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

[RussKingUK]

Dave, Rickardk,

Yes that link you posted does indeed seem to be the same symptoms. In which case, I may possibly have been incorrect in saying that this used to work as I could very well have been testing this in windowed mode in order to see the diagnostic tools.

I've bookmarked your link and I'll have a quick google to see what turns up.

[rickardk]

Dave, Rickardk,

Yes that link you posted does indeed seem to be the same symptoms. In which case, I may possibly have been incorrect in saying that this used to work as I could very well have been testing this in windowed mode in order to see the diagnostic tools.

I've bookmarked your link and I'll have a quick google to see what turns up.

I really hope to find a solution to this problem...I had it working before I did a fresh install

[O2C]

FYI, Newegg apparently now has in stock a passive 2600XT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127298). They seem to have mislabeled it as having GDDR2 -- MSI's website lists the card as having GDDR3. Single slot cooler. All dongles included.

[pochoboy]

FYI, Newegg apparently now has in stock a passive 2600XT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127298). They seem to have mislabeled it as having GDDR2 -- MSI's website lists the card as having GDDR3. Single slot cooler. All dongles included.

that link is for the 512mb GDDR3, hmmmm, Is MSI a well known manufacturer of video cards?

and

are the ATI/AMD drivers universally used on all these different manufacturers 2600 boards?

[Rickd]

What is best to for these cars etc Vista 64bit or 32bit ....I would like to go 64 bit but is their any issues doing that with the drivers etc

[mickwall]

Problems with Asus HD2600 Pro Silent (EAH2600) running under Vista.


Got the new card yesterday along with all the other components to build my HTPC based around a Foxconn P4M9007MB-8RS2H Motherboard and C2D E4400 Processor.


Installed Vista Ultimate, fresh install, installed updates etc. Used CD that came with card and rebooting, then got the following message on restart from Catalyst.

"no ATI graphics driver is installed, or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appropriate for your ATI hardware".

If you go into device manager, you see the Asus EAH2600 listed, but it has a Yellow Exlamation mark along with the message:

"Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problem. Click "check for solution" to send details about this device to microsoft and see if there is a solution available."

Clicked it, to no avail.

Tried uninstalling and installing the latest drivers from both ATI and Asus sites, same message.

Upgraded the motherboard bios to latest, played about in the BIOS, still no good.

God was i frustrated. So i whipped out the SATA drives, found an old PATA drive and installed MCE2005, installed the drivers on the supplied Asus CD and guess what....... worked first time!!! :confused:

At least its not the card thats faulty. Its either Vista or the drivers.

Anyone got any ideas??

[mickwall]

Here's some pics for you!!


Just a word of warning, the heatsink it huge, see pics!!



Unboxed! Graphics card came with DVI to VGA connector and S-Video to Composite

http://zarch.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Unboxed.jpg



Look at the Size of that Heatsink! Thats gonna cause problems!!!

http://zarch.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BigHeatsink.JPG



Told you it'd cause problems that heatsink.... i've lost a PCI slot!

http://zarch.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/GoodbyePCI.JPG

[arfster]

So why the hell does the mpeg2 not work in the UVD? Is there no way I can get hardware deinterlacing without using acceleration for SageTV? My cpu can handle mpeg2, I just want to use my shaders for deinterlacing.

Looks like this is intended :-(

http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd2400/specs.html

"Dedicated unified video decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC and VC-1 video formats"

...but only:

"Hardware MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/DivX video decode acceleration"


Might pick up a 2600xt next. The 2400xt was enough to handle everything, but the passive heatsink with it was totally useless so it went back, and for some reason there's only about 5GBP price difference ($10) between the 2400xt and 2600xt - ebuyer have the latter for 63GBP delivered ($130).

[one_2go]

My GigaByte mobo came with an e-Sata bracket and that is the slot it would go in. I have the same card slot layout and already conceded that the one slot next to the GFX would be gone because it would have the e-Sata bracket. 1 Wireless card, 1 SPDIF bracket and the empty PCI-e 4x slot.

e-Sata is fantastic the speed for external drives is between 6 & 7 times faster then normal USB & Firewire.

[one_2go]

Looks like this is intended :-(

http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd2400/specs.html

"Dedicated unified video decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC and VC-1 video formats"

...but only:

"Hardware MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/DivX video decode acceleration"
The guys who write these specs are like used cars salesman, hiding the truth or obfuscating the specs and performance of their product. Note the quote from the link that you posted.

High Quality Video Post Processing

* Advanced vector adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing
* De-blocking and noise reduction filtering \
* Detail enhancement
* Inverse telecine (2:2 and 3:2 pull-down correction)
* Bad edit correction
Now 2:2 & 3:2 pulldown sounds to me like MPEG2 since the US doesn't broadcast in h.264 yet and Europe has no need for it because of their frame rates. To the casual observer everything in that bullet listing would be applied to MPEG2.

[arfster]

The guys who write these specs are like used cars salesman, hiding the truth or obfuscating the specs and performance of their product. Note the quote from the link that you posted.



I think they're mostly accurate in this case, as all those features are there (other than 2:2 which doesn't really work, and that mpeg2 needs a reg change). The real problem is that mpeg2 isn't accelerated in the UVD but in the stream processors, as the speclist would suggest - I'd hoped this was a bug, but it seems not. As a result this means that mpeg2 HD on the 2400pro eats half of the card's GPU (h264/vc1 use nothing), leaving not enough power left to do even halfdecent deinterlacing with mpeg2. Thus we have to switch off hardware acceleration while retaining hw deinterlacing control - possible, but other problems are then created.

If there was going to be a quibble, it's over the inclusion of vector-adaptive deinterlacing. This isn't possible in XP at all because of VMR9 overheads, regardless of whether you switch off absolutely everything else, and regardless of format. You need to move up to Vista (even buggier drivers), or to a 2400xt. The latter has oodles more power, but seems to be very dodgy with the passive heatsinks, which is what a lot of us are liking about the 2400pro :-)

[autoboy70]

So much for "Universal" Decode. I think I am finally ready to switch to another card. I have enough information to know the 2400pro will never be enough for me. So, will it be the 8600GT or the 2600pro? I'm leaning towards the 8600GT because of the superior drivers right now. The posterization is really starting to get to me. Will I have any trouble with VC-1 titles with only a A64 3200+? That would be a tie breaker as I am sure the drivers will address the posterization.

[Zebra 3]

The [2400xt] has oodles more power, but seems to be very dodgy with the passive heatsinks, which is what a lot of us are liking about the 2400pro :-)

By dodgy, do you mean it overheats? It that why you returned yours & did you have any problems getting the retailer to accept that?

Questions, questions. ;)

[arfster]

If you want to buy right now, it has to be the 8600GT because of the drivers. Going by their past schedule, Catalyst 7.8 will be out in maybe 3-4 weeks, and there's no guarantee it'll fix things like HD levels.

[arfster]

By dodgy, do you mean it overheats? It that why you returned yours & did you have any problems getting the retailer to accept that?


Yes, yes and no :-)

The problem of overheating leading to artifacting even affects some of the 2400pro models, so the 2400xt at 1/3rd higher clock and twice the ram speed needs a lot better heatsink on it.

When it worked it was a good product though. Having said that, the price difference between it and the 2600pro/xt is pretty much nothing, so if I wasn't looking for passive models I'd just go for those.

[Zebra 3]

^ That was a quick reply. Thanks.

I've got a passively cooled Sapphire 2400XT and while it does get fairly hot, it appears to be working ok. The problem is that the latest 7.7 ATI drivers don't seem to recognise their own chip & refuse to install. I've had the same issue using new installations of both Win XP and Vista. I ended up using the previous 7.6 drivers off the install CD. This doesn't inspire me with a lot of confidence. That, along with having to hack the registry to get it to work properly is making me wish I'd gone for a 2600 instead.

I know it is a new product so I will persist with it for now and hope the drivers improve over time.

[protovision]

... Installed Vista Ultimate, fresh install, installed updates etc. Used CD that came with card and rebooting, then got the following message on restart from Catalyst.

"no ATI graphics driver is installed, or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appropriate for your ATI hardware".

If you go into device manager, you see the Asus EAH2600 listed, but it has a Yellow Exlamation mark along with the message:

"Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problem. Click "check for solution" to send details about this device to microsoft and see if there is a solution available."

...So i whipped out the SATA drives, found an old PATA drive and installed MCE2005, installed the drivers on the supplied Asus CD and guess what....... worked first time!!! :confused:

At least its not the card thats faulty. Its either Vista or the drivers.

Anyone got any ideas??

I got the same thing when I tried installing my HD2400Pro in Tiny2003 (stripped Windows 2003). I figured that the supplied drivers are not compatible with 2003 (although it didn't complain during install, it does only mention XP and Vista), or my Tiny2003 was too stripped down.

I installed MCE2005, and have had pretty good luck since, still avoiding Vista as long as possible.

p.

[gbcrush]

Here's some pics for you!!


Just a word of warning, the heatsink it huge, see pics!!


... (lots of big pictureness)

Mickwall. Thanks for posting those. I ended up ordering the ASUS 2600pro there too, in part of the big heatsink. I feared I was getting my first multi-slot-space card, but looking at all the 2400 cards made me yearn for something silent.

I was hoping a big, open heatsink would work better in the noise department than one of those tiny, flat ones. Once you get it up and running, think you can give some general characteristics about its noise output?

Thanks!

[pochoboy]

I know these 2600 cards are fairly new and I'm still sitting on the fence as to which model to purchase, 2600pro or 2600xt? I'm not a gamer or an ethusiast looking to squeeze every ounce out of my system. Just want a video card for all around playback of the usual file formats that can be thrown at it.

Arfster been relaying great experiences with the 2400pro/xt series, is there anyone out there/here that has opinions/experiences between the 2600pro/xt? Does the ram chips(GDDR2/3) differences in speed affect the gaming aspect or does it also affect media file playback?

edit: would it be safe to say (xt)GDDR 3/4 for gamers, enthusiasts

and (pro)GDDR 2 for the home theater pc crowd?

[arfster]

^The problem is that the latest 7.7 ATI drivers don't seem to recognise their own chip & refuse to install. I've had the same issue using new installations of both Win XP and Vista.

Ahh, I remember that problem. Their drivers have never heard of the 2400xt :rolleyes:

Try this:

1) you need to find the hardware id of your card, to replace the missing line above. Go to device manager, displays, double-click your card, details tab, compatible ids. Should look like this: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_94C3. That's for a 2400pro though, the 2400xt has different last 3 letters. Right-click, copy/paste it to notepad, save it somewhere.

