Announcement

**Agustus** · May 13, 2007, 07:20 AM

There isn’t currently a download for “Catalyst Media Center”. There may be a future download of “Catalyst Media Center” but since it is likely just a licensed and slightly modified version of Cyberlink PowerCinema 4 making it a free download could take some time and effort. Unlike MMC, anyone can currently use “Catalyst Media Center 1.0” regardless of current installed hardware, therefore, they are likely going to want to implement some sort of method to prevent this before releasing it in any free capacity.

In the mean time you can buy “Catalyst Media Center” from ATI here for $12.99 not including S&H:

TV Wonder™ 200 and 650 Install CD

Supposedly there is a newer version of “Catalyst Media Center” (2.0 for lack of a better term) with Vista support coming which is likely based on Cyberlin PowerCinema 5. Supposedly this version will be free to current “Catalyst Media Center” owners but a time table and delivery method has not been established yet. Non-Catalyst Media Center users will supposedly have to pay to use this new version which should work in XP too.

You can always try the Cyberlink PowerCinema 5 trial now to get a feel for some of what “Catalyst Media Center” has to offer. You could also try other applications such as BeyondTV (trial) and Media Portal (which is free and works quite well)

MMC 9.16 is the latest version that I am aware of and it should work with the TV Wonder 550 Pro (9.09 and up) although there may be numerous bugs. There also may not be many more updates coming for MMC so I don’t know how viable a solution it really is these days.

**sechs** · May 13, 2007, 10:17 AM

I believe the card should have come with an OEM version of PowerCinema.

I think that WinAmpTV should work, and it's free.

**moshpit** · May 13, 2007, 10:48 AM

Beware tho, most of the above mentioned TV Tuner software ALL disables Aero during use if used in Vista. Only Catalyst Media Center and PowerCinema do not. That said, all of the above mentioned packages are 10x better written and less buggy. Power Cinema is highly bug ridden and while it does work, it's iffy sometimes. BeyondTV and Media Portal are both far more stable but cause Aero to disable the transparencies when in use. It's a trade off no matter which route you go if under Vista.

**themafioso** · May 14, 2007, 12:24 AM

Hmm ok..I've downloaded PowerCinema 5 and its working quite good in XP ..
Thanx for the help guys

Originally posted by moshpit View Post

Beware tho, most of the above mentioned TV Tuner software ALL disables Aero during use if used in Vista. Only Catalyst Media Center and PowerCinema do not. That said, all of the above mentioned packages are 10x better written and less buggy. Power Cinema is highly bug ridden and while it does work, it's iffy sometimes. BeyondTV and Media Portal are both far more stable but cause Aero to disable the transparencies when in use. It's a trade off no matter which route you go if under Vista.

BTW why should be there any need to install such software in vista, isn't Vista media center good enough?

**Agustus** · May 14, 2007, 05:05 AM

Originally posted by themafioso View Post

Hmm ok..I've downloaded PowerCinema 5 and its working quite good in XP ..
Thanx for the help guys

BTW why should be there any need to install such software in vista, isn't Vista media center good enough?

There are two major reasons that there would be a need to install third-party PVR software in Vista:

1) Only Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate have the Vista Media Center application and as such it is not available to all Vista users.

2) Not all ATI / AMD hardware (tuners) that have or that will have official Vista support in the future will work in the Vista Media Center application.

Therefore a vender provided application makes sense and is within character for ATI /AMD under the circumstances.

**tagteam** · May 14, 2007, 08:25 AM

Originally posted by themafioso View Post

Hmm ok..I've downloaded PowerCinema 5 and its working quite good in XP ..

Glad to hear PowerCinema 5 is working for you but......is that it? I assume you downloaded the trial and I didn't notice any purchase option on the Cyberlink site for the s/w alone; it's either $99.95 *bundled* with a tuner card (analog) or $49.95 to upgrade from PowerCinema 4.

As for the release of CMC 2.0, I'm not holding my breath. Also, I find it difficult to believe that AMD/ATI is going to provide v2.0 to current 550/650 owners absolutely free of charge. As an owner of both cards, I figure I'm going to get whacked for the same "$12.99 + shipping" (that they're currently charging for CMC 1.0) if I want to upgrade to CMC 2.0. After all, AMD/ATI will most likely have to pay additional license fees to Cyberlink for this and the fact that the latter is now, apparently, not selling PC5 unbundled is sort of disturbing.

