Will MCE2005 fully support both AIW9800 and HDTVWonder?

[aloke]

I have given up (finally) on MMC and it appears that Vista support for AIW (and HDTVWonder ?) is iffy. So, on to MCE2005.

Can someone confirm that MCE2005 support both AIW (for my analog cable TV) and HDTVWonder (for OTA ASTC broadcast) out of the box?

If so, should I install any ATI drivers for MCE2005? or stay with MS's drivers?

Thanks
Aloke

[cdahmedeh]

Read this topic for more info :

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33876330

[aloke]

I read that. It seems to discuss a lot about which remote to use (a non-issue for me, as I am sitting at the PC when watching my TV/PVR shows).

I didn't see anything about dual tuners (one AIW using T200, and a HDTVWonder) and MCE2005. Do they work well together?

[Agustus]

The AIW line with T200 chip which includes the AIW 9800 will work in MCE 2K5 and is supported by official drivers. Its not the best solution due to its lack of a hardware based encoder but it will work with the latest ATI Media Center Edition Catalyst drivers and ATI Media Center Edition Encoder (software).

The HDTV Wonder will work in MCE 2K5 + Rollup1 but Rollup2 is available and advisable. Only the digital component of the HDTV Wonder is officially supported in MCE (I think). Both analog and digital components of the HDTV Wonder can be made to work in MCE 2K5 but it requires the use of the “MCEE” pack from the now infamous Kram Mod Pack. The HDTV Wonder doesn’t support concurrent operation of it’s analog and digital components due to a design limitation and as such can and will cause missed or corrupted recordings if used simultaneously.

If you wish to use the analog tuner on the HDTV Wonder you may need to set the tuner priority so as to minimize the possibility of this known tuner conflict:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33813203

[ATImeShifter]

Quick question. I'm sure that you've answered this before, but do the same analog/digital tuner issues exist under MCE with the 650 as well, or will it work natively under MCE w/o this sort of tweaking such that both of its tuners can be used with the default AMD drivers (but not concurrently, of course)?

[Agustus]

In MCE 2K5 both analog and digital components of the TV Wonder 650 are setup for use properly for sequential usage AKA switching between the two in the MCE EPG.

As you know though, this can result in some problems in the event of concurrent usage due to the design limitations of the TV Wonder 650. Its easy to say that one will be vigilant in avoiding concurrent use of the TV Wonder 650 (and HDTV Wonder if so configured) but it’s a little harder then that in actual practice.

Lets say, for example, you do a search on an upcoming show in MCE. You’ll get multiple hits for anything that is broadcast in both digital and analog. If your not paying close enough attention you may schedule a digital recording (record series or whatever) when you intended analog or the other way around. This can result in “erroneous error messages” conflict, lost or corrupted recording.

[ATImeShifter]

This potential issue with 650 is duly noted, but would still be a huge improvement over the week's worth of scheduled recordings that CMC just failed to record for me while I was away from home.

I was actually away for 2 weeks. It recorded the first week's, but not the second's, even though most were the same, recurring shows. When I got home both my PC and CMC were still running with no apparent problems.

The thing about CMC (and MMC before it) is that when it works, it does an OK enough job for free software, but when it screws up--which is often--it becomes far more trouble than it's worth.

So long as this is the only major problem with the 650 under MCE, I'm ok with that, and it would certainly be a huge improvement over what I've been using.

Incidentally, what's the potential issue in using the software encoder-based AIW under MCE? I.e. why is it not ideal? Is the issue that you need a pretty fast PC (which mine is), or that there are more serious potential problems?

[Agustus]

The AIW X1900 or just about any AIW with T200 in MCE, its not really an issue exactly,..

Video fidelity my be a little degraded using a software “encoder” based tuner and CPU usage may be a little higher but it should work just fine.

Older systems with slower CPUs may have some performance issues with respect stutter or audio sync but most modern CPUs shouldn’t have any such problems.

[ATImeShifter]

I figured that it was probably a performance more than quality issue.

Speaking of which, why is the video quality on either my AIW x1900 or 650's tuner worse than it was on my 6 year old AIW 7200? I realize that newer tuners are different from the ones that came with older cards, but isn't newer generally supposed to mean better, or at least not worse? Is any of this due to the video processing being done on the cards and/or in software--and if so is any of it defeatable via registry hacks, 3rd party software, Catalyst tweaks, or within MCE? Or are the tuners themselves simply not as good as the older ones?

I'm talking about the overly digitized, "soft" and "mushy" look of the newer tuners, which make it look like people have smeared rouge and powder all over their faces. It almost looks like one of the effects filters that come with many photo and video processing apps. Yech.

[Agustus]

I cannot really speak as to any of the older tuner cards, my oldest ATI card is an AIW 9800 and I am very seriously considering buying an nVidia 8800GTS, or maybe another ViewSonic HDTV,…37in or 40in,…analog TV just doesn’t generally look as good on these new HDTVs anyway,…

Overall, I haven’t found any real problems with video quality of these tuners. They are good enough for every day use but digital TV is much preferred.