New ATI Tuner Card.

[Multimedia Mike]

Hi Multimedia Mike,

Well hopefully the release of 3.04 Remote Wonder drivers will help the issue. As for replicating the “ATIRW.exe” crash, often nothing needs to be done since it simply occurs on its own randomly. However, I have noticed that liberal use of the mouse pad on the Remote Wonder can seem to trigger crashes.

For the record, I have an original Remote Wonder, Remote Wonder II and two Remote Wonder Plus units. For the most part the crashes are rare on three of the systems with these remotes but one of the RWP systems sees crashes with a higher degree of frequency.

Anyway, thanks for the help.

Hi,
The RW 3.04 drivers are now available at www.ati.com. I encourage everyone who experienced the remote crash issue to try them out and see if you still have a problem. If you still notice any crashes, try to note down what you were doing. Like I said before this isn't guaranteed to fix it because there was no clear cause identified, but there were some fixes put in for potential issues. Anyways hope it works out.

Davos,
I agree this thread is way out of control. When I first started working with this forum, I asked people to start new threads rather than continue this one, but there was resistance to that, so I was stuck with just replying to issues posted here. I again would encourage anyone with questions/issue to post them on a new thread, which would make sure that it doesn't get drowned out and can be easily seen by everyone.

[spacded]

spaceded obviously has nothing to add to this forum, as he is setup as he likes with MCE.

To prevent further sidetracking and flaming, please ban spaceded so the forum can stay more focused(needs a lot of help on this!)

I think everyone will agree that spaceded is not contributing anything valuable to the discussion

Thank you

Who put you in charge?

Like this Thread is actually resembles in anyway shape or manner the original point when it was first started.

Its funny how many of you are now starting to see the futility

[Octavean]

Hi,
The RW 3.04 drivers are now available at www.ati.com. I encourage everyone who experienced the remote crash issue to try them out and see if you still have a problem. If you still notice any crashes, try to note down what you were doing. Like I said before this isn't guaranteed to fix it because there was no clear cause identified, but there were some fixes put in for potential issues. Anyways hope it works out.

I have downloaded RW 3.04 but I need to be a bit cautious of its deployment due to the possibility of it causing more issues. However, the one system I have installed RW 3.04 on seems to be OK. Do keep in mind though that it has only been about 24hrs and the issue in question was intermittent (those types of issues are really hard to pin down).

[SHSPVR]

SHSPVR I understand exactly how VBR works, and it does not work properly on the Theater 550 PRO. If you set the bitrate to Variable Bit Rate with a Base Rate of 5.0Mbps and a Bit Rate Peak of 9.0Mbps, the rate should fluctuate from 5.0Mbps to 9.0Mbps according to the complexity of the video information encoded. It never makes it over 6.0Mbps and just barley dips below 5.0Mbps no matter how simplex the video image is.

My ATI E-Home Wonder and my Hauppauge PVR 250 have no problem what so ever encoding at the full range of the VBR 5.0Mbps to 9.0Mbps Rates.

I see what mean you after doing a lot of testing this week Bitrate Viewer

[spacded]

Look when is the 650 Pro coming out?

will it do all the things that the 550 pro clearly cannot do and never will do?

how much of an improvement over the 550 pro will it be picture quality wise etc etc.

Will ATI be providing easily accessible straightforward software to tweak it ?

[suryaaa]

guys i am looking for a tv tuner card of low and resonable price ,can give details of such cards

[hrlslcbr]

guys i am looking for a tv tuner card of low and resonable price ,can give details of such cards

A hauppauge card will be enough for most users. Just make sure you don't buy an ATI card (especially the 550 pro).

[satnav4]

A hauppauge card will be enough for most users. Just make sure you don't buy an ATI card (especially the 550 pro).

Actually, the ATI 550 chip cards are just fine if you don't plan to have much ability to adjust sharpness and filters. Out of the box, they are fairly comparable to the Hauppauge. I believe Sapphire, PowerColor and MSI all make versions. I have Sapphire (Theatrix) and MSI versions, and both work well. You may want to consider the included remotes when selecting between the models, because the boards usually follow reference designs.

To Spaceded---your last post is right on target. Knowing the problems that people have posted with sharpness control, volume control, filter control, etc, will the 650 provide these controls?

S.

[hrlslcbr]

Out of the box, they are fairly comparable to the Hauppauge.

Only if you have MCE, or like powercinema (although GB-PVR works pretty well).

