ATI Radeon HD 2X00 (2400,2600,2900) series owners thread [Text View] - Page 10

millerbrad

09-26-07, 03:06 PM

DPlettner;

The 905 has a red light on the display that says PCM, and shows icons for the 5.1 speaker configuration.

I am assuming that the unit means what it says. Plus I have verified manually (by walking around) that each speaker is actually going. Like I said, I had to choose the 6 speaker option in PowerDVD for this to work (somewhere in the PowerDVD manual it said that that is their idea of 5.1).

Steve Young;

As long as you are running a PCI-E card you have two sound options with the ATI dongle. You can choose coax spdif OR you can send PCM signals over the HDMI. This of course may be a function of your playback software and/or receiver. But I do not think there is very much sophisticated about having 5.1 (or 7.1) PCM over hdmi. I think powerdvd dumbs down the audio sampling rates to something like 48khz. Not that I could hear much above 20 khz anyway (which this equates to).

Personally, AC3 is the only way I've managed true 5-channel sound with my 2600. Maybe PowerDVD has pulled it off, though.

With ffdshow, if I switch to LPCM mode, all I get is loud static - both over my TV, and through my Denon AVR-987. All of the PCM modes (I assume they're PCM --16-bit, 24-bit, 32-bit, 32-bit FP) only output 2-channel sound, which my receiver uses ProLogic-II to convert into "pseudo-5-channel".

Are you sure that your receiver isn't just converting 2-channel into 5-channel? Over PCM, my receiver also shows all of my speakers lit up (on the right side of the display), but only because it's re-processing the data and outputting sound through all of the speakers. The left side of my receiver shows the 2 fronts and the LFE lit up, because it's receiving 2-channel data (and the LFE is apparently always lit up for how I have it set up). Also, the "PCM" indicator lights up on my receiver as well, but only because it's receiving 2-channel PCM.

originalsnuffy

09-26-07, 03:24 PM

protovision

09-26-07, 03:30 PM

I can't seem to ever get fullscreen support for my hdtv using the ati adapter and hdmi cable. I have tried different resolutions to no avail. Apparently my pc sees the tv as a max 720 or 740 or something (vertical) instead of the maximum 768 because no matter what resolution I put (up to 1080) the desktop has a 1/2 inch (2 cm) black border (same length to all resolutions).

Check inside CCC for the 'adjust underscan/overscan' option, for me its under the 'DVI' branch on the left.

p.

ExDeus

09-26-07, 03:31 PM

Hi all,

I've searched and search here (and elsewhere), but not seeing anyone with my issue:

I just bought the hd 2600 Pro and installed it on a PC running Vista Ultimate. I am fine with VGA video to my computer monitor, but I'm not getting anything from the component output (via the s-video adapter) when connected to my Yamaha RX-V2600 receiver. My display is a Mitsubishi HC-900. I'm running component from the Yamaha to the Mits.

I assume I'm doing something dumb....??

Any thoughts?

Thansk in advance,

Matt
Can you use an S-Video -> Component adapter on this card? I think that's only for specific cards that support that adapter.

Perhaps you want the DVI -> Component adapter (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_id=1041901&p_id=2398&seq=1&format=2).

goldgin

09-26-07, 03:57 PM

No.

Follow ATI's instructions (http://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=26076) for creating a custom HDTV resolution. Instead of using the 'Component Video Properties', just select the device for whatever it calls your TV, i.e. 'DVI Panel 4'. Try creating custom resolutions for both 1080i and 720p and see which you prefer.

Thanks, even though the ATI link does not work for me (Your support portal session has expired due to inactivity) I think I know what you mean. basically I have resolved the black border issue using this (thanks) but the 1:1 pixel ratio (i know it's not called "zigging" now) still remains because by using the "add" custom resolution method makes it a 1232*712 which is scaled to the native 1366*768. I also tried toying with the scaling options to see if I can have the black border but 1:1 pixels, with no success.

It is definitely better than before but now I am sure it is an ATI driver related issue, or a Sony hdmi-pc-support related issue which I may never resolve.

By the way, even though my tv supports 1080 hdmi input the only available option is 1080i30hz (or 25hz) which even though is better, produces a flicker. When I add 1080p60hz I get blank screen (not supported?) so I cannot add a resolution based on the 1080 standard without flicker.... oh well.

millerbrad

09-26-07, 04:20 PM

Millerbrad--

Sound output over HDMI involves at least three components...the receiver, the computer, and the playback software. So there is certainly room for me to be off-base. If I set Power DVD up for 6 channel output over HDMI; is there reason to think it is only sending a 2 channel signal encoded for prologic II? Certainly the front panel of the receiver says it is receiving PCM, and shows red indicators for 5.1. Maybe DPlettner knows what buttons to press on the receiver to know for sure. I am willing to verify further.

I don't know the ins-and-outs of your receiver (heck, I can only barely navigate my own), so I'm clueless as to whether you've pulled off multichannel PCM or not.

If I set the ffdshow mixer to any of the multichannel PCM modes (i.e. 5.1), the sound apparently successfully transmits to the receiver. But the sound data for all but the 2 main speakers is stripped-out somewhere along the line. As a result, my receiver only gets a 2.0 stream, which it then converts to 5.1 with PLII. For me, this unfortunately seems to substantiate ATI's claims that this card only transmits 2 channel PCM sound. (Seriously... if it can do 5.1 AC3, why not 5.1 PCM??)

If DPlettner can help you figure out if you've pulled off 5.1 PCM, I might think about shelling out for the full version of Power DVD... :)

EDIT: Do you happen to have any DVDs with the THX AV setup stuff on it? Pixar & Lucasfilm movies often have this. You could use the audio tests in this to verify if you're actually getting 5.1 and not 2.0. My Indiana Jones DVDs helped me out alot when I was setting up and calibrating my HTPC.

mattdon

09-26-07, 04:33 PM

Can you use an S-Video -> Component adapter on this card? I think that's only for specific cards that support that adapter.

Perhaps you want the DVI -> Component adapter (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_id=1041901&p_id=2398&seq=1&format=2).

Hi,

Yes, this card supports the adapter -- came with it free....for $30 more than the other hd 2600 pro cards ;-)

Per the other helpful responses I will look into creating a display using CCC that matches my projector's resolution(s) and try booting with only the component cable connected.

Matt

Calathia

09-26-07, 04:37 PM

Hi guys!

I've been close wathing this topic for some time now. I own Sapphire Radeon 2400pro and some hd files are not working even with proper registry tweaks. Also I have vpu recovery errors etc...I have installed a fan to my radeon so heat is not the issue, nor it will be on 2600 also.

Well now I have an opportunity to upgrade my card to Sapphire radeon 2600pro! Do you think I should do it? I heard/read that 2600 xti excels all kinds of HD video, does 2600pro excel also? I believe this is also without any registry tweaks!

So what do you guys think should I change from (note: my shop allows me to change only to 2600pro, not to xti):

Sapphire Radeon HD2400pro -> Sapphire Radeon HD2600pro

Thanks in advance!

arfster

09-26-07, 04:41 PM

So what do you guys think should I change from (note: my shop allows me to change only to 2600pro, not to xti):

The 2600pro is fine, unless you need to turn on every type of processing known to man (mpeg2, VA deinterlacing, denoising, scaling to 2500*1600, etc).

DPlettner

09-26-07, 05:53 PM

Millerbrad--

Sound output over HDMI involves at least three components...the receiver, the computer, and the playback software. So there is certainly room for me to be off-base. If I set Power DVD up for 6 channel output over HDMI; is there reason to think it is only sending a 2 channel signal encoded for prologic II? Certainly the front panel of the receiver says it is receiving PCM, and shows red indicators for 5.1. Maybe DPlettner knows what buttons to press on the receiver to know for sure. I am willing to verify further.We have the same receiver, so this should be easy. Here is the left part of the 905 display:

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/4898/clip0005fh7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The PCM light in the upper right corner should be on. By the way, the PCM light on my 905 is aqua colored, not red.

The boxes represent the speakers you are using, and the contents are illuminated if the source is sending data for these channels.

For example, I have a 5.1 configuration, so the FL, C,FR, SL, LFE, and SR boxes are present. The SBL, SB, and SBR boxes are not present. When I send the 905 2-channel PCM, the PCM light is on, but the only boxes with text are FL and FR. The other boxes do not have text.

If you are sending 6-channel PCM, you should see the PCM light, and there should be text in the FL, C, FR, SL, LFE, and SR boxes.

If you are really sending 6-channel PCM using ATI's HDMI audio, I suspect that many people would be interested in know whether you can send 8-channel PCM. Perhaps you could temporarily add two more speakers to you 905, configure the 905 for 7.1, and configure PowerDVD for 8-channels.

If this works, you should post in the HDMI soundcard thread. 8-channel PCM from a PC over HDMI is a bit of a Holy Grail for HTPCs at the moment.

-Dave

ptr727

09-26-07, 08:51 PM

I just got my ATI / VisionTek HD 2600 XT:
http://www.visiontek.com/products/cards/retail/2600XT_PCIe_512.html

I installed the card in my HTPC case and the fan is really loud.

I am now looking for third party fan / cooler solutions.

I've seen some posts in this thread on using the Zalman VNF100, but I don't think the heatpipes will fit in my case (Antec Fusion Black):
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=278&code=013

I am looking for a cooler that sits on the side of the card and does not extend past the top of the card. I am also only interested in noise reduction, I am not planning on any overclocking.

The Zalman site does not list any HD 2xxx compatible coolers.

Any recommendations?

Regards
P.

grusome

09-26-07, 10:58 PM

It might -- if you play with just Twinhan/don't care about HD and/or don't have a Genpix contraption.

Seriously, the app deserves a Genpix driver. Until then, a nice toy for playing outside NA.

On a more sober note, who would help Genpix to create Genpix BDA driver for AltDVB, I wonder... In the same tune, has anyone in Europe a good experience with ALtDVB parsing/playing their (MBAFF) H.264 channels? Anyone?

I have both the Twinhan and a genpix device. Have been using DVDDream 1.3c with both. Watching h.264 and using CoreAVC 1.5, is ok, but, hogs the cpu big time, and there is a noticable lip sync problem as well. Eventually it crashes. I was hoping to use a 2400 or 2600 to help that. But, have yet to find anyone who has had any luck doing so.
grusome

demariners

09-26-07, 11:20 PM

I have a HD 2600XT pci card and I am not getting anything under device manager for the HD audio out of the HDMI. I have a vista 64-bit computer and the video is working just fine. I still howveer am unable to see a audio device under sound, video, and game controllers. PLEASE HELP.. thanks

RedTee

09-27-07, 01:34 AM

I guess heat isn't the problem then. I also get VPU crashes when I use my Hauppauge PVR150 card in full screen mode (not in windows mode however). Maybe it is only the drivers as the cause, but I haven't heard many folks with a 2600xt suffer from VPU crashes that plague the 2400pro. I think I will wait to upgrade to the RS780 when it comes out and hopefully the drivers will be better by then.

I haven't had a passively-cooled card. Both my 2400Pro OC and 2600Pro with fans have had issues with crashing.

So far I haven't had any issues with the 8.0 betas (8.42), but I haven't done a lot of web browsing.

indieke2

09-27-07, 03:03 AM

Musekal

09-27-07, 09:21 AM

Beefcake

09-27-07, 09:44 AM

musekal, check out my post in this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11742414#post11742414

augiedoggy

09-27-07, 10:11 AM

I have both the Twinhan and a genpix device. Have been using DVDDream 1.3c with both. Watching h.264 and using CoreAVC 1.5, is ok, but, hogs the cpu big time, and there is a noticable lip sync problem as well. Eventually it crashes. I was hoping to use a 2400 or 2600 to help that. But, have yet to find anyone who has had any luck doing so.
grusome

I'm hoping to get a genpix soon but so far my asus 2400eah has been great once I got the right drivers....I will say I have to disable the cyberlink hardware accel. to get it to switch channels and switch between the different resolutions and channels without the video going blank.....but even in software mode this card kicked both my old 9600 and gforce 5600 cards butt.....hardly and cpu usage and video at least is now great on hd-dvd in software or hardware mode.

augiedoggy

09-27-07, 10:18 AM

originalsnuffy

09-27-07, 11:11 AM

blingo

09-27-07, 02:13 PM

Just a quick question.
I have a ATi X1800XT in my HTPC at the moment, would it be worth it to get the 2600XT? Am not worried about Hardware acceleration, i just need to know if it will improve the picture quality because of avivo HD.

ExDeus

09-27-07, 02:32 PM

Well I upgraded to the 2600 xt for that. I hope the sapphire is not too loud.

Now one question. I used the exdeus program. Now with the new card i will install from scratch. So if I use the program again, which drivers are the best to install for the moment?
The 8.0 betas from station-drivers.com are working well for me, with acceleration working for AVC, HD-DVD (VC-1), MPEG-2. The only issues I've seen are with MPEG-2, where there is some pixelation/break-up at the beginning of playback for a stream (tolerable), and some red-shift (need to fix that).

I used my program to add the registry tweaks for everything but SORTOverrideVidSizeCaps and VForceMaxResSize (I haven't needed those settings).

protovision

09-27-07, 02:40 PM

salajm

09-27-07, 03:04 PM

ExDeus

09-27-07, 06:15 PM

I updated the ATI HD2x00 Registry Tweaks page (http://exdeus.home.comcast.net/ati-hd2x00/) with a changelog for those that wanted to see it.

For the most part, there's nothing very interesting. The changes have all surrounded making the program work better on Vista.

If it already worked for you, then there's no reason to run it again. If it didn't work for you before, you might try it again. If you don't understand the changes, don't worry about it.

kk_nadella

09-28-07, 12:07 AM

Hello All... I am new to this awesome active forum!
Kudos to ExDeus for making such a nice script!

Here is my configuration: Sapphire 2400 Pro | SONY 1080p RPTV | E2140@2.4Ghz | Intel P965 | 2GB RAM

Now, What OS / Driver combo do you guys suggest for my configuration.
I do not watch TV on my PC - I watch DVD's most of the time, sometimes HD content stored on my HDD.

Are there any pros / cons for using Vista vs XP?

And which version of Catalyst works the best with ExDeus script?
I do see that 8.0 was suggested but it is not clear for which OS.

Also, which version of PowerDVD is working out the best (in terms of reliability - I hate crashes)

At the moment, I have the 2400 running on Cat 7.9 / Fresh install of Vista / PowerDVD 3104a and have applied the tweaks using ExDeus's vbs script.