2) Uninstall current drivers and reboot when it asks.
3) dload 7.7, run it, wait until it finishes extracting and starts catalyst install manager. At this point cancel out and exit.
4) Browse to C:\ATI\SUPPORT\7-7_vista32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_49713\Driver\Packages\Drivers\Displ ay (or equivalent for XP)
5) Open CL_49713.inf in notepad (or XP equivalent, there's only one inf file there)
6) search for ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO
7) copy/paste the line but with 2400 xt as the name, and your hardware ID you found before (pci\ven_1002 etc)
8) save, exit, go to C:\ATI\SUPPORT\7-7_vista32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_49713 and run setup

Looks complicated, but it's a simple thing being done: ati forgot to include the 2400xt, so you're just putting it back in to the driver package.

[autoboy70]

edit: would it be safe to say (xt)GDDR 3/4 for gamers, enthusiasts

and (pro)GDDR 2 for the home theater pc crowd?

I would say it is safe to say that a 2600pro will perform the same for media playback. As long as the card is fast enough, which it seems to be, there will be no advantage to the XT model apart from gaming performance unless they start adding new algorithms for deinterlacing that are more computationally intensive than Vector Adaptive Deinterlacing. I can't see that happening at this time.

[one_2go]

As a result this means that mpeg2 HD on the 2400pro eats half of the card's GPU (h264/vc1 use nothing), leaving not enough power left to do even halfdecent deinterlacing with mpeg2. Thus we have to switch off hardware acceleration while retaining hw deinterlacing control - possible, but other problems are then created.

If there was going to be a quibble, it's over the inclusion of vector-adaptive deinterlacing. This isn't possible in XP at all because of VMR9 overheads, regardless of whether you switch off absolutely everything else, and regardless of format. You need to move up to Vista (even buggier drivers), or to a 2400xt.
The 2400Pro was never my card of choice. I always had eyed the 2600Pro from Palit/Xpertvision for the simple reason the card has a HDMI connector. This is a space issue for me as I don't have the space behind the HTPC for a DVI to HDMI adapter and a HDMI connector.

Besides the 2600 Pro that I want, I do have a E6850 processor and don't need any MPEG acceleration but would love to have the different deinterlacing modes.

I take from your comments that this is not possible at this time or is that just with the 2400 Pro card?

[arfster]

It's possible - the 2600pro should easily have the power to do mpeg2 deinterlacing and acceleration at the same time, so you just select vector-adaptive in CCC and you're sorted. Auto might work as well, not sure if it selects VA appropriately.

Only real issue is in Vista, where the CCC deinterlacing mode selection is bugged for HD stuff, and the only way round it is PowerDVD.

[ricabullah]

If you want to buy right now, it has to be the 8600GT because of the drivers. Going by their past schedule, Catalyst 7.8 will be out in maybe 3-4 weeks, and there's no guarantee it'll fix things like HD levels.

I agree and think this is the conclusion which must to be.

[IAM4UK]

If you want to buy right now, it has to be the 8600GT because of the drivers.
Actually, I considered replacing my 7600GS with an 8600GTS, but went with a 2600Pro. The reason for abandoning nvidia after many years was...their drivers for the 8500 and 8600 have been all-kinds-of-wrong for XP.

[ricabullah]

Actually, I considered replacing my 7600GS with an 8600GTS, but went with a 2600Pro. The reason for abandoning nvidia after many years was...their drivers for the 8500 and 8600 have been all-kinds-of-wrong for XP.

I admit i told we were lost in the jungle of NVidia in the beginning.
And after 2 months crowded with drivers, cards and with or without HA,
i finally decided to stay with XP(165.01fw)+ 8600 GTS and DVBViewerPro.
But let me say 163.11 drivers are fine for Vista as well.

here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=868982)

[digitlman]

Looking at the ATI site i see they have HD2x00 mobility versions of all the chipsets. anyone know a cheap laptop on the horizon with it? i think i would want a bare minimum slow one with HD2400 and a gigE port and i could connect to my SAN full of HD clips and it would be set for a HTPC, quiet and small, no extra kb/mouse laying around.

[autoboy70]

I would be scared that the mobile HD2400 could not handle 1080i mpeg2 material. I had to overclock my 2400pro to get rid of the tearing and a mobile version would have more problems. If you went that route, a moblie 2600 would be a better choice imo.

[chrisstew]

I have the Sapphire 2400 pro with passive heatsink
Found the Nvidia Purevideo codec works better at this stage rather then Pdvd but have downloaded latest trial of Pdvd, will try that tomorrow.

wally0206 .. noted you have Twinhan 3020 tuner in your rig, what drivers are you using, the BDA ones of Twinhans web site did nothing in my vista rig.

Have applied the Reg hacks and now CPU shows 37% I have however shut a lot of Vista features down to speed it up.

Aero is swithed off

Running Sempron 2800
2Gig ram
Foxconn Nforce 4 mobo

Only running SD but overall this is equal to my X550 with a tiny 128mb ram

Im sure when HD finally arrives in UK (forget sky- to many adverts and repeats)
ill see a difference.

[wally0206]

chrisstew....I couldn't get the BDA to work, but i found on another site some WDM that work in Vista for me with Ritz.

{***.digitalrise.biz/support/downloads/index.php?action=file&id=134}

[RogueWarrior]

FYI, Newegg apparently now has in stock a passive 2600XT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127298). They seem to have mislabeled it as having GDDR2 -- MSI's website lists the card as having GDDR3. Single slot cooler. All dongles included.

This is one of the ONLY cards at Newegg with a standard return policy. Very interesting that many of the other 2600(XT or Pro) cards from manufacturers do not even have a return option.

My concerns"

1) People on this thread keep talking about how hot the 2600XT gets - will this passive heat sink work?
2) Will ATI ever release their own 2600XT? I would rather buy from them than a third party?
3) Newegg seems to have three different return policies for the 2600 cards - all differing and even not consistent for the card family - no idea why? With all the issues people are having with these cards - you would think that Newegg would be OK with returning the cards (with a 15% restocking fee).

[Andy o]

OK, just installed the HIS 2600 pro 512 MB. Swapped the cooler for my VNF100 with no problems. It's running pretty cool, cooler than my Sapphire 2400pro with stock heatsink, which sucked hard. MPEG 2 interlaced 1080i/60 content looks good, it stresses the card up to the high 80s and low 90s, but this is with Aero running. Without Aero it's less, but it's all good on that front now.

Things I've noticed. The DXVA_only... settings are the same as before, set to "1". There is no DXVA_NOHDDECODE setting (I think the same as before).

I am seeing the horrible posterization in the red channel and some contrast flickering when playing DVDs on PowerDVD 7.3.3104a, but DVD's seem to play better overall (better deinterlacing/scaling) when turning off HW accel for them. No big deal, but it's a bit annoying. They should be able to fix this with drivers, I guess?

The Nvidia 8500GT I have been using in the interim between my 2400pro and 2600pro seemed actually to work very well, with only the occasinal lockup with HD-DVD movies in PowerDVD. But I was using rather old drivers. My gripe with the new Nvidia drivers is that the freaking underscan options don't give you a clear 1:1 distinctive setting, they only have sliders that size up or down the picture and it's pretty hard to nail it, if possible at all.

[arfster]

Andy: how's the deinterlacing selection behaving now? You can tell which it's using if you use proppage.dll (comes with graphedit, "regsvr32 proppage.dll" to add it), and then run some app that uses VMR9, and check renderer stats.

[Andy o]

Andy: how's the deinterlacing selection behaving now? You can tell which it's using if you use proppage.dll (comes with graphedit, "regsvr32 proppage.dll" to add it), and then run some app that uses VMR9, and check renderer stats.

I'm not well versed with tweaking video settings, but I'll give it a try. I have Vista x86, by the way. Any ideas on the posterization?

[IAM4UK]

Just got my ASUS-branded ATI 2600Pro. It reduces the CPU load to 20% or lower on every HD-DVD I've tried from WB, Uni, Paramount and a few others, so I get stutter-free video and audio with my old P4 630 CPU. That's great.

Two things that aren't great, and with which I'm seeking help:

1. HDCP. My Samsung HLN617 is HDCP-compliant, and I got this graphics card in part for its advertised HDCP compliance. However, PDVDU7.3.3104 reports that my system is not HDCP compliant. What's up with that? Anyone know? (I've inquired of AMD/ATI, but who knows if they'll give me any insight...)

2. Vertical band on the right side of the screen during DVD playback. It's about 10 pixels wide, and is a segmented black-and-white band. I uninstalled nvidia purevideo, and got a different band, but didn't eliminate the problem. It happens only on standard DVDs in Windows MCE 2005. It does not happen with HD-DVDs in PDVDU7.3.3104. I am working around it by allowing some overscan. Any ideas on what's causing it or how to eliminate it?

ATSC (OTA) looks great in MCE 2005, but NTSC (via cable) looks poor. This is in comparison to my previous two nvidia cards. Should I expect that? Anything I can do to improve NTSC playback?

[protovision]

Looking at the ATI site i see they have HD2x00 mobility versions of all the chipsets. anyone know a cheap laptop on the horizon with it? i think i would want a bare minimum slow one with HD2400 and a gigE port and i could connect to my SAN full of HD clips and it would be set for a HTPC, quiet and small, no extra kb/mouse laying around.

Thinking the exact same thing. I noticed the mentions of 'mobility', and if its on the right quiet, low powered, low price rig (not titanium, not 17", no cup holders) with DVI/HDMI out + SPDIF, it could be a great playback/other stuff device.

I currently have an old laptop doing dl/torrent chores, nice and quiet, low powered, and a C2D + HD2400Pro PC for playback, would be great to combine those 2...

EDIT: 2600 might be better, as suggested
p.

[protovision]

..if you use proppage.dll (comes with graphedit, "regsvr32 proppage.dll" to add it)

OT: Tip for registering .dll's by double click (XP, not sure about Vista):

associate them with regsvr32.exe

- right click on .dll
- select Open With...
- a list of programs is displayed, select 'Browse'
- browse to your 'windows/system32' folder
- select 'regsvr32.exe', open
- to make it permanent, click the checkbox 'Always Use selected...'

from now on, you'll be able to double click on dlls to register them, remember not to accidentally delete the file/folder where it is. I think you can do the same for .ax's as well.

p.

[pochoboy]

Sorry for my nonsense responses, but you gotta luv this thread!!!!!!

These are Great postings concerning the HD2400/2600 cards.

[O2C]

that link is for the 512mb GDDR3, hmmmm, Is MSI a well known manufacturer of video cards?

and

are the ATI/AMD drivers universally used on all these different manufacturers 2600 boards?
MSI is generally considered a first tier motherboard and graphics card manufacturer. That's likely why Newegg is offering their "standard" return policy on the card.

The Catalyst drivers are used for all these cards.

[mickwall]

Just got my ASUS-branded ATI 2600Pro. It reduces the CPU load to 20% or lower on every HD-DVD I've tried from WB, Uni, Paramount and a few others, so I get stutter-free video and audio with my old P4 630 CPU. That's great.

