ATI Radeon HD 2X00 (2400,2600,2900) series owners thread

[ExDeus]

Does anyone know what version of Catalyst works to be able to get Hardware Accelleration to work with a Dual Display? I have yet to get HA to work from a CPU % standpoint. My most stable drivers are what came with my HD 2600 PRO AGP 512Md which is 7.9 per the DVD label. Anytime I've tried to update drivers, BlueRay and HD playback via POWERDVD Ultra is choppy.. Using 7.9, I can get smooth playback but CPU % is 95-98% for BlueRay, around 75-85% for HD. Am I correct to assume this is w/out HA?

I have P4 3.2 w/ 4GB..
The solution was just posted re: dual display and Cat 8.2: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13183236#post13183236

And, a program to add the tweaks: http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/

When DXVA is working, I would expect to see PowerDVD at under 35% for your CPU.

[Maier2505]

The solution was just posted re: dual display and Cat 8.2: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13183236#post13183236

And, a program to add the tweaks: http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/

When DXVA is working, I would expect to see PowerDVD at under 35% for your CPU.

Yes, applying these tweaks I have HA with two monitors with my 2600pro.

But I found out, that I have slight stuttering with H.264, if I use the dual monitor configuration.

If I configure my Beamer only, I have totally smooth running video...

So for me there is still a difference with single/dual configuration.

Best regards

maier2505

[millerbrad]

Any chance the dual-display regtweaks provide sound output from both ports if you have a pair of ATI dongles?

Or am I gonna have to test that out?

[Rob100]

Just want to say thanks for all the info in this thread.

I just put a 2400 pro AGP in the HTPC in the lounge (not "my" room). The PC is old (XP2500+ o/c'ed to 3200 on a DFI Ultra Infinity NForce2 mobo).

Trying to get HA working in any shape or form has been a nightmare, but this thread came to my rescue.

After changing the dll's for non SSE2 processors (way back in this thread somewhere) I found that I couldn't play AVC in MPC using overlay, had to switch to VMR9. Just got a black screen when using overlay (before renaming the dll's I got a picture using either all be it with no HA). What I find strange about this is that I have a 2600 Pro AGP in another system 2.6GHz P4 on i865 mobo and I get HA working with both overlay and WMR9.

On the 2400 pro system HA for VC1 is working fine for Blu-ray in PowerDVD, but MPEG2 is a joke, no HA and loads of stutter. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Rob.

[shurik_1]

Solution to 8.2 dual display acceleration bug:

Create reg entries vforceuvdvc1 and vforceuvdh264 and set both to 1


This is absolutely great! I have Dell 3007 and a 2600Pro AGP. Now HA is working even at 2560x1600 resolution.

It feels like it has offloaded some more from the CPU but still not enough to decode DD TrueHD titles without stutter.

[arfster]

Yes, applying these tweaks I have HA with two monitors with my 2600pro.

But I found out, that I have slight stuttering with H.264, if I use the dual monitor configuration.



Darn. Did you have smooth dual display acceleration with previous drivers? Also, do software renderer stats show any framedrop/jitter? (eg in MPC stats).

[arfster]

On the 2400 pro system HA for VC1 is working fine for Blu-ray in PowerDVD, but MPEG2 is a joke, no HA and loads of stutter. Any ideas?


For reasons too boring to repeat, mpeg2 is actually much more difficult for the 2400 than vc1/h264. You'll need dxva_nohddecode=0 at bare minimum, and possibly HWUVD_ForceMPEG2=1 for recent drivers. However, since you're using XP I'm guessing a bit here :-(

You also might want to try other decoders - with some driver versions, the avivo mpeg2 codec has been less stressful on the card than cyberlink's.

Also, what gpu % are you seeing in CCC when playing fullscreen 1080i mpeg2? If it's maxxed that's likely the problem, and you will need to try reduce the stress on the GPU. At a guess, try trdenoise=0. If that doesn't stop it hitting 100%, a solution is to go to software decoding, but with hardware deinterlacing, but that's a pita to set up, so post if you need.

[KeyMix]

The solution was just posted re: dual display and Cat 8.2: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13183236#post13183236

And, a program to add the tweaks: http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/

When DXVA is working, I would expect to see PowerDVD at under 35% for your CPU.

Thanks ExDeus. I've added the tweeks will check this out here soon.. Thanks for the CPU% target..

[Gaizka]

ExDeus, are new registry keys introducced on version 0.12 specific for some driver set.. 7.10, 8.2..??
My config is Vista ultimate+7.7 drivers and i have problems with Mpeg2 HA. Slow playback and sound loops that freezes image for few seconds during playback. CPU power is not the problem here.. i updated my system and now i have C2D E6600
I will try this new registry tweak.
Thank you in advance

shurik_1, are you using XP or Vista for 2560x1600 resolution HA?

[shurik_1]

shurik_1, are you using XP or Vista for 2560x1600 resolution HA?

XP SP2

[spanner101]

This is absolutely great! I have Dell 3007 and a 2600Pro AGP. Now HA is working even at 2560x1600 resolution.


2560x1600 ?? Thats just plain greedy.

Thanks to ExDeus and arfster for the reg twiddles, have got 8.2 up and running with HA now.

Just a couple of minor questions...

Does the ATI 2600 do noise reduction, if so where is the setting/adjustment?

Does anyone know an easy way to get dropped frames info when playing direct from disk with PowerDvd? It's playing quite nicely but every now and then I think it loses a frame or two and I want to know if I'm imagining it.

Cheers!

[Moondust]

Does anyone know an easy way to get dropped frames info when playing direct from disk with PowerDvd? It's playing quite nicely but every now and then I think it loses a frame or two and I want to know if I'm imagining it.
Other people say they experience frame dropping with HA as well. See here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=13148706&postcount=68).

[arfster]

Does the ATI 2600 do noise reduction, if so where is the setting/adjustment?


Yes, it's automatic with interlaced stuff, when VA/MA deinterlacing is on. That should be pretty much all interlaced stuff, although they like to break auto-mode selection with every 2nd driver release (with the result it uses bob). It's fine with 8.2, although I think 8.1 was crocked.

You can switch it off with trdenoise=0 in the registry, if you want.

[mine]

if not posted before

for the experienced user :

interesting new Bioseditor for 3xxx ATI_GPUs with the possibility to manipulate

UVD - 2D - 3D clocks-Vcore

out of good old Germany

best

mine

Q: computerbase

here (http://www.computerbase.de/forum/showthread.php?t=372893)

[Charleswong]

Thanks for the tweak 0.12. My HD2400Pro AGP is now working up to 1680x1050 after apply it. I am running Windows XP SP2, Atnlon XP 2500+ with 2G RAM. Cat 7.7. I will test it tomorrow for the 1080i/p output.

I am trying every single version of CAT driver and even Omega driver but my PowerDVD 3319a still reluctant to turn on the DXVA. I nearly give up until today I read the thread of 0.12 is available. Before, it only have the DXVA turns on up to 1440x900.

Now I need some help on 690G. I know this is off topic. But if anyone can help to direct me to correct forum?

[topcaser]

if not posted before

for the experienced user :

interesting new Bioseditor for 3xxx ATI_GPUs with the possibility to manipulate

UVD - 2D - 3D clocks-Vcore

out of good old Germany

best

mine

Q: computerbase

here (http://www.computerbase.de/forum/showthread.php?t=372893)


Looks pretty good. Is there one available for the 2x00 series?? I want it...

[mine]

so far only for 3xxxx cards

"Rabit " bios editor for 2xxxx :

"the coding is at 80% finished. I am speaking with the coder on regular basis, and see some of the beta versions but none is yet at a state to release to the public "

source: MVKTech Support Forums

best
mine

[topcaser]

Thought, that they have stopped development of Rabit. Good to hear, that there is some progress. When do you think will it released?

Is there a chance in releasing it in first half of 08?

[kevon27]

With the hwa patch installed is there a way to have the option to turn hardware acceleration on or off manually? I would like to use the Video Enhancements option in PDVD ultra. VC-1 and the other codec turns hwa on while a bluray movie is playing and I can't turn it off if needed. Only MPEG 2 movies works without HWA.

Help.

Processing power is not an issue with my system so with hwa off if only get 50- 60% cpu usage.

[Rpml]

ok... this will sound silly.. BUT.. is there a way to see if HWA is working other than just checking cpu usage?

Been trying to beat down a small lag problem playing h.264 in dvbdream for bout a year now... tonight i switched from a 7600GT to a 2600hd, love the pic quality of ATI... not sure if its using hwa though, i ran the tweak vbs..

BTW, machine is a e6400@3.2ghz, 2gb mem.. using bout 40% cpu for h.264

[arfster]

Rpml: On a fast dualcore, the CPU use will be <1% if acceleration is working, and most of that is probably the dvb app itself. I averaged it with perfmon and dvbviewer playing BBC HD (16mbit 1080i h264 w/ mbaff), and on a 2ghz it was approx 0.5%.

This is sometimes disguised with Bluray/HDDVD because powerdvd is doing a whole host of other things, but the cpu hit for vc1/h264 playback on these cards is essentially nothing.

[Rpml]

Thanks arf, i need to see if i can find another dvb app that does h.264 i think:)

[arfster]

Thanks arf, i need to see if i can find another dvb app that does h.264 i think:)

If you're in Vista, EVR is needed for h264 acceleration, and dvbdream doesn't support that (dvbviewer does).

[Rpml]

yeah, took a look at dvbviewer, doesn't do what i would like it to do:) now to aska silly question.. whats EVR?

[mine]

If you're in Vista, EVR is needed for h264 acceleration, and dvbdream doesn't support that (dvbviewer does).

Hi Arfster

yepp

f.y.i.

initiated a poll for better EVR-support in dvbviewer
(Zoom and AR ratio fixes)

http://www.dvbviewer.info/forum/index.php?showtopic=24814&hl=

and ThomasL made a EVR plugin (workaround for Zoom-AR) that worked for me in Vista SP1 (RTM)

best
mine (aka von Mengen)

[spanner101]

Rpml: On a fast dualcore, the CPU use will be <1% if acceleration is working, and most of that is probably the dvb app itself. I averaged it with perfmon and dvbviewer playing BBC HD (16mbit 1080i h264 w/ mbaff), and on a 2ghz it was approx 0.5%.

This is sometimes disguised with Bluray/HDDVD because powerdvd is doing a whole host of other things, but the cpu hit for vc1/h264 playback on these cards is essentially nothing.

