ATI Radeon HD 2X00 (2400,2600,2900) series owners thread [Text View] - Page 3

mickwall

07-25-07, 02:15 AM

mickwall

07-25-07, 02:28 AM

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

07-25-07, 07:49 AM

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

07-25-07, 08:30 AM

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

07-25-07, 08:39 AM

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

07-25-07, 09:10 AM

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

07-25-07, 11:08 AM

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

07-25-07, 11:18 AM

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

07-25-07, 11:21 AM

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

07-25-07, 11:24 AM

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

07-25-07, 12:02 PM

^ 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

07-25-07, 12:07 PM

... 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

07-25-07, 12:11 PM

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

07-25-07, 12:27 PM

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

07-25-07, 12:57 PM

^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

07-25-07, 01:01 PM

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

07-25-07, 02:25 PM

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

07-25-07, 02:55 PM

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

07-25-07, 03:36 PM

IAM4UK

07-25-07, 04:08 PM

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

07-25-07, 04:23 PM

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

07-25-07, 05:00 PM

autoboy70

07-25-07, 05:06 PM

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

07-25-07, 05:33 PM

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

07-25-07, 06:09 PM

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

07-25-07, 06:49 PM

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

07-25-07, 07:16 PM

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

07-25-07, 07:52 PM

Andy o

07-25-07, 09:03 PM

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

07-25-07, 11:00 PM

protovision

07-25-07, 11:06 PM

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

07-25-07, 11:29 PM

..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

07-26-07, 12:21 AM

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

These are Great postings concerning the HD2400/2600 cards.

O2C

07-26-07, 02:03 AM

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

07-26-07, 02:29 AM

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

07-26-07, 05:33 AM

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

07-26-07, 06:11 AM

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

07-26-07, 06:38 AM

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

07-26-07, 06:44 AM

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

07-26-07, 07:00 AM

Rick Guynn

07-26-07, 09:30 AM

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

07-26-07, 09:59 AM

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

07-26-07, 10:51 AM

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

07-26-07, 12:10 PM

alfonxs

07-26-07, 01:26 PM

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

07-26-07, 01:44 PM

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

07-26-07, 02:40 PM

alfonxs

07-26-07, 02:49 PM

@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

07-26-07, 02:50 PM

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

07-26-07, 02:54 PM

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

07-26-07, 02:56 PM

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

07-26-07, 02:58 PM

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

07-26-07, 03:11 PM

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

07-26-07, 03:52 PM

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

07-26-07, 04:42 PM

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

07-26-07, 05:43 PM

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

07-26-07, 05:59 PM

ricabullah

07-26-07, 08:00 PM

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

07-26-07, 08:49 PM

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

07-27-07, 04:44 AM

"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

07-27-07, 07:35 AM

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

07-27-07, 07:44 AM

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

07-27-07, 08:01 AM

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

07-27-07, 08:45 AM

Fredrik

07-27-07, 08:57 AM

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

07-27-07, 09:03 AM

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

07-27-07, 09:05 AM

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

07-27-07, 09:18 AM

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

07-27-07, 09:35 AM

IAM4UK

07-27-07, 09:38 AM

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

07-27-07, 09:41 AM

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

07-27-07, 09:52 AM

Andy o

07-27-07, 09:59 AM

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

07-27-07, 10:05 AM

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

07-27-07, 10:58 AM

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

07-27-07, 11:12 AM

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

07-27-07, 11:21 AM

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

Rica: they aren't hidden.

ricabullah

07-27-07, 11:22 AM

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

Sarvatt

07-27-07, 11:26 AM

Andy o

07-27-07, 11:35 AM

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

07-27-07, 11:41 AM

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

07-27-07, 12:04 PM

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

07-27-07, 12:18 PM

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

07-27-07, 12:29 PM

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

07-27-07, 12:31 PM

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

autoboy70

07-27-07, 01:20 PM

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

ricabullah

07-27-07, 01:23 PM

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

07-27-07, 01:50 PM

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

07-27-07, 01:57 PM

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

07-27-07, 02:10 PM

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

07-27-07, 02:45 PM

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

07-27-07, 02:54 PM

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

07-27-07, 04:08 PM

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

07-27-07, 04:19 PM

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

07-27-07, 05:08 PM

one_2go

07-27-07, 05:11 PM

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

07-27-07, 05:30 PM

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

07-27-07, 05:51 PM

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

07-27-07, 05:59 PM

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

07-27-07, 07:06 PM

Guys, where do we download the beta 7.8 drivers?

magnusr

07-27-07, 07:38 PM

Guys, where do we download the beta 7.8 drivers?

7.8 for vista x64 link pretty please.

Thx in advance.

