Media Center Edition 2005 and ATI AIW: Works Fine.

MCE2005 TV is too demanding for software based AIW

MCE2005 TV is too demanding for software based AIW

I have the new P4 506 2.66Ghz with 1GB DDRII, this kind of system spec can handle software highest quality MPEG2 capture or TV on demand well enough using MMC TV AIW 9XXX setup.
However, I have tested the system with MCE 2005 TV, the live TV viewing performance is so poor, lot of sound/video delay and drop frames, I wonder if the MCE 2005 TV can run in full performance with the P4 531 3.0Ghz HT.
There is not much of comfort in using the MCE 2005 TV, at least it is not as good as the ATI MMC TV, but what makes the MCE 2005 so demanding with CPU, consider the ATI MMC TV can do the same thing in full stable TV frame rate with just P4 2Ghz. Could it be the fact that MCE 2005 TV is made for hardware MPEG encoder base TV tuner, therefore it will not work well with card such as the Theater200 without a power CPU? What is the minimum CPU requirement to run MCE 2005 TV in full TV frame with ATI TV wonder Elite?
 
Hey everyone,
Has anyone tried Windows MCE and the original AIW radeon? I'm thinking of building a multi-media PC to do recordings and pausing live tv stuff and I have this old card just sitting around.
 
AIW Radeon won't work.

AIW Radeon won't work.

1) The Radeon (7000-series) is not a DX9 VPU. MCE needs this for good video playback.

2) The tuner on that card uses the older Rage Theater VIVO chip. MCE support requires an AIW with a Rage Theater 200 VIVO chip.

Your best bet is to probably get a cheap video card (at least a Radeon 9550 or GF 5600, it has to be DX9 native) and a seperate hardware tuner (you can get a Theater 550 card cheap, and you can't do better for quality).

If you go the AIW route and don't need a lot of 3D power, I'd recommend the 9600 series (including the AIW 2006 edition). Here's a page in ATI's absolutely amazing:hmm: knowledgebase that might help you: https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=19393
 
It's not your CPU.

It's not your CPU.

yatalok said:
I have the new P4 506 2.66Ghz with 1GB DDRII, this kind of system spec can handle software highest quality MPEG2 capture or TV on demand well enough using MMC TV AIW 9XXX setup.
However, I have tested the system with MCE 2005 TV, the live TV viewing performance is so poor, lot of sound/video delay and drop frames, I wonder if the MCE 2005 TV can run in full performance with the P4 531 3.0Ghz HT.
Click to expand...

Take a look at your CPU usage some time while watching Live TV in MCE. I'll bet you it doesn't even hit 40%: It's not the CPU. My AXP 3200+ is really only 2.2GHz and it used to run an AIW 9600 Pro fine in MCE. The problem is the WDM drivers. The newer Catalyst sets have had some really nasty problems with the AIW support in MCE. Unfortunately, Cat 5.7 is also the only recent set that plays DVDs correctly in MCE.

If you don't mind using a rather old driver try going back to Catalyst 5.3. That's the first with AIW+MCE support, and probably the best. It also plays DVDs ok in MCE. After you install the drivers and reboot, you'll probably need reboot again and run the MCE TV Signal setup to get the AIW tuner working.

Regarding the T550 (elite) card: Capturing uses almost no CPU, it's a hardware encoder. Playback and Live TV should be the same as playing a DVD, which is also very little load on today's CPUs.
 
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Damn, forgot this crap NSP WDM issue.

Damn, forgot this crap NSP WDM issue.

ArcCoyote said:
Take a look at your CPU usage some time while watching Live TV in MCE. I'll bet you it doesn't even hit 40%: It's not the CPU. My AXP 3200+ is really only 2.2GHz and it used to run an AIW 9600 Pro fine in MCE. The problem is the WDM drivers. The newer Catalyst sets have had some really nasty problems with the AIW support in MCE. Unfortunately, Cat 5.7 is also the only recent set that plays DVDs correctly in MCE.