I've got a BE-2350 Dual Core running at 2.1 Ghz. Now I realise its a fair bit slower than a Core2 Duo, and I bought it for the low-power/low-heat/low-noise side of things rather than power, but even with HA (on a 2600pro) a BD film like Shoot 'Em Up probably averages about 40% CPU (peaks at 50-odd), and an HD title like Serenity trundles along at aroung 25-30% (peaks in the 40s). If I don't have HA running, the CPU averages 80+ on Shoot Em Up, and stutters like a bugger when it maxes out completely. This is just playing disks with PowerDvd (1920 @ 24Hz), without anything else significant going on.

Is there THAT big a difference between Intels and AMDs, is PowerDvd THAT greedy, or am I missing something?

[arfster]

Is there THAT big a difference between Intels and AMDs,


Not really tbh.


is PowerDvd THAT greedy,

Oh yes :-)

The best way to demonstrate this is to decrypt a disc and then play it through the UVD. For example, I just fired poTC2 through MPC, it was averaging 3% CPU (and most of that was probably recoding the sound to my little desktop USB speakers).

[arfster]

By the way, just heard advanced sliders (denoise/sharpening) are back in 8.3

[originalsnuffy]

I spoke too soon about 8.2 working well. Perhaps it is my fault, for experimenting with higher resolution outputs. I had it working at 1700x1000; but could not adjust the overscan for some reason. The picture would not fill up the full screen. In the process of trying to fix the problem, I froze up the video drivers. Had to reboot into low res VGA settings the had to rebuild the drivers. I did use a driver cleaning utility...I suppose that could be a source of some of my new problems.

Of course then I had problems installing 7.7....yadda yadda yadda. Ended up installing the old 7.7 tweaked driver set...but CCC didn't work well, so went to 8.2. Which is still not working well.

The problem is with CCC; it seems to freeze when making even simple adjustments. With any luck 8.3 will be more stable.

In the meantime, I'll take suggestions.

[spanner101]

By the way, just heard advanced sliders (denoise/sharpening) are back in 8.3

Oooo. Something else for me to bugger up.

Any idea when 8.3 is due to grace us with its presence ?

[AlexP]

Just made my way through the 150 pages odyssey on "ATI vs rest of the world". Nice bed time reading...

I, as many here, am in the AGP HA for 1080p or 500$ for new system kind of dilemma and although I haven't e-bayed the card yet, I'm waiting for first signs of light in the tunnel and I'd do it.

Now, it looks like on some recent pages, folks with set-up similar to mine managed to use the 2x00 PRO AGP for some or all HA of 1080p h264 content.

Currently I can play all but high bitrate 1080p movies using CoreAVC and things tend to fly (70-80% CPU). So I guess I can still live with the set-up, but if 2400 PRO could help to offload the CPU just by 20-30% I'd reach nirvana.

Am I right that we've reached this state?
--
Barebone ASUS HTPC, PIV 3.0, 768MB RAM, XP SP2, Mitsu 4900 1080p PJ

[ryancmor17]

Am I right that we've reached this state?


I am holding out for a class action law suit or a recall to take place vs fleebay. Until then I will continue to use a old Nvidia 6200 that outperforms the 2600. The product does not work with Vista at the advertised resolution and someone is going to have to pay. Right now the consumers are suffering/paying, but enought complaints and something will have to be done.

File a complaint with the manufacturere and the government (BBB).

[xtravis]

I was thinking about getting a 8X AGP 2600XT (Because my computer doesn't support PCIE) and I just had a quick question. I was assuming that I could buy the card, get a DVI->HDMI adapter and buy a HDMI cable to hook it up to my HDTV. But I was told about an "ATI Cable".. which I have never heard of before. I was also told that unless I had said ATI Cable I couldn't watch anything on the TV. Is there such a thing and where would I get it? (If anyone knows) Thanks.

-Travis

[Tiger333]

Hey folks

which is the best driver to use for the GECUBE hd2600 512 AGP?


also powerdvd keeps crashing no matter what video i play with it? anyone got any ideas

currently testing with a athlon xp 3ghz, 2gb ram, windows xp pro


i've tested some h264 mkv samples in windows media player im getting about 50% cpu usage - is this good? (ui notice ffdshow is running so i guess its using that) does this mean hardware accerlation is not being used? is there anyway for me to get hardware acceralation working for any other players (really not liking powerdvd at the moment )

[HT Slider]

Just made my way through the 150 pages odyssey on "ATI vs rest of the world". Nice bed time reading...

I, as many here, am in the AGP HA for 1080p or 500$ for new system kind of dilemma and although I haven't e-bayed the card yet, I'm waiting for first signs of light in the tunnel and I'd do it.

Now, it looks like on some recent pages, folks with set-up similar to mine managed to use the 2x00 PRO AGP for some or all HA of 1080p h264 content.

Currently I can play all but high bitrate 1080p movies using CoreAVC and things tend to fly (70-80% CPU). So I guess I can still live with the set-up, but if 2400 PRO could help to offload the CPU just by 20-30% I'd reach nirvana.

Am I right that we've reached this state?
--
Barebone ASUS HTPC, PIV 3.0, 768MB RAM, XP SP2, Mitsu 4900 1080p PJ

After my nightmare trying to get DXVA working with an AGP card and Vista, I would recommend you don't do it.

ATI is no longer even making drivers that "officially" support AGP 2X00 cards for Vista so you know they will never work well.

Reading through this thread, there are tons of posts about AGP 2X00 cards not working and about hacks that attempt to force them to work.

On the other hand, a PCIe based system typically works very well and doesn't cost very much these days.

[arfster]

Hey folks

which is the best driver to use for the GECUBE hd2600 512 AGP?


Which ever one works. I'm afraid there isn't a better answer than that - it's very much trial and error to find one that does.


i've tested some h264 mkv samples in windows media player im getting about 50% cpu usage - is this good? (ui notice ffdshow is running so i guess its using that) does this mean hardware accerlation is not being used? is there anyway for me to get hardware acceralation working for any other players (really not liking powerdvd at the moment )

FFDshow doesn't support acceleration at all, so you're entirely in software. PDVD's decoder does, and so does the latest MPC beta (see the thread in doom9's software forum).

[Tiger333]

ok thanks

i think ill have to format because i cant for the life of me get this to use hardware ...



any pointers on where to go for the drivers

went to the amd/ati site --- tried to drill down for drivers - NO AGP 2600 LISTED! only the pcie is listed in the drivers


the drivers with the gecube say catalyst 7.10 and driver packaging version 8.43


anyone using anything later that is working?

[originalsnuffy]

As I understand it, AGP cards for the 2400 and 2600 use AGP bridges designed by the OEMs, not ATI itself. So any AGP drivers come from the OEMs. ATI basically wants no responsibility for AGP support for the 2400 and 2600.

[originalsnuffy]

Wow, as I was having display problems I tried a suggestion that I had hitherto ignored, namely to use a program to clean out ATI drivers before reinstalling the ATI utilities. I am using Vista.

I am now in driver hell. I keep getting error messages about registry permissions not allowed, and something about a MOM implementation error.

Anybody go through this, and can suggest a way out? I can't install drivers, CCC, or anything. This problem seems to go very deep, and seems to be independent of whether I try to intall 7.6, 7.7.8.2, etc.

I should mention that I tried a system restore, but unfortunately the restore points do not go far back enough.

[pnyberg]

Wow, as I was having display problems I tried a suggestion that I had hitherto ignored, namely to use a program to clean out ATI drivers before reinstalling the ATI utilities. I am using Vista.

I am now in driver hell. I keep getting error messages about registry permissions not allowed, and something about a MOM implementation error.

Anybody go through this, and can suggest a way out? I can't install drivers, CCC, or anything. This problem seems to go very deep, and seems to be independent of whether I try to intall 7.6, 7.7.8.2, etc.

Well been there, done that.. :)

The only thing that gets things going is to uninstall all ATI releated stuff using first the ATI uninstall tool (found in add/remove programs). Then find some tool to get rid of everything ATI related in filesystem and in registry.

I've done it manually up till now: Delete all "C:\program files\ATI*" directories. Go into regedit and find under HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOftware/ATI* delete the ATI* key(s). Also do the same under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ATI* delete the ATI* key(s).

Reboot and then reinstall ATI drivers/CCC etc.
This has always worked for me. When it didn't work I forgot to remove something before re-installing.

[AlexP]

After my nightmare trying to get DXVA working with an AGP card and Vista, I would recommend you don't do it.

ATI is no longer even making drivers that "officially" support AGP 2X00 cards for Vista so you know they will never work well.

Reading through this thread, there are tons of posts about AGP 2X00 cards not working and about hacks that attempt to force them to work.

On the other hand, a PCIe based system typically works very well and doesn't cost very much these days.

Thanks pal. I love troubleshooting but only when there is hope.. In this case I think I'll put up some $$ for a new system and meanwhile troubleshoot my bike ;)

[originalsnuffy]

pnyberg,

Thanks for your post. I think you are correct in what I need to do. The challenge right now is that there are one or two registry entries under ATI that will not let me delete them (a permissions issue). Interestingly, no owners were shown. I added myself (as the admin) to the ownership list, but still can not remove them.

Under Vista, is there some kind of technique to force removal of a registry entry?

[pnyberg]

originalsnuffy

Did you take ownership of the keys in the registry?
That should work provided your are the admin on the box, otherwise I would suspect some disk problem (NTFS) - you could try do a "chkdsk c: /f".

Regards

[Dee_NA]

By the way, just heard advanced sliders (denoise/sharpening) are back in 8.3

Not sure if it works or not or if it's the same thing Arfster is talking about thats in 8.3 but there's a tab called Advanced Quality on the CCC once these settings are applied. The only trouble I'm having is tryin to move the slider... not sure if its bc I gotten the hexidecimal and decimal value switched or not.

For XP users...
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI\ACE\Backup\Settings\Graphics \MMVideo]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI\ACE\Backup\Settings\Graphics \MMVideo\Denoise]
"Accessible"="Compaq_Owner"
"Denoise"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI\ACE\Backup\Settings\Graphics \MMVideo\EdgeEnhance]
"Accessible"="Compaq_Owner"
"EdgeEnhance"=dword:00000100

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7860/cccur9.jpg

[legolas_fr]

Not sure if it works or not or if it's the same thing Arfster is talking about thats in 8.3 but there's a tab called Advanced Quality on the CCC once these settings are applied. The only trouble I'm having is tryin to move the slider... not sure if its bc I gotten the hexidecimal and decimal value switched or not.

For XP users...
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI\ACE\Backup\Settings\Graphics \MMVideo]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI\ACE\Backup\Settings\Graphics \MMVideo\Denoise]
"Accessible"="Compaq_Owner"
"Denoise"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI\ACE\Backup\Settings\Graphics \MMVideo\EdgeEnhance]
"Accessible"="Compaq_Owner"
"EdgeEnhance"=dword:00000100

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7860/cccur9.jpg

How with Vista

thank's

[arfster]

Not sure if it works or not or if it's the same thing Arfster is talking about thats in 8.3 but there's a tab called Advanced Quality on the CCC once these settings are applied. The only trouble I'm having is tryin to move the slider... not sure if its bc I gotten the hexidecimal and decimal value switched or not.
.........