**Agustus** · May 14, 2007, 10:06 AM

Well, it can be very difficult to determine what ATI / AMD has planned and what it is they actually will do since the two are not necessarily always the same. However an ATI rep has mentioned something about a future version of CMC here:

http://forums.hexus.net/showpost.php...&postcount=517

Originally posted by Bill T

The ability to use Vista MCE with both Digital and Analog without having to run setup again is an issue being looked at.

As a partial solution we plan to release a version of CMC(Catalyst Media Center) for Vista that works as it does in XP, with both Analog and Digital tuning readily available. This will be a free upgrade to those who have already purchased a product that shipped with CMC.

We plan to make CMC available for purchase to others who have not already purchased a product that shipped with CMC. We plan to make this available shortly after the retail version of Vista is released.

So basically current CMC users will presumably be given an opportunity to obtain the CMC upgrade for free. This should include TV Wonder 200, TV Wonder 650 and some but not all TV Wonder 550 Pro users (as some T550P cards do ship with CMC). Now if you have examined some Cyberlink “Patches” you’ll likely notice that they often aren’t patches at all but rather “FULL” applications with an install program that simply scans for a previous qualifying installed version. If the previously installed version is found but not a qualifying version or if no previous version is found then the install doesn’t proceed. If the install is authorized due to the install criteria being met the previous version is uninstalled and the full new version is installed.

Such a “Patch” could be posted for free download easily and adhere to the current user only upgrade mandate. Although, technically there really doesn’t seem to be much of a differences between CMC and the various OEM modular versions of PowerCinema 4 that shipped with so many T550P cards and to a lesser extent OEM Powercinema 3 too.

If we look at the Windows Vista Support Criteria & Availablity chart that was posted in the “ATI Killing AIW with No driver support for Vista” thread you’ll see that “ATI Catalyst Media Center” is listed for release in Early to Mid 2007,…..so theoretically they should be releasing this new version soon.

Having said that paying $12.99 not including S&H for CMC 1.0 now and upgrading to version 2.0 if it ever ships for free (or waiting for CMC 2.0 on disc for ~$12.99 not including S&H later?) is more cost effective then buying Cyberlink PowerCinema 5 for ~$100 (full) / ~$50 (upgrade). Not to mention that the feature set of CMC is broader. I will say however that after evaluating CMC (Powercinema too) I don’t personally care to use it and as such I don’t necessarily recommend it’s use but it can give the user something to get started with especially if they are on a modest budget.

BeyondTV, MediaPortal and GB-PVR (not really sure if the last two work in Vista) will probably yield a greater user experiences IMO.

**moshpit** · May 14, 2007, 10:11 AM

Hehehe, I made Cyberlink cough up a full version install of the PowerCinema 5 because the upgrade version wasn't working right in Vista while the demo worked fine. They sent me the full version to fix it and been using it ever since. Still is buggy, but at least it works most of the time...

**themafioso** · May 14, 2007, 10:51 AM

Originally posted by tagteam View Post

Glad to hear PowerCinema 5 is working for you but......is that it? I assume you downloaded the trial and I didn't notice any purchase option on the Cyberlink site for the s/w alone; it's either $99.95 *bundled* with a tuner card (analog) or $49.95 to upgrade from PowerCinema 4.

d/l'ed the retail version, I don't believe in trials n' all..

**Agustus** · May 14, 2007, 04:17 PM

The control panel for the Theater 550 Pro can be accessed in the XP control panel, I think its named ATI TV but I don’t really remember,….it has an ATI logo I think so you cant miss it.

Oh, I forgot, for what it’s worth Yahoo GoTV (previously Medeeo?) also supports the Theater 550 Pro and its free too or it was and it did when it was launched.

http://sites.mobile.yahoo.com/go/tv/index

Probably not something you want to mess with now since you already have the full version of PowerCinema 5.

**themafioso** · May 15, 2007, 09:45 AM

^^ Hehe

But anyways a good freeware never hurts, thanx for the tip(s)

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