ATI TV Tuner/AIW cards: what makes them work best. That includes hardware, OS’s, drivers, CMC editions, or other tuner software, both retail and free. For Instance:
BTW: If you’ve installed the Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1 update (KB951847) that was recently released, you might have a problem in Vista. It blocked CMC from running at Startup on my machine. There’s a workaround, but I just reformatted and didn’t install the .NET thingy. It’s not really a security patch, more like a service pack anyway.
Hi Cromwell:
You read my mind for this thread. I've been posting around various OLD threads on this site but this looks a more promising way.
From bottom to top... YOU'VE got to be kidding me. I can't catch a break. I spent a good bit of time about a week ago updating/un-installing/re-installing patches etc for my Vista Ultimate set up with VisionTek HD TV Wonder 650 Combo's. I prefer VMC on that system much more than CMC both from a functionality point of view; it gets far more QAM channels w/ TV Media Pack 2008 installed that CMC doesn't, and CMC (for me) never gets the same number of channels. Plus it seems to crash or hang far too often, and just isn't nearly as polished or capable as the VMC now is.
I got a little over zealous with Driver Cleaner pro and un-installed it, so after reinstalling 1.0.3202 I then added the PATCH from ATI's site to bring it up to 1.0.4210. after Catalyst 9.2 ET. AL. Drivers.
I re-set up and checked / verified that both were working & went back to using VMC. [I liked CMC as a fall back in case I needed it]. Then my cable company decided to redo it's QAM lineup AND it took me a while to figure out it wasn't anything I'd done via the drivers/re-installing (Co-incidence but come on). AND NOW the dang Net 3.5 update that I waited a while before updating, makes the CMC part of all that work yet again wasted. (I have luck & it's all bad).
Thank you though for pointing that out. If time had gone on a few more days I might not have been able to connect the dots back to that.
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So on that home built Vista Ultimate SP1 system, TV Wonder 650 Combos, I use VMC w/ the TV Media Pack 2008 to get QAM & analog. (((I would like to get into the VMC tuner/display settings to adjust some things like contrast, sharpness))) if I can. I like the display of QAM HD. It is EXCELLENT; the colors/blacks every thing seems like glass - it's set up exactly the way I would if I knew how to get into those options. But when I compare the blk Levels and what I may be mistakenly calling Contrast / sharpness, to say my AIW analog tuner cards, the TV wonder's analog display via VMC seems very dull washed out (I believe it's also that way in CMC can't start to verify but i'd have switched to it I think if it was better). I know the 650 pro & 550 chips should be displaying a better picture than the Theatre 200's or the Philips analog tuners, but until I can get into the options I'm a little disappointed.
(I'm used to and really do like how easy it is to adjust settings like that in ATI's old MMC - some shows are too dark boom 10 seconds its adjusted or turned back) -- these issues are independent from the monitors adjustments.
I have this system dual booted with XP Pro SP2, in XP I am only using CMC at this point. It took me along time to read the fine print of Beyond TV and SageTV to find whether it would support QAM in XP - I might consider shelling out some more money for one of them to get the TV Wonder 650's QAM working but I'm not happy about it. (Wish i'd bought AVerMedia or HDHomerun but spilt milk).
Which brings me to the rest of my PC's:
=I'm running a XP Pro SP2 on another home built hybrid C2Duo and APG system running an ATI x800XT All-In-Wonder. (Sometimes I use a TV Wonder Pro or an HDTV Wonder in it). Currently I have them pulled out of the system. I am HAPPILY running that system with Catalyst 5.13, & MMC 9.08.
****I am unable to get HDTV wonder to work w/ or as Multiview with my All-In-Wonders. (((I've read else where that its possible with "newer drivers" but I've never found out which ones exactly are needed (Catalyst & MMC If it means T200 Drivers and MMC 9.13+ forget it)))???
=I built a third C2D MCE2005 sp3 w/ ATI x800 XL All-In-Wonder using Catalyst 9.1 and MMC 9.16 software installed just to get the drivers for MCE2005. Despite shutting down the services manually or in Task Mngr, I can never get both setups to be supported on the same system. If I start MMC 9.16 (and it works) then shut down and / or restart then MCE 2005 doesn't start. [[[This is my newest configuration so i don't' exactly know why its doing that]]]. I mean starting one shouldn't permanently cause the other to not work... (((YES, I'm killing the MCE processes before trying to start MMC))).
But when I just use MCE 2005 SP3 it seems to work OK.
But the card acts "strangely" in the setup process compared to all the other ATI All-In-Wonders & standard XP that I've installed before. It's as if the TUNERS aren't detected at all. Not in Device Manager, no pop up, but things seem to work once all the drivers get installed it's just "strange" to me. IDK if it's the ATI x800XL or MCE2005 SP3 ??? that is acting strangely. Hopefully I'll throw on a dual boot of XP Pro and see if bx repeats there.
I did try out several Catalyst & MMC combinations such as Catalyst 6 like 6.3, 6.2, 6.1, and then finally Catalyst 5.7 and MMC 9.09 (from disc) and then MMC 9.08, MMC 9.06.1. Each time Catalyst WDM installed the T200 Unified drivers (even in Catalyst 5.7. (I found the other drivers in the setup folder but there wasn't an installer to just install the analog WDM drivers. I've never had to manually install it so maybe It doesnt' have an installer and I just needed to use the Device manager & point to it; but if that's the case, without the tuner card detection there is no ? of unknown devices to point to the files??? very strange). ((IDK if the T200 drivers are necessary for MCE2005 to work, but I was hoping to avoid it as I wanted to use the analog drivers so I could still use MMC 9.09 or below and still use MCE2005)). IF THAT'S POSSIBLE PLEASE HELP!! MCE2005 & MMC 9.09 and below & what all needs to be installed (specifically what Catalyst version & do I need to specifically explore to certain files to install & if so how exactly)? or just use the self installer.
I've no
W gotten confused on what did & didnt' work but I had to use the tool I found for MCE2005 to restore it to a clean state many times. In one case I got a set up that worked for MMC but about 5 analog channels came in B&W and full of static. So I ultimately had to settle on MCE2005 only with Catalyst 9.1 and MMC 9.16 drivers.
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I have two other systems with tuner cards right now.
=An IBM box with ATI 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder and currently an HDTV Wonder (when not in the other system) running happily Catalyst 6.2 (Analog drivers) and MMC 9.08.
=The last one is an older Dell using an ATI 9600XT All-In-Wonder which i'm going to have to pull out & maybe do a clean install. I'm not sure if the TV tuner portion of the card is still functioning or not.