Luar Azul

07-27-07, 07:45 PM

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

07-27-07, 08:31 PM

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

07-27-07, 09:40 PM

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

07-27-07, 10:14 PM

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

07-27-07, 10:39 PM

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

07-28-07, 01:22 AM

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

07-28-07, 02:53 AM

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

07-28-07, 04:44 AM

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

indieke2

07-28-07, 05:46 AM

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

07-28-07, 05:51 AM

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

07-28-07, 07:03 AM

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

07-28-07, 07:15 AM

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

07-28-07, 07:17 AM

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

07-28-07, 07:36 AM

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

07-28-07, 08:35 AM

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

07-28-07, 09:45 AM

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

07-28-07, 09:53 AM

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

07-28-07, 10:00 AM

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

07-28-07, 10:13 AM

dj9

07-28-07, 12:42 PM

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

07-28-07, 12:43 PM

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

07-28-07, 01:00 PM

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

07-28-07, 01:02 PM

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

07-28-07, 01:04 PM

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

07-28-07, 01:40 PM

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

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

indieke2

07-28-07, 03:27 PM

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

Andy o

07-28-07, 03:44 PM

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

07-28-07, 04:06 PM

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

07-28-07, 04:56 PM

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

07-28-07, 05:45 PM

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

07-28-07, 06:57 PM

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

07-28-07, 07:07 PM

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

07-28-07, 07:15 PM

IAM4UK

07-28-07, 07:33 PM

arfster

07-28-07, 07:53 PM

-- 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

07-28-07, 08:12 PM

Sweet!! Just got around to trying the 7.8rc3 driver in vista and it's working beautifully! HD Mpeg2 still needs the DXVA_NOHDDECODE set, but it actually works really well now. I get ~45% GPU usage at stock speed playing a 1080i mpeg2 .ts with forced VA deinterlacing and 3:2 pulldown in WMP11. The deinterlacing is still a little wonky in a non media foundation app with cyberlink, I get the same odd wavy lines on movement and high GPU usage I got before in MPC EVR with the cyberlink codec but the MS codec works right.

The drivers added a GPU usage meter in the overdrive section, and they dynamically adjust the clock speed of the GPU between the 3 speeds in the video card's bios now whereas they ignored it before. It seems to be a little smarter than just basing it on the GPU usage though, if I play the matrix HD-DVD for instance it only uses 9% GPU but still runs the card at max clock, whereas playing a 720p software decoded video fullscreen at 720p uses around 20% GPU and runs it at the middle setting (400mhz/300mhz). Anything using the UVD/DXVA seems to put it at max speed.

h264 acceleration is working decently, out of 20 videos I tested 17 of them played back fine with a standard haali/cyberlink h264/evr graph which was the same in 7.7. 90% of my movies have subtitles so I'm still with a software decoder for now anyway. This is the only real issue I have with the card as it's my main use of the HTPC, and it isn't really the card's fault :)

Aero on or off doesn't change the GPU usage levels during playback as far as I can see, I get the same both ways unlike before.

A real nice surprise was that they included updated TV Wonder 550/650 drivers (v250) in this beta package which hasn't had actual new drivers since april. They've just been repackaging the old ones (v244) and they usually only include all-in-wonder WDM drivers in the catalyst releases.

There's still a few bugs but those might turn out to be Cyberlink or Microsoft's fault. I'm impressed with how much better these are than 7.6/7.7 after those being exactly the same for me, I was starting to lose hope :D

dj9

07-28-07, 08:24 PM

bellcanada420

07-28-07, 09:07 PM

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?

I am passing the audio via the HDMI ATI dongle from my HTPC to my sony STRDG900 receiver which is totally capable of DTS. there is no audio to my TV at all, it is only video. the audio goes into the receiver and out to the speakers. the audio is only coming out of the ATI card and into the receiver as PCM 48Hz 2 channel audio.

I have an HDMI cable from the HTPC to the receiver and then another HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV

there is currently no 5.1 coming from the HTPC or else my receiver would definately see it as it did during the Dolby digital audio test within the device configuration screen.

Either way, im not so worried about the 2 channel audio as I am about the skipping audio.

Andy o

07-28-07, 09:41 PM

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

You're welcome, but you might have overdone it! You only needed to change the _DEF value to zero, that's the one that your card switches to when you uncheck the "enable" on CCC for Color Vibrance. No harm done I guess, if you're never gonna use the slider. I think if you set also _MIN and _MAX to zero, then those are the values that the slider will have for its minimum and maximum, so in effect the slider won't work. But probably you don't wanna use it anyway.

About the other issues, if the vertical band only shows up in some DVDs then it might be just there, you don't see it in a regular TV because of overscan. I see a green line in some NBC HDTV broadcasts, but that's normal. What DVD's are we talking about? Are those movies, or broadcast shows?

