Theater 650 Pro Discussion

[denyart]

I am leaning towards the sound issue being something to do with dual cards, but I may admit that the corrupt recordings may just have been flukes. In the recording history of MCE it says "Bad Tuner". I know it isn't (or at least shouldn't be) due to concurrent tuner issues because I have the digital tuners of the 650s shut off. During MCE TV setup I chose my other two ATSC tuners instead of the 650 Digital BDA tuners. My other two tuners are an ATI HDTV Wonder and a VBox DTA 150. Just in case that makes any difference. I actually can't really think of anything that could cause the corrupt files to crash my computer (which they do), but the really interesting thing is after the computer locks and is restarted you can try to play the corrupt file again and it doesn't crash this time. It just says the file is corrupt. I would think it would say that the first time.

[dabl]

Bill T, can you please reply to the 11-14-06 and later inquiries about Vista RTM compatibility?

thanks,

--Don

[Octavean]

About Vista, I still have the bad taste of Windows XP when it first came out. I installed it immediately, and I regret it - it had relatively high number of bugs. I am not gonna make the same mistake with Vista. Just my personal opinion.

Be that as it may, even if you have no vested interest in Vista now or the immediate future, surely you can acknowledge that detailed information with respect to how the manufacturer intends the product to function in Vista MCE is valuable to many who already own a TV Wonder 650 as well as many wishing to make an informed buying decision.

Bottom line, there is a noteworthy flaw in the way the TV Wonder 650 functions in MCE 2K5 which is likely due to its non-concurrent design. If the feature set moving from MCE 2K5 to Vista MCE changes significantly to address this noteworthy flaw people have a right to know.

[vddobrev]

Bad news from ATI regarding the stand by issue, quote:
"The iuse of 2 ATI TV Wonder cards in the same PC is not an advertised feature and as such in not currently supported by ATI currently."

"While MCE as an OS supports the use of 2 TV tuners, the use of 2 ATI tuners cards is not a supported configuration when using MCE. Maybe somewhere down the line it may, but for the time being we are not supporting such a configuration at this time."

[Octavean]

Wow,…..

The “Designed for Windows XP Media Center Edition Logo Program” gives every indication that both hardware and software (drivers) for compliant tuners should be designed to allow for the proper use of multiple tuners (paraphrasing a bit but that’s the gist). Multiple tuners should include multiple tuners of the same make and model as well as with other manufacturers.

To date, it is my understanding that the HDTV Wonder will not function properly or at all with another HDTV Wonder in MCE. This may be indicative of a violation with respect to implementation of design of either hardware or software (drivers) or both.

And now it appears that to a lesser degree the same is true of the TV Wonder 650 in MCE 2K5 and possibly Vista as well.

From my perspective, if the card doesn’t function properly in a 2x configuration and up to a 4x configuration (2x for analog and 2x for digital) then it shouldn’t be advertised as a compatible MCE 2K5 card. In other words, MCE 2K5 compliance suggests proper multi tuner functionality of cards even of the same make and model. Though not explicitly stated it is implied by the spec.

[mglima_brazil]

Can ATI 650 works using the ATI MULTIMEDIA CENTER (the avaiable on amd/ati site)? I have an 9800pro AIW and i would like to use the ati MMC to capture videos..

What its mean: IN my local store, the version (at leat on features page) says: STANDARTS SUPPORT: NTSC, PAL e SECAM
Can i use PAL-M (brazil) TV signal?

The external capture quality on NTSC is very much better than ATI 200 of AIW 9800PRO TV TURNER? Thanks.;

[denyart]

That seems like a CS way of saying we admit there is a problem but don't care to put any effort into fixing it. Anyone want a 650???

[mbDarkBlue]

Having an issue that I just can't seem to figure out...

I want to use my computer display for my Nintendo Wii also. I hooked up the Wii's composite AV cables to the purple capture block which goes into my Theater 650 card. Catalyst Media Center does not process the video from the Wii properly and configuration options seem too limited. I tried a couple other programs such as ChrisTV and DScaler but I cannot seem to get things working properly..I cannot get the video from the Wii to correctly de-interlace. The same types of things happen when I try to hook up my Gamecube this way also.

Can anyone please give me some advice on how to properly hook up a video game console to a Theater 650 card?

Thanks.

[Jigga]

Having an issue that I just can't seem to figure out...

