Media Center Edition 2005 and ATI AIW: Works Fine.

ArcCoyote

ArcCoyote

New member
The AIW in MCE 2005:
You need an AIW 9000 series or AIW X600+ to run MCE. Basically, you need a Rage Theatre 200 chip on the card. The RT 550 Pro (TVW elite) is designed for MCE. The HDTV Wonder works for DTV and can be made to work as an analog tuner. Other TV-Wonder cards will not work. MCE works well with the AIW software encoder. CPU on an Athlon XP 3200+ is about 20% to record or playback and 40% to watch live (MCE is constantly timeshifting.)

Here's how to do it:

- First, install MCE 2005.
A clean install is best but if you install it into an existing XP install that will work too. I'm not going to get into that here, as it involves some stuff MS doesn't approve of. (I will warn you: Standard XP Pro keys do not work in MCE: they won't allow the MCE stuff to install. If you trick it into upgrading it will ask you to activate before you can even log on. Unless you have a legit MCE key you are probably stuck.)

- Install Catalyst 5.7 or Catalyst 5.3
Catalyst 5.7 will install the NSP WDMs required for MCE. You can use an older display driver, but always use the newest WDMs as ATI is actively improving MCE support. If you have the proper WDMs installed there should be a "ATI WDM Rage Theatre Video NSP" in Device Manager.
NOTE: If you have stuttering TV with Cat 5.7, go all the way back to Cat 5.3. Cat 5.4 thru 5.6 will not display DVD menus or subtitles in MCE.

- Install the latest ATI DVD Decoder.

The ATI Decoder can do multichannel analog output if you:
- Replace C:\Program Files\Common Files\CyberLink\ATIDVD\powerdvd.sim with the one from DVD Decoder 2.1.0.1. (Do not just use DVD Decoder 2.1.0.1, it is not MCE compatible.)
- Delete CLaud.sim and CLaudRC.dll from the same folder. Don't ask, it just works ;)
- Open media center, go to Settings > DVD > Audio and choose your speakers. Multichannel in ATI DVD also works.

It seems the current ATI Decoder (setup.exe ver. 4.0) sends multichannel audio to the wrong speakers. The version from before 5/17/2005 (also setup.exe version 4.0!) is OK. If you have the newest decoder and are experiencing bad sound, you can fix it by replacing a couple of files. PM me.

If you have video problems or get Decoder Errors you might also need to uninstall the older ATI DVD Decoder and other DVD Playback software.
Also try setting "Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder" to the default with DECCHECK.EXE You can get it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...AC-0AB6-4990-943D-627E6ADE9FCB&displaylang=en

- Install MMC 9.08 for AIW support in MCE. Versions of MMC older than 5.06 will not provide the required encoder. If you have an HDTV wonder and wish to use the analog side of it, you still need the Kram AIW Encode, see below.

- After all of this is installed, reboot. You should now be able to open Media Center and go to Settings > TV Signal.

An easy way to share the AIW with MMC
Create a batch file:
Code: 
net stop ehrecvr
taskkill /im ehshell.exe
if not errorlevel 128 start %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe
Save it as "stopmce.cmd" and create a shortcut to it in Accessories > Media Center > Media Center Programs. This will serve two purposes: Running it from the start menu will shut down the receiver service and allow you to use the AIW in MMC and video capture programs. If you are having problems with the AIW (Can't find tuner, no sound, stuttering, etc..) you can select it from "More Programs" to quickly restart the tuner and MCE.

Using the Remote Wonder with MCE:
I recommend the MCE remote, but the RW works well enough for MCE. Check remotew.free.fr: There's a plugin to make the record and channel buttons work and you can map the custom buttons to keyboard shortcuts. You can use KeyFactory to map even more buttons.

Using the HDTV Wonder:
The DTV tuner on the HDTV Wonder works in MCE with the latest drivers. The analog tuner can be made to work standalone or in a dual-tuner setup when paired with a AIW or hardware tuner. Be aware using both the digital and analog tuners on the HDTV Wonder has some limitations and can cause failed recordings. See http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33813203 for more info.

Useful Tools:
http://www.salloway.org.uk/mediacenter/main.htm
Mark Salloway has some utilities for cleaning MCE registry keys and setting which tuner MCE prefers to use. The former can be necessary when you update ATI drivers and get orphaned tuner entries for the AIW. The latter is very handy if you want MCE to prefer a hardware tuner over the AIW, or the AIW over the HDTVW's analog.

http://www.thegreenbutton.com/downloads.aspx
TheGreenButton's downloads page. Lots of MCE applets and tools.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/mcepowertoys.mspx
Microsoft's Powertoys for Windows XP Media Center Edition.
 