Two things that aren't great, and with which I'm seeking help:

1. HDCP. My Samsung HLN617 is HDCP-compliant, and I got this graphics card in part for its advertised HDCP compliance. However, PDVDU7.3.3104 reports that my system is not HDCP compliant. What's up with that? Anyone know? (I've inquired of AMD/ATI, but who knows if they'll give me any insight...)

2. Vertical band on the right side of the screen during DVD playback. It's about 10 pixels wide, and is a segmented black-and-white band. I uninstalled nvidia purevideo, and got a different band, but didn't eliminate the problem. It happens only on standard DVDs in Windows MCE 2005. It does not happen with HD-DVDs in PDVDU7.3.3104. I am working around it by allowing some overscan. Any ideas on what's causing it or how to eliminate it?

ATSC (OTA) looks great in MCE 2005, but NTSC (via cable) looks poor. This is in comparison to my previous two nvidia cards. Should I expect that? Anything I can do to improve NTSC playback?

iam4uk,

Can you confirm what OS you are using with your ASUS, is it MCE 2005?

Don't suppose you've the ability to try Vista at all? As per my post on the previous page, i can't get the damn thing card to work in Vista, but is ok in MCE.

Problem is, i want Vista!

Cheers

[Zebra 3]

Ahh, I remember that problem. Their drivers have never heard of the 2400xt :rolleyes:

Try this:

1) you need to find the hardware id of your card, to replace the missing line above. Go to device manager, displays, double-click your card, details tab, compatible ids. Should look like this: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_94C3. That's for a 2400pro though, the 2400xt has different last 3 letters. Right-click, copy/paste it to notepad, save it somewhere.

2) Uninstall current drivers and reboot when it asks.
3) dload 7.7, run it, wait until it finishes extracting and starts catalyst install manager. At this point cancel out and exit.
4) Browse to C:\ATI\SUPPORT\7-7_vista32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_49713\Driver\Packages\Drivers\Displ ay (or equivalent for XP)
5) Open CL_49713.inf in notepad (or XP equivalent, there's only one inf file there)
6) search for ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO
7) copy/paste the line but with 2400 xt as the name, and your hardware ID you found before (pci\ven_1002 etc)
8) save, exit, go to C:\ATI\SUPPORT\7-7_vista32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_49713 and run setup

Looks complicated, but it's a simple thing being done: ati forgot to include the 2400xt, so you're just putting it back in to the driver package.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. :)

[Andy o]

Andy: how's the deinterlacing selection behaving now? You can tell which it's using if you use proppage.dll (comes with graphedit, "regsvr32 proppage.dll" to add it), and then run some app that uses VMR9, and check renderer stats.

Hey again, where can I get an updated version of graphedit? The ones I have found are different versions, the most recent one is from 2005. I guess this tool is for XP, but will work with Vista OK?

Thanks.

[arfster]

Yeah, they'll all work with Vista, but only the dx10 version will actually display anything using EVR. Here's the latest one I see:

http://www.jtow.net/users/triess/

[mefromfl]

Hi, I have a sony tv xbr 3, i set my ati 2600xt to 1280x1080 60hz. I'm using powerdvd and media classic player. It doesn't seem to take up the whole screen on my tv. Am i missing a setting or something? Also, what codec do i need to play .h264 .mkv file on powerdvd? I have vista ultimate, and dvd play back isn't really nice look like my nvidia card. What settings do i need to do? hardware acceleration is on for powerdvd.

[one_2go]

Hi, I have a sony tv xbr 3, i set my ati 2600xt to 1280x1080 60hz. I'm using powerdvd and media classic player. It doesn't seem to take up the whole screen on my tv. Am i missing a setting or something? Also, what codec do i need to play .h264 .mkv file on powerdvd?
I don't think you can play back MKV files in PDVD. You need the h.264 codec that comes with PDVD or other codecs like CoreAVC.

[Rick Guynn]

Just got my ASUS-branded ATI 2600Pro. It reduces the CPU load to 20% or lower on every HD-DVD I've tried from WB, Uni, Paramount and a few others, so I get stutter-free video and audio with my old P4 630 CPU. That's great.

Two things that aren't great, and with which I'm seeking help:

1. HDCP. My Samsung HLN617 is HDCP-compliant, and I got this graphics card in part for its advertised HDCP compliance. However, PDVDU7.3.3104 reports that my system is not HDCP compliant. What's up with that? Anyone know? (I've inquired of AMD/ATI, but who knows if they'll give me any insight...)

2. Vertical band on the right side of the screen during DVD playback. It's about 10 pixels wide, and is a segmented black-and-white band. I uninstalled nvidia purevideo, and got a different band, but didn't eliminate the problem. It happens only on standard DVDs in Windows MCE 2005. It does not happen with HD-DVDs in PDVDU7.3.3104. I am working around it by allowing some overscan. Any ideas on what's causing it or how to eliminate it?

ATSC (OTA) looks great in MCE 2005, but NTSC (via cable) looks poor. This is in comparison to my previous two nvidia cards. Should I expect that? Anything I can do to improve NTSC playback?

1) I have the same problem with my projector, but my projector is known to be kind of flakey when it comes to making proper HDCP connections, so I wasn't sure it was on the video card end.

2) Are you by chance using the new 7.7's? If so, go back to the 7.6's. I saw this behavior when I updated to the new drivers. Tried alot of settings and couldn't get it to go away.

3) I haven't actually checked my NTSC reception yet, but it likely has something to do with overlay. I have noted that the deinterlacing doesn't appear to work properly with overlay.

I hope these issues will be taken care of in future driver releases.

[IAM4UK]

iam4uk,

Can you confirm what OS you are using with your ASUS, is it MCE 2005?

Don't suppose you've the ability to try Vista at all? As per my post on the previous page, i can't get the damn thing card to work in Vista, but is ok in MCE.

Problem is, i want Vista!

Cheers
I use MCE 2005, and don't have Vista.

[digitlman]

Anyone know if any AGP versions are available yet? i looked at the Powercolor website yesterday and they list AGP models. But i haven't found a website to actually order one from.

[Mike_Stuewe]

Hi, I have a sony tv xbr 3, i set my ati 2600xt to 1280x1080 60hz. I'm using powerdvd and media classic player. It doesn't seem to take up the whole screen on my tv. Am i missing a setting or something? Also, what codec do i need to play .h264 .mkv file on powerdvd? I have vista ultimate, and dvd play back isn't really nice look like my nvidia card. What settings do i need to do? hardware acceleration is on for powerdvd.


There is a setting in the CCC regarding TV Overscan which will allow you to adjust it. Im not at my HTPC right now, otherwise I could be more specific.

[alfonxs]

Anyone know if any AGP versions are available yet? i looked at the Powercolor website yesterday and they list AGP models. But i haven't found a website to actually order one from.
I got my Gecube 2400 Pro AGP a few days ago from alternate.de (germany). But I can't get Hardware Acceleration to run... :(

Vista Ultimate
Catalyst 7.7
Powerdvd Ultra 7 with Patch 3104a

Enabled DVXA in Powerdvd and try to play a H.264 1080i 50Hz 20 MBit Sample. GPU at 5% CPU at 100%. Added DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264 0 to registry, reboot, didn't help. Same with manually created graph in Graphedit with EVR Renderer.

Any suggestions?

Thanx, alfonxs

[arfster]

That setup should work, you've done everything right :-( Not too surprised AGP causes additional problems though, although it might be nice if ATI actually tested their products.

Few things to try:

1) force hardware deinterlacing under powerdvd/options, see if that adds to the GPU%. If you select the one that starts 3C, it should go up to 55% or so regardless of hardware acceleration.

2) mpeg2 1080i acceleration?

3) You say "added" dxva_only - it should be there already?

4) what colour space is the decoder outputting? (graphedit, pin properties on the cyberlinkh264 out pin)

[autoboy70]

mefromfl,

You need to set your screen resolution to 1920x1080 60hz. Not 1280 x 1080. That should fix your main problem. You should also set your display to FULL PIXEL mode instead of normal. Normal will give you overscan.

[alfonxs]

@arfster

1) 45% GPU with 3C... CPU maxxed out

2) 60% GPU with Powerdvd (with 3C... too), CPU nearly maxxed out (>90%)

3) After first install with 7.7 drivers from ati site, the DXVA entries were there. I changed the DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264 to 0, didn't help. I uninstalled and installed the drivers from CD that came with the card (7.7 too, only other CCC Version). Now there were no DXVA entries in the registry, so I added DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264 0.

4) NV12

Thanx!

[RogueWarrior]

Has anyone tried the MSI RX2600XT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127298) card? I want to buy an XT card and I am not sure which one to get. I cannot seem to find any local here in Silicon Valley other than the Asus card (with its huge fan) at Central Computer.

Any help on where else in Silicon valley I can get the card or which XT card is best to buy from Newegg as the cards seem to be having issues and the return policies are all over the place.

Thanks!

[mickwall]

Problems with Asus HD2600 Pro Silent (EAH2600) running under Vista.


Got the new card yesterday along with all the other components to build my HTPC based around a Foxconn P4M9007MB-8RS2H Motherboard and C2D E4400 Processor.


Installed Vista Ultimate, fresh install, installed updates etc. Used CD that came with card and rebooting, then got the following message on restart from Catalyst.

"no ATI graphics driver is installed, or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appropriate for your ATI hardware".

If you go into device manager, you see the Asus EAH2600 listed, but it has a Yellow Exlamation mark along with the message:

"Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problem. Click "check for solution" to send details about this device to microsoft and see if there is a solution available."

Clicked it, to no avail.

Tried uninstalling and installing the latest drivers from both ATI and Asus sites, same message.

Upgraded the motherboard bios to latest, played about in the BIOS, still no good.

God was i frustrated. So i whipped out the SATA drives, found an old PATA drive and installed MCE2005, installed the drivers on the supplied Asus CD and guess what....... worked first time!!! :confused:

At least its not the card thats faulty. Its either Vista or the drivers.

Anyone got any ideas??


Sorted it, but what a pain in @rse!!

I'd built the machine complete with the 2600 in and installed vista straight away. So i tried uninstalling all the drivers, taking out the card and booting vista using the onboard graphics. That was fine. But curiously it said it had installed a driver for a Standard VGA Device!! So powered off again, re-installed the 2600Pro and started vista. Vista instantly recognised the card and worked fine. I've now installed 7.7 and it all appears to be well and i confidently put the top back on the HTPC! LOL.

For those interested, the Aero scores in Vista are:
Graphics(aero): 5.4
Graphics(gaming): 4.9

[ricabullah]

I got my Gecube 2400 Pro AGP a few days ago from alternate.de (germany). But I can't get Hardware Acceleration to run... :(

Vista Ultimate
Catalyst 7.7
Powerdvd Ultra 7 with Patch 3104a

Enabled DVXA in Powerdvd and try to play a H.264 1080i 50Hz 20 MBit Sample. GPU at 5% CPU at 100%. Added DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264 0 to registry, reboot, didn't help. Same with manually created graph in Graphedit with EVR Renderer.

