Where can I get Catalyst Media Center

A

Alphamale

New member
I recenlty had a crash and had to reinstall OS and devices. I have a TV Tuner 650 Pro PCI and have installed recent drivers for it, but can't find my install CD for CMC. Why is this software so hard to find on the web? AMD/ATI doesn't offer it. Where can I find it? The card is useless without it. TIA

AM
 
Why should I have to do that? Every other hardware mfg. provides for their customers the availability of drivers AND software online for their products. If you don't own an ATI Tuner, what good would it be to have their software?
 
digging...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/246848-33-catalyst-media-center hmm.. so is your tv tuner from ati or an AIB like sapphire?

an older rage3d thread also noticed that CMC is a modded cyberlink app, they cant just leave it available for dload as there's licensed code/etc (just saw another thread, apparently there's a payware mpeg decoder inside)

you might end up having to prove to ati (or whoever packaged your card) that it's yours & they should give it to you

here are apparent alternatives as of april 2008

"SageTV (Pay)
GBPVR (Free)
MediaPortal (Free)
Meedio (Free)
Myth TV (Free Linux)

IMO ATi Media Center is a piece of junk anyways."

PM coming your way..
 
kn00tcn said:
digging...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/246848-33-catalyst-media-center hmm.. so is your tv tuner from ati or an AIB like sapphire?

an older rage3d thread also noticed that CMC is a modded cyberlink app, they cant just leave it available for dload as there's licensed code/etc (just saw another thread, apparently there's a payware mpeg decoder inside)

you might end up having to prove to ati (or whoever packaged your card) that it's yours & they should give it to you

here are apparent alternatives as of april 2008

"SageTV (Pay)
GBPVR (Free)
MediaPortal (Free)
Meedio (Free)
Myth TV (Free Linux)

IMO ATi Media Center is a piece of junk anyways."

PM coming your way..
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, but I don't understand why ATI didn't make the software proprietary...meaning if the software does not detect an ATI graphics device, then the use of the program is eliminated. As I mentioned, you can't use logitech software for other mfg.er's mice, keyboards, and remotes. You can't use creative soundblaster software for other soundcards, etc., etc. etc. What is ATI worried about?
 
a simple hardware check can be cracked

amd fusion optimizer thing can run on intel platforms, i would think the mpeg2 licensor is worried... which yet again shows how annoying licensed stuff is
 
I know from experience the CMC HD 650 install disk works for any brand of ATI Theater card. So if were me, I'd be checking out the download sites of every manufacturer that makes an ATI based TV Tuner. That includes the NEW All-in-Wonder 3650 cards. They have to ship with a working version of CMC with that product. Look for a download in the 400-500 MB range. Might take some tweaking to make it work, but you won't have to pay Cyberlink or Beyond TV an additional $100 to get your card up and running.

Edit: You could also buy Vista Home Premium which has ready made TV Tuner software built in. I have Vista Business so I've never used the Vista Media Center software, but I think I would rather pay about the same amount for a full OS, rather than a single program.

Good hunting.
 
Alphamale said:
Why should I have to do that? Every other hardware mfg. provides for their customers the availability of drivers AND software online for their products. If you don't own an ATI Tuner, what good would it be to have their software?
Click to expand...

ATI Catalyst Media Center gives every indication that it is a modified version of Cyberlink PowerCinema. The versions of CMC that shipped with ATI hardware and presumably other OEMs like Sapphire had absolutely no mechanism to detect or differentiate hardware with respect to manufacturer. Therefore the CMC software could be installed on ANY system whether it had an ATI tuner, a tuner from another company or no tuner at all.

Under such a poor restriction scheme one can see why it was never really offered up for download openly in an official capacity.

I can see why you would think that you shouldn’t have to spend more money for this software and in fact I agree that you shouldn’t. On the other hand $12.99 for the install disc isn’t all that much either although S&H might double that price.

I will point out though that those who may not even have any ATI hardware could buy the install disc at $12.99 (+S&H) and get something akin to Cyberlink PowerCinema’s full feature set and more for a lot less then the retail price of ~$129.95:

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/products/main_12_en_US.html

Actually, I think the newest Cyberlink PowerCinema 6 has MPEG-4 AVCHD decoder support for TV so it has one or two new tricks that CMC can’t do. Still,…
 
Alphamale said:
Thanks for the info, but I don't understand why ATI didn't make the software proprietary...meaning if the software does not detect an ATI graphics device, then the use of the program is eliminated. As I mentioned, you can't use logitech software for other mfg.er's mice, keyboards, and remotes. You can't use creative soundblaster software for other soundcards, etc., etc. etc. What is ATI worried about?
Click to expand...

Well, don't think ATI is unique, third party applications are licensed and they need to be payed, this is VERY common in the computer world. we're talking about scanning software or OCR software that comes with most scanners. A lot of these programs (especially OCR) can NOT be downloaded from the vendor and require you to jump through a lot of hoops to replace a missing CD. A Driver is something different than a full-flexed licensed program.
 
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