Nice find, works in Vista too.

By the way, 8.3 is coming with denoise set on and defaulting to 64, so it's clearly intended to be used. Sharpening is off though.

[Zip37]

Hi, I have this problem and it's driving me mad. My MoBo is an Intel D945 GCF. Some months ago I bought an Ati Radeon HD2400 Pro GFX card and it was working fine... Then my BIOS had a memory problem and I wasn't sure if it was the VRAM or my RAM so I removed the card for a while, after I realised that the problem were bad memory modules I bought new ones and installed the card again. Surprise! My system doesn't boot, my monitor shows that there is no signal available. I mounted my old but trusty x550 and it ran fine, but with my new HD.... I called Gateway tech support and they told me that I needed a new PSU because the card used a lot more of power than the vendor told me, I had a 350w PSU and right away switched to a 400w one. My card still doesn't work, nor my rig boots. Any help would be appreciated since I've done these things:

-uninstall catalyst drivers
-disabling onboard video
-changing the jumper position of my card (i dont know what's that jumper for)
-reseting the CMOS
-removing and inserting the card several times (with care of course)

HELP, please...

Vendor is Powercolor

Cheers

[Charleswong]

Thanks for the tweak 0.12. After applied it, I have DXVA turns on all the time up to 1920 x 1200. But there is a problem that if I use dual screen, it will crash after a while. I test for single screen (DVI output without VGA connected) only and have nothing other than the PowerDVD running. Play a VC-1 movie at 1080p with CPU loading around 45% and picture run smooth. my configuration as follow:

CPU: Athlon XP 2500+
RAM: 2GB in dual channel
VGA: Gecube HD2400Pro AGP 256M
OS: Windows XP SP2
Driver: CAT 7.7 and 8.2

Before I apply the 0.12 tweak, I can only have DXVA turns on up to 1440x900 but not higher. It proved that the ATI hardware is good but the driver is crab and need tweak.

Please if anyone have idea how to make dual screen works.

[jlander]

How on earth do I get component video to work on my ATI Radeon HT 2600XT?

I recently bought a home theater PC that runs Vista. My TV has component video inputs (no hdmi), and has 1080i and 480p (no 720p). I have catalyst 8.1.

I am trying to have my TV as essentially a second monitor to which I extend my Windows desktop. I have a monitor hooked up as my main display that works fine.

My setup is identical to what I was successfully using on my old system. On that system, and had a radeon 9800, and ran catalyst 4.12. I used an ATI DVI-component adapter with six switches (to enable and disable options such as 480p, 1080i, etc.). It was quite a bit of work to make that work on component video; I had to run a resolution of 720 x 480, and then go to the appropriate component video setting for the video card software (through the video card options I could run 1080i even though the official display setting was 720 by 480).

With an identical setup on my new system, I cannot get it to work. Catalyst 8.1 doesn't seem to have the right options, unlike 4.12. The video card card has two DVI outputs and a 7-pin S-video output The video card came with an adapter of 7-pin S-video to component video. I tried that, but I cannot enable the display with that hooked up. Same result when I try to hook up with S-video (although I want component, not S-video). When I try to enable the display, it just instantly goes back to being disabled, both with the Windows display options and the catalyst control center.

I also tried using the DVI to component video adapter that I used with my radeon 9800. With that setup, I can enable the TV display, but the output is ultra-distorted, the kind of output you see when the resolution or refresh rate isn't set correctly.

The help files indicate something about component video properties. That would seem to be exactly what I need to make this work. However, there doesn't seem to be any way to get to component video properties. It seems like somehow I need to let the computer know that "monitor 0" is an HDTV with component video, but there doesn't seem to be any way to do that.

I have spent a long time trying to make this work, with no luck. Can anyone help me? Has anyone gotten component video to work on a 2600 XT? If so, how?

[memes_be]

Hello everybody,
Please forgive my mistakes in english as I am french. Maybe this great forum will help me with the problem I have since...4 monthes. I have an HTPC Acer Aspire L200 Living Centre (AMD Athlon 64, 3200+ (Winchester), Socket 939, 512 Ko L2) motherboard : MSI MS-7093 RS480M2, integrated GC : ATI Xpress 200 128Mo shared with Vista installed. Everything worked well for reading normal SD videos. When I bought my HD Camera (Sony HDR-SR1) that creates avchd file (.m2ts), I tried to read them on my pc and as expected it was impossible to rerad them, the processor is not strong enough. So I heard about the new ATI HD 2x00 and I thought it was THE solution to help me in place of buying a new pc. So I bought an ATI HD 2400 Pro 128mb pcie from Club 3d , fanless and low-profile as the L200 has a very slim case. When I plugged it and started the system, the pc became EXTREMELY slow and the fans were always at max and cpu at 100% ! I thought it could be because the drivers are not yet installed, so I installed the last CCC (but it took 1 hour so much the pc was slow) and nothing changed. I contacted Club3d that approximatly answered me the problem could be the motherboard drivers that need update for Vista...But as the motherboard chipset is an ATI xpress 200, I thought the CCC (from Sapphire for the HD 2400 pro) would also update the drivers for the motherboard chipset if necessary (I'm not sure about it). But to be sure I installed the drivers the ATI xpress 200 before plugging the 2400 pro, plugged the 2400 pro, reinstalled the CCC for 2400 and...nothing changed, the system is too slow and unstable with always 100%cpu even without doing anything !!!
I saw somewhere in Google that somebody had this problem, and after installing XP, the 2400 worked. I did it, reinstallation of XP sp2, plug the 2400 without drivers first, and ... it worked (cpu normal) with default vga driver, and after installation of CCC, it worked even better. I tried to read avchd files with last Powerdvd and it worked but the cpu is 90% (probably without hardware acceleration), so I need probably to tweak it with your registry program on this forum.
So first, as I heard the ATI 2400 pro pcie worked better with Vista (and I prefer Vista) for the HA, has somebody an idea why my pc could become so slow with Vista and not with XP ? Could it be the 128mb are too short to work well or maybe something else ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated !

[memes_be]

One last precision, the Acer L200 has more than 2 years and was originally furnished with XP media Center. I installed Vista Ultimate four monthes ago.
Thanks by advance

[pnyberg]

memes_be:

I suppose you had the same problem as me when upgrading to Vista as I've explained here: http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/codecs-external-players-55/micro-stuttering-judder-hd2600xt-hw-accelerated-h-264-a-32204/#post214835

Basically the onboard audio on the HD card is interfering with your other audio board. So what I did was to disable the audio driver on the HD card - and the problem went away (since I already have an audio card with spdif-out).

Good luck!

[Maier2505]

Hi, jlander !

In before: I do not use component and I am currently not near my system...

Somewhere in CCC you have a button "force TV detection".

In beginning I checked that box by fault, and then I got the detection of a TV not a Computer screen..., even if I have no connection to a TV...

Please try that, perhaps it brings you a step further...

Best regards

maier2505

How on earth do I get component video to work on my ATI Radeon HT 2600XT?

I recently bought a home theater PC that runs Vista. My TV has component video inputs (no hdmi), and has 1080i and 480p (no 720p). I have catalyst 8.1.

I am trying to have my TV as essentially a second monitor to which I extend my Windows desktop. I have a monitor hooked up as my main display that works fine.

My setup is identical to what I was successfully using on my old system. On that system, and had a radeon 9800, and ran catalyst 4.12. I used an ATI DVI-component adapter with six switches (to enable and disable options such as 480p, 1080i, etc.). It was quite a bit of work to make that work on component video; I had to run a resolution of 720 x 480, and then go to the appropriate component video setting for the video card software (through the video card options I could run 1080i even though the official display setting was 720 by 480).

With an identical setup on my new system, I cannot get it to work. Catalyst 8.1 doesn't seem to have the right options, unlike 4.12. The video card card has two DVI outputs and a 7-pin S-video output The video card came with an adapter of 7-pin S-video to component video. I tried that, but I cannot enable the display with that hooked up. Same result when I try to hook up with S-video (although I want component, not S-video). When I try to enable the display, it just instantly goes back to being disabled, both with the Windows display options and the catalyst control center.

I also tried using the DVI to component video adapter that I used with my radeon 9800. With that setup, I can enable the TV display, but the output is ultra-distorted, the kind of output you see when the resolution or refresh rate isn't set correctly.

The help files indicate something about component video properties. That would seem to be exactly what I need to make this work. However, there doesn't seem to be any way to get to component video properties. It seems like somehow I need to let the computer know that "monitor 0" is an HDTV with component video, but there doesn't seem to be any way to do that.

I have spent a long time trying to make this work, with no luck. Can anyone help me? Has anyone gotten component video to work on a 2600 XT? If so, how?

[memes_be]

Thanks Pnyberg, I try to disable the audio of the 2400 pro because I have also the integrated sound card I use with spdif on my sony amplifier (and I'm wondering how I could use the sound of the 2400 pro as I don't have HDMI on it but only dvi and vga wich I use). I'll let you know.

[Dee_NA]

How with Vista

thank's

I used the name I logon the computer with for the Accessible value. Arfster can correct me on this if i'm wrong but Im thinking it would be somethin like...

"Denoise" reg_sz "0" in the Denoise folder
and "EdgeEnhance" reg_sz "50" in the EdgeEnhance folder.
Setting the edge setting too high could possibly produce visible
artifacts if my memory serves me right.

[arfster]

I used the name I logon the computer with for the Accessible value. Arfster can correct me on this if i'm wrong but Im thinking it would be somethin like...

"Denoise" reg_sz "0" in the Denoise folder
and "EdgeEnhance" reg_sz "50" in the EdgeEnhance folder.
Setting the edge setting too high could possibly produce visible
artifacts if my memory serves me right.


I think it was dwords for those two, and then a reboot. You can then use the sliders to control em though, so the exact figures you select above don't matter.

Of course, there's probably a reason why they don't have them visible :-)

[Dee_NA]

I think it was dwords for those two, and then a reboot. You can then use the sliders to control em though, so the exact figures you select above don't matter.

Of course, there's probably a reason why they don't have them visible :-)

Ok, cool! just curious since I havent used vista yet

[BigMooose]

I was thinking about getting a 8X AGP 2600XT (Because my computer doesn't support PCIE) and I just had a quick question. I was assuming that I could buy the card, get a DVI->HDMI adapter and buy a HDMI cable to hook it up to my HDTV. But I was told about an "ATI Cable".. which I have never heard of before. I was also told that unless I had said ATI Cable I couldn't watch anything on the TV. Is there such a thing and where would I get it? (If anyone knows) Thanks.