The checkerboard could be your card overheating I guess. I did get very horrible artifacts, but for HD-DVDs with my Sapphire 2400 pro. I think it is defective. I am returning it next week.

Rembrandt1

07-28-07, 09:46 PM

The 2600XT is going back Monday. I reinstalled my 8500GT and I have quality color and no playback problems again. Thanks to everyone in this thread. It’s been a whorl wind try.

IAM4UK

07-28-07, 11:53 PM

You're welcome, but you might have overdone it! You only needed to change the _DEF value to zero, that's the one that your card switches to when you uncheck the "enable" on CCC for Color Vibrance. No harm done I guess, if you're never gonna use the slider. I think if you set also _MIN and _MAX to zero, then those are the values that the slider will have for its minimum and maximum, so in effect the slider won't work. But probably you don't wanna use it anyway.

About the other issues, if the vertical band only shows up in some DVDs then it might be just there, you don't see it in a regular TV because of overscan. I see a green line in some NBC HDTV broadcasts, but that's normal. What DVD's are we talking about? Are those movies, or broadcast shows?

The checkerboard could be your card overheating I guess. I did get very horrible artifacts, but for HD-DVDs with my Sapphire 2400 pro. I think it is defective. I am returning it next week.

XP has a different CCC interface, I guess. I just zero'd _DEF at first, but after reboot I found that the posterization continued. That's when I zero'd all the "ColorVibrance" stuff. There's no slider for this setting in my CCC, so all you mentioned related to that does not apply in XP.
The vertical band shows up on all anamorphic widescreen DVDs, and I worked around it by allowing overscan. It did not happen on the same DVDs with my previous nvidia cards, for which I set the screen parameters to eliminate overscan. The band also appears on some letterboxed DVDs, such as "Gross Pointe Blank." My solution for that was to zoom so the overscan again masked the band.
My card is nowhere near overheating, and the checkerboard appears on NTSC content that does not even tickle the GPU.

Andy o

07-29-07, 01:01 AM

XP has a different CCC interface, I guess. I just zero'd _DEF at first, but after reboot I found that the posterization continued. That's when I zero'd all the "ColorVibrance" stuff. There's no slider for this setting in my CCC, so all you mentioned related to that does not apply in XP.
The vertical band shows up on all anamorphic widescreen DVDs, and I worked around it by allowing overscan. It did not happen on the same DVDs with my previous nvidia cards, for which I set the screen parameters to eliminate overscan. The band also appears on some letterboxed DVDs, such as "Gross Pointe Blank." My solution for that was to zoom so the overscan again masked the band.
My card is nowhere near overheating, and the checkerboard appears on NTSC content that does not even tickle the GPU.

Oh sorry, I forgot about the XP driver not having the slider. About your DVD issues, have you tried with different dvd players? I know you're using media center, so you might wanna try with PowerDVD or some other DVD player. There are some free options, and PowerDVD does offer a free trial.

indieke2

07-29-07, 03:12 AM

I am having some....interesting issues with a VC1 HD-DVD.
I'm using PowerDVD HD 7.3 (tried 2911 and 3104) and Windows Vista with a HD 2400Pro.

With registry modded 7.6 and 7.7 drivers, the video plays fluidly with acceleration, but after 30-60 seconds the card stops decoding some blocks (same effect as a bad signal on digital satellite/cable/ATSC), and every second or so the card will for some reason show an old frame (from about one second previous). GPU utilization is <20% as is CPU utilization. The GPU temperature remains at 50C±1. The GPU is prone to crash often.

With 7.8, I get similar results, except the GPU does not crash (the entire screen go black from time to time though) and it only displays the picture at what appears to be 720p.

There is no problem with sound in any configuration.

Yes, I have the same problem, only it doesn't happen so often. It is especially when you start to play the movie at a certain point. At the end you try so many things to make this card working properly, that there is one setting or register change the card doesn't like!

Have you tried without the acceleration? I had the impression, it was worse without powerstrip, so I installed it again. Maybe you can try it's native 60 hz setting!

Ia m under XP, it could be an issue with the card also. When I try to put 48 hz, these symptons get worse and not only on VC 1. It has to do with the acceleration, I am sure about that, because when I use another player at 48 hz, it will play normally.

karrih

07-29-07, 04:07 AM

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

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

Yes, at least with VMR9, which incidentally is currently the only way for me to use this card for SD mpeg 2, broadcast or dvd. I am using PowerDVD Ultra 3104a for decoder. Using PowerDVD as a standalone or the decoder with overlay or any kind of hw acceleration will show black pixels in vertical gropus pulsating at about 8 second intervals and within minutes crash the card. Currently I am using 7.7 drivers without registry hacks as they didn't seem to make a difference previously for SD.