Any suggestions?

Thanx, alfonxs

Everything seems to be OK.
And let me suggest this:
evr.fix (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935878)

[arfster]

Alfonxs: those figures are a little reassuring - you're getting full hardware deinterlacing at least, but something is blocking acceleration. Getting NV12 and deinterlacing is the same as happens when a registry option is blocking things. Unfortunately that's not really much use if the CPU is still maxxed out :-(

All I can suggest is chipset/agp drivers for your motherboard, and if that doesn't work hassle the card manufacturer.

[spazzbecker]

There is a setting in the CCC regarding TV Overscan which will allow you to adjust it. Im not at my HTPC right now, otherwise I could be more specific.

Hi
I've got the latest drivers 7.7 and I can’t see the Overscan setting in the CCC?

Could you point me to the settings please?

(Problem is 46" LCD running at 1920*1080 60hrz with black borders about 2"s wide on the edges of the screen top to bottom is fine)
I’m using the HD2600

Cheers

Carl

[autoboy70]

Hi
I've got the latest drivers 7.7 and I can’t see the Overscan setting in the CCC?

Could you point me to the settings please?

(Problem is 46" LCD running at 1920*1080 60hrz with black borders about 2"s wide on the edges of the screen top to bottom is fine)
I’m using the HD2600

Cheers

Carl

Check the zoom settings on the TV.

[Sarvatt]

Everything seems to be OK.
And let me suggest this:
evr.fix (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935878)


Hmm, this interlaced hotfix (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932649) installed evr.dll version 5.0.1.1 but that update installed evr version 6.0.6000.20583, I wonder what the difference is.. definitely going to have to do some more testing.

[spazzbecker]

Check the zoom settings on the TV.


Hi
This is the Sharp Aquos 46XD1e LCD tv there is a Full and Under scan button on the remote, on full the image is cropped further, on Under scan that’s when I get the cropped sides.

cheers

[protovision]

Hi
I've got the latest drivers 7.7 and I can’t see the Overscan setting in the CCC?

Could you point me to the settings please?

(Problem is 46" LCD running at 1920*1080 60hrz with black borders about 2"s wide on the edges of the screen top to bottom is fine)
I’m using the HD2600

Cheers

Carl

I think its under the DTV/DVI branch in the advance view in CCC.

p.

[ricabullah]

Hmm, this interlaced hotfix (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932649) installed evr.dll version 5.0.1.1 but that update installed evr version 6.0.6000.20583, I wonder what the difference is.. definitely going to have to do some more testing.


"In Windows Vista, you play a video stream by using DirectShow and the enhanced video renderer (EVR). When an upstream filter performs a dynamic reconnection, the EVR sends the EC_DISPLAY_CHANGED event. Therefore, the other filters may stop working."
Yes i admit that explanation seems not related with HA.
But i just compared our systems with alfonfonxs' and found that difference only.

[indieke2]

This card/drivers are amazing.

I thought I finally got everything working. I desinstalled powerstrip, and the computer became more stable. 48 hz, wasn't working anyway.
I don't know if it are the register changes, but I got this problem still, and it seems only on HDDVD not BD.

Everything looks fine, cpu is low, image great, and then I get Blocking/pixelisation. It goes away fast, but comes back every time. Am I the only one? Is there a solution?

Now with my card I got no set-up guide, nothing, and I don't see a way in ccc to get to 50 hz for H 264, Europe broadcasting. Only 60 hz and in the menu weird rr!

I heard that some use rivaturner, is that an option?

[alfonxs]

"In Windows Vista, you play a video stream by using DirectShow and the enhanced video renderer (EVR). When an upstream filter performs a dynamic reconnection, the EVR sends the EC_DISPLAY_CHANGED event. Therefore, the other filters may stop working."
Yes i admit that explanation seems not related with HA.
But i just compared our systems with alfonfonxs' and found that difference only.

Sorry, no difference. I installed this patch too.

Further I got frequently BSODs. GPU Temp at 31°C and just surfing. Very unstable. Card will go back, I will try it with a 2600 Pro AGP from another manufacturer.

[Luar Azul]

If people are uncomfortable with registry hacking, I could zip up a version of the Vista driver package with them pre-changed. Would take all of 5 minutes, it's just changing a few values in an installation settings text file.

Hi to all, this is just a thank you note to this forum and specially to arfster for his incredible help. Thanks!! It would be great if you could make another tweaked driver for the 7.7 Ati release, though! :D

I installed arfster Vista tweaked driver (7.6 release) from Richard Berger's site:
(can't place url in this thing! :p it's on post #419)

And it worked (almost) perfectly! The only remaining problem is not with the driver as I explain bellow.

This is my experience with the 2400 pro:

First of all I have a "slow" CPU, an AMD64 3000+ (Venice core), with 40% OC, it works with some 1080p x264 material (using CoreAVC and no deblocking), but VC-1 1080p material is simply impossible to run. :confused: I was trying to upgrade the CPU, but since it uses a 939 socket, the options were scarce. When I read this thread I understood that there was more than the 8600GT available (which did not solve my VC-1 problem anyway), and so I went and bought the 2400 pro.

I order a Sapphire 2400 pro from a german store (Jacob Elektronik), on July 12, and it was only shipped on the 19th :mad: it arrived on the 23rd. After all the waiting I was quite anxious to get it working. But things just went astray. I had Windows XP 64 bits installed and the acceleration just didn't work at all.

The next step was to install the Windows XP 32bit version, only to find that manually editing the registry was an almost impossible task (the values are scattered through many places, too many values to edit, and there is not "find-replace" option in regedit!)

Therefore I reverted to arfster 7.6 XP drivers found on Richard Berg site. This time thinks went much better, acceleration worked in PDVD, but when I tried to play VC-1 content there was still no joy. Heavy pixelation occurred in some files, and in others there were just green flashes of light, really awkward.

I then decided it would be best to try my luck on Vista. Installing it was a nightmare, Vista doesn't particularly like my mb (AsRock 939Dual-Sata2), and does not even recognize the DVD drive (NEC 3540A) while installing :confused: - it seems unbelievable - it works perfectly after installation! I had to use an ancient DVD-ROM drive to install Vista and disconnect all sata hard disks. But eventually it worked out!!

With Vista the results are much better, using EMR I can get several players to use the PDVD decoders, PDVD itself works rather well, although it still cannot read the VC-1 files perfectly (the ones it can read, there is no sound, the ones that have sound, have a slow picture, although GPU and CPU use are at a minimum :confused: ).

Overall I'm pretty pleased, and I hope there will be some software upgrade that in the future will enable full VC-1 support.

I don't have to OC my CPU anymore, and for 46 euros, this was the simplest way to upgrade my PC.

Thanks again! (and if you can release a new tweaked driver for Vista, I would appreciate it enourmously!) :)

[mefromfl]

mefromfl,

You need to set your screen resolution to 1920x1080 60hz. Not 1280 x 1080. That should fix your main problem. You should also set your display to FULL PIXEL mode instead of normal. Normal will give you overscan.


Sorry, my setting is set to 1920x1080 and it's set to full pixel. I have try running the card to the analog input for the tv's pc, and also tryied dvi-hmdi cable to my pioneer reciever.

What is the best way for this card? connect it to a reciever or straight to tv?

[arfster]

Overall I'm pretty pleased, and I hope there will be some software upgrade that in the future will enable full VC-1 support.


VC1 should work fine now I think - what filetype, film/video and framerate is it? Also, have you tried firing it through graphedit? (need haali splitter).

I'll do another driver package soon-ish, there are new betas coming out and I want to see what problems they solve :-)

Edit: new betas are 7.8, from the inf files they look like they've fixed WMV acceleration, and they've fixed the standard stuff we've had to reghack for the 2400s (ie mpeg2 acceleration not working, pdvd window too small, Euro HD not accelerated, installation problems for AGP/2400xt/2600pro). Can't try them here as on my laptop, but will later.

[Mevlock]

VC1 should work fine now I think - what filetype, film/video and framerate is it? Also, have you tried firing it through graphedit? (need haali splitter).

I'll do another driver package soon-ish, there are new betas coming out and I want to see what problems they solve :-)

Edit: new betas are 7.8, from the inf files they look like they've fixed WMV acceleration, and they've fixed the standard stuff we've had to reghack for the 2400s (ie mpeg2 acceleration not working, pdvd window too small, Euro HD not accelerated, installation problems for AGP/2400xt/2600pro). Can't try them here as on my laptop, but will later.


I'm guessing it's just the easy problems like the registry entries that we'll see fixed in 7.8. Unless we're really lucky and the ati engineers are really on the ball ;) I'd give them a try but I've dumped my Xp install. And it doesn't seem like the Vista beta's are available yet.

[Fredrik]

Hi all,

Does anyone get a lot of tearing with these cards ?
I got a 2400Pro and I get a lot of horizontal tearing.
Vsync on/off doesn't matter, tried different codecs, different driver versions, running 7.7 right now and also get 2-4 vpu recovers during normal dvd playback.
With or without HW acceleration turned on.
As soon as it happens all I have to do is pause and restart the movie but it's a bit annoying, don't think it's a temperature problem since it just needs a pause/start.

[arfster]

I'm guessing it's just the easy problems like the registry entries that we'll see fixed in 7.8.

Hehe, so cynical :-)

These seem to be a parallel development, cos they're dated july/16th but have some features the official 7.7s don't. For example, GPU% is now in the control panel, so no more need for rivatuner.

Even nicer for HTPC users: the card downclocks itself when needed, to 110mhz core and 250mhz memory. Should cut heat output and power use a lot.

[Andy o]

OK, I got some info on my 2600 pro.

PDVD 7.3.3104a has the GPU at 35-37% with Aero disabled, and hardware deinterlacing in PDVD set to 3C... With Aero enabled, it is in the 60's, and with HW accel. enabled too, it's in the high 70's to mid-80's. I said high 80's to 90's before, but it seems that when you move the mouse (and the onscreen control bar comes up) the GPU spikes a bit, and keeps it up until the bar hides again.

This is at 1920x1080 full-screen, with MPEG-2 1080i/60, AC-3 content (OTA dvr-ms container, NBC). CPU usage is on the 30%'s, but actually I have EIST enabled, so the CPU (Pentium Dual Core 2160 OC'd to 2.25GHz) should be running at 1.5 GHz! Just in case, Pentium Dual Core is just a Core 2 duo E4xxx with 1MB L2 cache, so it should be pretty much the same with all Conroe chips.

[Andy o]

Now I gots me a couple of problems (and questions). Using 2600pro, 7.7 drivers. DXVA_only... strings set to zero, and added the DXVA_NOHDDECODE "0" too.

