

The box my Sapphire Theatrix came in says "an MPEG Audio Encoder with rates of up to 48khz and Dolby Digital 2 channel encoding".

If this information is not true, since ATI licenses both of these companies to sell their hardware, they should have it removed from the boxes, as this would be false advertising

[hrlslcbr]

hrlslcbr, although the dolby digital encoding is mentioned on sapphire's website, it is also plainly printed on the box that my Visiontek Xtasy theater 550 came in "Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio And MPEG-2 Video encoding with advanced rate control".

I didn't know that...
I thought that only sapphire had Dolby Digital as part of the 'specs'.

[SHSPVR]

hrlslcbr didn't I tell you that ATI Engineering said which flat out told me about year ago that the chip it self dose not support Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio Encoding what so ever in hardware only a few chipset even support it but the licenses cost is not reasonable which been told by other manufacturers would drive the cost of the product up as much 3x more then what it is now keep mind that Dolby Laboratories has nothing to do with MPEG LA licenses.
Beside didn't I say that it included in the suite one of the falling CyberLink PowerDirector or PowerProducer which is what really dose the Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio Encoding.
As for false advertising well that kind depend on you look at as to weather or not it missleading that still up in the AIR becuases of the fact that they didn't say anything on there web or the box Dolby Digital Hardware Audio Encoding but it also dosen't say Software or Soft Audio Trasncoding.
I agree thoses companies that sell ATI hardware should point out the rigth information.

[hrlslcbr]

Yes SHSPVR I remember (my memory is not THAT bad mate ).
I know it doesn't support it in hardware, and I expected it to be supported in software (like in the cybercrap software they bundle), but it isn't.

[thethinman]

Hi thethinman,
Theater 550 Pro does not support Dolby Digital encoding, did you read somewhere that it did? Also can you please elaborate on what you mean by "true variable rate video", like what software are you using and what are you expecting to see that you're not seeing?

Yes Mike, I read it somewhere, plainly printed on the box that my Visiontek Xtasy theater 550 came in "Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio And MPEG-2 Video encoding with advanced rate control".

The box my Sapphire Theatrix came in says "an MPEG Audio Encoder with rates of up to 48khz and Dolby Digital 2 channel encoding".


What I mean by true variable bit rate encoding, is that the video bit rate truley goes from the set base bit rate to the peak bit rate set in the software used. My ATI E-Home Wonder does this as it should. For example set the base bit rate to 5000 and the peak bit rate to 9000 in the E-Home wonder and the bit rate really varies from 5000 to 9000, doing the same with the Theater 550 Pro and the bit rate will never even reach 6000 no matter how detailed the video is or how much motion occurs on the screen, this occurs regardless of the software used. It appears that the bit rate is some how locked in the Theater 550 Pro to prevent it from really reaching peak bit rates, it also appears that you can only set base bit rates at 4000, 5000, 6000, etc, because if you set the base rate to say 4500, 5500, or 6500, it actually only records at 4000, 5000, 6000, etc. IF the boxes say Dolby Digital Encoding, your product should offer AC3 encoding, not just MPEG-1 Layer II, 2 channel encoding, which has nothing to do with Dolby Digital.

[SHSPVR]

thethinman did read my post? I guest not.
Thing is you need under is you need sue the companie in this case Sapphire, Visiontek becuases ATI is self has nothing to do what thoses companies put on there products box or web site becuases ask a laywer about it and ATI own hardware spec and software package DOSE NOT LIST Dolby Digital and never has list it far I re-call just becuases ATI sell the chipset to 3rdparty manufacturer.
By the way it dosen't just support MPEG-1 Layer II encoding it also support PCM.

[thethinman]

thethinman did read my post? I guest not.
Thing is you need under is you need sue the companie in this case Sapphire, Visiontek becuases ATI is self has nothing to do what thoses companies put on there products box or web site becuases ask a laywer about it and ATI own hardware spec and software package DOSE NOT LIST Dolby Digital and never has list it far I re-call just becuases ATI sell the chipset to 3rdparty manufacturer.
By the way it dosen't just support MPEG-1 Layer II encoding it also support PCM.

Yes I did read your post, but I have never heard anyone directly associated with ATI say the Theater 550 did not support Dolby Digital until Multimedia Mike stated so yesteday, none of the previous people from ATI to visit this forum ever replied to my questions about the Dolby Digital encoding.

