Theater 650 Pro Discussion

[Octavean]

I recently installed a ati 650 tv tuner in dell xps 420. The audio for ATSC comes through, but the video is just a green screen when viewing in Media Center. I unistalled/reinstalled drivers...any ideas?

What version of Microsoft Media Center are you using (MCE 2002, 2004, 2005 or Vista Media Center), what video subsystem are you using (video card) and what decoder are you using?

[dfetzer]

Thanks for the response...apologies, it's Vista Media center (Vista Home premium), looking to upgrade the video card, but it currently has an ATI HD 2400 pro. In terms of decoder? I don't have anything installed that I'm aware...yeah I'm a noob

[dfetzer]

double post...oops

[denyart]

I recently installed a ati 650 tv tuner in dell xps 420. The audio for ATSC comes through, but the video is just a green screen when viewing in Media Center. I unistalled/reinstalled drivers...any ideas?

Start up an ATSC stream (turn it to an ATSC channel), then minimize the Media Center interface (don't close, just minimize), and then check to see if you have any decoder programs running down in the lower ight hand corner (system tray) of the computer. If there is a decoder running there such as ffdshow, then you need to either uninstall ffdshow or change it so it doesn't attempt to decode your mpeg2 TV streams. If there isn't anything showing up, then it should be the normal Vista decoder running. That decoder should work fine for DVR-MS files from ATSC channels. Some things I could think of that may be causing problems: ffdshow video decoder (maybe), Nero media stuff (their bundled media software is obnoxious), other media software preinstalled on some systems (Muvee, iMedian, others). It is the only real thought I have at this point. Your video card should be fine, and the drivers for the 650 work for me in Vista. One thing you could of course try is to unistall the 650 software from add/remove prorgams and go get an older Vista 32-bit driver from ATI/AMD. That may be a solution. Also, if you changed drivers, you should run through the Media Center TV setup again just to make sure the registry gets set up correctly for the tuner to work. ...Out of ideas now. Good luck.
edit: could also just see if minimzing and then maximizing the media center interface makes it work. some have seen this kind of thing in the past. not likely, but it is an idea...

[herrdoktor]

I had this same problem on the machine in my signature. It was on the first RC1 Vista that had driver issues. I was using Nvidia 7600 PCIE video card. I installed a newer video card driver and it fixed it.
I have since sold that machine and built 2 others. Still using the Theater 650 Pro. Tried a Haupauge 1600 but not near the quality picture.

[kerrystarr2000]

Has anyone tried using Powercinema 5 free trial build 3902 on a theater 650 pro hybrid to tune qam channels? I am using Vista home premium. The program works on my machine but it is flaky. Any experiences with this? Thanks.

[phiz]

Can anyone send me a ISO from a original cd of THEATER 650? I´m crazy to TRY CATALYST MEDIA CENTER. I have fast internet, and this wont take too long. If anyone knows a torrent or another place to download, i´ll be grateful. Thanks.

Hi

did you you ever get a copy? I'd like to get it as well.

Regards

[phiz]

...for North America...

[Octavean]

Can anyone send me a ISO from a original cd of THEATER 650? I´m crazy to TRY CATALYST MEDIA CENTER. I have fast internet, and this wont take too long. If anyone knows a torrent or another place to download, i´ll be grateful. Thanks.

Has anyone tried using Powercinema 5 free trial build 3902 on a theater 650 pro hybrid to tune qam channels? I am using Vista home premium. The program works on my machine but it is flaky. Any experiences with this? Thanks.

Hi

did you you ever get a copy? I'd like to get it as well.

Regards

Anyone who wants to try Catalyst Media Center can buy an install CD here:

TV Wonder™ 200 and 650 Install CD $12.99


That’s the older original shipping version without QAM support. The newer version currently shipping with the newer TV Wonder 650 PCIe / USB / PCI cards has QAM support but effectively is the same in almost every other way save for maybe better Vista support.

Both versions give every indication of being based on Cyberlink PowerCinema (possibly v4 and v5 respectively) so if you want a preview of Catalyst Media Center then you could always download the latest free trial which is also very similar.

Generally speaking, there is nothing remarkable about any incarnation of this software including the Dell version that was shipping some time ago. Most of the feedback I hear on this software is negative and it was almost universally despised when it first started shipping with Theater 550 cards way back when it was in version 3.

“GB-PVR” and “MediaPortal” come highly recommended by many and still remain free. Both seem to support QAM if that’s what you're after. H.264 support too at least for “GB-PVR” so the new Hauppauge HD PVR will work too.

