Ati Tv Wonder 650 (2 Viewers)

[shaba230]

Hi I was just wondering if anyone has had any luck using the NEW drivers from ATI and media portal. I just picked up this card and would like to try media portal with it, but frankly if it's not going to be very stable, it's not for me.

This PC is used for a lot of work applications for me, and i'm often running calculations throughout the day and I can't have it crash just because my computer is recording a television show for me.

I have a very powerful PC so that's the least of my worries here, but I am concered with the stability of this program with my card as it isn't listed in the documentation as a supported card but I have found a few posts where people have got it to work with iffy results.

Thanks

e6600 @ 3ghz
p5w dh deluxe
2gig ecc ram
7600gt oced
74 gig raptor
320 gig storage, soon to add another
plextor 755 sata dvd burner

 

[WayneDB123]

I just set up Media Portal with an ATI 650 and it works pretty well for the most part but I have had the computer lock up while watching TV. It seems every time I try Media Portal it gets much better so I am sure I will get it stable.

I am runinnig an AMD 64 X2 4600+
EVG Nvidia 7600GT
1gb Kingston ram
Winfast NF4K8MC-EKRS mototherboard
ATI Theater Pro 650
Twinhan 102g DVB-S
80gb WD OS drive and 2 320gb storage drives
HP DVD drive
Newest version of Media Portal with PMIII skin

 

[shaba230]

thanks i just ended up trying it and it was a very annoying process. I did get it to work but going from window to full screen and vice versa gave me problems. Setting up the guide was killer and then getting it to understand my hybrid tuner etc was a pain.

Vista Ultimate---AMAZING solution (but far from free, good thing my school will be offering a heavy discount when it's released)

 

[WayneDB123]

I had no problems with Media portal detecting my tv cards, It found both the ATSC and analog sides of the 650 and the radio part. I did have a problem with sub channels on some digital channels that were found but discarded by the software,
I just added them manually with the help of TS Reader lite that gave me all the info I needed to create the channels. I have been using xmltv for years with another program so I already had a proper guide file ready to go. I have MCE 2005 on this computer also and I hate it. I think Vista ultimate i going to be $260 for the upgrade, Media Portal is free so I don't think I will be buying any new OS anytime soon. By the way I had problems going to full screen while video was playing but now I have everything set up I just set it to start in full screen mode.

 

[shaba230]

By the way I had problems going to full screen while video was playing but now I have everything set up I just set it to start in full screen mode.

I noticed that, but i have dual displays so i usually like to have it in a window and sometimes go to full screen, i really need that option of going back and forth.

i've never used mce2005, but what is it that you dislike about it compared to your mediaportal? From waht i understand mce2005 and my vista media center are too different, but i don't know first hand

 

[WayneDB123]

I have many reasons for not liking MCE 2005.
1. Stupid hardware requirements for making things work right, I have a ATI HDTV wonder I used in my MCE 2005 box before and MCE makes me put in a Analog card before it will detect the ATSC card. You can get around this with a hacked driver but it is stupid on Microsofts part to ever have made it this way.

2. The guide sucks if you live away from a major city and get your channels from multiple sources, I get some HD channels from 90 miles away and some from 45 miles away. I want to pick and choose what channels I get and from where and build my own guide, can't do that in MCE.

3. I use a DVB-S satellite card also in this computer for Free to Air digital channels, Microsoft has no support for this, you can use a work around DVB-T emulation but it is not as nice as it should be and you don't have enough control. I know that DVB-S is not that popular where I live but I have a Big C-band satellite dish and I find plenty of interesting stuff to watch.

4. I don't like that MCE uses it's own format to record in.

Media Portal gives me far more control over how I use the computer, It is not perfect yet but it has improved constantly over time. I have some problems with Media Portal also, I sometimes get Out of sync audio on one HD channel I get but for whatever reason it does not seem to happen on other HD channels, the channel scan is not perfect either, I had a problem with scanning a HD channel with two other sub channels on it, it found three channels at that frequency but only saved the 3rd channel that only shows weather. I just went to the channels setup in the Media Portal setup ap and added the program ID and video, audio and PCR pids and all is fine. I know some people would not know how to do this and it will be hard to setup for them but it is a 1 time thing. It will get better.

 

[shaba230]

3. I use a DVB-S satellite card also in this computer for Free to Air digital channels, Microsoft has no support for this, you can use a work around DVB-T emulation but it is not as nice as it should be and you don't have enough control. I know that DVB-S is not that popular where I live but I have a Big C-band satellite dish and I find plenty of interesting stuff to watch.

Can you tell me a little about this? We have a dish at our house that we used to use when we had dish network but now it just sits there...are you saying I can somehow get it for free?

Thanks in advance

 

[WayneDB123]

I am not using a little dish like Dish network uses, I have a 10 foot and an 8.5 foot diameter C/KU band dishes that I use to Subscribe To 4DTV programming and also for Free to air Mpeg2 digital channels throughout the arc., for more info on what FTA is checkout http://www.Satforums.com or http://www.Satelliteguys.us , both these sites have areas dedicated to Mpeg2 FTA satellite reception.

 

[whitecrow]

I also have an ATI TV Wonder 650. Media Portal recognizes both sides of the card (NTSC and ATSC) but a scan doesn't find any channels. The card works fine in ATI's Catalyst Media Center but that software is so poor, I wanted to replace it with Media Portal. I have my satellite receiver connected to the card with composite cables attached to the composite block that comes with the card. Could this be part of the problem? I could have used the coax in line on the back of the card but the reception is better with the composite cables. If anyone has any suggestions, I would be glad to try them. I have tried Media Portal's default video and audio settings as well as the ATI settings and the NVIDIA settings. Nothing works but I suspect there are more customized settings that I need to tweak but just don't know where they are. Ideas?

 

[WayneDB123]

I don't know if this will work seeing the scan didn't find any channels but maybe if you added them manually. I added missing sub channels manually in Media Portal.
I used TSReader lite from this site http://www.coolstf.com/ to get the info I needed to enter the channel parameters.