New ATI Tuner Card.

[Myrdhinn]

Myth, far as I can tell from reading every forum I can find with the 550 Pro in it, no one can get the card to work with the Nforce3 chipset.

[myth]

Myth, far as I can tell from reading every forum I can find with the 550 Pro in it, no one can get the card to work with the Nforce3 chipset.

omg! Are you serious? I had no idea it was that bad! Will Ati be looking into this? *couh*


EDIT: ATI


I'm not alone, others that have this mobo cant get it to work as well! Actualy all that have the MSI Neo 2 plat get a error code 12! What does ATi have to say about this? And can it be fixed with a driver update?

http://www.sapphiretech.com/forum/to...?TOPIC_ID=9570

I have problem with my MSI K8N Platinum - NForce3 MB here. The driver can't make the card work at all, I have "code 12: Resource can't be used" problem.

[Michael B]

I just posted a link to the release Theater 550 pro driver on the main thread thing bit. Please dload, and ensure that you have MCE or Cyberlink Powercinema. The other Apps mentioned in this thread are not supported today, but we are looking at all possibilities


Myth et all with nforce ..i have no idea what this problem is, but I will escalte it internally and find out what the score is

Michael

[backlund]

Does that driver pertain to NTSC users, is it newer than what came with the Sapphire CD's, and are there any improvements with this driver over what came with the CD's? I've had my theatrix for roughly a month, and have had issues with the sound being very low. Also, a bit of boost in the sharpness department would rock.

[Michael B]

This driver is good for NTSC and PAL

This driver and Theater was given ISF certification, so will rock


Michael

[backlund]

This driver is good for NTSC and PAL

This driver and Theater was given ISF certification, so will rock


Michael

Are there any improvements that we can expect with this driver over what has been shipped on the older CD's? Audio levels? Sharpness? Additional control over the tuner?

[hrlslcbr]

Michael B:
I completely understand that ATi wants to have a broader support for popular capturing software, and will help 3rd parties to develop them; but I don't think that choosing PowerEnema as the capturing software that ships with the card was a wise idea.
In every review I've read the conclusion seems to be the same. The harware is great, but the software sucks.
I don't care if the theatre 550P cards are never supported by MMC, but I do want to have a 'working' program with similar functions to it (GOOD bitrate control, frame size, codecs, etc), and PowerCinema doesn't deliver all that.
As I said; I've never used MMC but wanted to use it with this card not for its name, but because of it's features. If ATI helps 3rd parties to make GOOD WORKING software I would be more than pleased with the theatre 550 pro chip.
BTW... I see no reason to start creating new programs for a card, if you already have a working one (MMC) and would just have to add some (well, maybe a lot...) lines of code for it to work with the new chip, or maybe making a special MMC for the new chip.
Cheers.

[Mace]

omg! Are you serious? I had no idea it was that bad! Will Ati be looking into this? *couh*


EDIT: ATI


I'm not alone, others that have this mobo cant get it to work as well! Actualy all that have the MSI Neo 2 plat get a error code 12! What does ATi have to say about this? And can it be fixed with a driver update?

http://www.sapphiretech.com/forum/to...?TOPIC_ID=9570

I just registered on this forum to say that this card works fine on my neo 2 platinum. I had no problems installing the card or installing the drivers for it. The thing that frustrates me is the lack of third party software support for this card. A lot of the software that I've found can only capture the video and not the audio.

My system is.
MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum
Athlon 64 3200+
ATI Radeon 9600 XT
Theatrix capture card
Windows XP Pro SP2

All my drivers are up to date too.

I'm waiting for MMC 9.06 to be available so I can move away from PowerCinema

[blakev]

First thanks to Michael B for coming in on this thread and trying to do some good.

Up untill today, any experience anyone has had with Theater outside of North America is based on beta drivers ( WDM drivers) and beta application software.

Well, I've read this entire thread and no one in Europe, at least on this thread, has this card as we speak. At one point US retailers had the gall to quote over a 100 bucks for shipping to Europe.
So forget any worries you may have about drivers and Europe. We still don't have a shipping date here from Dabs and other etailers.

...perfect oppertunity to shift up a gear and offer multiple 3rd party applications...We feel we can better support a wide range of needs/users by using our resources to support these many different applications rather than a single offering such as MMC. This is something everyone in Europe has asked from us for some time.

I have one h* of a BIG question for you Michael: Who are the parties in Europe that requested ATi remove MMC support of this delightful ground-breaking ASIC and consign it to this multiple 3rd party spaghetti?

If you have indeed read this list, you can see with your own eyes that we think ATi have made a big mistake regarding the software deliverable. List members have been darkly muttering various theories behind ATi's actions. People who have been ATi for ages. People who have learned lots about video and broadcasting based on what could be done with the ATi MMC on their AIWs!