[Octavean]

Hi,
I've already discussed the sharpness issue, but I'll repeat myself for everyone's benefit. No, you cannot adjust the sharpness on a Theater 550 Pro. It is pre-set and the sharpness bar you see in GraphEdit won't do anything to change it. This is an issue that has been known about for a while and though I'm not too familiar with it, obviously it's not fixable from a driver point of a view otherwise we would have resolved it some time ago. So I apologize, but I can't do anything to fix it. So why don't we focus on some other things that maybe we could resolve.

Now, I'd like to get back to our discussion of filters being disabled for capture. Now I'm not sure what you guys meant by capture, but I tried to feed in a DVD player Composite Video out into a Theater 550 Pro card and played with some settings in GraphEdit (looking at the Video from MCE). The DVD had some clips meant to test comb filters and right in the first minute when I switched the comb filter from 3d to 2d I saw a huge difference (need to stop playing while switching settings). So it is obvious that 3d comb filter is up and running for Composite input (if you have it turned on). What were you guys doing that made you think it was disabled?

http://forums.hexus.net/showpost.php...postcount=2182

Now we are getting somewhere!!!

If something is broken and cannot be fixed or the effort to fix it will not be put forth, user and future buyers have a right to know about it. So the sharpness control on the T550P doesn’t and likely never will work due to a design flaw that cannot feasibly be addressed (paraphrase).

Fine, all I want is the truth, good or bad.

Now I am of the opinion that information like this belongs in a readily available technical document on ATI’s technical support page(s),…easily accessible and searchable for all to see. The cause of the issue should also be documented in detail. I’m also of the opinion that some mention of this flaw should be printed on the outside of all newly manufactured T550P based cards to be sold.

BTW, I also believe that the same could be said about the infamous “T550P Low Volume Issue”. If it were 100% fixable in drivers it probably would have been fixed by now. I have a sneaking suspicion that the end result of this issue will end in “its broken, we know its broken and we cannot or will not fix it”. However, until we get to that point, the mantra is “we know of it don’t speak of it”???

I do believe I have been most civil, so I sincerely hope my post doesn’t disappear.

[jonaslasky]

Hi,
I've already discussed the sharpness issue, but I'll repeat myself for everyone's benefit. No, you cannot adjust the sharpness on a Theater 550 Pro. It is pre-set and the sharpness bar you see in GraphEdit won't do anything to change it. This is an issue that has been known about for a while and though I'm not too familiar with it, obviously it's not fixable from a driver point of a view otherwise we would have resolved it some time ago. So I apologize, but I can't do anything to fix it. So why don't we focus on some other things that maybe we could resolve.

OK how about the unusually low sound volume? have you heard from the tech guys about this yet. I remember you saying that the sound level only increases from level 0 to 150, past that there is no detectable increase. Are you ready to admit that this can't be fixed or should we keep reminding you about this every week?

Jonas

[Multimedia Mike]

OK how about the unusually low sound volume? have you heard from the tech guys about this yet. I remember you saying that the sound level only increases from level 0 to 150, past that there is no detectable increase. Are you ready to admit that this can't be fixed or should we keep reminding you about this every week?
Jonas

Hi,
I've checked with engineering and they still haven't had a chance to deal with this. This is not a critical issue and so it's not assigned a high priority. Unfortunately, I can't tell you when or if this will be fixed. Like I said before, I've tried it myself and the volume is at an acceptable level, but just doesn't go really loud so you should still be able to use the card for most uses. I'm not going to say that this is never getting fixed, but realistically you shouldn't expect it any time soon. I will post any status updates I get about this.

[Octavean]

Hi,
I've checked with engineering and they still haven't had a chance to deal with this. This is not a critical issue and so it's not assigned a high priority. Unfortunately, I can't tell you when or if this will be fixed. Like I said before, I've tried it myself and the volume is at an acceptable level, but just doesn't go really loud so you should still be able to use the card for most uses. I'm not going to say that this is never getting fixed, but realistically you shouldn't expect it any time soon. I will post any status updates I get about this.

Like I said before, good or bad all I want is the unabashed truth.

This information shouldn’t simply be burred in a 147 some odd page thread but rather should be officially documented. Any unsolvable issues should be printed on the box itself and in accompanying documentation to inform the user.

An ATI “Knowledge Base” page on this matter should look something like this:

Knowledge Base

ATI Customer Care> Solve a Problem> TV Tuners>TV WONDER ELITE

Audio may be too low for some customers to hear effectively when using a TV WONDER ELITE or Theater 550 Pro based TV tuner.

The information in this article applies to the following configuration(s):

Any system with a Theater 550 Pro based tuner

With the Theater 550 Pro Audio may be too low and cannot be raised. Default audio volume for the Theater 550 Pro is set to 150 on a 0 to 255 scale. Increasing the value above 150 has little to no significant gain on volume.