-Travis

There is an ATI DVI->HDMI converter dongle thing (that annoyingly my 2600XT didn't come with) that supports sound via HDMI. I bought a random DVI->HDMI cable and it works perfectly for video but not sound (even though I bought an expensive one that supports audio). I've never seen any reports here about video not working with non ATI cables but if you want audio I think your only hope is with the ATI dongle. I take the audio into a surround receiver via spdif so dont really care about audio via HDMI so any old DVI->HDMI cable works.

[memes_be]

Pnyberg, God bless you ! It was effectively the HD sound from the 2400 that was interfering with the onboard audio controller, after disabling, cpu begin to be normal again and I can read my m2ts files on my AMD 3200+ with Powerdvd now ! Just some tests to tweak the performance, and I am in heaven...I am in heaven...;o))
Thanks a lot to you Pnyberg, and to all of you for this super forum !

PS : 1) I tried also Intervideo Windvd 8 that seems to have a sharper picture than Powerdvd on my plasma (with component input only), and I have heard good things about Totalmedia Theatre Arcsoft (have to test it) for HA. Have anybody experienced one of those other readers with HA ?
2) How can you be sure the HA is working ? I assume it is because it was impossible to read those files before...but is there somewhere with Powerdvd for example that indicates that ?

Thanks!

[videonub]

HI i have catalyst 8.2 installed and games play well but i cant get any hardware acceleration. I have an his HD2600 512 and i am running xp. I was wondering if i need to adjust bios settings such as Fastwrite, voltage, or aperature. I can't even get wmv or quicktime HD 720p trailers to work.

[memes_be]

Hi again,

I can't have HA with Powerdvd. I have it with Arcsoft Media Theatre working perfectly 20% cpu usage with my AMD Athlon 3200+ Vista 1.5 Gb ram with m2ts(avchd) files at 1080i. With Powerdvd, I crossed the HA selection in the setup, but when I read my m2ts files, it is automatiquely not checked anymore and I read my file with 100% usage cpu (and lot of fans noise) !
Has anybody an idea or experienced that ?
Thanks

[stanger89]

OK, I think I know the answer but I I just want someone to tell me...

I've got an AGP Athlon 64 3400+ HTPC, I'm in "need" of a Blu-ray player, and given that I need the player to do the decoding, none of the current standalones will work. Should I even try an AGP 2600 on XP, or is that just destined to fail?

[Zeromancer]

Glad I found this thread.
I just bought an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 512mb for $70 from a CompUSA store that was closing.
Great info in this thread.

[mine]

OK, I think I know the answer but I I just want someone to tell me...

I've got an AGP Athlon 64 3400+ HTPC, I'm in "need" of a Blu-ray player, and given that I need the player to do the decoding, none of the current standalones will work. Should I even try an AGP 2600 on XP, or is that just destined to fail?

3850 is the way to go ...best bang on the buck in my humble opinion

best

m

[Shade00]

Hey guys, I have a PCI (yes, PCI) HD2400 Pro coming in this week. Going to give it a try and see if it accelerates. :-p

[Maier2505]

HI i have catalyst 8.2 installed and games play well but i cant get any hardware acceleration. I have an his HD2600 512 and i am running xp. I was wondering if i need to adjust bios settings such as Fastwrite, voltage, or aperature. I can't even get wmv or quicktime HD 720p trailers to work.

Do not play with BIOS , it is not necessary...

First important question: which H.264 Codec do you have installed, supporting HA ?

PowerDVD Deluxe or Ultra for example ?

Best regards

maier2505

[stanger89]

3850 is the way to go ...best bang on the buck in my humble opinion

Are you saying there's an AGP version?

[arfster]

HI i have catalyst 8.2 installed and games play well but i cant get any hardware acceleration. I have an his HD2600 512 and i am running xp. I was wondering if i need to adjust bios settings such as Fastwrite, voltage, or aperature. I can't even get wmv or quicktime HD 720p trailers to work.

WMV doesn't accelerate, cos there isn't any codec that supports it. VC1 does though.

Quicktime does accelerate with h264 decoders that support acceleration - in this case PDVD, arcsoft and the internal MPC-HC beta.

[Al Sherwood]

Just stopping by to inform you guys of my experience:

OS: WinXP fully updated
Card: Club3d 2400pro AGP
Driver: Ati catalyst 8.2
Resolution: 1280*720

Hddvd/Bluray, working with powerdvd
mkv, not working with cyberlink decoder
mkv, working perfectly with MPC-HC


Are you using PowerDVD for the HD and BD playback?

If so can you confirm that the Avivo hardware acceleration in PowerDVD stays checked while the movie is playing?

Thanks!

[jlander]

Hi maier2505,

Unfortunately, I already tried that. I tried it once again after you mentioned it, but no luck. I also tried clicking on "detect displays" with force TV detection checked, hoping that maybe then it would somehow register the TV as an HDTV and enable component video options--no luck there either. But thanks for trying to help me out.

Hopefully someone can help me. Someone who posts to this thread must have gotten component video to work with a 2XXX XT card. If so, how did you do it?

Hi, jlander !

In before: I do not use component and I am currently not near my system...

Somewhere in CCC you have a button "force TV detection".

In beginning I checked that box by fault, and then I got the detection of a TV not a Computer screen..., even if I have no connection to a TV...

Please try that, perhaps it brings you a step further...

Best regards

maier2505

[HT Slider]

Hopefully someone can help me. Someone who posts to this thread must have gotten component video to work with a 2XXX XT card. If so, how did you do it?

I have component video hooked up with my ATI HD 2600XT and it works flawlessly, including automatically detecting the TV.

All I have to do to turn it on is go into CCC, click on "Displays Manager", and enable the TV in the "Attached display currently disabled" region (clone, click and drag to swap, or extend).

I haven't carefully read you previous posts, but from what I have read it seems like the video card is unable to detect that there is a device hooked up using component video.

Perhaps there is a problem with the component splitter cable that you are using. Is the cable the correct one? I do know that there are different ones that will plug in, but not work (I have one from an Nvidia card that will plug in, but not function with an ATI card for example). Most likely the pin-outs are different between ATI and Nvidia.

Other than that, I can't think of anything that would make the card unable to detect that something is plugged in using component (unless the card is broken).

[HT Slider]

WMV doesn't accelerate, cos there isn't any codec that supports it. VC1 does though.

Quicktime does accelerate with h264 decoders that support acceleration - in this case PDVD, arcsoft and the internal MPC-HC beta.

arfster, have you found anywhere an explanation on what is going on with wmv in Vista?

My understanding (according to replies to support requests I have logged with ATI) was there was a bug in Vista when it was first released. I was told that in the near future MS was going to fix the bug and ATI would make sure that wmv acceleration worked properly.

My support request was to ATI in January 2007 and here we are in March 2008 and wmv acceleration still doesn't work in Vista. It works fine in XP and still ATI advertises that their HD cards accelerate wmv in Vista, but it has never worked.

Have you managed to find information on this from anywhere? Is wmv acceleration ever going to work in Vista?

[Dee_NA]

sorry to get off the subject but... dxva_nohddecode and dxva_detailenhance are dwords when using XP, correct?

[pc1984]

Hopefully someone can help me. Someone who posts to this thread must have gotten component video to work with a 2XXX XT card. If so, how did you do it?

jlander, are you using the svid to component adapter and also have another display hooked up to the card? If yes then try switching the other display over to the other output on the opposite side.

[karrih]

sorry to get off the subject but... dxva_nohddecode and dxva_detailenhance are dwords when using XP, correct?

Strings work for me.

[Dee_NA]

Oh boy, its bad when i cant choose between the 9250 series or the Radeon HD 2400 pro that i have, isnt it?

Cause like.. I read somewhere 9250 is discontinued but does great with removing artifacts in images

[arfster]

arfster, have you found anywhere an explanation on what is going on with wmv in Vista?


Fraid not - have to assume they just don't give a monkeys :-( I suppose it doesn't matter too much, as really hardtoplay WMV files are usually VC1, which it can accelerate.

[Mr.M]

I have just upgraded from an X1650XT to an HD3870, and I've applied the registry tweaks (since it's the same as the 2600 videowise).

However, I have been underwhelmed by the SD MPEG2 deinterlacing performance. Although the picture is retaining more detail than the 1650, I'm seeing an uncomfortable level of jaggies. This card should be matching the best that standalone equipment has to offer and it's falling far short at present.

With the registry tweaks, I'm forcing it to do vector adaptive deinterlacing, so I'm not exactly optimistic of finding any improvements. Is anyone else disappointed with this area?

[Wiggies666]

For some weeks I'm following this threat, desperately looking for some answers to get these files accelerated on a HD2600Pro (AGP).
Tried all kinds of things, but none seemed to work really.

Now I stumbled upon a small tool called GOTsent and converted an mkv (sample)file, to mpg, using the mux to VOB option, and I'll be damed, done in a minute and accelerating in PowerDVD and MPC (with Cyberlink codec and ffdshow disabled). I didnt test much yet, but all seems nice, surround sound is kept and 2% CPU...
Tried another sample, also working, only just in Cyberlink.

Gotta check quality, but it seems ok.

Anybody any experience with this?

Edit: Ah, forgot, i applied the registry tweaks and running the Asus drivers/CCC supplied with the card they seem to work better then the reference drivers from ATI.

[RogueWarrior]

Guys has 8.2 fixed the HA and expansion issues? 8.3 is still not released - but will it fix the issues? I am still on 7.7 for now until I hear from you guys that 8.2/8.3 are better.

I still get some blocking or expansion on red in SD and in some HD OTA recordings - is it my setup (using 7.7 and plain old MCE 32 bit Vista Ultimate's decoder - removed PowerDVD Ultra for now)?

Thanks!

[arfster]

Guys has 8.2 fixed the HA and expansion issues? 8.3 is still not released - but will it fix the issues?

Expansion hasn't been changed for a year.

What HA issues?

[RogueWarrior]

The 1080i HA acceleration issues listed in the thread. Either way my Quad 6600 will handle it. What I want to know is the expansion issue - will it get better with 8.2 or 8.3 or is 7.7 the only real answer still?

Thanks!

[HT Slider]

I have just upgraded from an X1650XT to an HD3870, and I've applied the registry tweaks (since it's the same as the 2600 videowise).

However, I have been underwhelmed by the SD MPEG2 deinterlacing performance. Although the picture is retaining more detail than the 1650, I'm seeing an uncomfortable level of jaggies. This card should be matching the best that standalone equipment has to offer and it's falling far short at present.

With the registry tweaks, I'm forcing it to do vector adaptive deinterlacing, so I'm not exactly optimistic of finding any improvements. Is anyone else disappointed with this area?