I never said i wanted to sue anyone. It is true that ATI sells there chips to third party companies, but since they are certified by ATI to sell said hardware if the claims are not true on their packaging, ATI can sure stop them from claiming inaccurate capabilities for those chips. I did not say the Theater 550 PRO does not support PCM, I just quoted what was written on the boxes.

[SHSPVR]

Yes I did read your post, but I have never heard anyone directly associated with ATI say the Theater 550 did not support Dolby Digital until Multimedia Mike stated so yesteday, none of the previous people from ATI to visit this forum ever replied to my questions about the Dolby Digital encoding.

I agrees that Andrzej never reply on that one it was alway "...waiting on a definitive reply from the MM team (Multi Media)" or something along that line back in page 15 and way down road with page 74 which official never got answers other then Mike.

I never said i wanted to sue anyone. It is true that ATI sells there chips to third party companies, but since they are certified by ATI to sell said hardware if the claims are not true on their packaging, ATI can sure stop them from claiming inaccurate capabilities for those chips. I did not say the Theater 550 PRO does not support PCM, I just quoted what was written on the boxes.

I agrees ATI should talk to them about inaccurate capabilities claiming.

[duren]

Let see mike you ask for it
1: cthelper.exe still crash at boot up
2: Poor PQ at low bitrate where we see odd artfact like microblocking and strange patterns things like that.
3: Audio Tuner level still way to low even know it MAX out to 255 at lease the FM part rigth on the money.
4: The MPEG files generated by the Theater 550 Pro are not very compatible with some tools like let say Ulead DVD MovieFactory when I try set up auto 1 min chapters point it carp out after 6 min's in to it and using Womble MPEG-VCR MPEG "GOP fixer" I fine it show lot's of error in GOP time code which not good at all, But re-writing out a new files with Womble MPEG-VCR fix the problem.
5: As jonaslasky point out there no ture variable bitrate video it fix number.

Multimedia Mike,

I agree with SHSPVR. My biggest beef with this card is that I can't get high bitrates. No matter what content I encode, with what program, all fail to use a specified bitrate. It seems that as long as hardware encoding is used, it's locked at roughly 4-4.5 mbps.

I also very much agree with the microblocking. No matter what I record, I always get blockiness which is especially visible in faster scenes which normally isn't an issue, that is unless you plan on re-authoring your recording - and that's when it stands out like no tomorrow. I don't know about most people, but I don't plan on fitting 30m to 45m on DVD when I'm supposed to store 2H, I reauthor at high quality to fit my 2+ hours. Not that I've been able to get the 550Pro to record at that high of a quality with hardware encoding yet, but I would like to.

Also, the blockiness could be related to the moderate bitrate, since blockiness is of course directly related to the amount of information that is allowed to flow per second, however, I still think the quality of the encoding should be better.

If you can turn this product around into what it was supposed to be in the first place, superior to it's competition under the proper utilization of MMC, you will be a hero.

[hrlslcbr]

duren: try winamp TV plug-in. I can record at high bitrates with it.

[jonaslasky]

Yup .... typical..... deafening silence. Just like all the other ATI guys before. I wish they would just admit it if they can't do a thing about the unacceptably low sound volume. There's no shame in it... well maybe a bit, but hey, Intel has the Itanium that didn't perform as advertised. Everybody makes mistakes. I wish ATI would just come right out and admit it.


Jonas

[Multimedia Mike]

Yup .... typical..... deafening silence. Just like all the other ATI guys before. I wish they would just admit it if they can't do a thing about the unacceptably low sound volume. There's no shame in it... well maybe a bit, but hey, Intel has the Itanium that didn't perform as advertised. Everybody makes mistakes. I wish ATI would just come right out and admit it.
Jonas

Hello everyone,
I'd just like to send out a quick message to say that I am still here and I am reading ALL new posts. I have been looking into the issues, but it does take a little bit of time, so I ask for some patience. Please keep in mind that unfortunately I can't dedicate all my time to dealing with this forum as I do have other responsibilities as well (and it was the weekend too ). So if you have some new issues (or potential solutions to existing ones), keep posting, otherwise stay tuned!