ATI Engineering has been advised of this issue and is investigating. Any updates will be published when they become available.

And obviously if it cannot be fixed fess up to it and do so sooner rather then later!!!

It would be deemed as very suspicious if the flaws of the Theater 550 Pro only become officially disclosed as unfixable only after the Theater 650 Pro goes on sale,….highly suspicious indeed.

This is nothing to be dragging one’s feet about.

Before we reiterate that the Theater 550 Pro audio is acceptable lets first establish the fact that what is acceptable and serviceable to one is not necessarily acceptable and serviceable to another. That is to say that the range of human hearing is not constant to all and this issue may very well render the product useless to some.

I for one find the Theater 550 Pro audio to be acceptable although I know that something isn’t quite right (IE broken, just outright broken).

BTW, what exactly constitutes a “Critical issue” with Theater 550 Pro based products? We have already established two things (no sharpness control and low audio,…..and more) that are wrong/broken what issues does ATI deem “Critical”?

Why isn’t there a fix list in Theater 550 Pro drivers (the problems ATI supposedly fixes and deems “critical”)?

Again, I just want the truth and post haste not post Theater 650 Pro.

Once again, I believe I have been quite civil,….

[jonaslasky]

Hi,
I've checked with engineering and they still haven't had a chance to deal with this. This is not a critical issue and so it's not assigned a high priority. Unfortunately, I can't tell you when or if this will be fixed. Like I said before, I've tried it myself and the volume is at an acceptable level, but just doesn't go really loud so you should still be able to use the card for most uses. I'm not going to say that this is never getting fixed, but realistically you shouldn't expect it any time soon. I will post any status updates I get about this.

Not a critical issue? that's like saying it's ok to show only half the resolution of a video because you can still see the picture. This is not a good excuse. A product that's not market-ready should not be on the market. There is a HUGE difference between everything else and the T 550 sound volume. Sure you can hear the sound as long as you turn it full blast, but then everything else is unbearably loud. I personally set my PC sound volume rather low. At my customary level, the T 550 sound output is barely audible. Certainly unintelligible. I don't see how ATI can justify calling this issue "non-critical"... especially since they're not fixing anything alse either. In fact they haven't fixed a thing yet. So what do they deem critical? Are you at liberty to answer that?

Jonas

[satnav4]

Not a critical issue? that's like saying it's ok to show only half the resolution of a video because you can still see the picture. This is not a good excuse. A product that's not market-ready should not be on the market. There is a HUGE difference between everything else and the T 550 sound volume. Sure you can hear the sound as long as you turn it full blast, but then everything else is unbearably loud. I personally set my PC sound volume rather low. At my customary level, the T 550 sound output is barely audible. Certainly unintelligible. I don't see how ATI can justify calling this issue "non-critical"... especially since they're not fixing anything alse either. In fact they haven't fixed a thing yet. So what do they deem critical? Are you at liberty to answer that?

Jonas

As I posted previously, I stopped using my 550 cards to record programs I brought on airplanes because I simply could not turn the volume loud enough to hear. I was wearing a full conventional Panasonic headset at the time--not earbuds. I now record using my Hauppauge cards if I know the recording might be played on my laptop during flight. To me, the volume issue is pretty critical. And BTW, I have no problems hearing.

Even at home it presents a problem when I change from a recording to live TV. It's like when they boost the volume for ads, but worse. Maybe I need a Magnavox with smart volume control to protect my components, and ears, from overload.

If I feel I can't use your product or feel I am better off with another product that performs better, that should be pretty critical. But then again, the tech guys may not attend the same meetings as the sales guys. If you tie the salaries of tech guys to sales and customer satisfaction, I bet we would see alot of issues regarding volume and sharpness placed on the "uber critical" list.

S.

[Multimedia Mike]

Hi,
Let's all just calm down for a second. You guys have to understand that even though you see me as ATI, I don't actually run all the aspects of the company. I give feedback from our discussion to the appropriate people, but that's pretty much all I can do (besides trying to find solutions for you myself). Now I'd like to repeat that I'm not at liberty to comment on unreleased products, but I'm definitely not waiting for anything before I tell you the real status on these issues. What I post is what I know right now. I agree that we need to put some of these issues into the ATI support KB. They could have actually been there already if any of you guys registered your product and gave feedback, but that's not important now. I'm setting up a link (which everyone can use), which I will post on the top of the Hexus ATI forum where you can give hardware related feedback and then I'll try to coordinate to get some of the issues we already identified to be put into articles ASAP. I'll let you know when the link is up.