I don't quite understand what is the role of VMR9 in tearing, though. Are there any alternatives to VMR9 with different tearing tendencies, at least for DVBViewer? Previously I was settled to using overlay, as tearing was not as bad, but it doesn't work when I added this card.

kschmit2

07-29-07, 05:10 AM

I'm all green in Vista Ultimate 32 bit:

Processor : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+
System Memory : 2048 MB
Graphics Card : Sapphire Radeon HD 2600 XT DDR4, PCI-E
Graphics card video memory : 256 MB
Graphics Card Driver : 8.383.0.0
Software Player : PowerDVD 7.3.3104.0
Video Connection Type : Digital(with HDCP)

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).

arfster

07-29-07, 06:40 AM

For those having weird corruption errors, have you checked to see if the card is maxxed out? Also, you might want to check your PCI-E voltage. These cards are _really_ sensitive to that - I had all sorts of instability with +0.1V, whereas my previous NVidia card couldn't care less.

As for the 7.8 release, can't seem to get 50hz h264 acceleration at all with 1080i25/50 material. This always required changed dxva_only1080h26424fps (or whatever it's called) to zero, but now that key doesn't exist, and adding it makes no difference.

All green in Vista32 here, with the 2400pro and any drivers. Not surprising given that I use it to play BD and HDDVD.

magnusr

07-29-07, 06:48 AM

I
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

There is no diffrence in cpu usage while playing hd-dvd after deleting theese two keys. I dont think uvd works in vista x64 yet.

shepP

07-29-07, 06:57 AM

I've got a 2400pro in the mail along with a 2600xt. I was wondering, does anyone know if the 2400pro can do 480i over component? I have an older tv that accepts 480i over it's component connector (not 480p) and would rather use that input than s-video on the vista MCE PC I'm building.

magnusr

07-29-07, 07:02 AM

I am having some....interesting issues with a VC1 HD-DVD.
I'm using PowerDVD HD 7.3 (tried 2911 and 3104) and Windows Vista with a HD 2400Pro.

With registry modded 7.6 and 7.7 drivers, the video plays fluidly with acceleration, but after 30-60 seconds the card stops decoding some blocks (same effect as a bad signal on digital satellite/cable/ATSC), and every second or so the card will for some reason show an old frame (from about one second previous). GPU utilization is <20% as is CPU utilization. The GPU temperature remains at 50C±1. The GPU is prone to crash often.

With 7.8, I get similar results, except the GPU does not crash (the entire screen go black from time to time though) and it only displays the picture at what appears to be 720p.

There is no problem with sound in any configuration.

PowerDVD Ultra 3104 under vista x64.

While watching a hd-dvd every 15 seconds the screen blinks.

Each time it blinks powerdvd.exe cpu usage increases with 5% in task manager, then goes down 5% again.

And when it blinks even the desktop blinks. You can put powerdvd playing a hd-dvd down on your start bar still playing. Right now this windows im typing in blinks every 15 seconds.

Audio plays back fine even under the blink.

This only happens while playing hd-dvd. Not when playing dvd.....

magnusr

07-29-07, 07:10 AM

I am passing the audio via the HDMI ATI dongle from my HTPC to my sony STRDG900 receiver which is totally capable of DTS. there is no audio to my TV at all, it is only video. the audio goes into the receiver and out to the speakers. the audio is only coming out of the ATI card and into the receiver as PCM 48Hz 2 channel audio.

I have an HDMI cable from the HTPC to the receiver and then another HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV

there is currently no 5.1 coming from the HTPC or else my receiver would definately see it as it did during the Dolby digital audio test within the device configuration screen.

Either way, im not so worried about the 2 channel audio as I am about the skipping audio.

I haver a yamaha rxv-1700 receiver. Ati 2600xt with dongle connected to the yamaha with hdmi and from yamaha to screen with hdmi.

Anyway im using a analog 5.1 cable connection from my computer to the receiver. Since then i will get better audio quality when playing hd-dvd and blu-ray.

The 2600xt's hdmi dosent support passing pcm 5.1 anyway. They could just have left that audio solution out if you ask me. Whats the point since they dont support pcm 5.1.

magnusr

07-29-07, 07:15 AM

magnusr

07-29-07, 07:17 AM

Andy o

07-29-07, 07:19 AM

All green in Vista32 here, with the 2400pro and any drivers. Not surprising given that I use it to play BD and HDDVD.

I'm thinking my HDCP problem is probably with my NEC 2690 monitor, since if I remember correctly, with the 2400pro my Vista machine did pass the tests (and played HD-DVDs) with a Sharp Aquos 1080p LCD.

What I don't get is why my XP machine doesn't have trouble playing HDCP content with this same NEC monitor? Does XP override HDCP, what's the deal? Why was Vista hyped so much about being HDCP compliant, when XP does it not just as well, but even better? And my NEC is supposed to be HDCP compliant anyway! Damn the MPAA again, haha! All hail AnyDVD.