I've tried all of the deinterlacing settings and have to say I agree with you - I too am "underwhelmed" at the deinterlacing.

What I find is it depends on the source material. Some content deinterlaces extremely well and some screws up quite badly.

Compared to a high end deinterlacing hardware scaler, these video cards fall short in the deinterlacing by quite a bit. I've also compared my ATI HD 2600XT to my Nvidia 6800 and have to say the 6800 does a better job of deinterlacing a lot of the time (but the 6800 is far from perfect too).

At the same time, for pretty much all content, the image quality with the 2600 is more than watchable (once TRDenoise=0 and UseBT601CSC=1 are set, colorvibrance and fleshtone are turned down and disabled, and the overall brightness is set to +16 and in both the overall and AVIVO the contrast is turned down to 85%). On my system it is also rock solid in that it can play back absolutely all video formats without any juddering, skipped frames, etc. (and I can't say the same about the 6800).

I keep hoping that ATI will update their deinterlacing code through a driver update - maybe some day we'll really be impressed...

I also find it unbelievable that we need to do all of the tweaks and adjustments to get a decent image. IMO it should work out of the box, once the latest driver is installed.

[arfster]

The 1080i HA acceleration issues listed in the thread.


The only acceleration issues I'm aware of are the dual display probs with 8.1/8.2, but there's a reg fix for that. I'm also still on 7.7 for the main HTPC setup, but after testing 8.2 a fair bit it might be time to upgrade.

Of course, if you're talking AGP, that's a whole different ballgame :rolleyes:


Either way my Quad 6600 will handle it. What I want to know is the expansion issue - will it get better with 8.2 or 8.3 or is 7.7 the only real answer still?


I've got a beta 8.3, doesn't change anything on the HTPC front :-(

[arfster]

Compared to a high end deinterlacing hardware scaler, these video cards fall short in the deinterlacing by quite a bit. I've also compared my ATI HD 2600XT to my Nvidia 6800 and have to say the 6800 does a better job of deinterlacing a lot of the time (but the 6800 is far from perfect too).


Hrrm, that's weird - I used to have 6xxx and 7xxx cards, and the deinterlacing was atrocious.

Have you checked with proppage.dll and the evr equivalent that VA deinterlacing is actually being engaged? There have been a number of bugs with mode selection over the various driver versions - in particular 8.1 didn't support VA at all, and if you forced it you got a right mess.

[HT Slider]

The 1080i HA acceleration issues listed in the thread. Either way my Quad 6600 will handle it. What I want to know is the expansion issue - will it get better with 8.2 or 8.3 or is 7.7 the only real answer still?

Thanks!

I'm running 8.2 and the image quality is significantly better than 7.7.

As far as color expansion, I've spent a lot of time carefully calibrating my entire system and found I can get proper TV levels by using:

- Catalyst 8.2
- UseBT601CSC=1 in the registry
- in the overall settings turn brightness up to +15
- in the overall settings turn the contrast down to 85%
- in the AVIVO settings turn the contrast down to 85%
- and then recalibrating my HDTV itself

Note that these settings work correctly with my particular HDTV and when hooked up using DVI. If I switch to component, the levels seem out of whack again (but I haven't tried to recalibrate my HDTV to component).

Also, I've confirmed that the above settings are required in that no matter how much I crank up the brightness or turn down the contrast on the HDTV itself, I can't see any fringe BTB/WTW if I don't use the above settings (these are right at the threshold to maximise the available color bandwidth).

I have calibrated this so images/pictures and video have correct levels and BTB/WTW are "just" visible. I've also confirmed calibration using Media Player, Media Center and PowerDVD Ultra OEM.

Even though we need to resort to tweaks to get it right, I am very pleased with the end result (with the only remaining issue being imperfect deinterlacing with some content).

[HT Slider]

Hrrm, that's weird - I used to have 6xxx and 7xxx cards, and the deinterlacing was atrocious.

Have you checked with proppage.dll and the evr equivalent that VA deinterlacing is actually being engaged? There have been a number of bugs with mode selection over the various driver versions - in particular 8.1 didn't support VA at all, and if you forced it you got a right mess.

How do I check proppage.dll?

I should note that the deinterlacing isn't terrible by any means. It just isn't perfect all the time. There are times when the image quality is so good that I sit there thinking to myself how great it looks - until I switch to some other content again...and see the deinterlacing artifacts again.

Also, the deinterlacing was atrocious at times with the 6800, but with the latest drivers and Vista, it is generally slightly superior to the 2600 in my experience.

[arfster]

Proppage.dll and the EVR one (whose name I've forgotten) are little filters you manually register, then in playback you go to vmr9 or evr stats and it tells you what VA mode is in use, among other things.

Alternatively (and much easier!): get dxva checker and open a file, what deinterlacing mode does it say at the bottom of the playback window?

[Tiernan]

(I'm having problems with both the Realtek audio and HA on the 2600Pro, but it's probably best to get the video working first)

Question (as I've not seen a direct answer to this, I have to ask): does VLC support hardware acceleration on playback of .TS, WMV and MKV files (in XP/MCE2005)? I've seen a lot of discussion of people using PowerDVD, but I'd not seen anyone specifically saying that it is REQUIRED in order to get hardware acceleration of HD material on this card. Is this the case?

(I suppose it's necessary to use PDVD to get proper 5.1 playback too, hm?)

[anthony.s]

I'm pretty sure VLC doesn't offer any acceleration at all. It doesn't use any installed codec but has its own .dll files to support various formats which is why it doesn't need to be installed.

[Wiggies666]

As far as I can see (searching for a while too), accelerating a mkv with the HD2xx is not possible. You need to convert it somehow to a format that can be used by the card e.g. mp4 or mpg.
I could convert some mkv's using Gotsent and play them accelerated with Powerdvd and MPC (using Cyberlink codec). PowerDVD works best. Planet Earth, famous bird scene, playing fluently, CPU is eating out of its nose.
Audio seems to be nicely converted.
Suggest you just try. Use the latest version and set it to mux to VOB (PS/3)

good luck.

[Dee_NA]

The only acceleration issues I'm aware of are the dual display probs with 8.1/8.2, but there's a reg fix for that. I'm also still on 7.7 for the main HTPC setup, but after testing 8.2 a fair bit it might be time to upgrade.

Of course, if you're talking AGP, that's a whole different ballgame :rolleyes:



I've got a beta 8.3, doesn't change anything on the HTPC front :-(

So wait a min, is there anything that did change with the beta version??

[ExDeus]

As far as I can see (searching for a while too), accelerating a mkv with the HD2xx is not possible.
Really? Didn't search very hard, I guess. Searching the thread on "mkv acceleration" brings up lots of hits, including pointing to the requirements for L4.1 and the IDC Changer tool to set your existing MKVs to L4.1.

You want to read this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=972503), and download either the single GUI version (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13194540#post13194540), multi GUI version (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13229116#post13229116), or command-line version (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13237506#post13237506).

[arfster]

So wait a min, is there anything that did change with the beta version??

Gaming stuff I guess. Of course, there may be other HTPC issues fixed that doesn't affect my setup, but might be critical for others, you never know.

Oh, and now that I think about it, they actually set denoise to 64 by default. This possibly means they'll have the denoise/sharpening sliders in CCC again, but I didn't get a new CCC.

[Dee_NA]

Gaming stuff I guess. Of course, there may be other HTPC issues fixed that doesn't affect my setup, but might be critical for others, you never know.

Oh, and now that I think about it, they actually set denoise to 64 by default. This possibly means they'll have the denoise/sharpening sliders in CCC again, but I didn't get a new CCC.

Oh, ok. So like... based upon what you found out about it, is it worth me checkin into as of yet or waiting for the final version when it comes out? Just wonderin' since i only use video cards for dvds, and such.

[arfster]

Oh, ok. So like... based upon what you found out about it, is it worth me checkin into as of yet or waiting for the final version when it comes out? Just wonderin' since i only use video cards for dvds, and such.

Definitely not I'd say, especially since 8.3 proper will likely be out end of next week.

[memes_be]

Thanks to the register tweaks and to all of you in this forum, I can read smoothly now files like avchd(1080i) and evo files on my little amd athlon 3200+ and cpu is only at 10% with Powerdvd !For mkv files now I know also how to do thanks to Exdeusbut, but I still cannot read other files like .avi or .wmvhd at 720p with HA with Powerdvd. Is there anyway to do it ? Thanks a lot.

[Dee_NA]

Just one quick note to the ATi Tray Tool XP users, according to Ray Adams... the Vista Avivo can be changed to XP Avivo once one finds the dtb file called Vista Avivo in the database folder. It somehow removes the blurriness in movies once its used. Somehow, it manages to put it in the UMD/DXVA folder that i have in the video folder under hklm... not sure why that is though.

Any ideas?

[Wiggies666]

Really? Didn't search very hard, I guess. Searching the thread on "mkv acceleration" brings up lots of hits, including pointing to the requirements for L4.1 and the IDC Changer tool to set your existing MKVs to L4.1.


Thnx ExDeus, I will try that.
Indeed already found that you need L4.1, but when I tried to play a file with these specs, it didn't work. Must have overlooked something.. Tomorrow I have some spare time, so I'll try again.

[Moondust]

When using HA there is some kind of macroblocking/dithering on a large scale. It also flickers in those areas where the picture is distorted. It's not watchable though since it's not a smooth picture. Does any of you know what this is and how I can fix it?

I am using AC3Filter, DirectSound, ATI display driver v7.11, VMR9 renderless (only one working with HA) and the Cyberlink H264 decoder.

[jschramm97]

The only acceleration issues I'm aware of are the dual display probs with 8.1/8.2, but there's a reg fix for that. I'm also still on 7.7 for the main HTPC setup, but after testing 8.2 a fair bit it might be time to upgrade.

Of course, if you're talking AGP, that's a whole different ballgame :rolleyes:



=========
I just purchased the 2600Pro w/512 AGP flavor, what type of issues should i expect?

I just want full screen bluray playback on my Vizio HDTV50 Plasma it's 1366x988 i think?

And which ATI driver version should i use with PowerDVD & XP-SP2 BR playback?

[stinman]

1080p 24 (24) means frames per second,this is what the film is shot at

[videonub]

[QUOTE=arfster;13280278]The only acceleration issues I'm aware of are the dual display probs with 8.1/8.2, but there's a reg fix for that. I'm also still on 7.7 for the main HTPC setup, but after testing 8.2 a fair bit it might be time to upgrade.

Of course, if you're talking AGP, that's a whole different ballgame :rolleyes:



Yeah i am about to give up on Hardware acceleration with my HIS AGP HD2600 xt 512. I have tried various setups and can't get acceleration.

