ATI TVWonder Elite is driving me nuts

[carage]

I really don't know how to start describing this frustration.
When I finally got most of my HDTV Wonder problems fixed by a software update a couple months ago (and after wasting about $40 for calling Canada because the 1800 number is almost never available), I really thought things couldn't be worse.
Unfortunately, I am proven wrong once again.
Due to my faith in the good reviews about ATi's new wonderful Theater 550 Pro chipset, I decided to get the TVWonder Elite to replace my HDTV Wonder.

Now the software is just driving me nuts.
I don't know what should I use.
The included PowerCinema3 ATI edition was ricolously slow, and I couldn't get the remote working correctly.
So I decided to try on ATI's own MMC. Unfortunately MMC 9.08 refuses to install.
I was able to install MMC 9.03 but the TV function wouldn't start, and ATI doesn't officially suport MMC with its own TVWonder Elite anyway.
Then I decided to try on WinDVR3. WinDVR3 seems to work ok. The only problem is I couldn't get the sound. There was no sound. It seems WinDVR only accepts those kinds of TV Tuners that hook directly to the soundcard. So WinDVR is essentially useless.
Since the one bundled with the card was PowerCinema3, I then decided to give PowerCinema4 a try. PowerCinema4 works, albeit very slowly. It takes approximately 45 seconds to start the TV window. Using the ATI Remote Wonder Plus to change the channels is also tricky. When I press a number button it automatically repeats itself. For instance, pressing 5 results in jumping to 55. So I had to use my X-Fi Platinum's remote to change channels. The worst thing about PowerCinema4 is that after broadcasting for about 10 minutes or so, the picture freezes while the audio goes on as normal. This is an unacceptable flaw.
Next I decided to give DScaler and iuVCR a try. Unfortunately, neither of them would work.

I am running out of ideas. Some guy on another forum I found through Google claims he got this card working with MMC 9.03. Though now I have serious doubts about that claim.

What software do you use with this card? Am I being forced to use Windows MCE instead? Would XP64 work any better?

My specs are:
Athlon FX-55 SanDiego
4GB RAM
Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI motherboard
BFG 7800 GTX
X-Fi Platinum
Windows XP SP2

Thanks for any help.
Perhaps ATI finally got the drivers and software for the Radeon cards working correctly, but for what I experienced from the HDTV Wonder and the TVWonder Elite it seems ATI still has a very long way to go.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Never tried it, but I just ordered a Sapphire Theatre 550 and I think I'll use this.

 

[carage]

Thanks. I guess I'll try the demo first before I decide whether I should fork over $69...

 

[carage]

I just installed the BeyondTV4 trial version.
Every thing was working fine until the stage when it was scanning the channel lineup during setup wizard then it crashed.

 

[carage]

I also tried BeyondTV 3.5 trial.
This time it got stuck at the same point.
Except this time the error was buffer overrun.
It seems to have problems initializing ATI audio capture.

 

[biostud]

I saw some suggest: Media Portal or GB-PVR.

Maybe you need to do a clean install of the drivers.

 

[Acanthus]

I hate ATis AIW and TVWonder products... i dont think ive ever had one that isnt quirky.

Sadly there really isnt better out there either.

 

[CraigRT]

Similar reasons as to why I returned my TV Wonder Elite.. for that much, it really should work well. It just doesn't.

 

[rbV5]

To be honest both HDTV Wonder and TVWonder Elite (and the rest of the theater 550 cards) realy shine in MCE 2005, but other solutions can be a mixed bag.

The next MMC version should provide TVWonder Elite support (The version shipping with AIW X1800 XL currently does support it IIRC), which would almost have to be better than the less than desirable Power Cinema software.

XP64 will definately not be better, those cards are really made for MCE, once I went with MCE 2005, I haven't looked back and like it quite a bit.

 

[Markbnj]

I have the TV Wonder Elite. A couple of points/recommendations....

First, yes the Powercinema software absolutely blows. Almost anything is better, including sitting on your couch drinking beer and pretending there is video on the screen. About the only thing worse than Powercinema is the Gemplus Guide. The only thing that can guide me to is the Uninstall button.

The ATI remote is buggy as hell. It works well enough on my system when it works, and isn't throwing exceptions all over the place. There is an update on their website, which made it worse for me. ATI continues to earn their reputation for lousy software.

I have tried three viewers now: Powercinema, BeyondTV, and GBPVR. Of the three I think BeyondTV is the best. Some people recommend Sage TV, but when I looked they didn't have a downloadable trial, and you have to buy multiple modules to get everything BeyondTV offers.

I will be getting BeyondTV for Christmas, and will be using that going forward.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Heh, I remember when I had an ATI TV Wonder VE w/Remote. Their software was the buggiest sh!t I've ever seen, hands down. It wouldn't even RUN with the ATI software, had to DL DScaler just to watch TV.

Replaced that sh!t with a WinTV or whatever, works a helluva lot better.

