Radeon AIW w/MMC 7.6 -> no TV

[crapito]

similar thread on Rage3d.com

I have a Radeon AIW running Win98SE. I installed the WDM drivers first, then without restarting, installed the latest official drivers, 9016. I rebooted, installed MMC 7.6, and rebooted again. ATi's taskbar loads, but doesn't even have a TV button. Internet Explorer has an ATI TV button, but clicking it only brings up a blank screen. if I load the TVC shortcut in Start->Programs->ATi Multimedia Center->TV, shortcut is "C:\Program Files\ATI Multimedia\main\ATIMMC.exe" /TV+, I get a loading/busy icon for a moment, then nothing. hmm...

I checked my C:\Program Files\ATI Multimedia\main\errorlog.txt file; all it stated was: "ResMngr::Unkwnown feature specified on command line".

it's pretty obvious to me that something the TV program needs didn't get installed/isn't loading; I just don't know what or how to fix it.

any ideas? (including other drivers/MMC versions? btw: I tried using Omega's 1.4.23 driver, but got the same no-TV results.)

thanks.

 

[masterc]

I've had similar problems in the past (not with these drivers).
Did you try a clean UNinstall of ALL ATI drivers, then reinstalling the new drivers?
This worked for me before.

 

[crapito]

semi-clean. I deleted all ATi and Radeon entries in my registry, rebooted in Safe mode, deleted my video card, rebooted, added a Standard PCI adapter, rebooted, then installed the ATi drivers. I suppose I can reinstall Windows, but currently, it's not worth it just for the possibility of getting the TV to work.

 

[NeoMadHatter]

my brother and i have this video card. i installed the latest video drivers, mmc 7.6, then directx 8.1 and then the dvd5.0 and everything seems to be working great for him on windows 98se, i have yet to try it on mine as i just clean installed everything with windows xp pro. but if win98se is what you're asking about, that's what works wonders for him.

 

[crapito]

NeoMadHatter: does your brother have Windows Media Player 7.1 installed too? I think that might be the key... (I don't have it installed)

 

[rbV5]

Normally you would install the WDM drivers AFTER the video card driver. Do you have DX 8.1 installed? Previous to DX8.1, you had to install the DX video capture update and webTv from MS for the TV functions to work in Windows 98.

MMC 7.6 requires DX8.1 and that the windows media codecs be installed prior to installing MMC7.6.

 

[crapito]

good news... I got my TV to work!

here's what I did...

as I previously had other Radeon drivers installed, I did a "semi-clean" install. I deleted all ATi and Radeon entries in my registry, rebooted in Safe mode, deleted my video card, rebooted, added a Standard PCI adapter, rebooted, then installed the ATi drivers. I installed the WDM drivers first, then without restarting, installed the latest official drivers, 9016. I rebooted, installed MMC 7.6, and rebooted again. at this point, the TV was NOT working. after reading some more crap online, I downloaded Windows Media Player 7.1 from Windows Update. this still didn't fix my TV problem. I tried to uninstall MMC 7.6, but decided to try it's repair feature instead. rebooted, and... TV works! woo-hoo. thus, it seems Windows Media Player 7.1 needs to be installed before MMC 7.6. I've heard DirectX 8.1 also must be installed first, but as I already had this installed first, I can't comment. here's a simplified version of what I would recommend, in the order I recommend it...

1. clean install of Windows with Standard PCI-VGA adapter as video card
2. install all the Windows Update files, especially DirectX 8.1 and Windows Media Player 7.1
3. reboot
4. install ATi WDM drivers (5118) and, without rebooting, install latest official ATi Display drivers (9016)
5. reboot
6. install ATi MMC 7.6
7. reboot
8. watch TV

thanks everyone...

btw: wouldn't it be nice if F*CKING ATI WOULD HAVE A README FILE THAT WOULD STATE THAT DIRECTX 8.1 AND WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 7.1 HAVE TO BE INSTALLED BEFORE ATI'S DRIVERS IN ORDER FOR MMC 7.6 TO WORK CORRECTLY? WHY THE HELL DO END-USERS/CUSTOMERS HAVE TO FIGURE THIS OUT ON THEIR OWN?

 

[rbV5]

<< btw: wouldn't it be nice if F*CKING ATI WOULD HAVE A README FILE THAT WOULD STATE THAT DIRECTX 8.1 AND WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 7.1 HAVE TO BE INSTALLED BEFORE ATI'S DRIVERS IN ORDER FOR MMC 7.6 TO WORK CORRECTLY? WHY THE HELL DO END-USERS/CUSTOMERS HAVE TO FIGURE THIS OUT ON THEIR OWN? >>



Why should they bother? most folks disregard the information anyway.

This is the FIRST paragraph on the ATI download page for MMC 7.6:

"Requirements
In Windows 98 / 98SE and Windows ME Windows Media Format codecs must be installed prior to installing ATI Multimedia Center 7.6. These components are available with the Windows Media Encoder which is available for download from Microsoft.
Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 98 SE, or Windows 98
DirectX 8.1 or higher
( DirectX 8.1 is included with Windows XP ) "

Oh, it looks like they DO. what do ya know?

 

[crapito]

on ATi's RADEON Windows 98 Display Drivers pages, there is nothing regarding DirectX 8.1 and/or Windows Media Player 7.1 being required. under the 9016 display driver, it states "DirectX 8.1 ... support are included", but again, nothing about being required.

of course, now that I've read your post, rbV5, I was able to find that info under ATi's ATI Multimedia Center 7.6 page. still, since I downloaded MMC 7.6 from another link, I never got a chance to read this info. therefore, I'll take some responsibility for this hassle, though ATi could easily fix this with a simple readme file and/or a warning when actually installing MMC 7.6. also, I've searched ATi's site for quite a while and I still can't find an email address for tech support. what does that tell me? ATi doesn't really care and doesn't really want to provide support for it's end-user customers. this is in stark contrast to Epox's excellent customer support. I wasn't so pissed that my TV wasn't working as I was by ATi's lack of information and support regarding their products. sh*t, ATi doesn't even have older driver versions available to download, and its ftp site doesn't seem to accept anonymous logins, which all together, makes my life much more difficult. sorry for the rant, but one would think that a company as large as ATi would create products, websites, and contact info in such a manor that one can easily access info and troubleshoot problems. the simple fact that I posted my problems on Anandtech and Rage3d is a sad reflection of ATi's lack of support.

 

[rbV5]

<< on ATi's RADEON Windows 98 Display Drivers pages, there is nothing regarding DirectX 8.1 and/or Windows Media Player 7.1 being required. under the 9016 display driver, it states "DirectX 8.1 ... support are included", but again, nothing about being required >>


Ummm, thats because they are not required for the driver. The support for OpenGL and DX8.1 for the driver means that there is support for the graphic API's, not that they are required for their use.


<< I've searched ATi's site for quite a while and I still can't find an email address for tech support. what does that tell me? >>


Tells me you are having trouble navigating their new site. I found this Web Form Contact by clicking at the top of the home page "Company Info>contact" click through and fill in the forms, they'll contact you in 24 hours(supposedly)


<< ATi doesn't even have older driver versions available to download >>


Well, they do..click on the link titled "Previous Display Driver Versions" that will take you to a page with previous drivers to download.

Took me a matter of a few minutes to track down the likely cause of your trouble, it took longer to write the post. You're posts were largely ignored at Rage3d because a simple search would have yeilded the answer that has beeen asked over and over and over again.