Everything HD seems to be fine for me now*, but I have some trouble with good-old DVD playback. Specifically, interlaced content. For instance watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, I see horrible scaling and aliasing when viewing full screen, even on a 1280x1024 screen. When I choose BOB in PDVD HW deinterlacing, it looks the best (less aliasing), but the "3C..." setting (Vector Adaptive) doesn't look any different than no deinterlacing at all. The GPU does spike, but there's no difference.

I've noticed as well that the deinterlacing setting in CCC does not affect PowerDVD at all.

Also, and this is with both interlaced and progressive DVD content, I am seeing some contrast flickering when HW accel is on, I think the card is switching between "levels expansion" and no expansion. Sometimes it stays in one, sometimes in the other, but still I get flickering sooner or later. I am also seeing the dreaded posterization, more noticeably in the red channel. Again, this doesn't happen with HD MPEG 2 content (though the contrast flickering used to happen also with HD content with my 2400pro, but I was using the 7.6 hotfix, so I'm not sure if it's the drivers or the card).

Anyone got any ideas?


* "Expansion" is not much of a problem for me, if I understand it correctly as explained here and if it's done in 10 bits, but 8-bit expansion I wouldn't want, anyone knows about this?

[indieke2]

VC1 should work fine now I think - what filetype, film/video and framerate is it? Also, have you tried firing it through graphedit? (need haali splitter).

I'll do another driver package soon-ish, there are new betas coming out and I want to see what problems they solve :-)

Edit: new betas are 7.8, from the inf files they look like they've fixed WMV acceleration, and they've fixed the standard stuff we've had to reghack for the 2400s (ie mpeg2 acceleration not working, pdvd window too small, Euro HD not accelerated, installation problems for AGP/2400xt/2600pro). Can't try them here as on my laptop, but will later.

Do you have a link, I can't find them....

[IAM4UK]

I've read through this entire thread now, and there's some valuable insight--thanks to all contributors.

I still have issues I'm hoping to resolve. Here's my setup:
P4 630 (3GHz), 1GB DDR2-533
Asus HD2600Pro 512MB
WinXP MCE2005
PowerDVD Ultra 7.3.3104

1. Still can't get the system to recognize HDCP compliance. Having AnyDVD-HD, this is only a minor problem; however, DVE HD won't work. Do I have to set some parameter somewhere to force recognition of HDCP compliance? (Note that my monitor is HDCP compliant; it's a Samsung HLN617.)

2. Standard NTSC content looks very poor, relative to my three previous GPUs (all nvidia). Whether cable television signal or standard DVD, there are serious problems with the image:
-- A black&white vertical band along the right side of most DVD images
-- Gross posterization, particularly among areas of red (and shades thereof)
-- Checkerboard patterns overlayed periodically; often during high-motion scenes

During troubleshooting, I forced Vector-Adaptive deinterlacing, which improved the PQ slightly. I looked at the "ColorVibrance" settings in regedit, but found numerous occurances; must I zero them out at all places, or what is the best way to disable the superfluous vibrance and fleshtone settings? Any ideas on fixing the PQ for standard NTSC material within MediaCenter are welcome and appreciated.

[arfster]

I've noticed as well that the deinterlacing setting in CCC does not affect PowerDVD at all.


Yup, Vista bug - the CCC setting is ignored for HD. Reported it to ATI, and unlike previous bugreports they didn't come back to me with all sorts of wtf-type questions, which means they know about it already.


Also, and this is with both interlaced and progressive DVD content, I am seeing some contrast flickering when HW accel is on, I think the card is switching between "levels expansion" and no expansion. Sometimes it stays in one, sometimes in the other, but still I get flickering sooner or later.


That's an odd one. For me levels expansion happened with all HD, but not SD. Presumably it's using bt701 rather than 609 to convert, and the former is expanding, but I've never seen it bounce between the two. Can you possibly take a screenshot of it at both extremes and check in mspaint? (alt c, alt e, alt d, check bright or dark points to see whether they're 16/235 or 0/255).


Compared to your 2600pro figures btw, the 2400pro in Vista with Aero off:

2400pro 2600pro
VA deinterlacing +scaling to 1080p 85% 35%
MPEG2 acceleration alone 50% 15-20% (approx?)


Haven't kept 2400xt figures unfortunately, but they were somewhere inbetween.

[Sarvatt]

You guys shouldn't have the dxva_only or SORToverride keys at all on a 2600 card, they aren't in any of the inf's I have checked for RV630.. Who knows what else you have left over from an old driver install, might want uninstall the drivers and delete any leftover keys manually before testing it if you're going from 2400 to 2600. How exactly are you determining if VA antialiasing is being used in a media foundation app, or are you seriously using VMR9 with these cards? :D I have no problems forcing VA on 1080i mpeg2 through WMP11 or mediacenter using the MS codec, there is a visible quality change and GPU usage change on every setting but I know of no way to see details ala a graphedit like interface for a media foundation playback pipeline.

[Andy o]

You guys shouldn't have the dxva_only or SORToverride keys at all on a 2600 card, they aren't in any of the inf's I have checked for RV630.. Who knows what else you have left over from an old driver install, might want uninstall the drivers and delete any leftover keys manually before testing it if you're going from 2400 to 2600. How exactly are you determining if VA antialiasing is being used in a media foundation app, or are you seriously using VMR9 with these cards? :D I have no problems forcing VA on 1080i mpeg2 through WMP11 or mediacenter using the MS codec, there is a visible quality change and GPU usage change on every setting but I know of no way to see details ala a graphedit like interface for a media foundation playback pipeline.

I have thought of that, I'll probably try reinstalling and deleting all the registry entries. Do I only need to delete the folder where all the DXVA_... settings are, or are there any other ones I need to delete as well?

And I don't think I'm using VMR9 with the cards, though I don't really know how to control all that stuff... I'll keep trying. Damn ignorance is bliss, I was happy with my X1900GT and OC'd Core 2 Duo E6600 in my XP machine.

[arfster]

Sarvatt is right: even if you uninstall the old drivers before adding new ones, regkeys still persist from the old setup (try setting one of the dxvakeys to something silly like 400, and it'll still be there after a reinstall). Probably worth manually deleting the entire registry section beforehand, or using something like drivercleaner.

VA deinterlacing in EVR you can tell from visual changes, or the GPU% - it's pretty consistent.

[ricabullah]

One of my friends put a 2600 Xt.
He says, even after a clean Vista setup, he couldn't find "DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264 " in the registry . He says he made search on regedit. (driver 7.7 official beta)
Are they hidden?
(Sorry if i am repeating the same question which has been asked before?)

[Andy o]

Alright then...

I deleted the "0000", "0001" and "0002" folders after uninstalling and before reinstalling, so what you will see in the links below is what the 2600 pro put in my registry. It seems the structure is a bit different now. I see SORTOverride in one folder.

"0000" folder (http://www.smugmug.com/photos/177518011-O.jpg)

"0002" folder (http://www.smugmug.com/photos/177518031-O.jpg)

[arfster]

Andy: those are old ones, the current are in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\.. ..

Rica: they aren't hidden.

[ricabullah]

Thanks a lot Andy.
I will address your post.
best!

[Sarvatt]

One of my friends put a 2600 Xt.
He says, even after a clean Vista setup, he couldn't find "DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264 " in the registry . He says he made search on regedit. (driver 7.7 official beta)
Are they hidden?
(Sorry if i am repeating the same question which has been asked before?)

They should only exist for a 2400 series, no worries :)

[Andy o]

Andy: those are old ones, the current are in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\.. ..

Hmm, damn so much junk in the registry then... Actually I did delete those very same folders, but the 2600pro drivers put them there again, so junk or not, they are being installed there. Unless the "properties" folder there had something to do with it, because I couldn't delete that one.

Anyway, I guess THIS (http://www.smugmug.com/photos/177523300-O.jpg) is what you're talking about then.

The "DXVA" folder under the "0001" folder is identical. Anything that shouldn't be there? Should I uninstall again, but deleting those folders now?

[arfster]

They look fine to me :-) 0001 is identical because in Vista the two outport ports auto-mirror each other - you change one in registry, it changes the other.

[Andy o]

EDIT #2: OK, messing around with the registry, you can set the defaults for Color Vibrance and Flesh tone to zero. They are set to 25, so just change that value. Pretty self-explanatory, see my post above for the key's location.

EDIT #1: So I found out how to get rid of the posterization. In CCC, in "Advanced Color", enable it and reduce color vibrance to the minimum. I know some of us rather had it disabled, but it seems that when you uncheck the "enable", you only reset it to some default, you are only "disabling" the slider! It should be an error in the driver. I still don't know what "flesh tone correction" does, but it should work pretty much the same, I guess.


1. Still can't get the system to recognize HDCP compliance. Having AnyDVD-HD, this is only a minor problem; however, DVE HD won't work. Do I have to set some parameter somewhere to force recognition of HDCP compliance? (Note that my monitor is HDCP compliant; it's a Samsung HLN617.)

2. Standard NTSC content looks very poor, relative to my three previous GPUs (all nvidia). Whether cable television signal or standard DVD, there are serious problems with the image:
-- A black&white vertical band along the right side of most DVD images
-- Gross posterization, particularly among areas of red (and shades thereof)
-- Checkerboard patterns overlayed periodically; often during high-motion scenes


I also have these problems, so you're not alone. HDCP with my 2400pro and 2600pro don't work with Vista x86 and my NEC 2690. Let me say this first: I don't really blame neither ATI nor NEC. I blame first and foremost the freaking anti-consumer MPAA. That said, even enabling and disabling the HDCP option in my NEC monitor doesn't do anything. With my other PC running XP SP2 and a Sapphire X1900GT, it works just fine. HD-DVDs work OK, albeit with all the jerkiness that HDCP brings about. AnyDVD saves the day here too.

About the poor quality, the only samples I have of NTSC content are interlaced DVDs like the one I was talking about before, but I don't get any vertical band. Sometimes broadcast video has some artifacts at the borders, just that the regular TVs don't show it (I think there's some information there, but not sure), others should be more knowledgeable. I don't see the checkerboard patterns either, but I do see the posterization. It does show in Media Center, and in PowerDVD with HW acceleration on. I also get some contrast flickering (see my other post above) but with HW off, everything's OK. Weird, I'll keep on experimenting, will post if something comes up.

[Andy o]

By the way, Arfster, I did some more testing. The contrast flickering I am experiencing it seems actually has nothing to do with levels expansion. It only happens in full-screen, and now that I am home in my 1920x1200 monitor, I can see that the parts that aren't part of the video (the black bars at the top and bottom of the 1080 pixel-tall picture) actually also flicker with the picture. So it's not a matter of the overlay.

In any case, it also happened with my 2400pro, so I'm surprised no one else is having this problem.

[arfster]

EDIT: So I found out how to get rid of the posterization. In CCC, in "Advanced Color", enable it and reduce color vibrance to the minimum. I know some of us rather had it disabled, but it seems that when you uncheck the "enable", you only reset it to some default, you are only "disabling" the slider!