If you don't mind using a rather old driver try going back to Catalyst 5.3. That's the first with AIW+MCE support, and probably the best. It also plays DVDs ok in MCE. After you install the drivers and reboot, you'll probably need reboot again and run the MCE TV Signal setup to get the AIW tuner working.

Regarding the T550 (elite) card: Capturing uses almost no CPU, it's a hardware encoder. Playback and Live TV should be the same as playing a DVD, which is also very little load on today's CPUs.
Click to expand...

You have reminded me the performance I have with my old Celeron 1.3Ghz and MCE 2004 using the old Cat driver from last year with the mod ATI MCE encoder, the performance was not perfect with a cheap Celeron 1.3 100% CPU usage, but the NSP WDM setup I have now with my P4 506 is no better than that. Well, I just wanted to know I have the enough horse power to drive the Microsoft MCE 2005, I don't like using the software since it lacks lot of advance feature, it can't beat the ATI MMC TV, microsoft is trying to make media PC fool proof, but I do expect a lot more from a PC HD/DVD video recorder, such as DVD-VR support, dual languages TV playback/record, and I hate to have TV on demand turned on all the time. Another word, MCE 2005 is no better than the Pioneer/Sony/Toshiba's HD/DVD recorder.
Being the AIW 9600XT owner for a year long, I still have the reason to stick with the old TV Wonder PCI for MPEG1 TV recording! I have to, I am still waiting for ATI to release a WDM driver fix to correct the PAL I Nicam TV audio issue, the AIW theater 200 often fails to get proper TV sound with Nicam PAI I, I can't trust it. Laugh loud and call me silly.
 
ArcCoyote said:
1) The Radeon (7000-series) is not a DX9 VPU. MCE needs this for good video playback.

2) The tuner on that card uses the older Rage Theater VIVO chip. MCE support requires an AIW with a Rage Theater 200 VIVO chip.

Your best bet is to probably get a cheap video card (at least a Radeon 9550 or GF 5600, it has to be DX9 native) and a seperate hardware tuner (you can get a Theater 550 card cheap, and you can't do better for quality).

If you go the AIW route and don't need a lot of 3D power, I'd recommend the 9600 series (including the AIW 2006 edition). Here's a page in ATI's absolutely amazing:hmm: knowledgebase that might help you: https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=19393
Click to expand...

Well that sucks. I do have a spare 9500pro laying around so I guess I could use it for the 3d portion. I could also get a seperate TV tuner card but that means using an extra slot in the PC.

Thanks for reply though.
 
Gave up anything over 5.2

Gave up anything over 5.2

The video quality of every driver I have used since 5.2 is lousy. I have given up on using Media center and just gone back to MMC and 5.2. No more jerky video no sound problems when you have to either reboot or put the puter in standby than come out of it to get anything but stactic when trying to watch tv. All I can suggest to Ati is to give everyone the option to use the Sp wdm drivers and mmc in media center or people will be throwing there All In Wonders away. Performance with NSP drivers is a complete joke. Some are going to want the improvements of the new Catalysts for games but the old SP wdm's for tv viewing. The way things are now they just plain stink for one or the other.Get with it ATI. I have an AIW 9800 pro and TV with the NSP drivers should be nothing but an embarrasment for ATI.
 
Suggestions seriously needed

Suggestions seriously needed

Ok, people, I need help. I have two computers. I have WinXP Home, WinMedia Center Edition 2005, AIW 9600, and AIW 9800.
I put the AIW 9600 on the MCE2005 rig, but I can't get the card to work. I haven't slapped everything together for the WinXP Home and AIW 9800 rig. Should I put the AIW 9800 on the MCE2005 OS, or leave it the way I have it set up. I want to have one rig for the best video quality.
I want to be able to transfer my videotapes to CD, too, so what drivers should I install?
I have read everything here, but some people are having problems. I am not using the PC's for gaming, so that is not an issue.
Thanks
 
Cat 5.9 + MMC 9.06.1 works for me~

Cat 5.9 + MMC 9.06.1 works for me~

The last install, using Cat 5.3 + MMC 9.08 kinda fell apart on its own eventually in terms of recording.