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Interesting. The newest ones on the website don't work, but those WDM drivers you have dated 1/17/05 are newer than the ones onthe ATI website. It is very possible ATI has been planning to make the AIW (or at least the x800) MCE compatible.

Are you using a RW II? I didn't think Keyfactory and Keymaster worked with the RW II.

I'd like to play around with those WDMs. PM me if you'd like.
 
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Yup, the WDMs that just showed up on the web have two driver sets in them. One is named WDM_SP and is the standard drivers, the other is named WDM_NSP and is compatible with the MCE AIW Encoder. The NSP package automatically installs on MCE systems.

Update: I revised my how-to. It's a lot easier to get MCE working with Cat 5.3 and the TV quality is better. I get the feeling ATI has something official in the works for the AIW and Media Center.

Mods: Can I get a sticky?
 
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Currently I have AIW 9800 Pro and TV Wonder Elite on the same machine. Finally the lastest Catalyst driver and MMC allow both TV turners coexist under XP. Though they are not running under MMC together, at least I don't have to do any reinstallation before having both cards working (one at a time)

I wonder if the WMCE allows to have 2 TV turners running under the same OS?
 
It's now very easy for all AIW9600 and above to be supported under MCE:
- Install Catalyst 5.3 drivers: this will install the NSP drivers with digital audio (required for MCE).
- Install MMC 9.06: it now includes the AIW encode drivers for MCE.

Pairing the AIW with a PCI hw encoder card like the TVW Elite or any other HW encoder enables dual-tuner operation under MCE.
 
MMC 9.06 includes AIW Encode??

MMC 9.06 includes AIW Encode??

Now that's cool. I haven't tried installing MMC 9.06 yet. The thought of my nice working Media Center system turning into a smoking crater kind of put me off.

Hmm. I think I just figured out what "NSP" and "SP" mean in the latest AIW WDMs. SP means "sideport" and NSP means "non-sideport". The sideport is what gives you a live video window without the need to encode and decode the video. Basically, the video is streamed from the Rage Theatre chip directly to the Video RAM. The AIW used to use a sideport, and while a sideport is good for some things like console gaming (no delay), sideport video is not compatible with MCE.

Apparently ATI changed to using a non-sideport WDM with Cat 5.3, and MPEG-2 encode and decode with MMC 9.06. (At least with RT200 based cards.) This is exactly how MCE does it and the audio is encoded on the AIW with the video. Audio and video are now delayed a second or two (sorry console gamers) but you can do stuff like record without a window open and while logged out.

If MMC 9.06 is now based around encoded video, it should support the TV-Wonder Elite as well as the HDTV Wonder. So why is ATI maintaining the TVW Elite is unsupported?
 
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These new drivers (5.3) work great with a Radeon 9700 and an AIW VE (7500) on MCE 2005. Thanks for suggesting it ArcCoyote.

I had a few problems installing the WDM NSP drivers but extracting the CAB file and installing the drivers manually worked great.

Another great feature in these drivers is that both MCE and the MMC (version 9.06) work but the "Media Center Receiver Service" must be stopped to use the MMC. Also, when using the MMC, there is no 2 second delay in the signal like in MCE.

Way to go ATI for making such a great driver.
 
Okay,

the cat is out of the bag. CAT 5.03 includes support for MCE with AIW cards. We did not publicize it for two reasons. (1) the testing on our side isn't complete so we are not in a position to "officially" support it (2) the issue with the Media Center Receiver service which we plan to resolve in an upcoming release.

Note also that the previous version of the encoder REQUIRED an HT CPU, now I know some people made it work on AMD processors in the past, but the encoder would detect a non-HT CPU and go into a low-CPU, low Quality mode. That is no longer true and the encoder is working in full mode even on AMD processors (which is why ArcCoyote noticed that TV Quality is better).

Yes dual tuners works (so long as the second one has HW encode) and yes an AIW + HDTV Wonder work (but you may need a lot of CPU for that).

As this is still not officialy supported, theres not much more I can say.

Stephen.
 
Thanks for the info, Stephen, and thanks to the ATI Multimedia team for doing an absolutely amazing job with this! :)
 
wow, ati actually listened to our complaints about MCE!! im so happy, i think i just soiled myself. also, i think ill circle today on the calendar! kudos!
 