That makes some sense - when you disable options in CCC, it greys them but also sets them to the registry default value, so if the disable is screwed.....

For the 2600 the default is 25 (or 50? can't remember), for the 2400 it's flat zero. You might find residual effects from the minimum being 1 on the 2600, so it might be worth changing the reg minimum to 0 (or the default to 0) to completely switch it off.

Another thing you might want to try is set detail to zero in the registry. That's at 50 by default for the 2600, 0 for the 2400s. At a guess, that's the modern ATI equivalent of sharpening. Then again, it might be related to deinterlacing, you never know.

[Andy o]

yeah, thanks, we posted pretty much at the same time, I guess, I did another edit in my previous post.

[autoboy70]

Playing around in the registry is fun. Not having to play around in the registy would be heaven.

[ricabullah]

Andy: those are old ones, the current are in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\.. ..

Rica: they aren't hidden.


Thanks arfster. So i'm sure anymore he couldn't find them.

[Baker_God]

sorry if this has been dealt with but there were too many pages to read through. I'm having problems with adjusting the color properties in CCC and have them actually being used by powerdvd. I'm running the latest version of powerdvd ultra and it just doesn't work, no matter how I adjust the sliders the picture stays the same. Yet when using the powerdvd trial or any other software the color adjustments register and everything is fine. I know that the avivo software is working as I can see a difference in my cpu usage when it is disabled or enabled. I have reinstalled powerdvd and have tried a couple of different drivers, all the same result. Can anybody shed any light on this?

[Andy o]

Playing around in the registry is fun. Not having to play around in the registy would be heaven.

Yeah, you beat me to it, I was gonna say the same thing. I always hated (and I mean HATED) ATI software, but the hardware is OK, I guess. I mean the ATI Media Center or whatever the hell it's called, is so disastrous, even in its version 9 it wouldn't work at all with the HDTV Wonder and XP.

And what is with having to run the ATI software uninstaller whenever updating the XP drivers? (Maybe you don't have to, but they say you do.) Whenever I run it, it uninstalls ALL my ATI stuff, even the 5 (FIVE) different installers I have to run just for the HDTV Wonder (one of which asks me to put the original CD in!), not just the 2 or 3 installers for the driver, CCC and WDM.

At least it seemed that for Vista they had cleaned up their act with the Install Manager, but it seems they are still lacking in other respects.

[Andy o]

Hey! What the... Is there such a thing as a 2900 pro (yet)? I just realized there's a new addition in the poll up there.

[Sarvatt]

Playing around in the registry is fun. Not having to play around in the registy would be heaven.

it isn't needed for the 7.8 XP beta drivers unless you want to turn the temporal denoise off, I hope they do the same with the 7.8 official drivers :D Anyone know where those betas are from anyway? I'm just wondering if AMD left those registry entries out or if someone modded them already. The exe has AMD's signatures on it, hopefully they get their crap together for 7.8 :p

Are you guys with PowerDVD SD-DVD playback problems using the powerdvd app itself or another player with the cyberlink filters?

[ricabullah]

Are you guys with PowerDVD SD-DVD playback problems using the powerdvd app itself or another player with the cyberlink filters?

With 2911 it was stopping from time to time.
I haven't tried yet how it's working with new patch.

[cpalcott]

I am running an Nvidia 8500GT in Dual View to two inputs of a single TV; one VGA (800x600 limit) and one component (1080i set as primary). The new drivers don’t have nView so I can’t set up Windows start menu and toolbars to show up on the secondary monitor. I need to do internet/e-mail stuff on the VGA side and HD Video (PDVD/SageTV) on the component.

Questions:

1. Does Vista require video be played on the primary monitor for stutter free playback of HD (like XP did)?

2. Do these ATI 2XXX cards have something similar to Nvidia’s old nView desktop manager, so I can have a "computer" type desktop on the secondary monitor?

[Sarvatt]

Have you tried it with the DXVA_NOHDDECODE key absent from the registry maybe? That's the first thing I would try, since we're adding that blindly to the registry. I was asking if people were having problems inside powerdvd or outside because I do notice some of the problems mentioned so far (like flickering) with different source filters on mpeg2 SD content.

[ricabullah]

Have you tried it with the DXVA_NOHDDECODE key absent from the registry maybe? That's the first thing I would try, since we're adding that blindly to the registry. I was asking if people were having problems inside powerdvd or outside because I do notice some of the problems mentioned so far (like flickering) with different source filters on mpeg2 SD content.

gonna try, thanks!

[one_2go]

I got to hand it to the few and knowledgeable ones here and thak them for their efforts in propping up the dismal driver releases by NVIDEA & AMD. I have followed this thread from the time it was only a few pages and finally have come to the conclusion that until Goofy NVIDEA & Mickey AMD have quite horsing around and release some quality drivers and make good on there promises (NVIDEA June release of drivers for XP for 8500 & 8600) I'll be using my on board graphics Intel GMA 3100.

Not bad for an IG chip from PC Stats (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2147&page=3):
The Intel GMA X3100 has a maximum resolution of 2048x1536 at a refresh rate of 75 Hz. It supports analog, DVI, HDMI, Composite, S-Video and component output. As suggested the GMA X3100 works with both standard and High Definition displays (max 1080p) and support COPP/PMP with HDCP content protection.

It's important to note that the Intel GMA X3100 videocard is very driver dependant. The latest driver version on Intel's website, 15.4.3, fully supports all of the GMA X3100's graphical features and there are even rumors (unofficial of course) that future driver updates will add DirectX 10 support.
Plus Cyberlink is also getting into the act of providing for IG:
CyberLink Corp. has announced Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD movie playback software PowerDVD Ultra now supports the high-definition playback and content protection technologies of Intel's GMA 3000 series integrated graphics chipsets.
Now if GigaByte would only release the mystery board with the HD audio we'll be getting somewhere.

[protovision]

Hey! What the... Is there such a thing as a 2900 pro (yet)? I just realized there's a new addition in the poll up there.

When I set up the poll, I assumed that one existed, not sure now, although someone did vote for it.

p.

[Andy o]

When I set up the poll, I assumed that one existed, not sure now, although someone did vote for it.

p.

Oh, haha so it's been there all the time? I didn't notice it. I like probably many others have been waiting for the $250-300 ATI answer to the 8800 GTS, which would probably be the 2900 pro or 2900 GT.

[bullgates]

For those that are interested I saw the AGP Visiontek 2400 Pro in my local CircuitCity. It seems AGP is more problematic for playback than the PCI-E versions. BTW it was $130.

[Mark_A_W]

Guys, where do we download the beta 7.8 drivers?

[magnusr]

Guys, where do we download the beta 7.8 drivers?

7.8 for vista x64 link pretty please.

Thx in advance.

[Luar Azul]

VC1 should work fine now I think - what filetype, film/video and framerate is it? Also, have you tried firing it through graphedit? (need haali splitter).

I'll do another driver package soon-ish, there are new betas coming out and I want to see what problems they solve :-)

Edit: new betas are 7.8, from the inf files they look like they've fixed WMV acceleration, and they've fixed the standard stuff we've had to reghack for the 2400s (ie mpeg2 acceleration not working, pdvd window too small, Euro HD not accelerated, installation problems for AGP/2400xt/2600pro). Can't try them here as on my laptop, but will later.

Well I hope these new drivers also help in my VC-1 problem. :D

I really don't know the kind of file I have, I even used an hex editor to see if I could understand something out of it, but all I know for sure is that they have a .ts extension. The rest seems a mystery, for instance, when I use PowerDVD some of these files play rather fluidly with practically no CPU or GPU use, but, alas, absolutely no sound! While other files plays with a very jerky video (again with practically no CPU or GPU use - where does the jerkiness come from?), but with sound.

In MediaPlayerClassic, the properties for the jerky video with sound are:
Type: KLCP TS Files (I guess KLCP just means K-Lite codec pack, which is the pack I use)
Video: WVC1 1920x1080 23.98fps
Audio: Dolby AC3

For the fluid video with no sound:
Type: KLCP TS Files
Video: WVC1 1920x1080 29.97fps
Audio: DTS

So it would seem it has to do with frame rate and some incompatibility between PDVD and DTS. My objective would be to get a directshow player using the PDVD VC-1 decoder. In this way I would be able to use the PDVD decoder for video and a separate directshow decoder for audio. But, although PDVD can use it's VC-1 decoders, it seems nothing else can.

Graphedit can only make connections either through "WMVideo Decoder DMO" or "ffdshow Video Decoder". When I try to use Cyberlink's VC-1 Decoder it says "These filters cannot agree on a connection..."

And without accelerated decoders, the result is simply useless on my PC.

In any case, these are just movies, nothing really important. I mean, I think I need to take a holiday from all this, in these last couple of days all I can see are drivers and hardware and decoders in my mind!! I'll try to see your response, and then get back in a few days or weeks to see how all this has progressed! "Fasting" from computers is what I need right now!! Uhau! There's an Olive tree right there, surrounded by vegetables in the sun, and the river is creeping with beautiful sounds singing of Summer! and it seems, yes, all this in very high, True, HD! :D

Thanks again for all your help and knowledge! you people rock!! I'll get back here soon!! :)

[Sarvatt]

7.8 for vista x64 link pretty please.

Thx in advance.

They're only released for XP so far :(

http://file.mydrivers.com/display/ati_840rc3_xp.exe

[nikosk]

Hi all,

I have posted the bellow on the PowerDVD thread but I'm sure someone in this one will know something about it.

Hi all,

this is my first post here, since I'm quite new to the sport.

Just built a HTPC with a ATI2600Pro in it. I'm trying to watch matroska mkv files in h264 but PowerDVD is not able to play them. I have installed Haali media Spliter but to no sucess.
If I rename them to .mp4 and deactivate the AVIVO hardware acceleration, only then it is possible to watch them.

They play fine in MPC, but without hardware accceleration, even though I have selected the Cyberlink's filter as an external one. (BTW which of them should I be using? and should I browse for it, or select it from the list?) I checked this from an TS file (1080i, h264) which both PowerDVD and MPC play just fine and the CPU utillization difference was about 30-40% (low tens for PDVD, upper 40s MPC)

Is there any way to watch mkv from Powerdvd? Should I demux them and to what? (using what?)

Thank you all for this great forums!!!

BTW, I have searched the registry on my vista and can not find anywhere the DXVA_NOHDDECOCE option, nor the DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264. Do you think this could solve the issue? All the mkv clips I have tried with are 25FPS. (but then again also the .ts files that work in both are 25fps)...

Thanks a lot everybody!!!

[mummum69]

Hi,

special thanks to ricabullah


BTW, I have searched the registry on my vista and can not find anywhere the DXVA_NOHDDECOCE option, nor the DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264.

You are not the only one. I have the same problem. ( using 2600xt card with CCC7.7)


Andy: those are old ones, the current are in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\.. ..

