Just got my Readeon AIW... Update, happier now ;)

[TheBigZ]

And I have a couple questions to run by the more seasoned owners...

I can't seem to play a dvd or vcd. Now I'm assuming it's because there's not yet a sound card in this box... altho my Hollywood card would play a dvd without a sound card, albeit quietly. Anyway, I'm assuming this prob will be gone in a couple days when the sound card arrives.

I notice when I'm watching TV, the picture will "dim" frequently. Almost like it has that feature some tv's have when really bright scenes would be toned down a bit depending on the darkness of the room. But its like it's run amock. It'll just keep bouncing back & forth between lighter & darker. Anyone else noticed this?

I was actually expecting a little better picture quality out of the tv, maybe newer drivers will help. If it's relevent, I installed DX8 and and the .7041 beta drivers.

Anyone have any tweaks for this puppy?

 

[Buddha Bart]

I've seen this on my friends TNT2U with tv/out as well. At first we thought it was some kind of copy protection built into the VCR. Mabey its just the nature of the technology. I wonder..

bart

 

[SendTrash]

Hmmmm.. haven't noticed that dimming problem with my Radeon AIW. BTW you mentioned tweaks.. there are tweaks for Windows 9x/ME only. Since I run Win2k, I don't know any... but you can be sure to find registry tweaks in the forum here. BTW, you can overclock your radeon using Powerstrip. I get 183, but run at default 166 since I get some lockups some times with overclocking.

 

[TheBigZ]

OK, dropped in a sound card. Only a es1373 chip pci CL card, but gets the job done. So now the DVD works... sorta. Jumpier than all get out. The cpu is a cel300 running at 450. Seems to me that that oughta be enough snot to do nothing but play a dvd assuming the AIW is providing at least SOME hardware assist. Am I expecting too much from this cpu? Or did I expect too much from the AIW? BTW, this same rig played DVDs just fine with a Hollywood+ card.

 

[UsandThem]

The Radeon is very CPU dependent. I had a Celeron 566, and it did the same thing to some degree.

I now have a PIII 700, and the extra power makes the difference.

 

[MrPOOF]

Hey Z, the Radeon's DVD playback is great. Like a lot of people I got rid of my old Hollywood+Decoder because the Radeon is just as good if not better. Something is just not right with your system and I'm not sure what it might be. Granted that is a fairly slow processor, but I'm not sure if that could be the problem or not. The Radeon has the best hardware assist of any card, and the only card to have IDCT (Hardware Acceleration). I suggest you go to Radeonic (see link below) or the RAGE FORUMS and ask around over there. Since the Radeon's DVD quality is so excellent for everybody I know, I'm just not sure what else to suggest. Go check out those two places. There are hundreds of Radeon owners there.

*Edit* I was posting while AntiAbit was posting and I didn't see his comment. Maybe it is just too slow of a processor. Afterall everybody I know with Radeons have pretty fast machines so maybe that's it.

 

[TheBigZ]

Thanks, I'll do some fishing in the Rage forums. Guess I was just expecting the AIW to do at least as good as the Hollywood did in the same machine. But, I suppose if I absolutely have to, I can use this as an excuse to get a faster processor. Terribly unlikely that the wife would buy that tho.

 

[TheBigZ]

Well shoot, there goes that excuse. A quick trip into the properties tab for the Pioneer dvd drive showed that the dma box was unchecked. A checkmark and a reboot later, and the dvd playback is now acceptably smooth.

Thanks again all

 

[pidge]

I say the Hollywood Magic looks the best followed by the Matrox G400 and last the ATI AIW Radeon (DVD quality on your TV). Matrox doesn't have motion compensation which really brings its score down for watching DVD's but I would say the Matrox G400 looks just as good as the Hollywood Magic DVD decoder. These have all been compared on a very nice 32" Sony TV.

 

[SendTrash]

Radeon Tweaks