I want to use my computer display for my Nintendo Wii also. I hooked up the Wii's composite AV cables to the purple capture block which goes into my Theater 650 card. Catalyst Media Center does not process the video from the Wii properly and configuration options seem too limited. I tried a couple other programs such as ChrisTV and DScaler but I cannot seem to get things working properly..I cannot get the video from the Wii to correctly de-interlace. The same types of things happen when I try to hook up my Gamecube this way also.

Can anyone please give me some advice on how to properly hook up a video game console to a Theater 650 card?

Thanks.

Use Media Player Classic. Google it.

For a direct feed of the Video Composite In:

File>Open Device...>Select ATI AVStream Analog Capture & ATI AVStream Analog Audio Capture

Play>Filters>ATI AVStream Analog Xbar>Video Composite In with Link Related Streams checked

Enjoy...don't pause it because it causes audio to go out of sync. To maximize or minimize use ALT-Enter

Now, if this is possible with a 3rd party application...why isn't it a standard feature for the 1st party app?

[mbDarkBlue]

Wow! Thank you so much for the info! I had no idea Media Player Classic was capable of using a capture device. Everything works great now. Thanks again!

[mbDarkBlue]

One more question..Is there anything I can do to increase the sharpness so the picture does not appear quite as blurry or is that something that will be improved with the use of the Wii component cables when they come out?

[Jigga]

One more question..Is there anything I can do to increase the sharpness so the picture does not appear quite as blurry or is that something that will be improved with the use of the Wii component cables when they come out?

Oddly enough, my ps2 looks pretty blurry when I connect it, but my Xbox looks pretty sharp. So, it might just be a console setting thing. I don't think it'll matter if you get a component cable because the input for the 650 is just composite.

You could always try using the setting in:

Play>Filter>AVStream Analog Capture>Properties...

[jonaslasky]

Bad news from ATI regarding the stand by issue, quote:
"The iuse of 2 ATI TV Wonder cards in the same PC is not an advertised feature and as such in not currently supported by ATI currently."

"While MCE as an OS supports the use of 2 TV tuners, the use of 2 ATI tuners cards is not a supported configuration when using MCE. Maybe somewhere down the line it may, but for the time being we are not supporting such a configuration at this time."

I told you guys this 5 pages ago... but no, you guys just wanted to be pigheaded about it. Once again dump ATI and make yourselves happier. Octavean is hopeless. He'll be haunting this thread as the hapless "voice of reason" long after his death

For those who are actually thinking clearly, here's something of value. If you live in Southern California, you can get a free copy of BeyondTV 4 at Fry's Electronics this weekend. This sale is good Sunday through Tues.

http://ads.ocregister.com/interactiv...1124161922.pdf

This PDF page is somewhat large so if you have dial-up it might take some time to load. The BTV special is near the middle of the page.

Jonas

[mbDarkBlue]

Oddly enough, my ps2 looks pretty blurry when I connect it, but my Xbox looks pretty sharp. So, it might just be a console setting thing. I don't think it'll matter if you get a component cable because the input for the 650 is just composite.

You could always try using the setting in:

Play>Filter>AVStream Analog Capture>Properties...

Does a component video input block even exist for the 650?

[Octavean]

Bad news from ATI regarding the stand by issue, quote:
"The iuse of 2 ATI TV Wonder cards in the same PC is not an advertised feature and as such in not currently supported by ATI currently."

"While MCE as an OS supports the use of 2 TV tuners, the use of 2 ATI tuners cards is not a supported configuration when using MCE. Maybe somewhere down the line it may, but for the time being we are not supporting such a configuration at this time."

http://forums.hexus.net/showpost.php...&postcount=500

Hey guys,

Dual TV Wonder 650's is fully supported in MCE. I just tried it out for myself, and it seems to work very well. You can record any 2 channels at once, analog or digital. Or record one channel, and still be able to surf through all your analog and digital channels.
When recording 2 channels, you can only switch between though 2 channels, which is expected.

If there is anything specific that you would like me to try out with the Dual 650's in MCE, let me know. Thanks.

http://forums.hexus.net/showpost.php...&postcount=321

Seems to be a serious conflict here. Either the TV Wonder 650 is fully supported in a dual configuration under MCE or it isn’t but it cannot be both.

[vddobrev]

Question: is Bill T associated with ATI? It says so in his public profile, but I only started reading this board recently, and I am not sure. I will keep you posted on the development of my tickets - I updated them that their answer is not acceptable.