Rica: they aren't hidden.
There is no entry named "DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264", that has been addressed.
would someone please explain the mistake that i've done.

Thanks

[Andy o]

Hey guys, if anyone feels that this is inappropriate, just let me know, I'll delete this at once.

So is it OK if I shamelessly (or shamefully) peddle a brand-new Zalman VNF100 here? I got 2 by mistake, I ordered one and it didn't come so I ordered from another store, and planned to cancel the first. Then the first store sent me it. So before I put it on ebay, I think some people here would like it. I have the other one mounted without problem on my HIS 2600 pro, giving me temps of 41-45°C in ambient of about 74°F (thermostat is in °F) and also tried it on a 2400 pro. On the 2400 pro though, it may need to have a couple of fins of the small heatsink broken (not the main one, but the very small one that goes right over the heatpipes).

I'll do 30 bucks plus shipping, it's selling for $45 on the net. I'll take paypal, the first who PMs me will get it, I'm not for a profit, so it doesn't matter if anyone's willing to pay a bit more.

Thanks.

[nkd]

EDIT #2: OK, messing around with the registry, you can set the defaults for Color Vibrance and Flesh tone to zero. They are set to 25, so just change that value. Pretty self-explanatory, see my post above for the key's location.

EDIT #1: So I found out how to get rid of the posterization. In CCC, in "Advanced Color", enable it and reduce color vibrance to the minimum. I know some of us rather had it disabled, but it seems that when you uncheck the "enable", you only reset it to some default, you are only "disabling" the slider! It should be an error in the driver. I still don't know what "flesh tone correction" does, but it should work pretty much the same, I guess.



I also have these problems, so you're not alone. HDCP with my 2400pro and 2600pro don't work with Vista x86 and my NEC 2690. Let me say this first: I don't really blame neither ATI nor NEC. I blame first and foremost the freaking anti-consumer MPAA. That said, even enabling and disabling the HDCP option in my NEC monitor doesn't do anything. With my other PC running XP SP2 and a Sapphire X1900GT, it works just fine. HD-DVDs work OK, albeit with all the jerkiness that HDCP brings about. AnyDVD saves the day here too.

About the poor quality, the only samples I have of NTSC content are interlaced DVDs like the one I was talking about before, but I don't get any vertical band. Sometimes broadcast video has some artifacts at the borders, just that the regular TVs don't show it (I think there's some information there, but not sure), others should be more knowledgeable. I don't see the checkerboard patterns either, but I do see the posterization. It does show in Media Center, and in PowerDVD with HW acceleration on. I also get some contrast flickering (see my other post above) but with HW off, everything's OK. Weird, I'll keep on experimenting, will post if something comes up.
Sorry, may be I am missing something but I can not find
1. color vibrance
2. Skin tone controls
no where in ccc 7.7. I am running XP with HD 2400Pro.
Where are these?

[Andy o]

Sorry, may be I am missing something but I can not find
1. color vibrance
2. Skin tone controls
no where in ccc 7.7. I am running XP with HD 2400Pro.
Where are these?

They should be under "Avivo video" and "Advanced color", at least they are on Vista. In any case, once you find it it's better to go into the registry and into THIS (http://www.smugmug.com/photos/177523300-O.jpg) key and change the ColorVibrance_DEF string to zero. The key's location may be different in XP, so I guess just do a registry search for ColorVibrance_DEF or something. Then restart your PC and the posterization should be gone when you uncheck the "enabled" for color vibrance in CCC.

[AndersG]

Think I found 7.8-drivers for Vista32/64.. saw this at station-drivers[DOT]com/page/ati%20catalyst.htm

[indieke2]

I have a stupid question I have been in the catalyst section and looked for a way to set my display (sony ruby) at 50 hz for H 264, Europe. But I don't see 50 HZ! Did I install something wrong? I see weird refreshrate, 43, 78 or somthing, but no 50 and 48 hz (filmx2). I can usePowerstrip of course, but i dleted it momentarely, because my computer crashes easely when installed

Has anybody tried these new drivers, 7.8 bet btw? I am hesitating, because everything works rather fine, except HDDVD, that from time to time gives a bit pixelisation....

Alos for those under xp, like myself, does they work with the latest pwdvd patch, as with the 7.6 driver, I have only 4/3 displayed in PWDVD. So I use the previous PWDVD version which is then ok.....

[alfonxs]

For those who can't find the DXVA... settings in the registry: What driver version do you have? Actual 7.7 from ATI Site should have 8.391.0.0.

With my 2400 Pro I got driver version 8.400.0.0 and a newer CCC. It seems as if this version doesn't create the DXVA... entries in the registry, but I got no HW-acceleration.

Check the link from AndersG, perhaps this will help!

[cpalcott]

Questions:

1. Does Vista require video be played on the primary monitor for stutter free playback of HD (like XP did)?

2. Do these ATI 2XXX cards have something similar to Nvidia’s old nView desktop manager, so I can have a "computer" type desktop on the secondary monitor?

Any takers on the above questions? I am thinning of purchasing a 2600XT but need to know how the drivers/software handle desktop management first. I know both green and red are having driver issues right now, but red may be the lesser of the evils if it can manage my desktop. Any help would be appreciated.

[arfster]

Last few posts:

1) Colour vibrance/fleshtone controls don't exist in XP CCC, only in Vista. For the 2400, this doesn't matter because the problem of posterization is apparently caused by the default settings for the 2600 (color/fleshstone default to 25).

2) dxva_24fps and co don't exist for the 2600. That's as it should be, and when deleted things are all good. Problems with mkv files are a whole different ballgame - that's an issue with the decoder and this type of acceleration (by type i mean total bitstream offload, as it happens with the Nvidia 8500/8600 also). dxva_nodhdecode is for mpeg2 HD only.

3) The beta drivers broke acceleration in XP for me. Didn't play with them much though.

[magnusr]

Found this interesting;

We have to stress here that, in spite of the fact that NVIDIA and AMD expect the inclusion of video decode hardware on their low end hardware to provide significant value to end users, we absolutely cannot recommend current low end graphics card for use in systems where video decode is important. In our eyes, with the inability to provide a high quality HD experience in all cases, the HD 2400, GeForce 8500, and lower end hardware are all only suitable for use in business class or casual computing systems where neither games nor HD video play a part in the system's purpose.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3047&p=7

[magnusr]

I have a 2600XT under vista x64 and im not impressed at all.

UVD not working. They didnt mention this when i bought the product. Vista Ready, UVD engine bla bla. Lies, its not working.

Problem with HD-DVD playback in latest powerdvd ultra. every 20 seconds or so there is a blink, almost like a missing frame. Totaly anoying.

[arfster]

Tried the 7.8 betas on a 2400pro in Vista32: no fix to the two major bugs (CCC HD deinterlacing selection, HD levels expansion). Not that surprising, since these are actually older than the official 7.7s (obviously a different team working on em).

Oh, I noticed that in XP, the WMV acceleration option in CCC is visible, and set on. In Vista it's invisible and off (no accel if you put it on). Can't remember if it was like this before or not.


Edited: corrections about acceleration

[arfster]

Blah, looks like these betas break acceleration in Vista too. It only works now for Bluray/HDDVD discs (which use separate decoders from Directshow). Anything else you get no acceleration at all.

Default install has no dxva24fps and co btw. Adding them back and setting to zero doesn't help with acceleration.

[nikosk]

They play fine in MPC, but without hardware accceleration, even though I have selected the Cyberlink's filter as an external one. (BTW which of them should I be using? and should I browse for it, or select it from the list?) I checked this from an TS file (1080i, h264) which both PowerDVD and MPC play just fine and the CPU utillization difference was about 30-40% (low tens for PDVD, upper 40s MPC)

Almost true... actually the cyberlinks decoder (either H264 and/or Video/SP decoder) are being used without hardware acceleration (as it seems from CPU utilization). Any work arrounds?

Thanks,

[arfster]

If you're in Vista, hardware h264 acceleration requires EVR (which PDVD uses). MPC is probably defaulting to VMR9, and thus it plays without any acceleration.

MKV files just don't work with acceleration and the 2400/2600/8500/8600. There's no way round that until Haali or Cyberlink (or possibly both) update their products.

[nikosk]

If you're in Vista, hardware h264 acceleration requires EVR (which PDVD uses). MPC is probably defaulting to VMR9, and thus it plays without any acceleration.

MKV files just don't work with acceleration and the 2400/2600/8500/8600. There's no way round that until Haali or Cyberlink (or possibly both) update their products.

Wow that's fast!
Thank Arfster! thanks for all the efforts and all those stuff you provide for us in here. Great work indeed!

[dj9]

I have been able to play MKV-encapsulated h264 since I got the 8500GT when it first came out, using Zoom Player (which has a EVR-friendly alpha).

[IAM4UK]

Following up on the HDPC issue:

I got a reply from AMD/ATI, saying that I have to take the issue up with the board manufacturer (surprise, surprise!).

The board manufacturer, ASUS, has decent telephone support, and I got a helpful tech. He told me that AMD/ATI is lying about HDCP compliance on their 2400 and 2600 chips, and that both consumers and board makers have been duped. He said a class-action lawsuit (by consumers, not board makers) is underway.

The conclusion is that 2400 and 2600 based graphics adaptors are not HDCP compliant. As that was a significant factor in my purchase, I may return it. But what good option do I currently have for an HDCP compliant board that accelerates the codecs used by HD-DVD and bD?

[bellcanada420]

Hey Guys,

Wondering if anyone could help. I am having some audio issues while using my Sapphire 2600 PRO in conjunction with the ATI DVI-HDMI adapter.

Everything seems to be connecting fine. I am able to pass, unfourtunately, only PCM 2 channel stereo (which I think is the way its supposed to work right now, correct me if Im wrong) but my real problem is that the audio cuts in and out constantly about every 5 seconds...

is there something I can do to resolve this issue. I am running this all on an ASUS M2A-VM board with a Athlon X2 4400+, 2 GB of DDR2800 OCZ platinum ram all in a windows vista x86 ultimate edition OS. I have also installed the latest catalyst 7.7 drivers.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

[landshark1]

great thread/read!!!

I have a problem w/ the HDMI audio (and not much people mentioning the HDMI audio pass thru?). when I connect it using the ATI's dvi-hdmi converter, and a HDMI cable from the video card to my TV. I've got sound and video no problem. however, it has a buzz noise almost every other second when playing a sound clip (mp3, video file, etc.)?? what's wrong?? is it the card itself or something else?? the same TV also has a PS3 connected via HDMI and no noise problem at all!!

[landshark1]

Hey Guys,

Wondering if anyone could help. I am having some audio issues while using my Sapphire 2600 PRO in conjunction with the ATI DVI-HDMI adapter.

