New ATI Tuner Card.

[backlund]

Has anyone noticed any improvements in picture with the new drivers? I didn't have enough time last night to mess with it.

[ron329]

Has anyone noticed any improvements in picture with the new drivers? I didn't have enough time last night to mess with it.

Backlund,

Have you noticed the copy protection issue at all with the 550 Pro? I have seen on other forums (TGB) that other users are complaining of the same thing.

[farmkid]

Do I understand some of you can watch TV on MMC with the new drivers, but you can't record?

S.

I can record, with all the bitrate controls, video soap, etc. we are used to in MMC. However, only the MPEG-2 presets are available. On the personal video recorder tab a couple of my presets are MPEG-2 and the other two are something else. Only the MPEG-2 presets are available.

[backlund]

Backlund,

Have you noticed the copy protection issue at all with the 550 Pro? I have seen on other forums (TGB) that other users are complaining of the same thing.

I don't have HBO or any of the movie channels. Our cable company wants almost $40/month for them.

[ron329]

I don't have HBO or any of the movie channels. Our cable company wants almost $40/month for them.

Okay, but do you get copy protection even on local channels? I get it on any channel that I record with this card.

[backlund]

I don't have HBO or any of the movie channels. Our cable company wants almost $40/month for them.

Sorry, I went back and re read your post. I misunderstood. So, are you getting blue and red color bands going through your picture, or severly dark picture? I had this problem but fixed it. It turned out that the card didnt like being on a three way coax splitter. I bumped it to a two way splitter and the problem disappeared. I figured it was signal, because the problem only happened once in a while.

[ron329]

Sorry, I went back and re read your post. I misunderstood. So, are you getting blue and red color bands going through your picture, or severly dark picture? I had this problem but fixed it. It turned out that the card didnt like being on a three way coax splitter. I bumped it to a two way splitter and the problem disappeared. I figured it was signal, because the problem only happened once in a while.

What I mean is if you record something, any channel with this card through MCE and go back and look in the recorded TV section, look at the description of the recording (when it was recorded, channel, time, rating, etc.) and see if it says copy protected or not.

[satnav4]

I can record, with all the bitrate controls, video soap, etc. we are used to in MMC. However, only the MPEG-2 presets are available. On the personal video recorder tab a couple of my presets are MPEG-2 and the other two are something else. Only the MPEG-2 presets are available.

That's great news. If only mpeg2 presets are available, does that mean I cannot set average and peak rates, motion estimation and vbr use? When I think "preset", I think default setting of the manufacturer. Can you use the card with the Guide Plus EPG?

Thanks.

S.

[Mace]

Could you tell me the following..

Bios version
What irq is it using
What memory range

If you can give me this info Specificly the memory range I should be able to get this to work... oh, and what Hal is your PC using?

I'm using the 1.40 bios.

This is from msinfo32
IRQ 18 ATI Unified AVStream Driver OK
0xEC000000-0xEDFFFFFF ATI Unified AVStream Driver OK
0xEB000000-0xEB0FFFFF ATI Unified AVStream Driver OK

I don't really understand what you mean by HAL. The HAL.DLL in my system32 folder is version 5.1.2600.2180.

[e.lectronick]

Michael,
First off, thanks very much for wading into the dangerous waters here and tackling this discussion. You're a stand up guy just for that. Secondly, thanks for the infomative answers you've given us thus far. Many of us are beginning to calm down, and we aren't quite so frothy at the mouth as we were.
Satnav4 has made an excellent list of what we all pretty much agree to be the big issues.

***I'd only add a couple of suggestions/questions:

1.I'd like to see a wide array of resolution choices for capture; up to and including 720x480 most importantly.

2. It's a must to have the Option to capture to AVI, WMV, etc... using codecs of our choice. Not everyone just wants to record MPEG2 with this card. I represent the type who wants also to capture uncompressed AVI while taking advantage of the advanced pre-encode filters and processors on the chip.

which leads me to 3:

3.I'd like to reiterate my question of signal flow through the card. If one is using the T550P to capture to AVI via software, does the incoming signal benefit from the chip's processing capabilities (AGC, denoise filters, comb filters, etc...)?

4.Does this card respond to timecode or some kind of master clock established by software (like Adobe Premiere, Vegas Video, Avid, etc...)?

Cyberlink Don't Likes:
1) No fine bitrate control, i.e. average, maximum and motion estimation;
2) No sharpness control;
3) No variable or constant bitrate choice;
4) No interlace, deinterlace, 3/2 pulldown, Bob, etc. options;
5) No slave drive save location for recorded mpegs;
6) No auto naming of recorded shows by program name;
7) No EPG;
8) No GOP control;
9) Slow channel changing;
11) Encoding lag near the end of recordings (show is over for a minute or two, but it is still running on the computer on P4, 2.8 system);
12) No multiple tuner support.