You surprise me, and disappoint me by describing this approach as "shifting up a gear". With all due respect, it seems to me that you are "putting on a spin", but I shall reserve judgement, like perhaps many of us, until we hear what Intervideo has been able to do. And you are being too kind to Intervideo: let's face it they are horrendously late and it's a goddamn scandal that this card ships with only Cyberlink for people with XP Pro. But better late than Cyberlink, I always say!

You must have read here that your partners quite often didn't remember to put the Cyberlink CD in the box (mail #526)? This is the fourth individual on this list stateside who has discovered "no CD in the box". What I mean by this remark is the ATi reputation on this card now shall live or die with your 3rd party spaghetti-makers and chip assemblers.

I am in dispair! Why oh why did ATi buy into this rubbish of letting 3rd party partners code all the important handles (from the user perspective, of course) for this card?

I can only think either you've sacked all your best dev people or the bean counters have got the company by the yarbles. But these are just more "dark theories".

Now you are here, Michael, please ignore the sections above that rant, but do, do please! explain:

---Who requested that ATi hand the software controls of this card to third parties?

---How in heavens does a "range of third party software" serve customers better than the perfectly delightful, functional, familiar and trustworthy flagship in-house software? Surely it doesn't save you that much money to junk MMC support for this add-on card?

I'd really like to know!!

ps: I'm sure the Theater Pro 550 is the coolest thing in the shade. But it needs professionally made software to show off its muscles. And people aren't going to wait around forever. But they might just wait for MMC....

pps: On paper, it sounds sexy, doesn't it: "offer multiple 3rd party applications", "we can better support a wide range of needs/users by using our resources to support these many different applications rather than a single offering such as MMC".

Well, I've worked in lots of software dev environments. Companies outsource their dev when the code base of their in-house software needs to branch to accomodate a new implementation that just won't swing with the old. Developers would prefer to resolve the need to branch the code, but they are often shouted down because the bean counters tell them it costs too much, that it'll spread in-house resources too thinly and that ultimately the customer base is too narrow to make all that work financially viable.

Forgive me for my presumption, but IMHO what you are saying above is:

"to get MMC to swing with Theatre, we'd need to stick our 3 or 4 best dev guys on it for about 2 man months. But if we "partner" the dev (with Cyberlink/Intervideo/whoever), the prestige of the deal will have THEM sending US one of their top technical consultants to pilot the whole project! The really smart part about that is we can keep our key dev guys working on the main MMC kernel: it pays better for us to concentrate on the AIW anyway."

Tell us the truth, Michael. We're big enough. Am I anywhere close?

[bubbaganoush]

Thanks for posting the drivers

My only complaint right now (aside from the lack of software support for all the features) is that the picture is kinda dark... The problem can be solved, kinda by accessing the filter properties in GraphEdit. Its such a hassle to have to do that everytime I start PowerCinema though.....

[islasian]

I'm waiting for MMC 9.06 to be available so I can move away from PowerCinema

Sorry Mace, this is the quote by Michael B(ATI):

Theater 550 Pro will NOT be supported by MMC. We are working to make sure any last remanants of printed or other material reflects this, as we do not want to mislead (it was our intention before Xmas to offer MMC) however with a brand new Video ASIC such as Theater 550 Pro we decided it was the perfect oppertunity to shift up a gear and offer multiple 3rd party applications. Starting today with MCE 2005 and Cyberlink SW, and others being added as we move ahead. We feel we can better support a wide range of needs/users by using our resources to support these many different applications rather than a single offering such as MMC. This is something everyone in Europe has asked from us for some time.

I know, I read on another forum about MMC 9.06 also.. but this looks like it go shot down

[satnav4]

But better late than Cyberlink, I always say!

Absolutely perfect! Quote of the Day!

S.

[Myrdhinn]

I too am concerned about the 3rd party support and even ati's own driver support. For one, lets face it, cyberlink is never going to put in advanced controls such as setting bitrates. Well that's fine since their software is designed for the utter novice but those into video and editing are far more advanced and need the support for bitrates. Then, there is the ati driver, where's the support for gamma, sharpness etc the card is capable of and viewing vid procs you can see there are there...


Also doesn't Microsoft certification for MCE require the sharpness setting to be available? From what I understand it does.

[hrlslcbr]

That's exactly what I was reffering to...THAT sharpness control...
BTW Michael, any changelog for the new driver?
Cheers.

[backlund]

How do you guys get to those settings anyway?

[bubbaganoush]

How do you guys get to those settings anyway?

Get GraphEdit and add the "ATI AVStream Analog Capture"
Right click and choose filter properties