Mark_A_W

07-29-07, 07:26 AM

Well, I got my HD2600XT DDR4.

I'm not using any hardware acceleration or fancy deinterlacing - I'm just trying to get films looking correct to start.

- H264 content is fan-friggin-tastic, with VMR9.

- HD-DVD VC1 is great when using a progressive resolution, but when I use 1080i 96hz (CRT projector) I get Jaggles/Stairsteps. Well, I do on King Kong, but haven't been able to spot it on Matric Revolutions yet.

- When using VMR9, any form of MPEG2 is an absolute disaster. Banding and posterisation up the yingyang. It's completely unwatchable, and a huge step backwards from a 9500 Pro which was fine for this.

Affects 1080i, 576i and DVD - all MPEG2 is YUCK.

I'm using Zoomplayer with various MPEG2 decoders, primarily Dscaler5 1080i version - so everything is done in software. I don't understand why the video card is messing with MPEG2 video, I've set everything I can find in CCC to Off (Weave for instance for deinterlacing), but it does.

Overlay Mixer works, but half the point of getting this card was to stop using the Overlay...GRRR.

I've tried setting the registry values for ColorVibrance, FleshTone and Detail to Zero, no change. I did notice that once I did this the sliders appeared in the CCC. I'm using beta 7.8 on XP.

- Powerstrip works fine.

- Reclock works pretty well - fine for most things, but PowerDVD video will freeze after 40mins or so when playing HD-DVD, FF/RW fixes it, but it means I won't use it. Reclock also reports 1080i 96hz as 48hz, unlike the 6800GT or 9500 Pro. It still works but it's wrong.

If only friggin MPEG2 video wasn't all horrid with VMR9 I'd be happy....GRR.

Any one got any more ideas? I cannot understand how this card get's all those HQV irrelevant points and recommendations for HTPC use when it butchers the most basic of video.

The only thing I haven't tried is the tweaked driver uploaded a few pages back, but I think that just sets the registry values (?). I haven't worked my way through all 22 pages yet, so if I've missed something please let me know.

Mark

arfster

07-29-07, 07:30 AM

I'm using Zoomplayer with various MPEG2 decoders, primarily Dscaler5 1080i version - so everything is done in software. I don't understand why the video card is messing with MPEG2 video....

Hrrrm, that doesn't make sense - if you're doing the decoding in software then the drivers/card never touch mpeg2 video, they just get raw uncompressed video fed from the CPU. Given that, the fact it originates in mpeg2 should be irrelevant.

IAM4UK

07-29-07, 10:32 AM

Then how come cyberlink advisor gives a green light on hdcp? And how come we even can play hd-dvd? Besides hdcp is built into the core of the 2600 chip right?
I don't understand it, either, magnusr. I accurately reported what AMD/ATI and ASUS told me when I pointed out that PDVDU reports that my 2600Pro is not HDCP-compliant. I am not sure if I would get a different result with a different 2600-based card. Thoughts?

pochoboy

07-29-07, 01:09 PM

I don't understand it, either, magnusr. I accurately reported what AMD/ATI and ASUS told me when I pointed out that PDVDU reports that my 2600Pro is not HDCP-compliant. I am not sure if I would get a different result with a different 2600-based card. Thoughts?

It is stated on NewEgg ASUS HD2600XT GDDR specs that this card is HDCP ready. I don't understand why the ASUS rep. said that customers have a "lawsuit" in the making and not the board makers? If board makers knowingly knows that their 2600XT is not HDCP compliant and still lists that it is in the specs, I would think the board makers are still liable as they knowingly know it and states on paper that it is HDCP. I wouldn't trust that ASUS rep. for a second! They are using the merri-go-round tactic. I'd would have told the ASUS rep. to fax me a copy stating that the 2600XT was non-compliant and faxed it to ATI/AMD to get things stirring.

magnusr

07-29-07, 01:26 PM

Pelge

07-29-07, 01:40 PM

I have a strange problem with my HD 2600 XT.
When I connect to my TV (Sony 40” 1080p) using HDMI cable for picture and sound, the TV seems to believe there is some change in picture modus approximately every 20 seconds. This result in a loss of sound in a few seconds (1-2) and my TV shows modus information in the upper left corner (1080p)
I have the latest Catalyst drivers and clean install of Vista 32
I have seen others report similar problems, but I haven’t seen any solutions or explanation.

bellcanada420

07-29-07, 02:37 PM

Pelge

07-29-07, 02:45 PM

Are you getting video artifacts or changes as well or is it just the audio that is getting interrupted?
I have only sound interruption, the picture is perfect.

bellcanada420

07-29-07, 02:56 PM

I have only sound interruption, the picture is perfect.