Now I'm using 5.9 + 9.06.1 (fresh install) on recommendations here that 9.08 is bunk. So far everything is working as smoothly as it's ever been - no audio lag, and the regular channel change lag. The occasional hiccup in the 1st 30s of recording.

15-20%cpu replay
50-60%cpu live
spikes to 100% on the lags (mode switch, some menus, change channel)

WinXP MCE 2005 sp2
MSI KT3 Ultra2
AthlonXP mobile 2500+ @1.87GHz
512MB OCZ pc3200 cas2.5
All-in-Wonder 9600pro 128MB
Seagate Barracuda 200GB IDE

not the most advanced setup, but I like to squeeze the juice out of my boxes :)
 
Ok I take that back.
It WAS actually smooth until the last reboot. Post-boot, audio on live TV is absent, and any scheduled recordings try and fail twice to record, resulting in two 0-min long recordings...

recently I installed
- latest Java (used for flash upgrading my SonyEricsson phone)
- PowerDVD 5

It's not likely to be PowerDVD, since it coexisted on previous setups of mine before. I just want to know if/how I borked my audio, and how I can get it back...


EDIT
... problem isolated to codec replacements and settings, however I have no idea how to install the better codecs, or how to choose which one Media Center plays. Reinstalling the above cats/mmc restored audio, but video is choppy slightly once in a while... kind of annoying.
 
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MCE Recording problems

MCE Recording problems

I'll spare you the details about my trials and travails with my ATI hardware and software, but I've now removed my HDTV card and completely uninstalled all of my ATI software and reinstalled everything needed to run my ATI X600 AIW card.

MCE picked up the TV Tuner and I'm able to watch live TV without any issues.

My problem is with recording and it was a problem before I removed the HDTV card and did the reinstall. Every time I record something (and I've tried both the "guide", "one touch" and "manual time/channel" recording --- the recording starts and stops within a minute. I end up with 2 identical recordings of the same show (eg. Cold Case from last night) with both recordings having a duration of 0 minutes. That doesn't even allow me to lie on the couch :D

I did a "system restore" about a month ago when I could not load MCE at all and that worked. I could try that again, but would like to avoid a complete reinstall of MCE if possible. Are there any maintenance type things I can do with MCE or does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance. I have been lurking on the boards the last month and have picked up some valuable info!!!
 
I don’t know what to tell you cljlbl67,…

I had a pristine installation of MCE 2K5 using the components in my sig below and after installing MMC 9.04 it hasn’t quite been right since. The symptoms where as follows:

MCE started slowly.

MCE splash screen would be out of sync with audio for the splash screen (audio would be heard after the splash screen instead of with).

All video from live TV to recorded TV would have an odd ripping effect like a video game in need of video sync but if recorded TV was played in WMP it would look fine.
Click to expand...

Uninstalling MMC didn’t fix these problems and the HDTV Wonder no longer functioned in MCE. Reinstalling MMC got the HDTV Wonder working again but the other problems still persisted.

There is no doubt in my mind that had I not installed MMC, MCE 2K5 would still be working as well as when I first installed the OS and configured it.

After swapping the older X800XL for a new Sapphire X800GTO2 the video ripping anomaly subsided altogether but everything is still not back to normal.
 
AIW 9600XT -- possible to use SP drivers for Media Center tv playback?

AIW 9600XT -- possible to use SP drivers for Media Center tv playback?

Is it possible to use the analog SP drivers and have Media Center detect the AIW 9600XT TV Tuner in Windows Media Center 2005? I liked using these in MMC 9.08, 'cause they consume very little resources when MMC is running.