The problem I am having is when I try to play any content (h.264 in m2ts / vc-1 in ts), I am getting a BSOD - atimkdag.sys

Can anybody point out what I might be doing wrong?

Kudos again to everybody who is contributing to such a wonderful forum!

I updated the ATI HD2x00 Registry Tweaks page (http://exdeus.home.comcast.net/ati-hd2x00/) with a changelog for those that wanted to see it.

Beefcake

09-28-07, 07:22 AM

Ok, the next release of the Catalyst drivers will NOT BE 8.0! People pay attention to the last 4-5 years....it will be 7.10 (year.month).

arfster

09-28-07, 09:50 AM

gtgray

09-28-07, 10:10 AM

I have found this to HD2600Pro to be quite an adventure running with PowerDVDUlta. I had had no problems with HD DVD playback.. but I kep getting some minor tearing in DVD playback running with Vista. Maybe the HD DVDs I have tried are all VC1 or AVC.

I finally determined that for some reason my Dolby Digital Live card/driver and the Cyberlink provided audio codec do not get along. I had used a utility to change the codecs for Vista Media Center. I used it to set up the Cyberlink mpeg video decoder as he default decoder in Media Center.
I left the MS audio decoder as the default decoder as the Cyberlink decoder immediately caused Media Center to lock up. After switching back to the MS audio decoder I stopped testing in VMC.. leaving the Cyberlink video decoder installed.

I further messed with ATO driver settings etc. Everything seemed okay except in very fast action or complete screen changes a frame was dropping or something and I would get some horizontal tearing. Overall the video looked decent.

Just for grins I went back in VMC and the tearing was gone. In fact the PQ was dramatically better. Right on par with my XA2 and better than my PS3. So now it looks like all my DVD playback will be through Media Center. I don't understand why it video so much better in Media Cener. I can see how that the Cyberlink audio codec and the Dolby card driver don't get along. This would account for no more tearing in VMC, but this ioverall mprovement is far beyond that... the deinterlacing is way better, the levels which were set in VMC seem spot on and they were not in the PowerDVD program. Video noise and clarity are much improved. I use Two Against Nature as my torture test. It is a great performance but an absolutely awful piece of film with focus, color, lighting problems and lots of diagonal lines. If a DVD player does this piece of film well it is doing something. I have several other reference testing DVDs and playback on each was head and shoulders better in VMC than in PowerDVD with the same Cyberlink mpeg codec. This codec by the way does a much better job than the MS VMC video codec does.

Really the difference between SD DVD playback in PowerDVDultra and in VMC with the same Cyberlink decoder is night and day. I still have a problem though. Even the MS decoder does not like the Dolby Live card driver. You have to run it full volume in VMC and control the Volume in the reciever. This should be expected with the receiver doing the decoding but you can lock VMC if you change the volume level form the VMC mixer. Another oddity is that if you select DTS in PowerDVD the receiver says DD+, but the in VMC the MS stream shows up as DTS on the receiver.

What is even funnier is that the Pinneer receiver VS82 detects the audio stream from the XA2 as DTS, but the not the stream out of the PS3. Anyway more fiddling. I think I am finally getting somewhere.

The fan on the VisionTek HD2600Pro is incredibly loud. I will have to do something about that.

originalsnuffy

09-28-07, 10:31 AM

ToughRowToHoe

09-28-07, 10:41 AM

Hi everybody. After a great amount of searching you folks seem liek the best out there to help me...

I just installed the Sapphire 2400 PRO card in my XP machine. Here's the problem:
I run the signal to my Sharp 26" LCD TV. I use a DVI-to-HDMI cable. Picture is great.

I do not want to send audio to the TV so there's no problems there. I use a nice 5.1 speaker system that's plugge dinto the sound card.

The screen looks great, for pretty much everything I could throw at it. But I have lost my audio. No sound at all. I have tried everything I can think of to. It seems that Windows wants to use the 2400 as the sound card and I can not figure out how to get it to use my existing card.

Full disclosure: I know precious little hardware-wise. Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.

Have you tried reinstalling the software yet? I had the same problem with my Sapphire Pro 2400 in Vista 32 and a clean install fixed it. I was trying to use the spdif out. I had changed the defaults in the applet, and even tried disabling the Vista sound driver in the device manager, with no luck. I had read through everything I could find, and there just weren't any issues I could see . While I was waiting to hear back from ATI, I just decided to run a clean install (run the uninstall program, boot in safe mode and run driver cleaner and then reboot and run the install). It worked fine. When I went into the sounds applet again and changed the default from HDMI sound to spdif, I was able to get sound out of the onboard sound no problem. Install errors are always a potential issue with any software.

protovision

09-28-07, 11:08 AM

I would check the simple things...like the audio playback device defaults in windows itself, and the audio playback requested in the preferences for your favorite playback software.

Remember to use set default when making changes using windows. Otherwise the changes do not stick.

Musekal, your setup is the same as mine, 2X00 radeon, and doing AC3 5.1 through SDPIF instead of the HDMI. The above instructions are correct, you have to go to control panel, Sound And Audio Devices, then the 'Audio' tab, and select your SPDIF device as Sound Playback / Default device, for me its the SoundMax HD.

You didn't mention which player sw you use, but for PowerDVD, start it *without* a movie, and then go to its configuration, audio, and select 'Use SPDIF'. In MPC you need to use AC3Filter.

p.

karrih

09-28-07, 12:30 PM

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=29811
737-29811: Radeon HD 2xxx Series - Posterization while playing back MPEG-2 file with default deinterlacing mode in CCC

Sounds like they've confused different issues a bit.

Yes, the title is only partially correct, but at least the workaround is correct. Didn't we see the very same picture here first? Anyway, being annoyed by the very same issue I am kind of pleased as the journey to recovery begins by acknowledging problems.

arfster

09-28-07, 02:32 PM

akmofo

09-28-07, 02:52 PM

Why does the link say "Catalyst 7.9 Hotfix for Windows Vista" but the driver version is 8.413.2, build 53867.?

arfster

09-28-07, 02:57 PM

Why does the link say "Catalyst 7.9 Hotfix for Windows Vista" but the driver version is 8.413.2, build 53867.?

ATI have a weird driver numbering system. "Catalyst 7.9" refers to a driver package released in 2007, 9th month. The other numbers are just internal driver versions/builds.

RichB

09-28-07, 03:43 PM

New XP/Vista drivers on ATI site:

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=29837

Version is 8.413.2, build 53867.

Edit: they have the latest (July) AVIVO codec.

What do these drivers do for HD playback?

- Rich

ExDeus

09-28-07, 06:40 PM

In general, I think that if we want to share highlights of an ATI tech advisory session, we will have to cut and paste it here. The two links that I have tried simply do not work. I think they are customer log-in specific.
You just have to have a session already started with the server in some cases. When the link doesn't work, try navigating the ATI site yourself, doing a search or going into the knowledgebase area. Then retry the link. You may need to use a tabbed browser, like Firefox, IE 7, or Opera, that can share session information across tabs.

ExDeus

09-28-07, 06:41 PM

Ok, the next release of the Catalyst drivers will NOT BE 8.0! People pay attention to the last 4-5 years....it will be 7.10 (year.month).
Fair point. I was just going by what station-drivers.com listed. I didn't think about it any further than that.

ExDeus

09-28-07, 06:54 PM

originalsnuffy

09-28-07, 09:00 PM

DPlettner has asked me to verify whether 5.1 audio can be sent through HDMI as PCM.

Right now I would have to say that DPlettner is right, the 905 is only showing 2 channels in PCM not 5. Either the dolby prologic II is very good, or the unit can receive 5.1 discrete but only show 2 channels. Some posts on the 905 thread make me think the latter might happen, but for now I will say that DPletter is correct, and that I was incorrect.

I am finally (but probably temporarily) getting a clean, non-problematic HD dvd playback with Cyberlink Power DVD Ultra 7.3, the 2400, with the card set on 1360 x 768 resolution, HDMI into the Onkyo 905, audio over spdif. How long this will last, I don't know!

augiedoggy

09-28-07, 09:12 PM

I replaced my Sapphire 2400Pro with an Asus EAH2600Pro (HTDI ver, w/dongle), and so far its MUCH better performing than the 2400Pro.
EDIT: for those wondering, the fan is whisper quiet, I have to put my ear on my case to hear it.

Question: In CCC, when I go to hardware info, it reports my Asus as having 512MB, but the box (and price) says its only 256DDR2. It also reports 600mhz engine, 500mhz memory.

Mispackaged (woot!), or misreported by CCC? anyone else have an EAH2600Pro?

p.I have the same card...it is a 512mb card but only has 256onboard memory...It uses 256 of your ram for the rest...it actually has ddr2 memory running at like 600mhz defalt but with the smart doctor utility it came with you can overclock it to 1000mhz and the engine to like 600 or 800mhz I think... by the way I got this card to work with power dvd 7.3 with the 3411 patch and still output to spdif by disabling the ati hd audio device it installs.
Now if I could just get my desktop sounds and mp3's to have audio through my spdif connection...for some reason thiers nothing except video sound?

swiim

09-29-07, 06:14 AM

I use an DVI2HDMI cable but my screen keeps saying "No signal" can this be some HDCP issue? It works thrugh DVI2VGA. What can i do to fix the problem?

gatorwes

09-29-07, 09:30 AM

New XP/Vista drivers on ATI site:

...

Edit: they have the latest (July) AVIVO codec.

Previous posts have indicated that the AVIVO codec could be found on the driver CD, but my MSI install CD apparently did not contain them. I have since installed the official ATI 7.9 drivers. Does this mean that I do now have the codec installed? What is the file name so that I may verify/force Zoom Player to use it? Thx.

vmajor

09-29-07, 09:33 AM

To all those that wondered if ATI customer support is able to help with the multitude of issues surrounding the 2400PRO AGP cards, do not waste your time.

ATI customer service is worse than useless. After over a month of telling them what the problems are and them ignoring the issues and wasting my time by misdirecting me they finally had audacity to threaten me when I pointed out to the CS person that he did not read my carefully prepared bug report and the attached problem.txt file that was generated by their utility that they made me download and run in order to create the bug report.

ATI customer support is useless. They will waste your time and solve nothing. And if you are especially privileged to have spent your money to buy their product, like I apparently am, they will insult you and treat you with contempt.

If anyone requests, I can PM you the entire customer service log for your enjoyment. The one on the website has been edited by the last customer service person, deleting his amazingly arrogant remarks.

When I decide to waste some more time on ATI, I will report that person and the entire customer service department to their supervisor, and the marketing and PR departments.

In the meantime, I am hoping that Catalyst 8.0:

1. Acknowledges that I have an ATI card installed in my machine and installs the drivers
2. I finally get HW acceleration of ANY video content
3. Enables my card to drive my LCD flat screen without amazing overscan and pixel interpolation issues

Cheers,

Victor

Beefcake

09-29-07, 11:30 AM

just as an FYI - 8.0 version of catalyst drivers will NEVER exist. The naming format is year.month, so the next release is going to be 7.10. This has been going on for at least a few years.

-Brian

topcaser

09-29-07, 12:53 PM

Hi,

i have got a question regarding temps of the GPU. I have got a time where temps are really good at 65-67 degrees over several hours (fan rotates controlled at 35% at my Palit 2600 XT). Nevertheless the temperature rises at a certain time. Dont know the reason for that. It rises to 82-84 degrees.

Does anyone has the same issue?

VogonPoet

09-29-07, 07:18 PM

I apologize if this is covered elsewhere -- I've read 30 pages of posts and searched, and didn't find anything relevant.

And if this newbie question is either inappropriate, or in the wrong thread, please let me know.

I've installed a new VisionTek HD 2600 PRO AGP on an eMachines system with Vista Home Premium. Everything seems fine except that I can't get Windows Media Player to play any WMV, AVI, or MPG files. The audio plays, but WMP just displays one of the built in visualization as if I'm playing an MP3 file.

Curiously, Media Player Classic seems fine. PowerDVD Ultra works on a DVD from a hard drive, but it takes a long time to start up.

I wiped my drive and installed the OS cleanly, updated Windows, then tested WMP, using the default Vista driver, and not having installed anything from ATI or VisionTek. No problems -- I could play videos, as well as DVDs from a hard drive.

I installed the 8.41 driver set from VisionTek. I've got two monitors connected -- a ViewSoniq VX910, and a Panasonic TH-50PHD8UK. I can operate in Windows fine with both monitors as an extended desktop.

I haven't tweaked any settings in CCC, nor have I installed arfster's registry tweaks (do I need to with a 2600?). I've tried to eliminate as many unknowns as I can by not installing any other players (e.g., ZoomPlayer or TheaterTek). I've got WMP, MPC, and PowerDVD Ultra and that's it.

I should mention this is my third time through (wiping the drive and starting from scratch), so to say I'm frustrated would be an understatement. The first two times I tried too many things and feared I was introducing complexities such as random codecs.

On a previous install, when I uninstalled the ATI/VisionTek drivers, used drivercleaner to clean the registry, and used just the default video card driver that comes with Vista, WMP worked fine again. So (I think) I know that it's the install of the ATI driver/software that's causing the problem.

On earlier runthrough, I also tried installing just the ATI driver without CCC, and reproduced the problem.

I would be happy to reinstall WMP, but I'm getting a "your version is newer than this version" error message when I try from microsoft's site. I've got v11.0.6000.6336 of WMP -- I'm guessing that Windows Update patched it and changed the version number.

I've also just updated the driver with the latest Vista hotfix from the ATI website. Still no luck.

I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks, and I apologize again if this is a repeat question that I just couldn't find elsewhere.

specs:
AMD Athlon XP 3000+, 2.2 GHz
eMachines T3092
Vista Home Premium v6.0.6000 Build 6000
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD TCB427G, 5/12/2004
RAM: 1.023 GB

Beefcake

09-30-07, 07:40 AM

VogonPoet -

that's a pretty slow Athlon XP 3000+ 2.2 MHz? I think the original 8088 beats you at 4MHz, but your IPC is much better. Not to mention the support for >8 bit registers.

Just a joke... we all know you meant GHz, not MHz.

-Brian

robgrobg

09-30-07, 07:44 AM

Hi all... I can appreciate the very complicated setups I'm reading about in this thread - some nasty problems people are trying to overcome for sure. I almost think mine is rather trivial compared to some but I've not found a solution from all the reading I've done here so far.