Sounds like we are experiencing somewhat of a similar issue. I have an SPDIF out riser card from asus on its way. I guess that means I am getting ready to abandon all hope of getting HDMI to successfully passthrough my audio.

Maybe new catalyst drivers next month will help....

Pelge

07-29-07, 03:08 PM

Sounds like we are experiencing somewhat of a similar issue. I have an SPDIF out riser card from asus on its way. I guess that means I am getting ready to abandon all hope of getting HDMI to successfully passthrough my audio.

Maybe new catalyst drivers next month will help....

Audio from soundcard could be a solution, but it is pretty irritating to have the modus information shown every 20 second

123456

07-29-07, 03:37 PM

Well, I got my HD2600XT DDR4.

I'm not using any hardware acceleration or fancy deinterlacing - I'm just trying to get films looking correct to start.

- When using VMR9, any form of MPEG2 is an absolute disaster. Banding and posterisation up the yingyang. It's completely unwatchable, and a huge step backwards from a 9500 Pro which was fine for this.

Affects 1080i, 576i and DVD - all MPEG2 is YUCK.

If only friggin MPEG2 video wasn't all horrid with VMR9 I'd be happy....GRR.

Mark

have you been to this link?

http://forum.inmatrix.com/index.php?showtopic=5661

dildano

07-29-07, 05:20 PM

There is no diffrence in cpu usage while playing hd-dvd after deleting theese two keys. I dont think uvd works in vista x64 yet.

Yeah, seriously! I've got a 2600XT on Vista Ultimate x64, and I don't think it's accelerating anything. I've spent two days screwing with this and all of the registry hacks to no avail. I basically can't get any HD-DVD or Blu-Ray content to play smoothly (except the Corpse Bride Blu-Ray). Has anyone gotten the UVD to work in Vista x64 yet?

As a side note, how can you tell how your HD-DVD or Blu-Ray content was encoded (H264, VC-1, etc.)? PowerDVD doesn't give me any useful info, and I can't open any of these files in Media Player Classic. Ideas?

Mark_A_W

07-29-07, 05:59 PM

have you been to this link?

http://forum.inmatrix.com/index.php?showtopic=5661

Yes. Thanks, but that's not it. I fiddled with all the output colourspace settings and VMR9 settings in both zoomplayer and dscaler.

My fingers are sore from fiddling with it all night long ;)

I did fix my jaggles issue. Turns out my CRT projector didn't like the timings from the new card (same timings were fine on 3 other cards). I had to change a sync setting and now it's ok. Explains why I saw jaggles on King Kong (projector) but couldn't on Matrix (using 24" CRT monitor).

My Sapphire HD2600XT is HDCP compliant, that part is working fine (HDMI input card for projector).

Mark_A_W

07-29-07, 06:03 PM

As a side note, how can you tell how your HD-DVD or Blu-Ray content was encoded (H264, VC-1, etc.)? PowerDVD doesn't give me any useful info, and I can't open any of these files in Media Player Classic. Ideas?

Show Information in Powerdvd should tell you, it does for me.

IAM4UK

07-29-07, 06:07 PM

Try plugging your monitor to the other plug on the card and see what happens?
Great idea, but it did not provide HDCP compliance, per CyberLink Advisor.
Now, I wonder if a different brand board with the same kind of chip (2600Pro) would be the solution? Anyone else have HDCP as advertised with the specific ASUS board I'm using: EAH2600Pro?

dildano

07-29-07, 06:33 PM

Show Information in Powerdvd should tell you, it does for me.

At the risk of sounding even dumber than I already do, what's supposed to happen when I click on Show Information? I see that it's checked, but nothing happens.

Mark_A_W

07-29-07, 06:36 PM

At the risk of sounding even dumber than I already do, what's supposed to happen when I click on Show Information? I see that it's checked, but nothing happens.

Interesting...

I get a box in the top right hand corner telling me the Video and Audio information.

dildano

07-29-07, 07:44 PM

Interesting...

I get a box in the top right hand corner telling me the Video and Audio information.

Probably user-error on my part because I don't see anything. The way things have been going lately, I think my HTPC is just doomed...

Andy o

07-29-07, 08:01 PM

Probably user-error on my part because I don't see anything. The way things have been going lately, I think my HTPC is just doomed...

Go to configuration and in the "player" tab, click on Advanced. Then enable OSD. That should do it. Of course, "show information" still must be checked.

dildano

07-29-07, 08:12 PM

Go to configuration and in the "player" tab, click on Advanced. Then enable OSD. That should do it. Of course, "show information" still must be checked.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! It's working now.

And as far as my HTPC goes, we'll see if the UVD works properly in Vista x86...

Andy o

07-29-07, 08:45 PM

Thank you, thank you, thank you! It's working now.

And as far as my HTPC goes, we'll see if the UVD works properly in Vista x86...