 

[carage]

Ok...I tried out a few more things...
BeyondTV still doesn't work. There seems to be something wrong about initializing the sound. May be this has something to do with the sound card??
Anyway, I got SageTV working. They do have a 15 day trial version now. As far as watching live TV, it does work to my satisfaction. I only got one little gripe which is about the channel input. Since it thinks channels are three digits I need to add a 0 to any channel I want. Is there any way to work around that? I don't have hundreds of channels.
The last channel for extended basic is channel 99 which I never watch anyway.
So I guess I would stick with SageTV for now.

Although I would still like to get ATI MMC working.
Um...what is the version number of the MMC that ships with AIW 1800XL? Anyone know where to get it other than buying an AIW 1800XL? ATI MMC 9.08 still refuses to install.
The installation utility would say it is configuring to install then suddenly *poof* disappears without a trace. No error message, no error log, no hanging, no BSOD. Nothing.

 

[carage]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Heh, I remember when I had an ATI TV Wonder VE w/Remote. Their software was the buggiest sh!t I've ever seen, hands down. It wouldn't even RUN with the ATI software, had to DL DScaler just to watch TV.

Replaced that sh!t with a WinTV or whatever, works a helluva lot better.

I had TV Wonder PCI in the past with Windows 98 and later on XP.
I don't think it was that bad at the time.
Although do remember that getting it to work the SB Live! was a bit troublesome at the time.
Is it true that DScaler only works with bt8x8 chipsets?

 

[rbV5]

Although I would still like to get ATI MMC working.
Um...what is the version number of the MMC that ships with AIW 1800XL? Anyone know where to get it other than buying an AIW 1800XL? ATI MMC 9.08 still refuses to install.
The installation utility would say it is configuring to install then suddenly *poof* disappears without a trace. No error message, no error log, no hanging, no BSOD. Nothing.
.

From the reviews I've read, its 9.10 I believe. The card isn't supported with 9.08, so you're probably not going to get it installed with that version without some sort of hack.

Seems like there is a way to renumber your TV channels in SageTV, you might check the forums over there.

 

[jevans64]

I am not having any problems ( no lockups, errors, etc. ) with my Theater 550 Pro ( Visiontek branded ) and BeyondTV 4 with my setup below ( the Shuttle box ). I am not using a PC remote with it since I am running the output to the A/V connection from my Dish 801 HD receiver and use its remote for surfing.

 

[carage]

Originally posted by: jevans64
I am not having any problems ( no lockups, errors, etc. ) with my Theater 550 Pro ( Visiontek branded ) and BeyondTV 4 with my setup below ( the Shuttle box ). I am not using a PC remote with it since I am running the output to the A/V connection from my Dish 801 HD receiver and use its remote for surfing.

I noticed you didn't list a sound card. I assume that is onboard AC97 or Intel HDAUDIO?

 

[carage]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Although I would still like to get ATI MMC working.
Um...what is the version number of the MMC that ships with AIW 1800XL? Anyone know where to get it other than buying an AIW 1800XL? ATI MMC 9.08 still refuses to install.
The installation utility would say it is configuring to install then suddenly *poof* disappears without a trace. No error message, no error log, no hanging, no BSOD. Nothing.
.

From the reviews I've read, its 9.10 I believe. The card isn't supported with 9.08, so you're probably not going to get it installed with that version without some sort of hack.

Seems like there is a way to renumber your TV channels in SageTV, you might check the forums over there.

Thanks. I am downloading 9.1.0 right now.

 

[sodcha0s]

The installation utility would say it is configuring to install then suddenly *poof* disappears without a trace. No error message, no error log, no hanging, no BSOD. Nothing.

I owned an AIW 8500DV, and had issues with MMC as well. As I remember, I upgraded it once and the capture wouldn't work anymore, even after I removed the new version and re-installed the old. I finally stumbled across the fix.... I don't know if it will help you, but it's worth a shot. Anyway, MMC installs hidden directories for each user of windows, they're easy to find because the names are the windows user names, just make sure you have "show hidden files and folders" enabled. When you uninstall the software, it doesn't remove these folders, and this causes the new installation of MMC LOTS of problems. So uninstall MMC and look for these or any other MMC related directories and manually delete them before trying to install the new version. Hope this helps.

 

[jevans64]

Originally posted by: carage

I noticed you didn't list a sound card. I assume that is onboard AC97 or Intel HDAUDIO?

Yes. It is AC97 audio using the Realtek ALC650 chipset. The Shuttle only has one PCI slot, so it is either a TV tuner OR audio card.

 

[carage]

Situation update:
I downloaded ATI MMC 9.1.0, unfortunately it still refuses to install itself.
So I guess I have pretty much given up on it.

I just read that Nero 7 also includes a mediasuite with TV tuner functionality. Anyone has any thoughts or experience on that?

I got another dumb question about SageTV. Does anyone know how to turn off the time-shifting function? I want to watch live TV, but I don't need it to record everything I watch.

Thanks for any input.

 

[carage]

I guess things can't get any more interesting than this.
Now even SageTV stopped working.
For some unknown reason it stopped displaying the video.

I checked with Ulead VideoStudio SE that came with my videocard.
Apparently the tv tuner should be functioning.
Although the VideoStudio seems to be a horrible tool in terms of a PVR/Live TV software.

Anyway, I hope reinstalling SageTV will get things right.

 

[carage]

Anyone know where I can find the rumored MMC 9.1.2??