I’ll also add that Hauppauge has now joined Silicon dust (HDHomeRun) and AverMedia (AverTV Combo PCIe X1 M780, AverTV Bravo Hybrid PCIe X1 H788 and AverTV Volar Max Hybrid USB analog/ATSC/QAM) in launching a beta program to support QAM functionality in Microsoft Media Center. If ATI (AMD) wants to maintain some semblance (appearance) of competition it really does need to keep up with these other competing products. ATI (AMD) really must launch its own beta program to support QAM in popular programs like Microsoft Vista Media Center (if not Media Center Edition 2005), BeyondTV SageTV and more! As it stands they are way behind!!!

The Fiji update may very well support QAM and H.264 and Snapstream is presumably working on QAM support along with H.264 support but waiting for such support isn’t necessary. Companies that take the initiative like Silicondust, AverMedia and now Hauppauge are to be commended and notice is most certainly taken. Conversely, when a company doesn’t take the initiative it is also noticed!

Thanks for the response...apologies, it's Vista Media center (Vista Home premium), looking to upgrade the video card, but it currently has an ATI HD 2400 pro. In terms of decoder? I don't have anything installed that I'm aware...yeah I'm a noob

These links might help:

When you watch Live TV in Windows Media Center on a Windows Vista-based computer, a green screen is displayed after you change the channel to view an HDTV program

The TV screen appears as solid green or as blocky pixels when you use Windows Media Center to watch HDTV content on a Windows Vista-based computer (Hotfix Download Available)

[Octavean]

Looks like ATI (AMD) stuck a Theater 650 on a Radeon HD 3600 series graphics card and is now calling it an ATI All-in-Wonder™ HD:

http://ati.amd.com/products/aiwhd/features.html
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/V...126872,00.html

[tonyroberts09]

Yup I read that to just not to long ago.

[DA1745]

......

Thank you for all your posts on this board & others. You are a very helpful person.
-----------------------------------------------
I'm not sure whether I wish the new less than AIW a quick demise or if it's appearance is a sign of hope. I'm trying to put the scenario together in my head where a GPU die shink (which ATI has coming) might enable them enough room on the board (OR HOW ABOUT THE UNDER SIDE of the BOARD to put in dual digital (or at least ONE) 650 Pro or better Theatre chip with a REAL graphics card.

I live in WI and some days I'm $50 worth of Gas money away from driving up there and putting my car straight through whatever kind of office they have up there. Every time I sign my emails off to them, I mention something about I think I have a better than 50/50 chance I'll get one jury member on there that's either dealt with MMC, NSP vs SP, T200 Unified Driver, or had troubles getting one of their products to work the way it was supposed to, or you know an Nvidia fanboy who would take pitty on me for that reason alone; and know why i snapped. Anyway if they had made an HD3870 A-I-W I might well have bought one.

I'm sitting despite my proclamation of a divorse I took that Abusive-battering-son-of-a-bi+ch spouse ATI back and now own three ATI TV Wonder 650 Combos. Thankfully the Vista TV Media Pack 2008 (Fiji) brought QAM to Vista (premium & Ultimate) because the so called "included" QAM support only available in Vista Only using CMC reminded me of an episode of "Married With Children" when Al Bundy would call out "...Assume Fox [TV] Family Viewing Positions!"
CMC - wasn't able to pull in half the channels that I later got with under Vista (with the TV Pack installed). I thought it was the quality of the signal of the TV RG Coaxial Cable, so I ran a single feed (not split and it was the only one plugged in to the ATSC (QAM) Tuner & it added about 5 digital music channels that was it, and same set up upon rescan it didn't detect them.

I had been thinking (Boy this TV wonder 650 combo is just $#1++y at doing QAM). But contrast that with my current setup using the SAME CARD but with VistaMC Ultimate; post Fiji installation. Everything is the same except (fiji) and the signal is split first with a two way splitter, off that to a fourway splitter, and off that to a five way splitter and then into the TV Wonder 650 and I get all the digital music channels, all the SD digital channels QAM64 and all the HD QAM 64 channels that my HDTV with QAM TV gets (Plus the TV Wonder gets two extra that the TV doesn't) in Vista with the TV Pack. The CMC tuning continues to be horrible and the worst part of it is, that the results are different each time.... I did notice that ATI's Website has what they are calling a "PATCH" for CMC 1.0.3202 (and many other versions)
Here's another thread about It:
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33939643
The direct link (as with all ATI stuff seems to change so try searching there website's ATI section for
"CMC 1.0.4310" and look on the side menus (right side for me) for the actual download. It took me a while to find it myself b/c I expected it to be in the main part of the page not off on a side help topic.

It doesn't seem to be getting any big praise though so don't expect to much!! I haven't tried it but uninstalled CMC with my latest Vista update to Catalyst 9.2 (I used Driver Cleaner Pro) but I wasn't sure if it would remove CMC ...yup it does.

I'm currently searching for something that does QAM well in MCE2005 or XP home/pro. I wish I had bought AVermedia cards instead.