I have an AMD 2500XP Barton(oc to 3200) ;a7n8x mother board(nforce 2);500watt PSU with 30amps 12v line
I have tried catayst 8.2, 8.1. with and without 8.1 hotfix. I have tried the HIS drivers( from NOV 2007!) with and without 8.1 hotfix. Also I have tried omega drivers with the .dll switch.

I would try 7.7 and 7.9 but i lose directx functionality lower then 8.1.
I have tried accelerating H.264,meg4,x2.64,VC1, with power dvd ultra latest build also MPC w/PDVD codec. And MKV's with Haali media splitter PDVD decoder and ffdshow audio only. With quick time files i get a black screen w/ audio.

I can run most 720p with core avc but wanted to play 1080p, mostly mkv. Also a link to an example file that if hardware acceleration is working it would defiantly show it, would be helpful.

Does the CCC version effect HA or is it just the driver or a combination? Sry, i don't have a full grasp on HA as well as codecs/decoders/encoders in general.

If anyone has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

[pqcanada]

The previews for the ati 780g chipset today is looking good.

Catalyst 8.3 is suppose to be out tomorrow.

[wolfrick]

Hi guys!
I have some interresting problems...
DXVA seems to work (MKV info), cpu load is 3-7 %, gpu 3-5%, and framerate around 18 :( (it is supposed to be 23.7). When the DXVA is switched off in cyberlink 264 (latest ver) the cpu load goes up to 40% gpu 10% and the framerate is 23.7. Obviously there is no HA, BUT smooth playback... The cpu/gpu loads are according to everest.
All theese are with VMR9 renderless because in MKV player the high or superspeed mode leads to crash if EVR is used. Without high or superspeed mode there is no HA in EVR. Almost the same situation with MPC HC...
The mkv is 720p, IDC changer, reg tweeks applied...
System: amd X2 4200+, 1 GB ram; Ati AGP HD2600XT 512 (driver ver 8.432, catalist 7.12), SHARP 42' 1080p, XP prof sp2

any ideas?

thanx
wolf

[augiedoggy]

ok maybe you guys can shed some light on my issue.....I have an asus eah2400 pro pci express card and I am using xp pro with mediaportal installed and also pdvdultra for bluray/hd-dvd playback....and while hd-dvd plays great through powerdvd in mediaportal anything else in hd wont play within mediaportal......I know mediaportal uses directx and have installed the latest as well as the latest 3.5.netfx....I also have tried like every version driver both asus and ati versions (ran ati uninstall before reinstalling) and while in the past I could get the hd files to play from within mediaportal with one old version driver from like october it wouldnt play my hd-dvd's well with hardware support without crashing....I also have tried the tweaks and that has not helped.....any ideas why this could be?....BTW I have tried turning the hardware accel on and off from the different decoders I've chosen to use from within mediaportal as when it did work it only worked with the hardware accel turned off for mpeg2....so I though it was a driver issue but that was like 10 driver versions ago?....it really stinks not being able to view any 720p or 1080i mpeg2 files....also the latest asus driver had weird distortion lines in the video when watching hd-dvd's they are gone with the latest ati version (dated newer than asuses) but the picture now seems softer....I am using vga at 720p...thank for any advise in advance..
ps sorry this is on an amd dual core...(4400 or 4200 I think.....2gig of ddr2 ram not that it should matter)

[sandrol]

ok maybe you guys can shed some light on my issue.....I have an asus eah2400 pro pci express card and I am using xp pro with mediaportal installed and also pdvdultra for bluray/hd-dvd playback....and while hd-dvd plays great through powerdvd in mediaportal anything else in hd wont play within mediaportal......I know mediaportal uses directx and have installed the latest as well as the latest 3.5.netfx....I also have tried like every version driver both asus and ati versions (ran ati uninstall before reinstalling) and while in the past I could get the hd files to play from within mediaportal with one old version driver from like october it wouldnt play my hd-dvd's well with hardware support without crashing....I also have tried the tweaks and that has not helped.....any ideas why this could be?....BTW I have tried turning the hardware accel on and off from the different decoders I've chosen to use from within mediaportal as when it did work it only worked with the hardware accel turned off for mpeg2....so I though it was a driver issue but that was like 10 driver versions ago?....it really stinks not being able to view any 720p or 1080i mpeg2 files....also the latest asus driver had weird distortion lines in the video when watching hd-dvd's they are gone with the latest ati version (dated newer than asuses) but the picture now seems softer....I am using vga at 720p...thank for any advise in advance..
ps sorry this is on an amd dual core...(4400 or 4200 I think.....2gig of ddr2 ram not that it should matter)

had problems with mediaportal crashing becasue of:
- video codec (reinstall switched to cyberlink h264 codec & mpegII codec)
- audio codec (changed to cyberlink audio codec)
- graphics driver (clean & install)
After clean installation of graphics driver, MP everything works OK.
Also in MP config (on xp) you should turn off EVR.

watch out for video & audio combination cause it sometimes casue problems

[Wiggies666]

Really? Didn't search very hard, I guess. Searching the thread on "mkv acceleration" brings up lots of hits, including pointing to the requirements for L4.1 and the IDC Changer tool to set your existing MKVs to L4.1.

Don't know how I could overlook this, cause I actually read the thread...Thnx again, it works (of course). I'll continue with the 1080p stuff.

[blingo]

Heard 8.3 is out but cant confirm am at work and the ati download page is blocked because it things its related to games :confused:

[jyzz]

just checked driver page but didn't see anything new yet....

[arfster]

They gave it to journos a few days early, guru3d have it now:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/AMD-ATI-Catalyst-8.3-Vista-(32-bit)-download-1871.html

afaik this is the full release version. You can tell if it's the right one by checking for denoise/detail sliders in CCC


Edit: don't have time to install, but checked the build (8.471-080225a1-060170E), and it's definitely official 8.3

[originalsnuffy]

I am down to two registry entries (one is related to ace) and one dll (in the CCC area of program files) that have to be removed in order to do "clean install". All of these have permissions issues in Vista. Anybody go through this and know what steps are required to properly set permissions in order to remove these?

I have been using system restore to go back to 7.9, but can't progress from there.

[augiedoggy]

Heard 8.3 is out but cant confirm am at work and the ati download page is blocked because it things its related to games :confused:

not on the main ati site...i just checked...

[Shao128]

This is my first post, but I just wanted to thank everyone that has posted information in this thread. I have been able to get hardware acceleration working with my MKV files and haven't need to use the IDC changer. I thought I'd share some information myself incase it might help someone else get their setup working properly.

First off my system specs:

AMD 2400+ (2.0ghz)
VisionTek ATI HD 2400 PRO AGP
Vista SP1
Primary Display 1024x768
Secondary 1280x720 (hooked up to HDTV)

Firstly I downloaded MPC-HC with filters (The filename was mpc-hc.and.fileters.r421.zip)
After uncompressing, from the command prompt run: regsvr32 mpcvideodec.ax to register the filter.

Then I ran DXVA Checker (new version 1510) I've attached a screenshot. After is starts up click "Check DirectShow Filter" and select your hidef file. I then clicked on the object highlighted in red and Selected "Play in EVR" It worked great! 8% AVG CPU usage (CoreAVC was roughly 70%).

So then I tried to play my files in Zoomplayer, played great on the primary
monitor, secondary would crash ZP. So I went back to Display Driver ver 8.452.0.0 (dated 1/9/2008) and the secondary display worked.

All my mkvs played no problem now, and no need to run the IDC changer.

[arfster]

Firstly I donwloaded MPC-HC with filters (The filename was mpc-hc.and.fileters.r421.zip)
..................
All my mkvs played no problem now, and no need to run the IDC changer.

Yeah, that makes sense - the thing IDC Changer fixes is a bug in the PDVD decoder. MPCHC-dxva doesn't suffer from it.

[Moondust]

When using HA there is some kind of macroblocking/dithering on a large scale. It also flickers in those areas where the picture is distorted. It's not watchable though since it's not a smooth picture. Does any of you know what this is and how I can fix it?

I am using AC3Filter, DirectSound, ATI display driver v7.11, VMR9 renderless (only one working with HA) and the Cyberlink H264 decoder. Running on Windows XP MCE 32-bit.
Does anyone recognize my problems? I am desperate to get HA working properly. Thanks.

[RayJeff10]

First off, I'm new to this forum and couldnt ever possibly read all 154 pages of previous info, but appreciate any and all help you guys have. Forgive any ignorance on my part.

My Problems:
-After installing the Diamond HD2600 PRO 512mb PCI-e card, my computer has slowed way down and likes to crash... especially when watching .avi's.
-I use the HDMI converter (yes, ATI's special one) to output to my Sony AV reciever which takes the sound and passes the video signal to my Sony Bravia 720p LCD. I have yet to figure out how to get anything but PCM 48 out, instead of the full surround. Occasionally my sound will completly stop being output over the HDMI connection, although I will still be able to use computer speakers.
-I can't figure out how in the hell one uses that damned catalyst control center to output full HD signal to my TV.

My System:
Dell Dimension 8400
3.4 gHz Pentium 4 HT
1 gig of RAM
Diamond HD2600 PRO 512 Mb PCI-e
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Audigy 2
1 Dell plug and play 17" LCD monitor (VGA)
1 Sony Bravia 32" LCD HDTV (KDL-32M3000) (ATI DVI->HDMI)
1 Sony AV Reciever (supports HDMI audio decoding)

ATI drivers up to date
Realtek ATI HDMI audio installed

Alrighty folks, so the basic point of the game would be to be able to watch my .avi movies (or another format if you know of a better high quality one) in surround sound on my 32" TV. For now the computer crashing is a big pain my ass, but I consider that a secondary, albeit important problem. I think I may be having conflicts by having the VGA Monitor and the HDMI Monitor hooked up and running together.

Who thinks they can take a crack at this?

Thanks,
Jeff

[gsr]

First off, I'm new to this forum and couldnt ever possibly read all 154 pages of previous info, but appreciate any and all help you guys have.
I realize it's a lot to read, but for those of us who initially read the thread to catch up and have pretty much kept up with the thread since, there's probably not a lot of sympathy...

-After installing the Diamond HD2600 PRO 512mb PCI-e card, my computer has slowed way down and likes to crash... especially when watching .avi's.
You're going to need to be more specific about the crashes - blue screen, random reboots, error popups? What error messages are you seeing? What software are you using to play the avi files?

-I can't figure out how in the hell one uses that damned catalyst control center to output full HD signal to my TV.

Well, assuming you're getting your Windows desktop showing up on the TV, that means you have the video connection working. At that point, you go into the Displays Manager in Catalyst Control Center and select a Desktop Area of 1280x720 and the correct Refresh Rate (normally 60Hz, but if your TV supports it you might want to use 24Hz for watching movies - worry about getting 60Hz working first). It should be just that simple.