If it isn't possible... I might just scrap the whole Media Center installation and just install regular XP Pro... it's too much stutter, loss of audio/video sync and high cpu usage to be worth it for my system...

equipment in use: (milking the life out of this old Sony VAIO)

Sony VAIO PCV-RX580
Pentium 4 1.8GHz (soon to be P4 2.6Ghz Northwood -- hopefully this'll help)
768 MB PC133 RAM
AIW 9600XT 'whitebox' ($91 shipped! -- no Remote Wonder II)
2 Ultra ATA 133 drives (300, 250 GB) connected to UtraTX2 133 PCI card
 
An update on my MCE/ATI X600 travails...

I was able to get MCE recording after restoring my system back a month, doing a few things, and then UNDOing the system restore. For some unknown reason, it worked then. It worked fine for a week until Tuesday night, when it taped L&O SVU twice for a minute each. I navigated into the "history" tab and it gave a message to the effect, "recording stopped prematurely due to loss of audio/video" or something close to that.

I did a system restore to this past Sunday when it was taping fine, and was able to tape a show last night. Obviously, the audio/video didn't just improve 10 minutes later, so that "reason" cited in the recording stoppage is UNTRUE.


I downloaded Advance System Optimizer and was able to get rid of that issue by cleaning up my registry and computer (after many fresh installs of all of the ATI stuff).

I am now getting (not a totally new thing as it has happened before as well) the full hour worth of recording. However, I get the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH for my visual and I get perfect audio. On my blue screen I see the text "Digital Audio Service". That just makes it all the more tempting to throw something at it as I know I GET THAT :D

Thanks in advance for any help!!!
 
OK, I could use some help here.

The system configuration in my sig has developed a stuttering problem when watching and recording live TV in MCE 2K5. This doesn’t necessarily translate to the recorded file in WMP. It usually take about 15 to 20 minutes before the stuttering starts and then it just gets progressive worse until it looks as if it has frozen altogether (but it is just a really long pause). Nothing seems to be lost though since everything is cached and pressing forward or back usually fixes it for a short time,…then it starts again. CPU usage seems to be low.

I’ve suspected the swap file so I resized it and also allowed windows to manage it but that had no effect. I’ve suspected the Catalyst drivers so I went form 5.09 to the new 5.12s (MCE version of course). I’ve suspected some motherboard BIOS settings so I changed them (PEG Link Mode from Auto to Disabled). I’ve also suspected any OCing so I set everything that was previously OCed back to default speed. I’ve turned off some software such as ASUS AI Booster but still no effect.

I’ve also uninstalled the ATI MCEE software from the Kram MCE4.10kv mod pack that enabled the analog tuner on the installed HDTV Wonder,…still to no avail.

I’ve also compared BIOS settings with SYSTEM64-X1 which is very similarly configured but doesn’t have the problem,….still nothing.

I’m running out of ideas here, I still have a few but I was wondering if anyone else has run into this problem and could help.

Thanks in advance.

Agustus/Octavious/Octavean
 
OK, I managed to get the stutter problem fixed with the help of the good people over at thegreenbutton.com.

It turns out the problem stemmed from when I swapped out the Athlon 64 3000+ for an Athlon 64 X2 3800+. The problem started to get better when I installed the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor Driver for Windows XP but it didn’t fix it altogether.

I had to download a utility that would allow me to specify the processor “Affinity” for the “ehrecvr.exe” service. Forcing the Media Center Receiver Service to use one core fixed the stutter problem completely.
 
I can't seem to get my AIW X1800 XL to work in MCE 2005, all I get is a hardware tuner not found, even after manually updating "ATI T200 Unified AVStream Driver" to "ATI WDM Rage Theatre Video NSP". Using the "ATI WDM Rage Theatre Video NSP" driver, the TV component of MMC 9.10 doesn't even open for me and just hangs.

Also does anyone know where I can get ATi DVD Decoder 2.1.0.1 or just the PowerDVD.sim from it?
 
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