Stephen,

major thanks to you guys for doing this. a big step in the right direction towards giving users freedom to decide whether their tuner and cpu are good enough for use on mce. again thanks. this is huge news. keep up the good work.
 
ArcCoyote said:
Apparently ATI changed to using a non-sideport WDM with Cat 5.3, and MPEG-2 encode and decode with MMC 9.06. (At least with RT200 based cards.) This is exactly how MCE does it and the audio is encoded on the AIW with the video. Audio and video are now delayed a second or two (sorry console gamers) but you can do stuff like record without a window open and while logged out.
Click to expand...

DAMNIT!!!!!! thats one of the main uses of my card... they should have made it optional... no wonder when i was playing Tales of Symphonia last night it there was that delay in MMC (XP PRO not MCE).... is it possible to get the SP drivers to work on my AIW 9700 Pro in MCE?
 
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Solved. Copied the latest powerdvd.sim from my Powerdvd folder and I got 2, 4, 6 and 8 channels. Great tip! Why can't ATI do this for us? One silly file!
 
I just bought and did a fresh install of MCE 2005 and the TV Quality from TV Wonder Elite is amazingly good. I can't believe it can be so much better than compare to PowerCinema. The only degrade in picture is when doing window/full screen, it is just less than half a second delay and definitely acceptable. The delay channel switching TV is 100 times shorter than PowerCinema.

I still haven't install MMC to activate the AIW TV Turner yet, so I don't know how dual TV would look like.

The help in Media Centre is pretty lame, I wonder if anyone knows how to do screen capture in MCE?
 
RichardK said:
The help in Media Centre is pretty lame, I wonder if anyone knows how to do screen capture in MCE?
Click to expand...

print screen button copies, go to paint and paste it.

on an entirely different note:
how do you install the SP WDM drivers?
do you have to go to the device manages, remove the wdm drivers and than right click on the .inf file and install it?
 
Thanks. the window Basic PrtScrn function works.

About the installation, I didn't run any inf file, just the basic setup. I just install the lastest Elite driver, AIW Catalyst Driver, (TV Elite won't run) then I install DAO, and DVD driver. The TV from Elite will work then.

I will soon install the MMC to see how the AIW TV Turner works under MCE. The help file didn't say much on Dual TV Turner. Will there be any Picture in Picture or 2 TV windows? I wish they write the help file on MC a bit more detail.

I downloaded the plugin for Remote Plus but it is very limited. Anyone know how to remap all the keys so it works with MCE much better?
 
just so ATI can know what i'm looking for when thry start supporting XP MCE (AIW 9700 P), what i want to use MMC or MC for is:
• no delay in the channel changing
• no delay for console gaming
• i dont care about TV-ON-Demand at all or PVR features for that matter, speed and quality is more important for me.
• the ability change input (s-video, composite) in MC
• better remote wonder button support in MC

i realize that most people want all these extra features, but i just want something that works well performance-wise.
i tried to get the SP drivers to work in XP MCE, with no luck in MC or MMC.
MC said tuner not available and MMC gave me a black screen on all inputs & channels.
 
WiKiD to have the SP drivers install in MCE try the following:
1. Go to where your drivers extracted. The default is c:\ati\support\wxp-w2k-ccc-8-111-05022a-021277c-english (the name could vary depending on the package you downloaded)

2. Go into WDM_ALL > WDM_SP.

3. Double click the WDM_SP.ini. This should open in wordpad or notepad.

4. Near the top is a heading [Req_OS]. Below that ther is 1 and 2 so we need to enter a 3rd entry for MCE like this:

[Req_OS]
1=WIN_2K
2=WIN_XP
3=WIN_XP_MCE

5. Save the file.

6. Go back a folder and then into the WDM_NSP folder and rename the WDM_NSP.ini to WDM_NSP.old.

7. Rerun the setup in the WDM_ALL and the SP drivers should install. (You may need to uninstall the existing WDM drivers first)

Another Option:
1. Go to where your drivers extracted. The default is c:\ati\support\wxp-w2k-ccc-8-111-05022a-021277c-english (the name could vary depending on the package you downloaded)

2. Go into WDM_ALL > WDM_SP.

3. Using WinRAR extract the WDM_SP to a folder.

4. Use the Device manager and manually update each ATI WDM component with the driver found in the folder you just extracted.

Hopefully you can get it installed with one of those methods.
 
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