I dropped a Gigabyte HD 2600 Pro into my new HP a1740n pc, Vista Home Premium. The pc has a Realtek ALC888-based audio controller on board and, prior to the installation of the video card, showed up in the Deivce Manager as "Realtek High Definition Audio Device" and worked just fine. I was simply using 2-channel anaolg audio to a pair of desktop speakers.

After the video card goes in, I see only "High Definition Audio Device" in the Device Manager, which I now understand represents the ATI HDMI audio device. It may well be working (I see level activity in the mixer when audio is playing), but I don't have the special ATI dongle to get the audio out of the pc and into something.

Why did my on-board default audio device disappear? I don't understand how I can be expected to abandon my desktop spearkers just because this new HDMI audio device showed up by virture of installing the video card. I'm further disappointed by this because both of these audio devices are made by Realtek, so one would think their respective drivers should be able to co-operate together. So just to reiterate, I have only one audio device available to me in the Control Panel Sound app - the ATI HDMI device. There's no other device for me to switch back to. As a result of the video card going in, Vista no longer recognizes/detects the on-board audio.

I've read lots of posts about people tring to get their HDMI audio working, and needing to get the ATI HDMI driver from Realtek, going into the Control Panel Sound app and settign the HDMI audio as the default, etc. I'm trying to go the other way - I just want my destop speakers to work again. I'm not ready to connect this pc to my a/v system yet.

Thanks in advance for any tips anyone can provide.

Beefcake

09-30-07, 08:19 AM

robgrobg

09-30-07, 12:33 PM

1) go download the latest realtek drivers for your chip (from realtek.com)
2) in device manager, disable the High Definition Audio Device for the ati graphics card.
3) install the realtek drivers you just installed
4) reboot
5) be happy

-Brian

Hehe - I'm fairly certain I've "been there - done that" already, but I will follow your instructions to the letter and see what happens. Previous experience rendered me having no devices after I disabled the Hi-def audio device.

Anyway, thanks... I'll try it now. Will report back.

---

Ok, as I suspected, I now have *no* audio output devices to choose from. When I hoover over the Volume icon in the system tray, it reads "No audio output device is installed".

Question - you didn't intend for me to install the AC97 driver right? I had a Realtek hi-def driver in there before, so that's the one I installed this time. Version 1.78. Only other thing I can think of it to install the Realtek driver that HP provides instead of the 1.78 from Realtek.

ExDeus

09-30-07, 04:14 PM

Now if I could just get my desktop sounds and mp3's to have audio through my spdif connection...for some reason thiers nothing except video sound?
When I was messing around with the install of the HDMI driver, something muted every output but SPDIF on my sound card. Windows and programs that use your Windows settings instead of accessing DirectSound or your audio card directly don't use the SPDIF output mixer, but the Wave output mixer. See if your Wave audio is muted in Windows.

ExDeus

09-30-07, 04:18 PM

I use an DVI2HDMI cable but my screen keeps saying "No signal" can this be some HDCP issue? It works thrugh DVI2VGA. What can i do to fix the problem?
Yes, it could be a handshake issue, but the Windows desktop itself shouldn't require HDCP. In the CCC, under Displays Manager, is that display enabled when connected via DVI->HDMI?

ExDeus

09-30-07, 04:52 PM

I haven't tweaked any settings in CCC, nor have I installed arfster's registry tweaks (do I need to with a 2600?).
If you want any of the tweaks, yes, but the tweaks for the 2600 apply more to getting proper settings than to getting DXVA to work. Read my page (http://exdeus.home.comcast.net/ati-hd2x00/) to see which settings are for each card. Read arfster's post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=11659897&postcount=2121) to see what the settings do.

One of the key things it gives access to, is the WMA hardware acceleration option under CCC > Video > All Settings. Try turning that off to see if it helps.

ExDeus

09-30-07, 04:54 PM

I've read lots of posts about people tring to get their HDMI audio working, and needing to get the ATI HDMI driver from Realtek, going into the Control Panel Sound app and settign the HDMI audio as the default, etc. I'm trying to go the other way - I just want my destop speakers to work again. I'm not ready to connect this pc to my a/v system yet.
In Device Mgr, under 'System devices', find the Microsoft UAA bus driver device. Right-click and disable it. Reboot. See if your sound card is available again.

ExDeus

09-30-07, 05:17 PM

Previous posts have indicated that the AVIVO codec could be found on the driver CD, but my MSI install CD apparently did not contain them. I have since installed the official ATI 7.9 drivers. Does this mean that I do now have the codec installed? What is the file name so that I may verify/force Zoom Player to use it? Thx.
I'm not sure that the driver installs the AVIVO codecs. ATI does release an update to the AVIVO package with each new Catalyst driver. I've always installed that as well. You can find it at http://game.amd.com/. Navigate to "Drivers and Utilities". For Vista, select the "ATI Catalyst X.X Display Driver for Windows Vista" (the first option) and then click "Avivo Package" under "Additional Downloads". For XP, select "ATI Catalyst X.X Drivers and ATI Multimedia Software for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition" (the second option), then "Complete Avivo Suite for X1000 series products" under "Optional Downloads", then click "Complete Avivo Package".

The AVIVO codecs are all bundled under a single DLL, installed in "C:\Program Files\Common Files\ATI Technologies\Multimedia\atidvcr.dll". Check there to verify it is installed.

It supports the FourCC codes: DIVX, DX50, H264, MP4V, mp4v, vids/KSDATAFORMAT_SUBTYPE_MPEG2_VIDEO (MPEG-2).

Note that avc1 is not supported, so for common H.264 files, you may need to change the FourCC to "H264" to get it to work.

To have ZoomPlayer use the AVIVO codecs, go to the MediaAutoGraph folder in the ZP installation folder. I used the CCCP, so mine is in "C:\Program Files\Combined Community Codec Pack\Zoom Player\MediaAutoGraph\".

Edit the appropriate viddecoder.profiles files to add the AVIVO codecs, my files look as follows. I've also added some Nero, MainConcept, and Cyberlink/PowerDVD profiles, but you can see the ATI decoder at the bottom of each list.

After editing the files, open ZP and go to Options | Smart Play | Video decoders, and select your chosen decoder for each format.

I also use Haali Media Splitter (http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/) for all possible formats (download "MatroskaSplitter").

H264.viddecoder.profiles
decoder(subtype={48535356-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}|{31435641-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}|{34363248-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}|{34363278-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71},renderer=-1,url=http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/h264.shtml)
addprofile(name=ffdshow Video Decoder,filterdata={04FE9017-F873-410E-871E-AB91661A4EF7}|ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=CoreAVC Video Decoder,filterdata={09571A4B-F1FE-4C60-9760-DE6D310C7C31}|CoreAVC Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD7.x),filterdata={F2E3D920-0F9B-4319-BE87-EB94CCEB6C09}|CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD7.x))
addprofile(name=Nero Video Decoder,filterdata={C0BA9CF8-96E0-4C34-B5DE-E92C3FC05ED6}|Nero Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=Nero Video Decoder HD,filterdata={4EF5A4EB-0596-47AE-8297-E87975A137E2}|Nero Video Decoder HD)
addprofile(name=Elecard/Moonlight H.264 Video Decoder,filterdata={04B31EE9-EC66-4CED-8FF4-A9E7E22D1D8B}|Moonlight H.264 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=Videosoft H.264 Decoder,filterdata={6931C7E7-75B7-4729-A153-A8AD99BDF70B}|Videosoft H.264 Decoder)
addprofile(name=MainConcept H.264 Decoder,filterdata={7C0D0342-71D5-4E7E-A77F-2059A2E5AF57}|MainConcept H.264 Decoder)
addprofile(name=MainConcept AVC/H.264 Video Decoder,filterdata={96B9D0ED-8D13-4171-A983-B84D88D627BE}|MainConcept AVC/H.264 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=ATI MPEG Video Decoder,filterdata={37A4D808-E76C-11D2-935C-00A024E52661}|ATI MPEG Video Decoder)

MPEG2 Transport Video.viddecoder.profiles
decoder(subtype={e06d8026-db46-11cf-b4d1-00805f6cbbea},renderer=-1,ext=M2T|PVA|TP|TRP|TS|TSP,url=http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/mpeg2.shtml)
addprofile(name=DScaler MPEG2 Video Decoder,filterdata={F8904F1F-0371-4471-8866-90E6281ABDB6}|DScaler Mpeg2 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=OpenSource MPEG2 Video Decoder,filterdata={39F498AF-1A09-4275-B193-673B0BA3D478}|OpenSource Mpeg2Dec Filter)
addprofile(name=ffdshow MPEG Video Decoder,filterdata={04FE9017-F873-410E-871E-AB91661A4EF7}|ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=GPL MPEG2 Decoder,filterdata={CE1B27BE-851B-45DD-AB26-44389A8F71B4}|GPL MPEG-1/2 Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=InterVideo Video Decoder,FilterData={0246CA20-776D-11D2-8010-00104B9B8592}|InterVideo Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=CyberLink Video/SP Decoder,FilterData={9BC1B781-85E3-11D2-98D0-0080C84E9C39}|CyberLink Video/SP Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=CyberLink Video/SP Decoder v6+,FilterData={8ACD52ED-9C2D-4008-9129-DCE955D86065}|CyberLink Video/SP Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=Moonlight/Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder v4 and Newer,FilterData={BC4EB321-771F-4E9F-AF67-37C631ECA106}|Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=Moonlight/Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder v3 and Older,FilterData={F50B3F13-19C4-11CF-AA9A-02608C9BABA2}|Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=Sonic Cinemaster DS Video Decoder,FilterData={D7D50E8D-DD72-43C2-8587-A0C197D837D2}|Sonic Cinemaster DS Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=NVIDIA Video Decoder,FilterData={212DC710-3235-44A4-BD29-E1652BBCC71C}|NVIDIA Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=NVIDIA Video Decoder v3+,FilterData={71E4616A-DB5E-452B-8CA5-71D9CC7805E9}|NVIDIA Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=RAVISENT Cinemaster DS Video Decoder,FilterData={4F8BDCBE-1CE2-4496-8CFC-5691AA254E47}|RAVISENT Cinemaster DS Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=MainConcept Video Decoder,filterdata={2BE4D140-6F2E-4B3A-B0BD-E880917238DC}|MainConcept MPEG Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=Dvico MPEG2 Video Decoder,filterdata={5D3BD380-84D5-11D5-840F-00C0CA306EAA}|Dvico MPEG2 Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=ATI OEM PowerDVD Video/SP Decoder,FilterData={5CAE8739-5CAA-4484-A06A-A84CF88EC039}|CyberLink Video/SP Decoder)
addprofile(name=ATI MPEG Video Decoder,filterdata={37A4D808-E76C-11D2-935C-00A024E52661}|ATI MPEG Video Decoder)

MPEG2 Video.viddecoder.profiles
decoder(subtype={e06d8026-db46-11cf-b4d1-00805f6cbbea},renderer=-1,extignore=TP|TS|TSP,url=http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/mpeg2.shtml)
addprofile(name=DScaler MPEG2 Video Decoder,filterdata={F8904F1F-0371-4471-8866-90E6281ABDB6}|DScaler Mpeg2 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=OpenSource MPEG2 Video Decoder,filterdata={39F498AF-1A09-4275-B193-673B0BA3D478}|OpenSource Mpeg2Dec Filter)
addprofile(name=ffdshow MPEG Video Decoder,filterdata={04FE9017-F873-410E-871E-AB91661A4EF7}|ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=GPL MPEG2 Decoder,filterdata={CE1B27BE-851B-45DD-AB26-44389A8F71B4}|GPL MPEG-1/2 Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=InterVideo Video Decoder,FilterData={0246CA20-776D-11D2-8010-00104B9B8592}|InterVideo Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=CyberLink Video/SP Decoder,FilterData={9BC1B781-85E3-11D2-98D0-0080C84E9C39}|CyberLink Video/SP Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=CyberLink Video/SP Decoder v6+,FilterData={8ACD52ED-9C2D-4008-9129-DCE955D86065}|CyberLink Video/SP Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=Moonlight/Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder v4 and Newer,FilterData={BC4EB321-771F-4E9F-AF67-37C631ECA106}|Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=Moonlight/Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder v3 and Older,FilterData={F50B3F13-19C4-11CF-AA9A-02608C9BABA2}|Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=Sonic Cinemaster DS Video Decoder,FilterData={D7D50E8D-DD72-43C2-8587-A0C197D837D2}|Sonic Cinemaster DS Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=NVIDIA Video Decoder,FilterData={212DC710-3235-44A4-BD29-E1652BBCC71C}|NVIDIA Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=NVIDIA Video Decoder v3+,FilterData={71E4616A-DB5E-452B-8CA5-71D9CC7805E9}|NVIDIA Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=RAVISENT Cinemaster DS Video Decoder,FilterData={4F8BDCBE-1CE2-4496-8CFC-5691AA254E47}|RAVISENT Cinemaster DS Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=MainConcept Video Decoder,filterdata={2BE4D140-6F2E-4B3A-B0BD-E880917238DC}|MainConcept MPEG Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=Dvico MPEG2 Video Decoder,filterdata={5D3BD380-84D5-11D5-840F-00C0CA306EAA}|Dvico MPEG2 Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=ATI OEM PowerDVD Video/SP Decoder,FilterData={5CAE8739-5CAA-4484-A06A-A84CF88EC039}|CyberLink Video/SP Decoder)
addprofile(name=ATI MPEG Video Decoder,filterdata={37A4D808-E76C-11D2-935C-00A024E52661}|ATI MPEG Video Decoder)

MPEG4 ISO.viddecoder.profiles
decoder(subtype={7634706D-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}|{5634504D-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71},renderer=-1,url=http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/ffdshow.shtml)
addprofile(name=ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder,filterdata={04FE9017-F873-410E-871E-AB91661A4EF7}|ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=3ivx D4 Video Decoder,filterdata={0E6772C0-DD80-11D4-B58F-A86B66D0611C}|3ivx D4 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=Nero Video Decoder,filterdata={C0BA9CF8-96E0-4C34-B5DE-E92C3FC05ED6}|Nero Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=Elecard/Moonlight MPEG-4 Video Decoder v4 and Newer,filterdata={FC86AD6C-894A-44E9-A283-4B5A9DD6CA65}|Elecard MPEG-4 Video Decoder)
AddProfile(Name=Elecard/Moonlight MPEG-4 Video Decoder v3 and Older,filterdata={78766964-0000-001B-8100-00AA00389B71}|Moonlight MPEG-4 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=HDX Video Decoder,filterdata={4444BBA8-4D61-492B-B650-EE19B5E69821}|HDX4 Video Decoder)
addprofile(name=ATI MPEG Video Decoder,filterdata={37A4D808-E76C-11D2-935C-00A024E52661}|ATI MPEG Video Decoder)

robgrobg

09-30-07, 07:24 PM

In Device Mgr, under 'System devices', find the Microsoft UAA bus driver device. Right-click and disable it. Reboot. See if your sound card is available again.