MMC likes:
1) Fine bitrate control, i.e. average, maximum and motion estimation;
2) Variable and constant bitrate choice;
3) Interlace, deinterlace, 3/2 pulldown, Bob, etc. options;
4) Slave drive save location for recorded mpegs;
5) File naming option (could be better);
6) EPG;
7) GOP control.

MMC needs:
1) Sharpness control;
2) Mute option that works for instant, scheduled and EPG recordings (I select "mute for scheduled recordings", but this has no effect on recordings set through Guide Plus EPG or on instant recordings);
3) Multiple tuner support (only if 550 is supported. I have an AIW 9800 Pro and a 550 in the same box.

Thanks again, Michael, for coming here and speaking with us. We really appreciate your time and efforts.

-Erik.

[backlund]

What I mean is if you record something, any channel with this card through MCE and go back and look in the recorded TV section, look at the description of the recording (when it was recorded, channel, time, rating, etc.) and see if it says copy protected or not.

I'm sorry. I understand what you mean now. Apparently, somehow your recordings have a flag that doesnt allow you to burn to DVD (right?). I personally have not checked this, as I don't burn anything to DVD, so it's a non-issue for me. My guess, is that as the card becomes more widely accepted, we might see some hacked drivers that fix this, but who knows.

Technically, 99% of TV is copyrighted, so perhaps that's why this card has it turned on for all the channels. Maybe this card actually works like it is supposed to?!? I don't agree with any of them doing this, obviously, but perhaps it is a bug in the drivers/hardware. I would PM Michael B about it, and maybe he can at least point you in the right direction as to where it can be fixed, or knows who can help you. I personally have emailed sapphire twice about the low volume on the audio (did anyone notice if the new drivers fixed this?) and have received no reply (not surprising).

[backlund]

I'm sorry. I understand what you mean now. Apparently, somehow your recordings have a flag that doesnt allow you to burn to DVD (right?). I personally have not checked this, as I don't burn anything to DVD, so it's a non-issue for me. My guess, is that as the card becomes more widely accepted, we might see some hacked drivers that fix this, but who knows.

Technically, 99% of TV is copyrighted, so perhaps that's why this card has it turned on for all the channels. Maybe this card actually works like it is supposed to?!? I don't agree with any of them doing this, obviously, but perhaps it is a bug in the drivers/hardware. I would PM Michael B about it, and maybe he can at least point you in the right direction as to where it can be fixed, or knows who can help you. I personally have emailed sapphire twice about the low volume on the audio (did anyone notice if the new drivers fixed this?) and have received no reply (not surprising).

Ok, I checked and NO, I don't have the copy protection problem. BUT, last week I hooked up my cable box to the theatrix card so I could record our cable companies digital channels as well. This could be why I don't get the problem, since I'm not actually using the Tuner on the card, but rather the Svideo and Audio inputs.

[ron329]

Ok, I checked and NO, I don't have the copy protection problem. BUT, last week I hooked up my cable box to the theatrix card so I could record our cable companies digital channels as well. This could be why I don't get the problem, since I'm not actually using the Tuner on the card, but rather the Svideo and Audio inputs.

Well I'm using the S-Video also and still get the copy protection crap. Oh and BTW, once I switched to the S-Video input on the card the volume issue went away completely. In fact it is a couple of db louder than my other tuner card now.

On another note, did you notice any improvement with the new driver? When you get a chance post your impressions, I'm curious.

[backlund]

Well I'm using the S-Video also and still get the copy protection crap. Oh and BTW, once I switched to the S-Video input on the card the volume issue went away completely. In fact it is a couple of db louder than my other tuner card now.

On another note, did you notice any improvement with the new driver? When you get a chance post your impressions, I'm curious. Secondly, what is Michael's PM address? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

I noticed that volume issue went away too when I switched it over to SVIDEO. That means it is something with the tuner, which unfortunately, worries me that it's a hardware problem and not a driver fixable problem. Then again, who knows. I installed the new driver last night, but literally had to leave as the system was rebooting after the install. I was going to check it after I got back, but by that time I had had a too few many Budweisers by that point.

[backlund]

Well I'm using the S-Video also and still get the copy protection crap. Oh and BTW, once I switched to the S-Video input on the card the volume issue went away completely. In fact it is a couple of db louder than my other tuner card now.

On another note, did you notice any improvement with the new driver? When you get a chance post your impressions, I'm curious.

Shoot. I'm retarded. I didn't even think of this. I can't say for absolutely sure, but I'd bet 100 bucks that my hauppauge 150 does the recordings, and not the theatrix. I could be wrong, but now that i think about it I think that's how it set itself up when I put everything together. I think it does this because the cable box is used when I watch TV, and the hauppauge is just hooked up directly via the tuner. I'm starting to confuse myself, so I'll just leave it at that.

[backlund]

To send a PM to Michael, go back to one of his posts and click on his name. It should bring up a menu where you can PM him.