You're welcome... By the way, what are your CPU and RAM specs? Because if your system is not powerful enough, that could mean that the 2600XT is not doing its work, but if your system is indeed powerful enough, then it might be something else than the video card.

Fredrik

07-29-07, 08:47 PM

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

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

I quote myself for it make sense.
Tried running in Exclusive Renderless (XP) and the tearing (both vertical/horizontal) is gone + VPU recovers are gone as well.
Tearing ok, but I can't understand why the VPU recovers are gone as well ?
Not that I'm not happy to see them gone but WTF ?

dildano

07-29-07, 09:06 PM

You're welcome... By the way, what are your CPU and RAM specs? Because if your system is not powerful enough, that could mean that the 2600XT is not doing its work, but if your system is indeed powerful enough, then it might be something else than the video card.

Here's my system specs:

MSI 2600XT Video
AMD BE-2350 CPU
Biostar TF7050-M2 Motherboard
OCZ DDR2-800 2x1GB RAM

I realize that this system might not be quite fast enough to decode all HD content by itself, but the UVD should do the heavy lifting. I had absolutely no luck with Vista x64, but Vista x86 is already looking better. I now firmly believe that the UVD is not enabled in Vista x64.

Interestingly, the PowerDVD 3104a update actually made things worse. After installing the patch, video appeared corrupted all over the place even though the CPU was sitting around 10%. Need to get RivaTuner installed real quick to check the GPU %.

Furious

07-29-07, 10:14 PM

Has anyone come across the Custom resolution bug? When setting a custom res for 720, no problem, the add button always appears. For 1080i, the add button seems to be greyed out even when selecting the standard 1080i30 mode and toggling back and forth. Is there a registry setting that can be tweaked? ATI support wasn't helpful, it seems like this has happened in previous catalyst releases, and support only recommends upgrading Catalyst.

Mark_A_W

07-29-07, 10:19 PM

Powerstrip.

It just works.

Sarvatt

07-29-07, 11:57 PM

Do you have the audio stutter problem running the HDMI straight from the card to the TV and bypassing the receiver bellcanada? Perhaps it does the device capabilities check on the other end of the HDCP chain checking your TV's decoding ability (which can do AC3 if it has a digtal tuner) and not the receiver? Either way I can understand the frustration with it, the HDMI audio really is of no use to a majority of people as its no different than a SPDIF out with alot more limitations considering TV's aren't allowed to pass the audio from HDMI to a digital output on TV's made after 2007 :( Looking at this ATI product page, they only list AC3 support even :(

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd2400/radeonhd2400pro/index.html

Mark_A_W

07-30-07, 01:35 AM

Hey all, refering back to my original post here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11076791&&#post11076791) and my followup commenting about posterization there (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11077838&&#post11077838) ... I can't believe I have not seen further discussion on this. I mean, it's REALLY bad and was not present on the card it replaced. Am I the only one with this problem? What might be causing it?

WinXP MCE 2005 (all updates applied)
NVidia Purevideo Decoder
Asus AM2-VM HDMI board
AMD Athlon X2 3600 Brisbane
1GB DDR2 800 memory
Sapphire Branded ATi HD 2600 Pro PCIe video (256MB memory)
Catalyst 7.7 w/TRDenoise & DXVA_DetailEnhance registry hacks
Captured material is recorded 480i from s-video input on an Nvidia DualTV tuner.

http://mysite.verizon.net/texneus/temp/Compare.jpg

Yep, this is what I am seeing when using VMR9 on XP with Mpeg2 material.

I cannot believe this card got decent HTPC reviews/recommendations.

Overlay is ok, but I want VMR9 without any levels expansion.

How hard is it to put in a support ticket to ATi?

Andy o

07-30-07, 02:24 AM

Yep, this is what I am seeing when using VMR9 on XP with Mpeg2 material.

I cannot believe this card got decent HTPC reviews/recommendations.

Overlay is ok, but I want VMR9 without any levels expansion.

How hard is it to put in a support ticket to ATi?

I don't think the posterization discussed here has to do with levels expansion. It happens in SD content even without expansion. Try setting the colorvibrance strings in your registry to zero, following instructions some posts up.

By the way, VMR9 in MPC actually does not give me expansion, while overlay does (or did, I haven't tested after the supposed fixed driver).

Mark_A_W

07-30-07, 02:28 AM

I've set all the values for ColorVibrance, FleshTone and Detail to 0 in the registry....all of them, takes forever.

They don't make any difference. But all of a sudden I get "Advanced Color" in CCC with sliders for Color Vibrance and Fleshtone, which I thought was kinda interesting.

I actually haven't checked for expansion yet - I'm just struggling to get a watchable image.

Andy o

07-30-07, 03:25 AM

Sorry if this is obvious, but did you try restarting your PC after the registry changes?