Alrighty folks, so the basic point of the game would be to be able to watch my .avi movies (or another format if you know of a better high quality one)
Regarding a better format than avi, I can think of at least a few - DVD, Bluray, HD DVD, but you're probably refering to downloaded videos in which case quality is rarely the number 1 priority at this point thanks to bandwidth.

[arfster]

OK, driver testing time. Setup: Vista32 SP1, sapphire 2600xt. New drivers are:

Official 8.3: 8.471-080225a1-059752C
Guru3d 8.3: 8.471-080225a1-060170E (huh?)

No idea what the difference is, but the key dlls for video are the same.

No major problems, deinterlacing works, acceleration works.

CCC has denoise/edge enhancement sliders, under video/all settings. On my 2600 denoise defaults to on/64. From the .inf, it looks like all 2xxx and 3xxx cards will do the same. Apparently these sliders are Vista only though, according to the release notes.

Unlike in previous versions, detail/denoise sliders actually work. Odd thing if you switch denoise to 0 it looks OK (this is interlaced SD), but when you switch the tickbox off it seems to go to a pretty crude denoise.

Still the same bug as 8.1/8.2 with dual display breaking acceleration. Vforceuvdvc1=1 and vforceuvdh264=1 fix this, but why is this necessary? I told them about the problem ages ago, then later told them how to fix it, and still they release broken drivers.

[Mr.M]

There's a considerable delay in the driver development as far as I can tell.

I posted on rage3d requesting an edge enhancement slider in December. A beta tester picked up on this and contacted the ATI development teams. They told him that the return of the slider was imminent.

And here we are three months later, not exactly imminent, but they got there in the end.

(I'm perhaps wrongly assuming that you're not a beta tester yourself - if you're not you certainly should be!)

[arfster]

There's a considerable delay in the driver development as far as I can tell.



That's putting it mildly :-) The denoise/detail values have been in the registry since the beginning of time, but the sliders have actually been hidden within CCC since at least 7.7 (last July) that I've seen, and possibly earlier - someone earlier in this thread posted the regtweak to reveal them.

[RayJeff10]

When the system crashes I recieve no error messages, simply a complete freeze frame and no response to any input...

For movies I use Divx on XP with SP2... and you make a good point about quality not being amazing with downloaded movies...

any idea what causes the audio to cut out?

[Fuz]

OK, driver testing time. Setup: Vista32 SP1, sapphire 2600xt. New drivers are:

Official 8.3: 8.471-080225a1-059752C
Guru3d 8.3: 8.471-080225a1-060170E (huh?)

No idea what the difference is, but the key dlls for video are the same.

No major problems, deinterlacing works, acceleration works.

CCC has denoise/edge enhancement sliders, under video/all settings. On my 2600 denoise defaults to on/64. From the .inf, it looks like all 2xxx and 3xxx cards will do the same. Apparently these sliders are Vista only though, according to the release notes.

Unlike in previous versions, detail/denoise sliders actually work. Odd thing if you switch denoise to 0 it looks OK (this is interlaced SD), but when you switch the tickbox off it seems to go to a pretty crude denoise.

Still the same bug as 8.1/8.2 with dual display breaking acceleration. Vforceuvdvc1=1 and vforceuvdh264=1 fix this, but why is this necessary? I told them about the problem ages ago, then later told them how to fix it, and still they release broken drivers.

Thanks for testing and letting us all know, and I am sure I speak for every one when I say your efforts are very much appreciated.

When you say "no major problems", are you saying they have fixed the hd/sd colour expansion bug? If so, this would be a miracle, as this would be the first set of drivers that work! (I don't use dual display, so I am not really concerned about that issue)

[karrih]

My brief trial with 8.3. Setup: XP SP3RC, ASUS 2600Pro.

No denoise/edge sliders. Denoise defaults to 64 and I thought I saw ghosting in highlights so I changed it to 0 with registry editor. Posterization problem seems non existent, even though it was not that bad recently anyway. For some odd reason I am unable to select 50Hz refresh rate from TV out for now. UPDATE: 50Hz is back, these disappearing acts are somewhat annoying, though.

I also tried 8.3 with my Vista/Sapphire 2400Pro. No VA available in CCC. denoise/edge sliders are there, but at least denoise slider does not behave well. Could be that my installation is broken as I used only ATIs express uninstall before installing 8.3

[HT Slider]

Any idea on how the new denoise sliders relate to the TRDenoise registry entry?

Do we still need the TRDenoise entry set to zero to get rid of the "ghosts"?

Does the TRDenoise entry disable the new denoise slider?

Is the TRDenoise setting now ignored?

How about the DXVA_DetailEnhance entry and the new detail enhancement slider?

[arfster]

Any idea on how the new denoise sliders relate to the TRDenoise registry entry?



With trdenoise=0, the denoise slider setting is ignored. On/off, max/min, does nothing.

However, with trdenoise=1 (default) and the slider set to zero with tickbox off, it's definitely still being denoised. Irritating.

Having said that, the denoise did make the picture look clearly better than when it was off, regardless of what slider setting you were on. My test picture was the hilarious sport of camel racing (picked a random channel off sat, it was dubai sports), so lots of motion, very difficult for lowish bitrate SDmpeg2. The sand creates a lot of mpeg artifacts, and trdenoise smoothed them quite nicely.


With dxva_detailenhance=0, the slider setting is also ignored, and no edge enhancement is done. Better news with the slider behaviour though, as setting it to zero completely disables edgeenhancement (screenshots are identical to disabling in registry). In other words, the dxva_detailenhance tweak is no longer needed.

[arfster]

However, here's a weird thing. The above was with SD 576i, but with 1080i there's no difference between trdenoise 0 and 1. Screenshots look identical down to the pixel. Ditto turning edgeenhance on/off. For some reason HD is not being postprocessed (mpeg2 and h264).

Edit: thought this might be down to dualdisplay problems, so unplugged one and rebooted. No difference. Also happens with VMR9. Perhaps it's a design decision because they figure HD doesn't need postprocessed? Pretty daft if so.

[polariscon]

I have problem with using HA for mpeg2 HD material on ATI2400Pro.
I used all reg tweaks and recommended settings still no success.
HA works perfectly for VC-1 and H264 material on PDVD ver.7.3, but when I play MPEG 2HD (silent hill Blue-Ray) HA check box is turned off and can't turn it on, also check in information tab in PDVD and DXVA acceleration (not in use).
What am doing wrong?

My system run VISTA Ultimate 32bits, used ATI drivers 8.1 - 8.3 - same results.
What should I do next?

[Tulli]

Same here. No mpeg2 DXVA with latest Cat 8.3. Vista x32, 2600xt, dual monitor.

[arfster]

Polar: the 2400 doesn't support MPEG2 Bluray acceleration. No idea why, cos it does for files.

Tulli: sounds like the standard dual display bug. There's no way around it afaik, but if you use the ati mpeg2 decoder you do get VA deinterlacing in hardware, which is more important than acceleration imo.

[tetsuo55]

I'm running 8.2 and the image quality is significantly better than 7.7.

As far as color expansion, I've spent a lot of time carefully calibrating my entire system and found I can get proper TV levels by using:

- Catalyst 8.2
- UseBT601CSC=1 in the registry
- in the overall settings turn brightness up to +15
- in the overall settings turn the contrast down to 85%
- in the AVIVO settings turn the contrast down to 85%
- and then recalibrating my HDTV itself

Note that these settings work correctly with my particular HDTV and when hooked up using DVI. If I switch to component, the levels seem out of whack again (but I haven't tried to recalibrate my HDTV to component).

Also, I've confirmed that the above settings are required in that no matter how much I crank up the brightness or turn down the contrast on the HDTV itself, I can't see any fringe BTB/WTW if I don't use the above settings (these are right at the threshold to maximise the available color bandwidth).

I have calibrated this so images/pictures and video have correct levels and BTB/WTW are "just" visible. I've also confirmed calibration using Media Player, Media Center and PowerDVD Ultra OEM.

Even though we need to resort to tweaks to get it right, I am very pleased with the end result (with the only remaining issue being imperfect deinterlacing with some content).


Any reason why you're not using HD levels? (my display is calibrated for Rec. 709), and i too am convinced that the ati is not outputting correct Rec. 709 colors (so it would be cool to have 709 settings for the ati :P)

[illstyle]

No denoise/edge sliders. Denoise defaults to 64 and I thought I saw ghosting in highlights so I changed it to 0 with registry editor. I noticed that ghosting as well and did the changes you mentioned. They don't show any effect, though.
What exactly has to be changed to turn denoising off? Actually I'd like to lower it a little bit instead of turning it off completely.

EDIT: I just noticed that detailenhance is set to zero. I do not understand ATi (AMD?) somehow...
Using XP SP2 btw.

Regards,
Simon

[Dee_NA]

OK, driver testing time. Setup: Vista32 SP1, sapphire 2600xt. New drivers are:

Official 8.3: 8.471-080225a1-059752C
Guru3d 8.3: 8.471-080225a1-060170E (huh?)

No idea what the difference is, but the key dlls for video are the same.

No major problems, deinterlacing works, acceleration works.

CCC has denoise/edge enhancement sliders, under video/all settings. On my 2600 denoise defaults to on/64. From the .inf, it looks like all 2xxx and 3xxx cards will do the same. Apparently these sliders are Vista only though, according to the release notes.

Unlike in previous versions, detail/denoise sliders actually work. Odd thing if you switch denoise to 0 it looks OK (this is interlaced SD), but when you switch the tickbox off it seems to go to a pretty crude denoise.

Still the same bug as 8.1/8.2 with dual display breaking acceleration. Vforceuvdvc1=1 and vforceuvdh264=1 fix this, but why is this necessary? I told them about the problem ages ago, then later told them how to fix it, and still they release broken drivers.

So, how close was I with the find compared to whats in 8.3? :)

[Dee_NA]

I have problem with using HA for mpeg2 HD material on ATI2400Pro.
I used all reg tweaks and recommended settings still no success.
HA works perfectly for VC-1 and H264 material on PDVD ver.7.3, but when I play MPEG 2HD (silent hill Blue-Ray) HA check box is turned off and can't turn it on, also check in information tab in PDVD and DXVA acceleration (not in use).
What am doing wrong?