Already went looking for it. I don't have one. Are you sure that applies to Vista? From the bit of reading I've done it seems to me it applies more to Windows XP, whereas Vista has this "built-in" so it doesn't show itself (which sounds weird, I know). That's not to say I have no references to UAA at all - I went searching thru the registry and there's a bunch of stuff there. I just don't see any interface to it to be able to disable it. Yes, I made sure "Show hidden devices" was enabled while I was in the device manager.

Oh, almost forgot - I *do* have a "High Definition Audio Controller" present in the System Devices section. I've also tried disabling that before as well with no success. As soon as I disable that one the corresponding "High Definition Audio Device" in the "Sound, Video, Game Controllers" section literally disappears (as opposed to just showing disabled, or whatever).

Thanks for the info tho...

gatorwes

09-30-07, 08:10 PM

I'm not sure that the driver installs the AVIVO codecs. ATI does release an update to the AVIVO package with each new Catalyst driver. I've always installed that as well. You can find it at ...

Extremely helpful post. Thanks!!! But the link doesn't seem to work. Sorry to be dense, but I don't see anything on the ATI website that looks like the filename in that link, either. Am I looking for the "Encode Package"?

protovision

09-30-07, 11:57 PM

With regards to the (still?) improper color/level expansion, does anyone (arfster, wozio?) have good advice as to what settings to use for VMR9 in XP and EVR in Vista to get the best visual results from HD material?

If I understand the issue correctly, the driver is accidentally expanding the video to pc levels, and banding and other color artifacts can and are being introduced.

Are there any tips for MPC (and PowerDVD if possible) to eliminate or reduce the effect?

thanks,
p.

dastrong

10-01-07, 05:49 AM

arfster

10-01-07, 09:10 AM

With regards to the (still?) improper color/level expansion, does anyone (arfster, wozio?) have good advice as to what settings to use for VMR9 in XP and EVR in Vista to get the best visual results from HD material?

If I understand the issue correctly, the driver is accidentally expanding the video to pc levels, and banding and other color artifacts can and are being introduced.

Fortuntely there's none of that, the levels conversion is done well. You just need decide which levels you want. Not sure about XP, you might need to experiment some there. However for Vista it seems more consistent. See the stuff in my sig for more details.

augiedoggy

10-01-07, 09:53 AM

When I was messing around with the install of the HDMI driver, something muted every output but SPDIF on my sound card. Windows and programs that use your Windows settings instead of accessing DirectSound or your audio card directly don't use the SPDIF output mixer, but the Wave output mixer. See if your Wave audio is muted in Windows.

I just used system restore to go back to right after i loaded the latest ccc drivers....it works now.
now if i can only get powerdvd to play an entire hd-dvd without crashing.....very frustrating either in hardware or software mode it crashes in the middle of the movie....and forget trying to navigate through the scenes ....btw I tried the registry tweaks and it gave me all sorts of issues and made things unstable so i reloaded the latest drivers from asuses site...(2400eah card) funny thing is that during all this my cpu usage stays fairly low?

augiedoggy

10-01-07, 10:00 AM

Hi All

I have installed the 7.9 drivers with all the registry tweaks and HD acceleration is working perfectly. However when content is shown on my flat panel at 1920 x 1080 25hz or 30hz i get green flashes and macro blocking. Is there any way or changing this? If I use a lower resolution at 60hz everything is fine. The cat control panel says my Samsung screen is capable of 1920 x 1080 at 60hz interlaced though not progressive. Any sugesstions anyone

I get the green flashes as well.....funny when i installed the registry tweaks i couldnt even get powerdvd to play long enough to get to the main dvd menu on king kong....plus regardless of whether hardware accel was on or off i would loose video when switching between HD and sd channels....without the tweaks it only behaves this way with hardware accel on....i'm playing at 720p 60hz BTW.

ToughRowToHoe

10-01-07, 11:11 AM

Already went looking for it. I don't have one. Are you sure that applies to Vista? From the bit of reading I've done it seems to me it applies more to Windows XP, whereas Vista has this "built-in" so it doesn't show itself (which sounds weird, I know). That's not to say I have no references to UAA at all - I went searching thru the registry and there's a bunch of stuff there. I just don't see any interface to it to be able to disable it. Yes, I made sure "Show hidden devices" was enabled while I was in the device manager.

Oh, almost forgot - I *do* have a "High Definition Audio Controller" present in the System Devices section. I've also tried disabling that before as well with no success. As soon as I disable that one the corresponding "High Definition Audio Device" in the "Sound, Video, Game Controllers" section literally disappears (as opposed to just showing disabled, or whatever).

Thanks for the info tho...

robgrobg, this should be there by default in Vista. You need to install the ATI version to get the HDMI sound to work in XP, but ATI uses the Microsoft UAA bus driver in Vista.

ToughRowToHoe

10-01-07, 11:21 AM

Already went looking for it. I don't have one. Are you sure that applies to Vista? From the bit of reading I've done it seems to me it applies more to Windows XP, whereas Vista has this "built-in" so it doesn't show itself (which sounds weird, I know). That's not to say I have no references to UAA at all - I went searching thru the registry and there's a bunch of stuff there. I just don't see any interface to it to be able to disable it. Yes, I made sure "Show hidden devices" was enabled while I was in the device manager.

Oh, almost forgot - I *do* have a "High Definition Audio Controller" present in the System Devices section. I've also tried disabling that before as well with no success. As soon as I disable that one the corresponding "High Definition Audio Device" in the "Sound, Video, Game Controllers" section literally disappears (as opposed to just showing disabled, or whatever).

Thanks for the info tho...

robgrobg, I'm pretty sure the High Definition Audio Controller is your Realtek controller.

topcaser

10-01-07, 02:09 PM

Sevlar

10-01-07, 02:21 PM

Hi all,

I recently built a new system.

AMD 64 X2 6000
4gb OCZ DDR2 800Mhz Ram (4x 1Gb)
MSI (manufactured) ATI Radeon HD2600XT Diamond PCIE Video
MSI (manufactured) ATI K9A Platinum (ATI Crossfire chipset) motherboard
Thermaltake 520 Watt PSU with power station
Vista Home Premium 64 Bit

Every game I play suddenly gets a black screen adn then resumes. When I Alt-Tab out to windows desktop I get an error that says
"Display driver (insert driver name here cuase I forgot it) stopped responding, but has succesfully recovered"

I called ATI and they admitted that their drivers have not been all that great for the 2x00 series cards and said the Catalyst 7.9 has even created more problems.

I have tried version 7.4 (came with the card on the CD) 7.7, 7.8 & 7.9. Out of all these drivers it seems that 7.7 is the one that has the least occurances of this error but it still makes some games unplayable.

Seems to be alot of complaints onlin with this issue but no real solutions and I was hoping sonmeone here may have an idea.

I have RMA'd the card today and will put in the new one but my gut feeling is that its a driver issue. Sadly I have no idea how to resolve it. Sadly you can't even disable the VPU recovery feature in Vista so that is not an option. :(

dreaddan

10-01-07, 02:53 PM

Has any one used a dvi splitter (cable/unpowered) on these cards?

robgrobg

10-01-07, 03:41 PM

robgrobg, I'm pretty sure the High Definition Audio Controller is your Realtek controller.

Remember, this is in the System Devices section. I'm not sure if there's a one-to-one relationship of devices (or controllers, as the case may be) in here with the actual devices present in the Sound, Video, Game Controllers section or not. There is something I didn't mention earlier - maybe because I had not known at the time.

Presently I now have the "Realteak High Definition Audio Device" present in the Sound, Video, Game Controllers section (Yay - some success!), but it is yellow-flagged. So while disabling the High Definition Audio Controller in System Devices caused the "High Defnition Audio Device" (the HDMI one) to disappear, it did not affect the presence of this Realtek-specific one, which I assume is my on-board device. (This is why I'm not so sure I believe your comment above to be true.) Every attempt to install the original HP-supplied or Realtek-available drivers to make this device work has failed. It just sits there yellow-flagged.

Just getting the Realtek device to show up at all was basically a miracle. I attempted to add the device as a "legacy" device and pointed it at one of the various drivers I had. Depending on which driver I use I get either a BSOD memory dump or a request to reboot to complete the installation. After the reboot however, there's no change. The Device Manager details indicate the device could not be started (Code 10). Now that I at least have a device in the device manager to play with I try to update the driver from the device manager either automatically or manually or by running the installer and I get the same thing... either a BSOD failure or request to reboot with no change afterward.

If I uninstall/remove the device from the device manager I have to jump through hoops to get it to show up again, whereas removing the HDMI one will cause to to be rediscovered next reboot, and then I need to re-disable it or whatever. I'm back to where I started with no device for my on-board audio.

This is completely perplexing given that both these things are Realtek devices! They should be able to co-operate. I should be able to install that video card with out having this damn HDMI audio thing get installed at all!!!

By the way, I did do a system restore back to before I applied the ATI Catalyst drivers, etc at all. No change. the mere presence of this video card introduces that HDMI audio device and I have no apparent way to prevent that from happening to give my on-board audio a chance to work.

robgrobg

10-01-07, 03:46 PM

robgrobg, this should be there by default in Vista. You need to install the ATI version to get the HDMI sound to work in XP, but ATI uses the Microsoft UAA bus driver in Vista.

I just don't know what to say to this... I have nothing called Microsoft UAA Bus Driver in my "System Devices" section, and, like I said, I ensured I could see hidden devices in the list.

It's a brand new HP a1740n, Vista Home Premium. Should I see that device if the video card is *not* installed? Or are you suggesting the HDMI capability of this video card is what should be making it appear? I'm tempted to take the card out and see if that device shows up. In fact, I'm tempted to take it out just to get my on-board audio back into a working state anyway with the latest Realtek drivers. Then I could repeat the procedure and hope for better luck.

thanks.. -Rob

sub

10-01-07, 03:46 PM

Can anyone help me out? I've had a nvidia 7600GS card in my machine which I'm trying to replace with my newly purchased Visiontek ATI 2600 pro. I've installed various versions of the ATI software trying to get the card working on Vista (32 bit), and even though it claims the driver and cc have installed ok, it never seems to starting using the driver even after a reboot. I'm stuck with the default Vista display driver at 800x600.

I've tried installing the Catalyst 7.6 software that came with the device, the 7.9 software, and a hot fix driver from the end of September, none of which seemed to do anything.

What critical step am I missing? How to get my drivers to work?

jim808

10-01-07, 03:54 PM

Does anyone know the heatsink dimensions for the Sapphire 2400 pro? I feel this card runs a little hot and would like to purchase a new VGA cooler. I need something of similar size so it doesn't overtake my pci-e slot for which I'm using for my TV tuner.

Any reccomendations on a good cooling unit would also be appreciated.

Thanks

ToughRowToHoe

10-01-07, 03:54 PM

Remember, this is in the System Devices section.

Right. I believe you should have both. I believe the Microsoft UAA Bus Driver should be there in your Device Manager by default in Vista. (Can't say I ever checked without the video card installed so I don't know.) I disabled the UAA driver with no luck when I was trying to get my onboard sound working. I will double check this evening if nobody else replies.

augiedoggy

10-01-07, 04:12 PM

Remember, this is in the System Devices section. I'm not sure if there's a one-to-one relationship of devices (or controllers, as the case may be) in here with the actual devices present in the Sound, Video, Game Controllers section or not. There is something I didn't mention earlier - maybe because I had not known at the time.

Presently I now have the "Realteak High Definition Audio Device" present in the Sound, Video, Game Controllers section (Yay - some success!), but it is yellow-flagged. So while disabling the High Definition Audio Controller in System Devices caused the "High Defnition Audio Device" (the HDMI one) to disappear, it did not affect the presence of this Realtek-specific one, which I assume is my on-board device. (This is why I'm not so sure I believe your comment above to be true.) Every attempt to install the original HP-supplied or Realtek-available drivers to make this device work has failed. It just sits there yellow-flagged.

Just getting the Realtek device to show up at all was basically a miracle. I attempted to add the device as a "legacy" device and pointed it at one of the various drivers I had. Depending on which driver I use I get either a BSOD memory dump or a request to reboot to complete the installation. After the reboot however, there's no change. The Device Manager details indicate the device could not be started (Code 10). Now that I at least have a device in the device manager to play with I try to update the driver from the device manager either automatically or manually or by running the installer and I get the same thing... either a BSOD failure or request to reboot with no change afterward.

If I uninstall/remove the device from the device manager I have to jump through hoops to get it to show up again, whereas removing the HDMI one will cause to to be rediscovered next reboot, and then I need to re-disable it or whatever. I'm back to where I started with no device for my on-board audio.

This is completely perplexing given that both these things are Realtek devices! They should be able to co-operate. I should be able to install that video card with out having this damn HDMI audio thing get installed at all!!!

By the way, I did do a system restore back to before I applied the ATI Catalyst drivers, etc at all. No change. the mere presence of this video card introduces that HDMI audio device and I have no apparent way to prevent that from happening to give my on-board audio a chance to work.

I also have the onboard realtec HD audio and I can tell you the hdmi hd audio is called ati hd audio device and the onboard is called the realtec hd audio device and you can go into the device manager under driver properties and disable one without the other.....at least you can with my hdcp complient asus 2400eah card. (ati 2400pro).

beefaronee

10-01-07, 05:09 PM

I have the same issue, I am getting sound over HDMI with a HDMI-DVI cable but the sound quality is horrible. Did the ATI dongle resolve you distortion issues?

I finally received the dongle and tried hooking up via HDMI cable, but still have the same issue. System sounds are clear and crisp, but all other audio is distorted. It may be a faulty card then.

robgrobg

10-01-07, 05:53 PM

I also have the onboard realtec HD audio and I can tell you the hdmi hd audio is called ati hd audio device and the onboard is called the realtec hd audio device and you can go into the device manager under driver properties and disable one without the other.....at least you can with my hdcp complient asus 2400eah card. (ati 2400pro).

Until I install the ATI HDMI driver (available from Realtek) my HDMI audio is simply named "High Definition Audio Device". After I install that ATI driver from Realtek it shows up as ATI HDMI audio, or something like that. So perhaps you have installed that ATI driver?

