MCE2005

[mmlr38]

Here's what I got:

Asus A7V8X MB
Athlon XP 2600+
512 MB memory (PC3200 I think)
ATI AIW 9700 Pro
Hauppauge PVR150 (not the MCE version)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum

Here's my issue: I did a fresh install of MCE2005 last night. Everything went pretty smoothly until I tried to install the ATI drivers. I used the ones from here (the ATI site - drivers for MCE - which really don't list the AIW, but I don't care because I am going to use the Hauppauge card for TV. I just want the AIW to serve as my video card to my TV, not my PVR). Anyway, when I installed these drivers I was getting 4 new hardware devices found and it couldn't install the drivers for the "Unknown Devices." So I decided to not install any ATI drivers and just use the ones that Windows intalled the first time the machine booted up.

I have all other drivers installed, including the PVR150 Drivers. I have used the PVR150 successfully before with Windows XP Pro and Beyond TV. However, last night (after installing all drivers and MPEG2 decoders that I wanted - NVDVD, WinDVD, etc.) I started going through the "Live TV" setup in the Media Center menu.

NOW HERE'S THE REAL ISSUE: Things seemed to be going pretty well until I got to setting up the TV source. MCE indicated that it recognized the PVR source and then wanted me to select the input. I could hear the audio, but when it got to the screen to select the video input source (S-Video1, S-Video2, Coaxial1, etc.) the screen would start to flicker between the current menu screen and the one I just came from, and the computer would hang.

This happened several times before I gave up. I think it may be a driver issue or that my ATI card is interfering with the PVR somehow (maybe MCE thinks it is the default PVR card?)

I am thinking about installing BeyondTV 3.5.1 and seeing if I can get that to work. Not sure what that would tell me other than the card is still working.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[rbV5]

The "unkown" devices are the Rage Theater components, they aren't supported in MCE, but in other direct show applications..you need to install the WDM drivers in addition to the Graphic drivers for those.


When configuring MCE, are you picking "yes" when it asks you if you are using a STB? You should be picking "no" unless you are not using the PVR150 tuner to tune your analog channels.

 

[mmlr38]

Thanks for the reply rbV5.

I have tried installing every kind of ATI driver I can get my hands on (even hacked drivers), but I can't seem to get it to recognize the "unkown" devices. I have imaged the hard drive, so it is easy to go back a step and try something else.

I was picking "yes" for the STB question, and I tried it as no, but either way, MCE hangs when it tries to check the inputs for TV. The screen also goes black and the computer hangs when I try to play a DVD.

I have installed codecs and heard that this can mess things up, but I installed them with ffdshow. According to what I have read, that is the only safe way to install codecs.

Last night I also install BeyondTV 3.5.1. Everything worked beautifully with it. I can't figure out what the problem is with MCE.

 

[mmlr38]

Well, after much trial and error, and relying heavily on Acronis True Image, I have finally got the dang thing working.

In the end, I think the problem was with the ATI All-in-Wonder card. It wasn't the drivers, per se, but just the fact that it had a tv tuner was really messing with the MCE.

I swapped out the ATI AIW card for a different video card and reinstalled all the necessary drivers, and voila! Everything works.

The only thing I had a little trouble with was getting the resolution right so that I can get the picture up on my Sony Grand Wega. The new video card didn't want to accept the resolution that I use with the Sony GW, but after some tweaking in PowerStrip, I got it to work.

All is happy now.

Thanks for the help.