My system run VISTA Ultimate 32bits, used ATI drivers 8.1 - 8.3 - same results.
What should I do next?
Not sure if this will help or not but... there's a mpeg decoder called Sony BDMV MPEG Decoder that you might could try
and see if that helps any. you'll find it at http://codec.kiev.ua/mpeg2.htm

[Nima]

Any reason why you're not using HD levels? (my display is calibrated for Rec. 709), and i too am convinced that the ati is not outputting correct Rec. 709 colors (so it would be cool to have 709 settings for the ati :P)

I thought the useBT601 setting would only affect DVD playback. How do I check that I am outputting video levels and correct HD colors? :confused:

[Dee_NA]

Speaking of colors, mine's set to:
Brightness = -10
Contrast = 100
I tried to go with the THX Optimizer in order to get those settings.
Im guessin using those settings for all the movies is ok (?)

[Tulli]

Tulli: sounds like the standard dual display bug. There's no way around it afaik, but if you use the ati mpeg2 decoder you do get VA deinterlacing in hardware, which is more important than acceleration imo.

You're absolutely right, Arfster, thanks. Mpeg2 deinterlacing definitely works with the ati decoder. Won't have to go back again to 7.7:)

[kevon27]

Installed the new CAT 8.3 and I can't get the following in XP.

Catalyst™ Control Center: Advanced Video Quality Controls

This release of Catalyst™ introduces new advanced video quality controls which include:

* Edge enhancement, which adjusts the level of sharpness of video content
* De-noise, which removes ghosting artifacts while preserving details of the original video

Can someone help me activate this new feature?
Thanks.

[nbarsotti]

Hello, Please let me know if I'm on the right track. I have tried to read back several pages and done some searching. I have an Athlon 64 3200+ and a HD2400 pro/xt (OEM from dell but does not conform to either reference board design clock speeds). I am trying to get hardware acceleration and deinterlacing working when watching HDTV through Vista Media Center. This is a clean install of Vista SP1 with the ATI drivers 8.3 (it did it last night). Rivatuner shows the same GPU %usage wether I'm watching a DVD or HDTV about 20-25%. But with HDTV my CPU maxes out at 100%. It makes me think I'm not getting hardware acceleration. I read that bluray mpeg2 decode does not work on 2400 cards, does that go for HDTV as well?

Do I just need to add the DXVA_NOHDDECODE"="0" registry entry?

[HT Slider]

Any reason why you're not using HD levels? (my display is calibrated for Rec. 709), and i too am convinced that the ati is not outputting correct Rec. 709 colors (so it would be cool to have 709 settings for the ati :P)

What do you mean by "not using HD levels"?

[CRTfreak]

Installed the new CAT 8.3 and I can't get the following in XP.

Catalyst™ Control Center: Advanced Video Quality Controls

This release of Catalyst™ introduces new advanced video quality controls which include:

* Edge enhancement, which adjusts the level of sharpness of video content
* De-noise, which removes ghosting artifacts while preserving details of the original video

Can someone help me activate this new feature?
Thanks.

Hello, these sliders are missing in Windows XP and Hardware Acceleration seems to be broken...

Not a good Catalyst version, at least not for Windows XP users :(

Greetings
CRTfreak

[karrih]

I noticed that ghosting as well and did the changes you mentioned. They don't show any effect, though.
What exactly has to be changed to turn denoising off? Actually I'd like to lower it a little bit instead of turning it off completely.


To turn denoise off I would recommend ExDeuses reg hack script with TrDenoise entry. Personally I changed Denoise_DEF entry to zero in registry and rebooted. Previously I have used TrDenoise hack myself, but now I'll try to see if zero setting works better overall.

[karrih]

Hello, these sliders are missing in Windows XP and Hardware Acceleration seems to be broken...


Yes, sliders are missing, but HA works for me. So far looks at least as good as 8.2 for me.

[arfster]

To turn denoise off I would recommend ExDeuses reg hack script with TrDenoise entry. Personally I changed Denoise_DEF entry to zero in registry and rebooted. Previously I have used TrDenoise hack myself, but now I'll try to see if zero setting works better overall.

Setting denoise_def just changes the default for the slider. You can achieve the same thing by putting the slider to zero.

However, see my post above, setting it to zero and unticking doesn't switch off denoise, you have to use trdenoise=0 for that.

[originalsnuffy]

What is the registry change to enable HW accleration(s) in Cyberlink PowerDVD?

Also, what is the recommended method to delete this dll? I have already unregistered this dll; but it resists being delete. I am guessing I need some hints on permissions, but maybe there is another way to kill it off. I am doing my best to clean out the machine for a clean install of 8.3.

C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\atiacmxx.dll

[karrih]

You can achieve the same thing by putting the slider to zero.


Yes, but that has to wait for the day when sliders make appearance in XP also...

[pnyberg]

What is the registry change to enable HW accleration(s) in Cyberlink PowerDVD?

Also, what is the recommended method to delete this dll? I have already unregistered this dll; but it resists being delete. I am guessing I need some hints on permissions, but maybe there is another way to kill it off. I am doing my best to clean out the machine for a clean install of 8.3.

C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\atiacmxx.dll

This usually indicates that the file is still in use by the OS. You don't have any ATI (or CCC) processes still running? Or if it for some obscure reason is loaded by another process... Try using process explorer (MS Sysinternals utilities) to see which .dlls processes are using.

[arfster]

Yes, but that has to wait for the day when sliders make appearance in XP also...

A fair point :-)

However, it would probably be better to fiddle with the Denoise reg setting itself. All the sliders do is manipulate that reg key - they're just a more use friendly frontend. Denoise_def only affects things on install, and when you hit the CCC "return to defaults".

[arfster]

I read that bluray mpeg2 decode does not work on 2400 cards, does that go for HDTV as well?


No - for some reason PDVD uses a different decoder for Bluray than for files :confused:


Do I just need to add the DXVA_NOHDDECODE"="0" registry entry?

Yup, although note:

1) won't work with dual display.
2) if it is a 2400pro, it's touch and go whether it's powerful enough for HD mpeg2
3) related to 2, watch the (rivatuner or CCC) GPU % - if it maxxes you should do 4....
4) ATI mpeg2 decoder that comes in the AVIVO package has the nice ability to do software decoding, but with hardware deinterlacing. This eases the pressure on the card a bit, so might be a useful halfway house solution.

[Fuz]

So is UseBT601CSC still required with 8.3?

[James Mos]

I just did a clean install on my vista based machine and have only installed the stock drivers for my HIS 2600XT PCIe card and was curious if when I upgrade to the new 8.3 drivers do I need to also download and install the new AVIVO drivers as well?

[arfster]

I just did a clean install on my vista based machine and have only installed the stock drivers for my HIS 2600XT PCIe card and was curious if when I upgrade to the new 8.3 drivers do I need to also download and install the new AVIVO drivers as well?

If you're meaning the AVIVO mpeg2 codec: nope, it hasn't changed since last June.

[James Mos]

Ahh....great...

Thanks for the quick reply

[topcaser]

What are the best reg tweaks for 8.3/XP/2600XT at the moment? these one from Exdeus?


"DXVA_DetailEnhance"="0"
"DXVA_NOHDDECODE"="0"
"DXVA_WMV_NA"="0"
"SORTOverrideVidSizeCaps"="2800000"
"TrDenoise"="0"
"UseBT601CSC"="1"
"VForceMaxResSize"="2800000"
"VForceUVDVC1"="1"
"VForceUVDH264"="1"
"HWUVD_ForceMPEG2"="1"
"ColorVibrance_DEF"="0"
"ColorVibrance_DE_MIN"="0"
"ColorVibrance_NA"="0"
"DI_METHOD"="5"
"DI_METHOD_DEF"="5"
"Fleshtone_DEF"="0"
"Fleshtone_DE_MIN"="0"
"Fleshtone_NA"="0"


Iam wondering that there are more reg tweaks as some months ago, whereas i have applied in 8.2 only these one:


"DXVA_DetailEnhance"="0"
"TrDenoise"="0"
"UseBT601CSC"="1"


Furthermore i did not understand @Arfsters post where you have written, that the picture looks pretty good with trdenoise enabled but set it to a very low value. Is this true???

[topcaser]

What are the best reg tweaks for 8.3/XP/2600XT at the moment? these one from Exdeus?


"DXVA_DetailEnhance"="0"
"DXVA_NOHDDECODE"="0"
"DXVA_WMV_NA"="0"
"SORTOverrideVidSizeCaps"="2800000"
"TrDenoise"="0"
"UseBT601CSC"="1"
"VForceMaxResSize"="2800000"
"VForceUVDVC1"="1"
"VForceUVDH264"="1"
"HWUVD_ForceMPEG2"="1"
"ColorVibrance_DEF"="0"
"ColorVibrance_DE_MIN"="0"
"ColorVibrance_NA"="0"
"DI_METHOD"="5"
"DI_METHOD_DEF"="5"
"Fleshtone_DEF"="0"
"Fleshtone_DE_MIN"="0"
"Fleshtone_NA"="0"


Iam wondering that there are more reg tweaks as some months ago, whereas i have applied in 8.2 only these one:


"DXVA_DetailEnhance"="0"
"TrDenoise"="0"
"UseBT601CSC"="1"


Furthermore i did not understand @Arfsters post where you have written, that the picture looks pretty good with trdenoise enabled but set it to a very low value. Is this true???

Edit: Ah, ok, i have seen, that fleshtone and color vibrance already defaults to 0 (the def value).

[karrih]

What are the best reg tweaks for 8.3/XP/2600XT at the moment?

I seem to manage pretty much without reg hacks with 8.3/XP/2600Pro. I thought I changed denoise setting to zero with regedit (not using TrDenoise anymore), but don't know what actually happened there. I have not used UseBT601CSC so far, so that is a question mark. Your mileage may vary.

[juffi]

Yes, sliders are missing, but HA works for me. So far looks at least as good as 8.2 for me.

Seems that HA in XP SP2 is working for some people and not working for some others.

Latest CCC version where HA is working for me is the 7.11 Crysis hotfix. All newer versions do not have HA.

Any idea how to get HA working with 8.3 in my system?

Win XP SP2
MSI RX2600PRO
Asus P5B-VM
Intel Core2Duo
PowerDVD Ultra build 3104 (haven't tried later versions yet)
arfster's tweaks done

[Dee_NA]

Anybody know what DVPF_DeblockOn is? I even tried somethin called DVPF_DeringOn
but it seems like when I use em both, the video quality isnt as sharp for some odd reason.

[arfster]

For 8.3:


"DXVA_DetailEnhance"="0" - not needed, just set slider to 0. In XP, set Detail itself to 0 in registry (it should be there by default).

"DXVA_NOHDDECODE"="0" - needed for 2400 cards, if you want mpeg2 acceleration. Might be easier just to use the ati mpeg2 decoder, so you can software decoding but hardware deinteralcing.

"TrDenoise"="0" - use to totally switch off denoise, as even setting sliders to 0 doesn't work. Denoise works better than it used to though, and doesn't affect HD at all. Experiment and see what yo