It doesn't (appear to) make a difference whether I've installed the ATI driver or not... problems are the same. Thanks for the info...

ExDeus

10-01-07, 06:55 PM

Extremely helpful post. Thanks!!! But the link doesn't seem to work. Sorry to be dense, but I don't see anything on the ATI website that looks like the filename in that link, either. Am I looking for the "Encode Package"?
Sorry, their deep links suck monster nuts. You can find it at http://game.amd.com/. Navigate to "Drivers and Utilities". For Vista, select the "ATI Catalyst X.X Display Driver for Windows Vista" (the first option) and then click "Avivo Package" under "Additional Downloads". For XP, select "ATI Catalyst X.X Drivers and ATI Multimedia Software for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition" (the second option), then "Complete Avivo Suite for X1000 series products" under "Optional Downloads", then click "Complete Avivo Package".

ToughRowToHoe

10-01-07, 09:14 PM

Until I install the ATI HDMI driver (available from Realtek) my HDMI audio is simply named "High Definition Audio Device". After I install that ATI driver from Realtek it shows up as ATI HDMI audio, or something like that. So perhaps you have installed that ATI driver?

It doesn't (appear to) make a difference whether I've installed the ATI driver or not... problems are the same. Thanks for the info...

robgrobg, I stand corrected. I have a GA-P35-DS3R motherboard with an onboard Realtek ALC889A Audio controller. I too am running Vista. The Windows UAA audio driver shows up as High Definition Audio Device in the Device Manager. The Realtec controller is named Realtec High Definition Audio. Don't know what problem you are havving, but you should have seperate controllers in the Device Manager.

robgrobg

10-01-07, 09:40 PM

robgrobg, I stand corrected. I have a GA-P35-DS3R motherboard with an onboard Realtek ALC889A Audio controller. I too am running Vista. The Windows UAA audio driver shows up as High Definition Audio Device in the Device Manager. The Realtec controller is named Realtec High Definition Audio. Don't know what problem you are havving, but you should have seperate controllers in the Device Manager.

Yip, ok... that jives. (Did you happen to check if you actually see UAA in your "System Devices" list or was I right on that one too? ;) Jumping through enough hoops I can get the Realtek one to show up alongside the other one, but it is permanently yellow-flagged. Best case I encountered was that a driver got installed for it without BSOD and after reboot it reported "Device cannot be started (Code 10)." Prior to putting in that vid card everything was perfect.

I hate the thought of burning my last pci slot for a damn audio card that still might not work. :-( I may pull the vid card for now or I may try to obtain that ATI dongle. Hey - if the digital audio over hdmi works then I'm all set anyway. Just means I have no sound until I finally set this pc beside my HT setup.

Thanks again for the help.

av999

10-01-07, 10:27 PM

arfster

10-01-07, 10:32 PM

please explain briefly the benefits of installing this in addition to the catalyst software suite

There's some other crap included, but the principle thing most of us are using it for is the mpeg2 decoder. Using EVR in Vista the cyberlink mpeg2 decoder doesn't deinterlace properly since cat7.8, but the ATI one does. It' also does a number of other things properly that cyberlink never did, like detecting PAL film flags within a 50hz broadcast.

ToughRowToHoe

10-01-07, 10:55 PM

Yip, ok... that jives. (Did you happen to check if you actually see UAA in your "System Devices" list or was I right on that one too? ;) Jumping through enough hoops I can get the Realtek one to show up alongside the other one, but it is permanently yellow-flagged. Best case I encountered was that a driver got installed for it without BSOD and after reboot it reported "Device cannot be started (Code 10)." Prior to putting in that vid card everything was perfect.

I hate the thought of burning my last pci slot for a damn audio card that still might not work. :-( I may pull the vid card for now or I may try to obtain that ATI dongle. Hey - if the digital audio over hdmi works then I'm all set anyway. Just means I have no sound until I finally set this pc beside my HT setup.

Thanks again for the help.

This is in the Device Manager (i.e., Control Panel/System/Device Manager). The UAA driver is the one that you were disabling.

Sorry I can't help more, but I knew there were at least two controllers in there under sounds and it was real obvious which one was the UAA driver. I was wrong in that the Realtec one was the obvious one.

I did check something for the board. I have a standard DVI D Dual Link to HDMI adapter. I get no sound whatever over that adapter. I have no problems at all getting sound over the ATI adapter. I cannot test the pins without and HDMI cable to sacrifice, but I believe ATI is telling the truth about their adapter being unique. Unless my adapter is defective, their adapter is not standard.

pc1984

10-01-07, 11:09 PM

I want to get a 2xxx card but which one? I am leaning towards a 2600 pro. Is it a better choice over a 2400 pro? I have a core 2 e4400, gigabyte DS3 motherboard and 2 gigs of ram. Will be running Vista Media Center 32 bit.

Does the gigabyte 2600 pro with passive cooling get to hot? Should I stick with an active cooled card such as the ASUS Radeon HD 2600 Pro PCI-E 256MB 128BIT (which comes with a HDMI Adapter), or the Sapphire ATI RADEON™ HD 2600PRO (which may or may not come with a HDMI Adapter)? Does anyone have any experience with any of these cards? or any suggestions.

Sorry for all the questions but I have read over 30 pages of this thread and my head is spinning.

On another note, the Sapphire site has a PDF relating to HDMI with 5.1 surround sound audio for Vista and XP ("using the Active DVI-HDMI converter which may have been included in the box.")

"If you intend to use the HDMI output as your primary output and want the audio routed along the HDMI cable then you will need to change the default audio device from the Windows Vista Control Panel. Please note that by doing this audio will no longer be routed to your existing speakers, only down the HDMI cable, until you reverse the procedure."

May be of some help to someone.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/productfiles/Catalogue_HDMI_Sound_output.pdf

grubi

10-02-07, 08:26 AM

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=29811
737-29811: Radeon HD 2xxx Series - Posterization while playing back MPEG-2 file with default deinterlacing mode in CCC

Sounds like they've confused different issues a bit.

This is really a pain. If those guys are not even able to describe the problem correctly (questionalbe if they even understand it completely) do anyone really believe they will be able to fix it?

:mad::mad::mad:

grubi

arfster

10-02-07, 08:42 AM

grubi

10-02-07, 08:49 AM

Yeah, the guys on the frontline support and writing these issues seem to be a long way disconnected from the actual engineers. Probably inevitable, given 99.999% of support issues will be really basic clueless-about-computer stuff.

Anyway, I've talked with someone involved a bit wth the actual writing and passed on a bundle of details about the deinterlacing issues. They seem to be moving towards the position of acknowledging hardware limitations on 2400 deinterlacing - this is good, because then you have the possibility of getting decoders that work with the limtation to best effect, rather than being completely crippled by it (eg hardware deinterlacing without hardware acceleration is the perfect solution for the 2400 and mpeg2).

That issue from it's visual appearance looks quite similar to the deinterlacing problem on PAL when noise reduction is enabled. Is there any acknowledgment from ATI about this issue as well.

BTW: the deinterlacing probem described I also have with my HD2600XT Ultimate, so should not be a 2400 hardware limitation.

Regards,
grubi

arfster

10-02-07, 02:40 PM

That issue from it's visual appearance looks quite similar to the deinterlacing problem on PAL when noise reduction is enabled. Is there any acknowledgment from ATI about this issue as well.

Not to my knowledge - it only happens with PAL interlaced, and only with trdenoise on?

grubi

10-02-07, 02:51 PM

Not to my knowledge - it only happens with PAL interlaced, and only with trdenoise on?

OK to clear things up.
I have a quite similar artifactial picture on two different situations.

1.) On interlaced material when using motion adaptive (forcing normal adaptive solves the problem).

2.) On interlaced material when noise reduction is enabled (TRDenoise != 0) (Disableing noise reductions solves the probelm).

As I only have PAL material I cannot judge if it is an important factor.
Card is a HD 2600XT Ultimate passive.
Catalyst is 7.8 or 7.9 (doesn't matter).

Regards,
grubi

robgrobg

10-02-07, 06:52 PM

I want to get a 2xxx card but which one? I am leaning towards a 2600 pro. Is it a better choice over a 2400 pro? I have a core 2 e4400, gigabyte DS3 motherboard and 2 gigs of ram. Will be running Vista Media Center 32 bit.

Does the gigabyte 2600 pro with passive cooling get to hot? Should I stick with an active cooled card such as the ASUS Radeon HD 2600 Pro PCI-E 256MB 128BIT (which comes with a HDMI Adapter), or the Sapphire ATI RADEON™ HD 2600PRO (which may or may not come with a HDMI Adapter)? Does anyone have any experience with any of these cards? or any suggestions.

I've got the Gigabyte HD 2600 Pro. I haven't really put it thru many paces yet because it's only been installed less than a week and it's given me problems with my on-board audio, which is perhaps not a big deal given what this pc will be used for, eventually. As long as the digital audio over hdmi works I should be fine, but I haven't tested that yet.

How would you like me to test it for you? Just measure the internal case temperatures before/during/after some heavy-duty 1080p video playback, or what? Is there a "best way" to measure these things?

BigTony

10-02-07, 11:05 PM

Does nero 8 blu-ray hddvd plugin (showtime) support ati hd2000 hardware acceleration?
How about MKV support?

I am really curious, if better than powerdvd, I might buy it.

Powerdvd (3104a.1) works for me now under xp, visiontek 2400 pro AGP and latest driver (hotfix_8.413.2_xp_32-64_53786), no more blue screen of death during hddvd and blu-ray playing. Although no hardware acceleration for most 720p and 1080p x264 files, which I watched most of times, mainly tv shows.

BigTony

dazzo17

10-03-07, 03:45 AM

This has probably been answered but is 256 ram on the video card enough for 1080p output or should I go 512?

blingo

10-03-07, 04:59 AM

256mb will do the job fine. You dont need to have 512mb.

originalsnuffy

10-03-07, 07:56 AM

So with the latest hotfix from ATI, the vbs registry tweaks (the second to last worked better with the my 2400 than the most recent one), and the latest PowerDVD, and running hd-dvd files from the hard drive, I do have everything working pretty much.

I have gone to spdif for audio, after agreeing with dplettner that the pcm audio is in fact just 2 channel over hdmi.

The only glitch right now is periodic "sparkly" blotches over the video, usually in the lower portion of the picture. Often green, and they do go away. I don't know what the technical term is for these. I assume that they are related to using the 2400pro with a relatively slow core duo notebook style chip in the HP slimline PC.

For what it is worth, at Micro center yesterday I noted that the 2600 pro boxes said 1080p, but not the 2400 pro. And the AGP boxes said nothing about hdmi audio.

Gravling

10-03-07, 10:33 AM

Now 5.1 sounds works for me under Windows XP / MCE, got a tip to install AC3Filter and once that was done it works like I want it to! Yey.

Demi9OD

10-03-07, 10:51 AM

Worth mentioning that new Omega Drivers have been released based on the BioShock Hotfix (7.9.1) drivers. Probably not big news for 2400/2600 owners but as a 1900 owner that likes to play games, I've always hated CCC but dislike the lack of 3D settings control without it. Since I can't do hardware based HD decoding anyways, I cannot comment on their functionality there, but they are definitely worth testing.

http://www.omegadrivers.net/

ditcho

10-03-07, 11:41 AM

Does anyone have an idea which of these passively cooled cards - Gigabyte Radeon HD 2600XT and Gigabyte Radeon HD 2600 Pro dissipates heat better? I know that the XT should be hotter because of the higher clock frequency, but the heat sink on the XT version looks more "advanced" to me, so I'm wondering which of the two is less likely to overheat in not so ventilated environment.

grubi

10-03-07, 01:49 PM

ExDeus

10-03-07, 01:50 PM

I want to get a 2xxx card but which one? I am leaning towards a 2600 pro. Is it a better choice over a 2400 pro? I have a core 2 e4400, gigabyte DS3 motherboard and 2 gigs of ram. Will be running Vista Media Center 32 bit.
That's an easy choice, go with the 2600. There have been many more issues getting DXVA to work on the 2400 as compared to the 2600, and the 2400 doesn't quite have enough headroom to do all the acceleration and deinterlacing for 1080i content. For a good all-around HTPC card, you need at least a 2600pro, and for PCIe, the 2600XT is even better.

I'm using AGP, so I don't have many options (I don't know if there are any passively cooled ones), but I tried a 2400 and a 2600, and with a relatively small cost difference, the benefits have been huge with a VisionTek 2600pro.

ExDeus

10-03-07, 01:57 PM

the vbs registry tweaks (the second to last worked better with the my 2400 than the most recent one)
How do you mean? Which version of Windows? Which versions of the VBS file?

I'm mainly interested b/c there are no differences in active code b/w 0.8 and 0.9.

ExDeus

10-03-07, 02:00 PM

Now 5.1 sounds works for me under Windows XP / MCE, got a tip to install AC3Filter and once that was done it works like I want it to! Yey.
I'm curious, did you make sure you turned off the AC3 encoder? Otherwise, I think it's likely you could be taking 2-Ch PCM and encoding it to AC3 5.1 (which gives you nothing and reduces quality).

Gravling

10-03-07, 02:18 PM

AC3 encoder is active under SPDIF options in AC3Filter but "Do not encode stereo PCM" is also checked. When playing 2 ch movies and music only the front ch lights up on the receiver, when playing a movie with 5.1 or DTS sound all 5.1 ch lights up and it sounds ok. Not had too much time to play with it yet and I'll try a clean install of my system as soon as I can.

gtgray

10-03-07, 02:53 PM

Sorry, their deep links suck monster nuts. You can find it at http://game.amd.com/. Navigate to "Drivers and Utilities". For Vista, select the "ATI Catalyst X.X Display Driver for Windows Vista" (the first option) and then click "Avivo Package" under "Additional Downloads". For XP, select "ATI Catalyst X.X Drivers and ATI Multimedia Software for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition" (the second option), then "Complete Avivo Suite for X1000 series products" under "Optional Downloads", then click "Complete Avivo Package".

I downloaded the AVIVO pack and installed it. It appears that PowerDVD Ultra is now using the AVICO decoder at least for SD DVD playback. It looks to deinterlace quite well. A very annoying tearing I saw in PoweDVD SD DVD playback is now fixed. I would like to set the VMC default mpeg codec to the AVIVO decoder as well but I can't see how to to do that.