Everything seems to be connecting fine. I am able to pass, unfourtunately, only PCM 2 channel stereo (which I think is the way its supposed to work right now, correct me if Im wrong) but my real problem is that the audio cuts in and out constantly about every 5 seconds...

is there something I can do to resolve this issue. I am running this all on an ASUS M2A-VM board with a Athlon X2 4400+, 1 GB of DDR2800 OCZ platinum ram all in a windows vista x86 ultimate edition OS. I have also installed the latest catalyst 7.7 drivers.

any help would be greatly appreciated.
sounds like we have the same kinda problem!! :(

[Fredrik]

Sorry to ask this again but this thread moves so fast ;)

Do anyone get a lot of tearing with their 2400Pro under XP ?

[indieke2]

Not real tearing, but sometimes an impression of a fast break.

[Andy o]

The board manufacturer, ASUS, has decent telephone support, and I got a helpful tech. He told me that AMD/ATI is lying about HDCP compliance on their 2400 and 2600 chips, and that both consumers and board makers have been duped. He said a class-action lawsuit (by consumers, not board makers) is underway.

The conclusion is that 2400 and 2600 based graphics adaptors are not HDCP compliant. As that was a significant factor in my purchase, I may return it. But what good option do I currently have for an HDCP compliant board that accelerates the codecs used by HD-DVD and bD?

I'm not sure this is totally true. I'd also like to know what the hell is happening in the HDCP front here. As far as I know, the "HDCP ready" advertised cards were the X1900 and others at that same time, but they actually weren't HDCP "enabled", which ATI got some flak for, but the X1950 and newer (I think) were supposed to fix this.

In my case it's really weird. I got a Sapphire X1900GT on my XP SP2 machine, connected via DVI-D to my NEC 2690 monitor. This passes the Cyberlink Advisor test OK enough (everything is "green", but for some reason my E6600 CPU gets a "red", but it doesn't matter, HDCP content plays OK in PDVD 7.3).

Now with my Vista HTPC, I have tested both a Sapphire 2400pro and a HIS 2600 pro, and it doesn't work with the same monitor. The Cyberlink Advisor gives me green on "Graphics card" and "Graphics Card Driver", but it gives me a red now in "Video Connection Type". It says "Digital (without HDCP)" or something like that, whereas in my XP machine it says "Digital (with HDCP)". I have tried the same monitor, the same connector, the same cables, and nothing works. I have yet to try this in another HDCP-enabled monitor or TV, but if it works in one, shouldn't it work with the other?

The weird thing is that this regardless of the HDCP option being turned on or off in the monitor itself. So even when HDCP is turned off, my XP machine plays it well. The thing I noticed (belatedly) about my monitor is that when HDCP is turned on, only 1280x720 is possible, so it's just a half-assed HDCP compliance, I guess. My trust in NEC has dropped considerably since discovering that, but I'll ask them too.

And I thought XP was supposed to not be HDCP "compatible", and the whole Vista DRM scheme was built specifically for HDCP playback. Sorry again for the rant, but damn the MPAA (and thank goodness for AnyDVD).

Minor edit: Actually, the NEC with HDCP limits resolution to 1920x1080, but when you are at 1920x1200 it resets to 1280x720 upon restart. It needs to be then set to 1920x1080, so everything seems to be OK with the monitor. Apart from this it doesn't seem to actually enable or disable HDCP, it just sets or limits the monitor to the correct resolution settings for 720p and 1080p.

[angelus24pt]

Hello, i'm kinda of a newbie in this kinda stuff and i would really appreciate all the help you could give me.
I just assembled a htpc with the following configuration:
Processor: Pentium D940 (dual core 3,2GHz)
Motherboard: Asus P5WD2 Premium
Memory: 2GB RAM DDR2 533MHz
Sound Card: Auzentech Xplosion 7.1 DTS
SO: Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bits

The graphics card I chose was a Sapphire 2600PRO 512MB DDR2 connected to the tv with a dvi-vga adapter and a vga cable, i use it to watch movies (700MB or 2x700MB AVI files) and tvshows (350MB AVI files) with windows media player.
The problem i've got is that the image is constantly flickering and shaking, and not only the movie, but the entire screen, I even notice it with the screensaver.
At first i thought it was the tv, which is a samsung LE40F71 (1920x1080 @60Hz), but i tried a dvd player with hdmi output of 1080i and the image was perfect, even the x360 at 1080p is flawless.
I updated the drivers to 7.7 and the problem remains, do you have any idea what could possibly be wrong? please help me with this.

Thanks

[bellcanada420]

sounds like we have the same kinda problem!! :(

So...based on the hours i spent catching up on this forum it does seem that right now only 2 channel works on HDMI passthrough....is that true and how about the possibility of 5.1 passthrough support via a catalyst upgrade? is that possible?

Hey Landmark - you mentioned a buzzing every couple of seconds...is your audio cutting out as well with the buzzing? I am not sure if I noticed a buzzing but the audio was certainly cutting out...

EDIT: I have checked again and there is no buzzing for me. the time between cutting out is random as well, sometimes it will be within seconds it cuts out again, sometimes it will go for a good 10-15 seconds almost before cutting out. and it only ever cuts out for like a couple milliseconds. I noticed on my receiver that the speaker icons stop illuminating when it cuts out so its definately the signal coming from the computer that is getting interupted.

As a side note...the TV and receiver successfully work for HDMI audio passthrough as my Digital set top box works fine using the same connections.

Any advice would be appreciated...

Are there any hacks or tweaks that can be applied to a 2600Pro in order to improve performance or resolve issues? I have read a bunch about the 2400 fixes but not sure if they would even do anything on a 2600pro card....

Thanks,

[Sarvatt]

So...based on the hours i spent catching up on this forum it does seem that right now only 2 channel works on HDMI passthrough....is that true and how about the possibility of 5.1 passthrough support via a catalyst upgrade? is that possible?


I only have 2 channel working on mine (which works great), but it's a limitation on my TV anyway as I can only play back the sound on the internal speakers or stereo analog outputs. If you have problems, it might be worth trying the realtek drivers

link (http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3)

I had screen corruption issues over a DVI-HDMI cable, but those were fixed by using the ATI dongle and a real HDMI cable. HDCP works fine with my Vizio L37 TV and Sapphire 2400 pro, the cyberlink test program detects it fine and everything works. I didn't have tearing problems in MCE2005 (XP) or vista. Are you using VMR9 without exclusive mode by any chance? I do get odd vertical lines over the whole screen over VGA in both OSes at 1360/1366/1372 but they aren't there at 1280x720 or 1920x1080i, probably a timing issue.

DXVA was always selectable in the XP drivers, and all the DXVA option in the CCC does from what I can tell is change the DXVA key to 1, the same key the checkbox for WMV DXVA changes in WMP11. This post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1003884#post1003884) explains the different options with the DXVA key.

I suggest putting in a ticket with ATI if you have problems with the card if you haven't already, it takes a few responses to get through to a person because they like to respond with a generic responder at first.


vista x64 users need to delete these keys as all ATI drivers install them by default it looks like, they are the keys the HD2900 series installs because they dont have hardware UVD and I have no clue why the x64 drivers install them in the all cards software settings instead of just for that particular card.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{Y our Device}\0000\UMD\DXVA\

HWUVD_DisableH264
HWUVD_DisableVC1

[bellcanada420]

I only have 2 channel working on mine (which works great), but it's a limitation on my TV anyway as I can only play back the sound on the internal speakers or stereo analog outputs. If you have problems, it might be worth trying the realtek drivers

link (http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3)

I had screen corruption issues over a DVI-HDMI cable, but those were fixed by using the ATI dongle and a real HDMI cable. HDCP works fine with my Vizio L37 TV and Sapphire 2400 pro, the cyberlink test program detects it fine and everything works. I didn't have tearing problems in MCE2005 (XP) or vista. Are you using VMR9 without exclusive mode by any chance? I do get odd vertical lines over the whole screen over VGA in both OSes at 1360/1366/1372 but they aren't there at 1280x720 or 1920x1080i, probably a timing issue.

DXVA was always selectable in the XP drivers, and all the DXVA option in the CCC does from what I can tell is change the DXVA key to 1, the same key the checkbox for WMV DXVA changes in WMP11. This post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1003884#post1003884) explains the different options with the DXVA key.

I suggest putting in a ticket with ATI if you have problems with the card if you haven't already, it takes a few responses to get through to a person because they like to respond with a generic responder at first.


vista x64 users need to delete these keys as all ATI drivers install them by default it looks like, they are the keys the HD2900 series installs because they dont have hardware UVD and I have no clue why the x64 drivers install them in the all cards software settings instead of just for that particular card.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{Y our Device}\0000\UMD\DXVA\

HWUVD_DisableH264
HWUVD_DisableVC1


I tried the Realtek drivers you linked to...well the first one I tried was the ATI HDMI specific driver 1.68 i believe...still had some cutting in and out however I had more options when adjusting the driver/device settings. I actually got it to test on Dolby Digital and it output in 5.1 surround!!! I know awesome eh! still no DTS audio though or the ability to select anything other than 2 speakers. I am going to try the 1.72 drivers to see if it makes a difference. wish me luck!

UPDATE: I just got the newest 1.72 drivers and no difference. i even tried a simple mp3 and got the cutting in and out issue. This tells me it shouldn't be processing overload or anything like expecting perfect audio while streaming a 1080p trailer. I hate to have to resolve myself to component out and seperate spdif out to my receiver...why oh why dont you live up to my expectation HDMI...WHY!!!!

[Athfar]

Just bought a 2400Pro off newegg for 49.99 and woot the day after they raised the price 10 bucks...

Will get it on Monday!

[Sarvatt]

1.72 isn't for the ATI HDMI audio, if it even installs it still uses the 1.68 ATI HDMI audio drivers going by what the readme says :( I've always left the speakers as 2.0 here, ac3/dts is actually a 2.0 signal and the reciever/decoder reads the 5.1 information from it and sets all that up right. Are you sure your TV even has a DTS decoder? I think that might be whats stopping you. Are you passing the audio from the TV to SPDIF? Maybe your TV doesn't pass the exact digital stream and mixes it before output. Do you get the skipping just listening to it on the TV itself?

[IAM4UK]

Solved posterization problem in XP MCE2005 for 2600Pro:
In regedit, I searched for all instances of "ColorVibrance," and zero'd out the _DEF, _MIN, and _MAX values from 25, 1, and 100. Also zero'd the "ColorVibrance" values (no extention) that were not binaries. I was shocked how many instances these values had in the registry, but finally got them all.
CCC was no help.
Thanks Andy O and arfster for pointing me in the right direction on these.

Now, the SD picture looks much better, but still has the remaining anomolies:
-- vertical band (right-hand side) on some DVDs
-- checkerboard overlay pattern intermittently

[arfster]

-- checkerboard overlay pattern intermittently

Only time I've seen that was when the 2400xt overheated. Aimed a fan at it, and it went away.

The colorvibrance one is really silly - time for another set of tweaked drivers I guess.

[Sarvatt]

Sweet!! Just got around to trying the