I have the small Vista Media Center Decoder utility App from Garry Whitaker and can see and select either the Cyberlink or Microsoft audio and video decoders for VMC. Unfortunately, it does not display the AVIVO decoder as an option to choose.

Odd thing is even though the Cyberlink Decoder tears quite badly in PowerDVD, the tear artifact is almost completely eliminated in Media Cetner. I don't know why the Cyberlink decoder works better in VMC than in PowerDVD Ultra with which it shipped. But based on the improvement in PowerDVD with the AVIVO decoder in PowerDVD I really want to use in AVIVO as my default mpeg decoder in Media Center.

originalsnuffy

10-03-07, 02:59 PM

grkn

10-03-07, 06:55 PM

Is it possible to use the 2400pro to decode high def material and then use ffdshow to denoise/sharpen? And if, how? :)

indieke2

10-04-07, 04:30 AM

ExDeus

10-04-07, 02:06 PM

Ex Deus;

The most recent rev that you posted would not execute at all on my Vista machine with the 2400. The previous rev did execute. I am at work so I can't provide the version numbers. But please do not misunderstand...I am quite grateful for your work!
I just want to get it working if it isn't. If you can, download the latest version (download it again, just to be sure) and test it out.

ExDeus

10-04-07, 02:17 PM

My new 2600 XT is arriving finnaly this week.

But i lost it completly, don't know anymore which drivers to use, neither which version of ex Deus.

I would really stop tweaking and just enjoy my movies!:D
The safest is still Cat 7.7, but you can also try Cat 7.9. If you want try the latest versions, I have had the best luck with v8.42 from station-drivers.com. It has posterization and red shift issues with SD, but HD works great with VC-1, AVC, and MPEG2 acceleration. It also has fewer VPU failures, and when it does fail, it restores the display properly, where previous versions would corrupt the display so that I had to reboot to fix it. The 7.9 hotfix drivers from http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=29811 are the latest available. They have the same issues as v8.42, and don't recover from VPU failures as well. I'm happiest with the v8.42 drivers.

Use the latest version of the ATI HD2x00 Registry Tweaks program. It has all of arfster's recommended registry tweaks, and let's you approve which ones you want or all of them.

I'm at the point that I can just install a new driver, set the resolution/color in CCC, run my reg tweaks program, and go. Everything works, I just have to wait for the posterization issue to get fixed for SD MPEG2, and for them to get to root cause on the VPU failures.

airbedman

10-04-07, 04:45 PM

thehawkCB

10-04-07, 05:48 PM

Hi guys.

I'm after a 2600 card, but seriously, what is the main differences between the below three? Or to better rephrase, what would you opt for? My mission is to use the card for an HD HTPC.

256MB Power Color HD2600XT PCI-E(x16) 128Bit 2200MHz GDDR4 GPU 800MHz
256MB Power Color HD2600XT PCI-E(x16) 128Bit 1400MHz GDDR3 GPU 800MHz
256MB Sapphire HD2600XT PCI-E(x16) 128Bit 2200MHz GDDR4 GPU 800MHz

Thanks!

ExDeus

10-04-07, 06:47 PM

grkn

10-04-07, 08:12 PM

I have the 2400pro, but when connecting my DVI to HDMI cable It doesn't work at all, I know its not the projector nor the cable...

originalsnuffy

10-05-07, 08:26 AM

grkn;

Purchase the ati dongle. It is like the borg. Resistance is futile.

grkn

10-05-07, 09:57 AM

wops, had the wrong cable, HDMI works like a charm ;)

cybrsage

10-05-07, 10:00 AM

I have an HD2400Pro AGP card and my problem is that MCE is telling me that my card/drivers are not compatible. I have used the ones from the Visiontek site and selected MCE drivers. I just dont get it, anyone else experienced this? I recently changed from a Nvidia FX5200.

I was unable to get the 2600Pro AGP card to work in MCE. When I edited the inf files, it would install just fine, but then the MCE Application would balk at it and not show the MCE app at all...just a black screen. I could still watch TV with it (using the remote button), but not able to use the application itself to select anything.

I opened trouble tickets with both Sapphire and ATI. Sapphire just outright ignored me. ATI kept trying to tell me it was a problem with my AGP not being turned on, etc. I explained I moved from a 9600 AGP to this card, so the AGP works as it should...I gave them specs, told them of the inf editing requirements, etc.

ATI just kept telling me my BIOS was out of date (as if any AGP motherboard has a very new BIOS), etc. It was as if they did not even bother to read my replies to them.

I gave up, went back to the 9600, and am waiting on the next generation of IGP motherboards and then will upgrade the entire system.

guste

10-05-07, 10:31 AM

Hi all,

I was planning on picking up a 2600Pro or XT, in a few months, but my 9800Pro just died, so it pushed my plans up and I'm not really up to snuff on all the info on the card.

I've read the last 10 pages of this thread, but just to clarify, even though the card states that it offers 5.1 PCM output over HDMI (via the ATi dongle), currently only 2.0 works, regardless of PCI-E or AGP, unless you install AC3filter or ffdshow and at that point you're moving from PCM to a lossy AC3/DTS solution, correct?

My setup will be Visiontek 2600Pro (http://www.visiontek.com/products/cards/retail/2600PRO_AGP_256.html) installed in a Vista Ultimate system, to an Onkyo 605 and then out to a Pannasonic plasma. I'm a bit confused as to whether sound will work on the AGP card, since I saw this (http://www.visiontek.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=133) page... It only mentions PCI-E cards, when it talks about dongle compatibility, but people with AGP cards have mentioned that they're getting sound...

Also, how does the 2600Pro compare to the 9800Pro, as far as games? Are they about the same for horsepower, or is the 2600Pro a bit better?

I'd like to click the 'purchase' button in the next little while, so my thanks for any clarification you can provide.

indieke2

10-05-07, 11:28 AM

The safest is still Cat 7.7, but you can also try Cat 7.9. If you want try the latest versions, I have had the best luck with v8.42 from station-drivers.com. It has posterization and red shift issues with SD, but HD works great with VC-1, AVC, and MPEG2 acceleration. It also has fewer VPU failures, and when it does fail, it restores the display properly, where previous versions would corrupt the display so that I had to reboot to fix it. The 7.9 hotfix drivers from http://support.ati.com/ics/support/d...estionID=29811 are the latest available. They have the same issues as v8.42, and don't recover from VPU failures as well. I'm happiest with the v8.42 drivers.

The 7.7, give a more softer image, it is not so sharp!

DPlettner

10-05-07, 11:42 AM

just to clarify, even though the card states that it offers 5.1 PCM output over HDMI (via the ATi dongle), currently only 2.0 works, regardless of PCI-E or AGP, unless you install AC3filter or ffdshow and at that point you're moving from PCM to a lossy AC3/DTS solution, correct?I think this is all correct. However, I have never seen where ATI claimed that the HDMI audio could do 5.1 PCM, only 5.1 AC3. Do you have a link that points to a page that says that the 2X00 cards can do 5.1 PCM?

-Dave

arfster

10-05-07, 11:59 AM

The 7.7, give a more softer image, it is not so sharp!

They do? News to me :-)

Are we talking interlaced material? If so it could be a deinterlacing setting difference perhaps.

guste

10-05-07, 11:59 AM

I think this is all correct. However, I have never seen where ATI claimed that the HDMI audio could do 5.1 PCM, only 5.1 AC3. Do you have a link that points to a page that says that the 2X00 cards can do 5.1 PCM?

-Dave

Dave,

You're right... It looks like it's just AC3 support and I misread. Since I won't be using the card for HD-DVD/Bluray duty, it's not really a bother, personally.

I went ahead and purchased the dongle from ATi and the card from Tigerdirect, so hopefully I'll have them by mid-late next week.

Oh yeah, just to state for those in Canada, looking for these cards, Tigerdirect.ca is the only vendor at this point, offering AGP 2X00 cards, currently stocking the 256/512MB Visiontek 256MB cards, so we can finally take advantage.

Has anyone made a similar 9800pro/2600pro upgrade? I'm really curious about the improvement in gaming.

arfster

10-05-07, 11:59 AM

topcaser

10-05-07, 02:12 PM

Did you read my last posting about the huge temp differences? Maybe i know why: I got really high temps today agaiin: about 87 degrees. Did open CCC - ATI Overdrive tab. Current Clock settings says @GPU Clock: 1100MHz. I played with the GPU clock switch and pulled it back to 400. Then i pressed Test Custom Clock. In the following the test passed and i could see temps decreasing back to reasonable values of 67 degrees.

Nevertheless, ATITool says, that GPU clock is around 800MHz in any way. Temps say other things. If CCC is right and there is a clock of 1100MHz it would explain that we see a lot of VPU recovers.

Dont know why but it seems that CCC switches the clock speed up for any readon causing really hot GPUs and VPU recovers...

gtgray

10-05-07, 03:15 PM

They do? News to me :-)

Are we talking interlaced material? If so it could be a deinterlacing setting difference perhaps.

Vista 7.9
I can't quite figure out what the deinterlacing selections are supposed to do. If you deselect automatic deinterlacing and then set the slider all the right to choose vector adaptive then judging by the waving flag scene you are getting the best deinterlacing the hardware will do. However, if you then just reselect the deinterlacing back to automatic the slider goes back to the center and you still see the same result with the flag scene.

I am confused is automatic for film/video detection or is it the software choosing adaptive deinterlacing and not one of the mote advanced modes?

topcaser

10-05-07, 11:21 PM

Hi,
found out some more things why this temp rising happens: i have attached two screenshots from CCC:
the first one shows, that i have adjusted a GPU clock speed of 400 with the slider, but the current clock speed setting below shows 110 MHz. Why is it 110 MHz and not 400 MHz - the lowest possible value to be adjusted. That is the first question to me.

For some strange reasons, CCC controls the clock speed to be 800 MHz automatically. Dont know why, but maybe CCC thinks, that the low clock speed is not enough for current GPU load and set the clock speed to be 800 - although i have not played back anything, just showed the desktop and this internet application. As you can further see in the second screenshot the GPU load is at 0%, so control to a lower frequency dont work.

In a third step i adjusted again the slider of the GPU clock speed to 400 MHz and pressed test custom clock. After a while CCC said: passed. And after pressing accept the clock speed in "current clock settings" showed 110 MHz again. After playing back some SD interlaced material the GPU activity rised to 26% and the current clock speed setting showed 400 MHz as adjusted and tested before. Things are ok now.

To put it all together i seems that:
1. GPU is clocked at 110 MHz which is a very strange value at the beginning after a windows boot

2. Automatically switch to 800 MHz, propably because Software thinks that the current clock speed of 110 MHz dont meets requirements.

3. Once 800 MHz is set automatically, it never come back to a lower clock speed.

4. CCC seems not to remember to the 400 MHz i tested once, after a reboot of windows. If i perform a new test in the current windows session with 400 MHz, CCC knows it is a safe clock speed to go to.

arfster

10-05-07, 11:52 PM

Not sure about most of the rest, but 110 is the standard downclock speed.

airbedman

10-06-07, 08:14 AM

I was unable to get the 2600Pro AGP card to work in MCE. When I edited the inf files, it would install just fine, but then the MCE Application would balk at it and not show the MCE app at all...just a black screen. I could still watch TV with it (using the remote button), but not able to use the application itself to select anything.

I opened trouble tickets with both Sapphire and ATI. Sapphire just outright ignored me. ATI kept trying to tell me it was a problem with my AGP not being turned on, etc. I explained I moved from a 9600 AGP to this card, so the AGP works as it should...I gave them specs, told them of the inf editing requirements, etc.

ATI just kept telling me my BIOS was out of date (as if any AGP motherboard has a very new BIOS), etc. It was as if they did not even bother to read my replies to them.

I gave up, went back to the 9600, and am waiting on the next generation of IGP motherboards and then will upgrade the entire system.

Thanks for the help, I went ahead and borrowed Vista to see if I could get it working. ITs no better, Catalyst claims my card is not compatible with it! I can run Vista's Media Center but things just dont seem right, are the .inf tweaks available for the vista drivers or they entirely different?

Zedone

10-06-07, 08:26 AM

hi guys, i own the card above. i installed it in my shuttle sg33g5m (that was hard ;) ) and it normaly works very well. only sometimes the card is not working. than the fan does not work but the xpc boots normaly. i can only see nothing. than i reboot and the card is working fine again :rolleyes::confused:
latest shuttle bios and ati drivers are installed. but it should be no driver problem because the recognition of the card under vist x32 is fine.

have someone the same problem ? maybe a hardware defect ?

Valnar

10-06-07, 12:05 PM

I've been waiting for an 2600 AGP alternative to the VisionTek and it appears that Diamond has entered the game. I know other manufacturers will be forthcoming (Sapphire, PowerColor, etc.) but I'm tired of waiting.

This is for an old P4 2.8Ghz HTPC. I imagine the performance will be the same, but can anyone attest to the silence, heat or reliability properties of the Diamond vs the VisionTek?

Thanks,
Robert

blingo

10-06-07, 01:01 PM

For anyone interested

Tells you info about your GPU. Same layout as CPU-Z
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

rabbit8

10-06-07, 07:14 PM

On my Radeon 2600, I have been able to get PowerDVD Ultra to utilize UVD during playback of both H.264 and VC-1 material on HD-DVD's. However, Nero Showtime (both Nero 7 and Nero 8), with the Blu Ray and HD-DVD plug-in, is refusing to use UVD during playback. I do set the "Enable Hardware" feature in Showtime, but when I investigate its status during playback, I see that the checkbox is unchecked. Also, my CPU's high utilization during playback provides a second confirmation that Showtime isn't using UVD. When I stop showtime's playback, I see that the checkbox is again checked. I submitted a trouble ticket to Nero (case number 3603860001), but no response as of yet. I also submitted a trouble ticket to ATI ( Ticket #737-1275824), but so far all I've received was an unhelpful generic reply.

I'm posting this message as a public service, since neither Nero with plug-in nor PowerDVD Ultra are cheap. If you need to pick between one or the other, and you need to decide today for playback of high definition video, go with PowerDVD Ultra. Nero Showtime behaves, at best, like an alpha release on this card if you're watch HD content. I like some of the Nero Showtime features, but they're no good to me if the software 1. can't use UVD and 2. is fragile on top of it. [I should note, by the way, that I didn't have these problems with HD content when using Nero Showtime on an Nvidia 8500GT video card. It seems like that ATI and/or Nero are to blame].

My rig is an MSI HD Radeon 2600XT. The specific product number is RX2600XTT2D512EZ. I am using the current MSI bios (September release) on this graphics card. I use an ASUS P5B Deluxe motherboard. I use both Windows XP and Vista (I boot from separate partitions). The above comments relate to Windows XP. I am using ATI driver v7.7 based on comments from reading this thread (my thanks to those who wrote those earlier comments). Having tried it both ways, I can certify that v7.7 treats high definition video playback on this card much better than v7.9. v7.7 seems stable, whereas v7.9 is unstable and prone to lockup during HD video playback. I haven't tried v7.8, so I don't know whether it's an improvement over v7.7 or 100 steps backward like v7.9 is.

On a positive note, I switched to the Radeon 2600 from an Nvidia 8500GT. The visual fidelity during playback of high definition content on the Radeon 2600 is vastly superior to the Nvidia 8500. Mission Impossible III is eye-popping on the Radeon 2600, but comparatively ho-hum on the Nvidia 8500. Perhaps this is due to ATI's inclusion of a noise reduction filter into the 2600's UVD. Regardless of the reason, the visual payoff was worth the hassle of switching. This card is a keeper!

Sevrinus

10-06-07, 11:39 PM

I'm running XP Pro with an Hd 2900 XT.
I'm trying to connect it to my Mitsubishi DLP TV (1080i)

If I go through my Samsung reciever to the TV (through HDMI pass through) the 2900 shows an HDMI connection. I get sound and a very poor picture. (Picture moves alot and looks like viewing 32bit on a 16bit card. colors where there should be shading).
(1920x1080 @ 60)
If I change it to 30hz then I get a good picture but lose the sound.

If I connect the HDMI cable directly to my TV then the 2900 shows it as a normal DVI monitor and not an HDMI tv, and again sound is not out put.

I'm using the ATI dvi-hdmi dongle.

It looks great when it thinks it's a DVI monitor, except that I can't change it's size (it stretches beyond the screen) (direct HDMI to TV)
I can get the right size when I pass through the Samsung reciever, but the picture isn't good.

Anyone know how to force HDMI instead of DVI?

Thankx

pc1984

10-07-07, 01:26 AM

This forum topic is way to big. 82 pages that is nuts! Can we get a break down? For example does the 2600xt work? 2400pro work? if not why not?

Steve Hanna

10-07-07, 10:53 AM

This forum topic is way to big. 82 pages that is nuts! Can we get a break down? For example does the 2600xt work? 2400pro work? if not why not?Set your user CP to the maximum 60 posts per page and it's only 41 pages long :p

krasoft

10-07-07, 12:15 PM

BTW, this site has all the drivers with the change log if you're interested to know:
http://filehippo.com/download_ati_catalyst/changelog/

And look at the version numbers to compare to the 8.0 beta.

airbedman

10-07-07, 02:55 PM

pochoboy

10-07-07, 07:36 PM

I finally found a BIOS update for my machine - which claimed its only update was "smarter fan control", but after running the update Vista sees my AGP HD2400 Pro card and successfully lets me run Catalyst. Problem is, when I go into Media Center I just get a black screen, no menu at all! Anyone any clues, am running the latest drivers from ATI site.

I'm no expert, but I remember having a problem similar to this with Vista Ultimate64.

I ran the "update my score" in Control Panel/Performance Information and Tools. that cleared it up for me.

Mntneer

10-07-07, 10:19 PM

IanD

10-08-07, 02:08 AM

I need some help. I picked up a 2nd 2600XT for my basement and have installed it into a fresh install on a brand new system (which I'm typing at now). For some reason though, I just can't get the damn card to notice my Infocus 4805 projector attached to either port. The card works fine with an older Analog monitor I'm using to install with, but will not give me any picture on the 4805. I know the 4805 works fine as I have my cable box connected to it via DVI and I connected my Dell laptop to it on the same DVI cable that I want to use for the HTPC.

Any ideas? I'm at a loss.
Unless your projector supports HDCP, you won't be able to play protected HD content via digital output "out-of-the-box" as the complete digital path from PC to display has to be protected.

AnyDVD HD might help by disabling AACS and therefore removing the need for protection, however I understand that an HDCP compliant graphics card is required (and I believe the 2600 series are).

It's possible this HDCP requirement might also affect recognition of the display if it doesn't support it.

Joseph Clark

10-08-07, 02:22 AM

AnyDVD HD should remove any HDCP related problems getting protected content to play on a non-HDCP display or graphics card. My displays and cards are HDCP, but that's what people with CRT's and non-HDCP digital displays (and cards) are reporting.

hamish b

10-08-07, 02:41 AM

need help

got everything working well, well almost except for one thing
when using 1080 1920 48hz i get this random frame loss thing when watching either dvd, hd-dvd or bd
it happens usually around every 20-40 secs and ill get this slight hiccup then back to normal,
apart from this occassional thing playback is smooth and perfect

ive disabled all catalyst settings and set others to performance but it doesnt effect it

playback at 960 1440 48hz has no problams:confused:

anybody else having this problem?

set up is

vista 32
ati msi 2600xt 512mb
powedvd 7.3 3401,a / trial arcsoft dig theater
tweaked catalyst 7.9 drivers

originalsnuffy

10-08-07, 07:52 AM

PowerDVD looks to me like it periodically skips frames; which I could also describe as a hiccup. Everything else is pretty much working right now. My concern is that if I monkey with it some more, something worse will manifest itself!

Mntneer

10-08-07, 08:30 AM

Unless your projector supports HDCP, you won't be able to play protected HD content via digital output "out-of-the-box" as the complete digital path from PC to display has to be protected.

AnyDVD HD might help by disabling AACS and therefore removing the need for protection, however I understand that an HDCP compliant graphics card is required (and I believe the 2600 series are).

It's possible this HDCP requirement might also affect recognition of the display if it doesn't support it.

I'm not getting a picture at all. Not even the windows desktop. I'm going to try swapping out this new card with my other one. Then if that doesn't work, I'll try powerstrip. And if that doesn't work I'm going to be pissed, because I'll have to resort to an underpowered Nvidia card until I get my new projector, which could be months away.

augiedoggy

10-08-07, 08:38 AM

Unless your projector supports HDCP, you won't be able to play protected HD content via digital output "out-of-the-box" as the complete digital path from PC to display has to be protected.

AnyDVD HD might help by disabling AACS and therefore removing the need for protection, however I understand that an HDCP compliant graphics card is required (and I believe the 2600 series are).

It's possible this HDCP requirement might also affect recognition of the display if it doesn't support it.
HDCP should not effect the vga connection....from what I understand its only digital thats protected...(hdmi or dvi).....and certian cards...even my 2400 is hdcp enabled but only after installing the outdated bundled drivers and then updating from there...

IanD

10-08-07, 08:43 AM

I'm not getting a picture at all. Not even the windows desktop. I'm going to try swapping out this new card with my other one. Then if that doesn't work, I'll try powerstrip. And if that doesn't work I'm going to be pissed, because I'll have to resort to an underpowered Nvidia card until I get my new projector, which could be months away.
Can you use VGA and does that make any difference?

I'm surprised the flagship 2x00 series doesn't work for you, but I notice that a number of people are having issues with both ATI and Nvidia in running 2 displays.

Mntneer

10-08-07, 09:10 AM

Can you use VGA and does that make any difference?

I'm surprised the flagship 2x00 series doesn't work for you, but I notice that a number of people are having issues with both ATI and Nvidia in running 2 displays.

I'm going to test VGA on the 4805 this afternoon. VGA works fine with my NEC monitor, on both ports on the card. If I enable the "TV" detection, it picks up the display, but still won't show anything. It's as if the card just doesn't see the projector at all, which is HDCP compliant.

dicko2

10-08-07, 09:33 AM

TheFranchise

10-08-07, 10:51 AM

This forum topic is way to big. 82 pages that is nuts! Can we get a break down? For example does the 2600xt work? 2400pro work? if not why not?

Many pages ago, some people said the 2400pro isn't enough for deinterlacing 1080i mpeg2. I agree. I turned off the nohddecode tweak to avoid hardware mpeg2 acceleration, but the card is still showing around 50% gpu with weave or lousy "blend bob" deinterlacing. Double-framerate bob pretty much locks it at 99.9% gpu and the video has a slight skip in it.

I've been trying to overclock the card to see if an extra 10% or so of oomph would be enough, but even the built-in Overdrive resets the OC. It won't even let me test the new clocks. Tried AtiTool and a couple other programs, and they cause the computer to lock up almost immediately. I've read of other people having a similar problem when trying to overclock. It might be bios locked somehow. I have an HIS 2400pro and did turn off the hotkey thing.

If I could turn off the card's deinterlacing completely and just use a decent double-framerate bob in software, that'd be great, but I can't get the gpu to stay down in mpeg2.

Pretty sure it was after installing PowerDVD that I was forced to use the nohdddecode tweak or else get a black screen on HD. The one SD channel I get would be fine. (A common problem on both Ati and Nvidia over the last couple years.) Experimenting with more decoders, I now set the nohddecode reg tweak back to 1 and rebooted, and I'm not getting black screens anymore, but the gpu is still 50+%.

I think Arfster is the only one who has said the 2400xt can do vector deinterlacing in XP. If so, I may just get one of those, but I don't remember hearing anyone else with a 2400xt chime in on deinterlacing 1080i mpeg2.

I'm mainly messing with PDVD7, Bitcontrol, MPV, aand Purevideo, and I just can't get the gpu down enough in mpeg2 for double-framerate bob whether the hardware acceleration boxes are checked or not nor whether nohddecode is enabled or not.

nstelmach

10-08-07, 10:58 AM

Hi,

I have followed/read this thread right from post 1#, so I'm pretty much up-to-date with everything regarding the HD 2x00s.

But one thing I've not seen mentioned here is the fact that the AVIVO decoder breaks DVD playback in Vista MCE. Am I the only one with this problem?

My card is a Saphire HD 2600XT 256MB DDR4 and I really get the best result for MPEG2 playback using the AVIVO decoder in Vista MCE (+CCC 7.9 & reg. hacks) but unfortunately MCE gives an error saying no decoder is installed if you pop in a dvd. But live MPEG2 TV SD & HD plays perfect using the AVIVO decoder, so does 1080i MPEGs.
I have followed the correct procedure for using the AVIVO decoder in Vista MCE (read Live TV is fine), so it's not because the decoder is not active under MCE.

Does anybody have any idea how to fix this???

BTW: I'm talking about the software codec, not the decoder part in the hardware:-)

topcaser

10-08-07, 11:56 AM

I havent figured out what this control panel tells me either. It never seems to accept the clock speeds that I set it for, and I too get 110MHz displayed.

In addition, whenever I change any setting on this window, my computer CPU utilization jumps from around 20% to near 90% and the card's GPU utilization jumps from around 45% to 100%.

I found that a process is being launched, ATIODE, that if killed, returns the utilizations back to their lower values. Anyone know what this process is? For the time being, I'm not touching any settings on this control panel.

-dickm

I have figured out, that this overclock section works really good the most of the time, at least:

1. 110 MHz is the default clock, as Arfster said and should adjusted automatically by CCC if no load, i.e no playback.

2. Adjust the slider to the frequency you want to go to (e.g. 400) and press test custom clock.

3. After testing press accept. The next time when CCC detects an event that GPU load does not hold the desired load, it switched to this user defined clock speed. Works very well

4. Sometimes, in rare cases, CCC looses this tested 400MHz. Dontn know why, maybe a software bug. Yiou have to repeat step 2-3

arfster

10-08-07, 01:55 PM

I think Arfster is the only one who has said the 2400xt can do vector deinterlacing in XP. If so, I may just get one of those, but I don't remember hearing anyone else with a 2400xt chime in on deinterlacing 1080i mpeg2.

XP I dunno, I use Vista (which seems to be a bit easier on the cards).

Probably better to go for a 2600pro if you're playing MPEG2 though, as they're about the same price as the 2400xt.

rooobosmith

10-08-07, 03:34 PM

Anyone here know if the ASUS HD 2400 Pro can be set to force DVI output when the DVI monitor is off?

airbedman

10-08-07, 03:46 PM

I'm no expert, but I remember having a problem similar to this with Vista Ultimate64.

I ran the "update my score" in Control Panel/Performance Information and Tools. that cleared it up for me.

Thanks, I tried this, but my performance index remains at 'Unrated' regardless of what I do! Anyone encountered this?

pochoboy

10-08-07, 03:56 PM

Thanks, I tried this, but my performance index remains at 'Unrated' regardless of what I do! Anyone encountered this?

Yup, it looks like you got a problem

Can't help you any further, but I'm curious, whats your system specs?

airbedman

10-08-07, 03:57 PM

Yup, it looks like you got a problem

Can't help you any further, but I'm curious, whats your system specs?

Athlon XP 2800+
ATI HD2400 Pro AGP
1.5GB RAM
160GB SATA HD

I reckon its more than adequate to run Vista!

P.S. Am currently reinstalling OS, in case all my previous messing with drivers etc has broken something

pochoboy

10-08-07, 06:46 PM

did the new os install clear up your problem?

rooobosmith

10-08-07, 07:56 PM

Anyone here know if the HD2400 Pro can be set to force DVI output when the DVI monitor is off on boot?

gtgray

10-08-07, 11:26 PM

protovision

10-09-07, 12:09 AM

[EDIT: totally misread the question]

epicbard

10-09-07, 02:25 AM

Hey guys, what can you output with the HDMI? I've only been able to get 2 channels. Yes I know the specs say 2 channel PCM, but I have not gotten AC3 out etc. Anyway, it late so all these acronyms are melting into one.

from the ATI specs:

#
HDMI output support

*
Supports resolutions up to 1920x1080
*
Integrated HD audio controller with multi-channel (5.1) AC3 support, enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution

airbedman

10-09-07, 04:16 AM

did the new os install clear up your problem?

I messed up somewhere, reinstalled Vista, installed the drivers from the cd, got a rating (3.2 or something). MCE worked, so I installed codecs, sound drivers etc. Tested a couple of videos all went well. Then went to music, and played a song or two. Then the trouble began. I thought I'd hit Vizualisations to see if they had improved over MCE 2005. The hadn't so I hit 'Back', at which point the machine froze up and rebooted.

When it rebooted, it got to the welcome screen and rebooted again, and again etc etc. So I gave up for last night, will try again tonight. This is really f***ing me off right now. It may be time to build a new media center!

originalsnuffy

10-09-07, 08:50 AM

HappyFunBoater

10-09-07, 09:46 AM

I'm running a 512KB DDR3 version of the HD2600XT with PowerDVD and Vista x64. Hardware offload is enabled in PowerDVD.

While playing the HD version of 300 from an Xbox360 HD-DVD I see the CPU utilization go from 0% before playing the movie to only ~6% when the movie is playing. That seems very low. Is it correct?

BTW, I tried to turn off hardware acceleration to see if GPU utilization went back to 0% and CPU utilization increased significantly, but the check box seems to automatically turn back on when the movie plays.

Thanks!

blingo

10-09-07, 09:55 AM

BigTony

10-09-07, 11:51 AM

Here is the link for powerdvd 7.3 ultra 3319 patch, try at your own risk:

http://download.cyberlink.com/ftpdload/patch/BD_HD/Tov30/DVD070813-02/PowerDVD_Ultra.exe

BigTony

Mntneer

10-09-07, 12:08 PM

Well, I don't know why, but for some reason I can now get video on my 4805 now via DVI. But in order to do so I first have to use the DVI to HDMI adapter that came with the card and then use an HDMI to DVI cable..

For some reason going straight from the DVI output on the card to the DVI of the projector wouldn't do it, but going from DVI to HDMI and then back to DVI does.

Anyways. Just something people may want to keep in mind if they ever have similar troubles getting a digital picture via DVI. Try the HDMI adapter.

ExDeus

10-09-07, 03:59 PM

Interesting question about the HDMI output...HDMI can handle all kinds of audio and video signals. But from our PC units, with PowerDVD ultra, HDMI basically seems to only send 2 channel PCM. Granted, with the right software, a very convincing dolby prologic II compatible signal can be sent via this 2 channel signal, but it is two channels at the end of the day!

Otherwise, at least on my rig, it makes more sense to send the ac3 audio over coax spdif to the receiver and use the HDMI for video only.
I just asked about this (link (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11802374#post11802374)), and according to other users, original AC3 audio can be output over HDMI with AC3Filter installed, without AC3Filter encoding the audio to AC3.

airbedman

10-09-07, 04:12 PM

I messed up somewhere, reinstalled Vista, installed the drivers from the cd, got a rating (3.2 or something). MCE worked, so I installed codecs, sound drivers etc. Tested a couple of videos all went well. Then went to music, and played a song or two. Then the trouble began. I thought I'd hit Vizualisations to see if they had improved over MCE 2005. The hadn't so I hit 'Back', at which point the machine froze up and rebooted.

When it rebooted, it got to the welcome screen and rebooted again, and again etc etc. So I gave up for last night, will try again tonight. This is really f***ing me off right now. It may be time to build a new media center!

WOW am actually getting somewhere, things are all working, except for CCC which just wont start for some reason, but Vista is running in Aero with a working media center. My probem now is how do I enable h.264 hardware decoding on my ATI HD2400 Pro AGP - its currently just using my install of CoreAVC, how do I tell it to use the card?

originalsnuffy

10-09-07, 04:52 PM

Ex Deus;

Your mileage may well vary here. On my machine, AC3 filter basically interfered with (read: turned off the audio) when used in conjunction with PowerDVD under Vista and using the 2400.

I think the confusion I had earlier with multi-channel sound over HDMI was related to using AC3 filter with Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, and playback with anything BUT PowerDVD. However, since my current focus is on HD playback, AC3 filter is currently out of the picture on my system. Therefore I use the spdif for audio, with allows 5.1 DD sound.

Has anybody been able to get PowerDVD to cooperate with AC3 Filter?

millerbrad

10-09-07, 05:58 PM

I don't know about PowerDVD, but you actually can use the Microsoft Audio Decoder to get 5.1 AC3 over HDMI. Under Sound settings in Control Panel, make sure you've checked that the soundcard is compatible with Dolby Digital and DTS; and make sure you have Media Center configured for 5.1 sound in Media Center Setup.

When you do this, multichannel audio will be output in the appropriate AC3 settings, and stereo sound is output as 2.0 PCM. Not sure if the AC3 is reprocessed or not...

arfster

10-10-07, 01:21 AM

Tried the new PDVD, no noticeable difference. Cyberlink MPEG2 + EVR still means juddervision deinterlacing (as before, fine with vmr9, and fine with the ATI decoder).

A little birdie tells me 7.10 drivers are due out Friday btw.

DJ79

10-10-07, 02:58 AM

So I decided to give a Sapphire 2600XT a try. First put in my single-core MCE 2005 desktop, install 7.9 driver, and it works fine. Then I move it to my Vista HTPC, and there was no way I could get ANY driver installed. I thought I saw some posts about similar situations; I searched and searched to no avail. Is is possible that my Vista install is messed up? It's hardly two months old, but I did install and uninstall some video boards, both ATI and nVidia.

Warren454

10-10-07, 05:23 AM

I have a MSI ATI 2900xt im trying to output audio via hdmi to my sony lcd tv, everythings hooked up properly and i have all the drivers installed but no audio is being output, video is but no audio. i switched the audio device to ATI HD audio in the sounds and audio devices in control panel and still no sound. Also is the sound supposed to work only when you watch movies or when any sound is played (listening to music, playing games...etc). Also anyway to output sound through my computer speakers AND my TV speakers?

nstelmach

10-10-07, 09:25 AM

How do you get Vista MCE to even run the AVIVO decoder. I have the little Vista MCE Decoder Utility and it never shows the AVIVO as an option. I have downloaded and installed the AVIVO package. I just does not seem to be registered or something. I have been asking and asking about this and nobody ever answers.

Well the only way to get the AVIVO decoder registered for Vista MCE, is to use the old DECHECK utility originally developed for MCE 2005. Use that tool to set AVIVO as preferred and voila; the decoder will now be selectable in the regular decoder tool for Vista MCE.

I have to agree about the lack of response surrounding the AVIVO decoder, so either people are pure PDVD lovers or just not using Vista MCE for media playback.

topcaser

10-10-07, 09:35 AM

A little birdie tells me 7.10 drivers are due out Friday btw.

Hi, does this little birdie also tells you, what they have fixed?

davidoff1204

10-10-07, 09:36 AM

Actually, i'm testing a full hd and in powerdvd (7.3 with the last patches) the picture is cropped. What is the solution to get full screen in 1920*1080 with catalyst control center 7.9 ? My graphic card is a Sapphire 2600 pro.

mike infinity

10-10-07, 09:40 AM

I have been having one heck of a time getting decent playback on my HTPC whenever I set the output on the 2400hd to >720 lines or if I use powerstrip advanced timing settings to compensate for overscan on my Hitachi 50v500 at 1280x720. (i am forced to set custom resolutions)

For example: Playback of 1080i material recorded on my Sony sr1 camcorder is perfectly smooth on PowerDVD with Avivo acceleration as long as the output of the 2400hd is progressive. I can set it to 1080p on my computer monitor and it works flawlessly. However, at 1080i on the hitachi the video is jittery. I don't believe it is an interlacing issue, the stuttery playback visually manifests itself as a performance issue. The 2600xt, nvidia 8X00 cards I tested had the same problem.

The same issue is apparent with playback of divx files (although to lesser extent) on MC, VLC, WMP, etc.

bottom line: flawless performance with powerstrip off and output set to progressive modes. Jittery/slow when set to 30i or powerstrip advanced timing for overscan.

Any ideas?

Here is my setup:
Core 2 duo 6400, 2 gigs ram, Vista home premium with MCE
Ati hd2400 pro
Hitachi 50v500 720p TV ...connected via dvi cable

Thanks

topcaser

10-10-07, 10:01 AM

Here is the link for powerdvd 7.3 ultra 3319 patch, try at your own risk:

http://download.cyberlink.com/ftpdload/patch/BD_HD/Tov30/DVD070813-02/PowerDVD_Ultra.exe

BigTony

Where is your link from? Can not find the download on the offical site??

ToughRowToHoe

10-10-07, 10:09 AM

I just asked about this (link (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11802374#post11802374)), and according to other users, original AC3 audio can be output over HDMI with AC3Filter installed, without AC3Filter encoding the audio to AC3.

ExDeus, when I was checking the ATI DVI to HDMI adapter, I was able to get 2 channel PCM and AC3 over the HDMI cable using the default Microsoft UAA driver in Vista. You should get the same results with XP using the ATI driver according to ATI:

737-28948: Radeon™ HD2xxx series - LPCM 5.1 modulated audio signal NOT supported on Integrated HD Audio Codec

The information in this article applies to the following configuration(s):

* Radeon™ HD2900 series
* Radeon™ HD2600 series
* Radeon™ HD2400 series
* DVI-HDMI Adapter (Part Number: 6141054300G)

Symptoms:
Linear PCM 5.1 Audio is not available when playing HD DVD and Blu-Ray content.

Solution:
The integrated HD Audio codec of Radeon™ HD2xxx series does NOT support Multi-Channel Linear PCM (5.1). It supports 2-Channel LPCM and Multi-Channel AC3 5.1 Audio formats for HDMI output using DVI-HDMI adapter.

arfster

10-10-07, 10:21 AM

ToughRowToHoe

10-10-07, 10:38 AM

Several posters had conjectured that ATI was using a standard DVI D Dual Link to HDMI adapter ( http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11693054#post11693054 ). I have a standard DVI D Dual Link to HDMI adapter. I get no sound whatsoever using this standard adapter. I get PCM 2 and AC3 over the ATI adapter. My standard adapter could be defective but I think ATI is telling the truth about their adapter being unique:

737-28867: Radeon HD™ 2xxx Series - DVI-HDMI Adapter does not work

The information in this article applies to the following configuration(s):

* Radeon™ HD 2900 series
* Radeon™ HD 2600 series
* Radeon™ HD 2400 series
* DVI-HDMI Adapter (Part Number: 6141054300G)

Symptoms:
DVI-HDMI adapter (Part Number: 6141054300G) does not work with some Graphics By ATI Radeon™ HD 2900, Radeon™ HD 2600 and Radeon™ HD 2400 boards.

Solution:
In order to enable HDMI support on the Radeon™ HD 2000 series board through the DVI connector, AMD has designed a unique DVI-HDMI adapter that is only available through certified vendor(s) selected by AMD to authorized partners.

The Online Shop ATI is offering the DVI-HDMI adapter (Part Number: 6141054300G) as a replacement to lost or damaged adapters ONLY. It can not be sold separately. This adapter will not enable HDMI through the DVI output of any Radeon™ HD 2000 series board; it will only work if your product was originally shipped with a DVI-HDMI adapter.

If ATI is telling the truth and their adapter is unique, I believe it is very possible for unusual results to occur on the sound side when using any other DVI to HDMI connection. My reasoning? I believe it is possible for the video card to receive and/or pass through signals that its drivers do not anticipate. I am mentioning this again, because I continue to wonder if it isn't at root for some of the issues people are experiencing.

The drivers are hardly ready for prime time and there are plenty of potential conflicts or errors that could arise. This may very well be a non-issue. Using my standard DVI-D Dual Link adapter, I can get perfect video (with all the noted limitations) through my 2600 (and 2400 prior) and audio through my onboard sound. Still, I wouldn't recommend anybody plan to use DVI to HDMI without also planning to use the ATI adapter. IMO, it could cause sound issues.

Edit: ATI's last sentence quoted above about the adapter not working with any cards not shipped with it has been proven to be false. My Sapphire 2400 Pro output LPCM 2 and AC3 over HDMI with the ATI adapter. It does not ship with the ATI adapter.

davidoff1204

10-10-07, 10:57 AM

That's a known bug: see the VForceMaxResSize section in my sig.
Thanks a lot.

mule

10-10-07, 11:34 AM

@ToughRowToHoe: Seems that the thread is way too long already. I already posted that i did some kind of electronical measuring on the ati adapter. There are 5 or 6 pins which are connected to ground. This is totally different to usual adapters. Beneath the effect that people without the ati adapter get no sound over hdmi the different pin connections is the final provement that the ati adapter is indeed something special!

TheMule!

ToughRowToHoe

10-10-07, 12:23 PM

dicko2

10-10-07, 02:31 PM

Jittery/slow when set to 30i or powerstrip advanced timing for overscan.

Why are you using powerstrip? The 7.8 catalyst control panel includes overscan adjustment. At least that's what I'm using on my Sony 720p TV and it works great.

-dickm

gtgray

10-10-07, 03:21 PM

Well the only way to get the AVIVO decoder registered for Vista MCE, is to use the old DECHECK utility originally developed for MCE 2005. Use that tool to set AVIVO as preferred and voila; the decoder will now be selectable in the regular decoder tool for Vista MCE.

I have to agree about the lack of response surrounding the AVIVO decoder, so either people are pure PDVD lovers or just not using Vista MCE for media playback.

Thank You.. I will try that.

alluringreality

10-10-07, 03:40 PM

Why are you using powerstrip? The 7.8 catalyst control panel includes overscan adjustment. At least that's what I'm using on my Sony 720p TV and it works great.

Powerstrip can provide resolutions to correct for overscan that can correctly display 1:1 images. Overscan adjustment always scales everything, so 1:1 images will not display correctly.

millerbrad

10-10-07, 04:26 PM

Here's how to change the audio and video codecs used by Media Center.

1) Download DirectShow Filter Manager from Softella here (http://www.softella.com/dsfm/index.en.htm). There is no installation program. Just unzip the file, and put it somewhere easily accessible (i.e. on the Desktop).

2) Run DirectShow Filter Manager to get a list of all the available installed video and audio codecs. For the most part, the correct codecs used by Media Center will end with the words "Audio Decoder" or "Video Decoder". Find the codec you would like to use, and double-click on its entry. In the window that pops up, make a note of the CLSID at the top of the window. I recommend selecting the entry, right-clicking it, and Copying the value to the clipboard. You might also want to make a text file using Notepad, documenting the CLSIDs of all your available codecs.

3) Click the Start menu button, and type regedit in the text box at the bottom of the menu. Hit Enter (or click the regedit icon that appears at the top of the Start menu) to open regedit.

4) In the tree on the left, browse your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Media Center\Decoder. On the right, you should now see entries for PreferredMPEG2AudioDecoderCLSID and PreferredMPEG2VideoDecoderCLSID. Double-click the appropriate entry (audio vs. video), and Paste the CLSID value of the codec you want to use in the box that appears. Click OK, and close regedit. (Before pasting the new entry, you may want to make a note of the default entry in case you want to go back to the MS Codecs.)

5) Restart Media Center, and it'll now be using the codecs you want it to.

gtgray

10-10-07, 04:33 PM