Also, if you do have the "advanced color" settings then try enabling it and setting color vibrance to the minimum (which if you have changed the registry value for colorvibrance_MIN to zero, should be zero).

So actually, the colorvibrance_DEF string is the value the color vibrance setting in CCC takes when you uncheck "enable". By default in my 2600 pro it was 25. That was what was giving me the posterization. "colorvibrance_MIN" and "colorvibrance_MAX" should be the values the slider takes at its minimum and maximum, when you enable color vibrance in CCC.

Mark_A_W

07-30-07, 03:32 AM

Andy o

07-30-07, 03:35 AM

Thanks, but yep, I rebooted.

When you set all the values to zero, you can uncheck the box, but you can't move the slider :)

Because the max value is zero, min value is zero, it's just locked.

What I will do is set the max value back to 100 and see if it's working at all.

Also, the posterisation I have is only in VMR9, overlay is unaffected. And so far it only appears to be for MPEG2. H264 appeared ok using VMR9.

I don't think it's the advanced colour settings :(

Hmm. I'd recommend setting your values at the default settings, and then play something with both the overlay, and VMR9 and move the color vibrance and other color sliders around. Then uncheck it and see what happens when you do all that. From what you're saying it seems the problem could be of your player or decoder, not the card itself.

Mark_A_W

07-30-07, 03:45 AM

It's not the player or decoder - or at least they work fine with other hardware.

I get the same results in Zoomplayer using various decoders, and in Theatertek.

rogerssa

07-30-07, 08:08 AM

PowerDVD Ultra 3104 under vista x64.

While watching a hd-dvd every 15 seconds the screen blinks.

Each time it blinks powerdvd.exe cpu usage increases with 5% in task manager, then goes down 5% again.

And when it blinks even the desktop blinks. You can put powerdvd playing a hd-dvd down on your start bar still playing. Right now this windows im typing in blinks every 15 seconds.

Audio plays back fine even under the blink.

This only happens while playing hd-dvd. Not when playing dvd.....

I'm getting a very very similar problem. I'm on XP MCE 2005. When playing a HD-DVD or a BluRay in Power DVD it flickers every few seconds. I can tell the flicker is a previous screen image. Example Playing Sernity I could see the flicker was the openeing screen with the FBI protection. So every few seconds I could tell it flickerd to a blue screen with FBI on it.

I'm using 7.7 drivers right now. On my Saphire 2400Pro. PC is a Asus P5N-E Motherbaord with 2 gig ram, and a E6600 processor.

Sarvatt

07-30-07, 08:32 AM

arfster or anyone else wanting to force VA deinterlacing in VMR9 in vista, can ya try something? Try creating a string called UI_HwDeInterSetting with the VA GUID as the value in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cyberlink\Common\CLVSD\YourAppNam e\? If not, changing/adding dword UIVMode 40002 (adaptive with bitstream analysis) might help. I'm not able to test it on the HTPC for awhile since I'm stuck over RDP but I have a feeling there might be a way to force it through the registry.

Something I find funny now that goes against everything I read before I purchased the product.. Notice the bold part and it's position in relation to the UVD, I know I read that it supported full Mpeg2 VLD decode through the UVD before it came out :)

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

# ATI Avivo™ HD Video and Display Platform

* Dedicated unified video decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC and VC-1 video formats
o High definition (HD) playback of both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats
* Hardware MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/DivX video decode acceleration
o Motion compensation and iDCT (inverse discrete cosine transform

I just spent the past 2 hours digging through chinese message boards trying to find this DXVA2Info program so I can find out what level of Mpeg2 support there was and get this..

DXVA2Info v0.2 by Orbitlee@Silu

Number of decoder devices = 11
DXVA2_ModeMPEG2_IDCT NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
bb0796ae-2ed4-468d-a182-38f2ceadecf8 NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
b1a56f6c-2e7f-432f-8f09-8ded43b3cee4 NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
04f3c94d-2485-45b3-9e28-4dd74dfb6ec4 GetDecoderRenderTargets failed: 0x8000400
5
30af325c-3cdf-4539-9d95-0548dcb6cd25 GetDecoderRenderTargets failed: 0x8000400
5
DXVA2_ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
0184c6d4-f80c-4299-ada9-6a6087fb9d00 NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeVC1_VLD NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
51911e1a-9fad-424e-9c9a-d1d97e17f56b NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV8_PostProc NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV9_PostProc NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080

Looks to me like it only has the most basic Mpeg2 acceleration DXVA2 GUID visible, no mocomp even.. Just for laughs I ran it without the DXVA_NOHDDECODE in the registry and got this as expected

DXVA2Info v0.2 by Orbitlee@Silu

Number of decoder devices = 11
DXVA2_ModeMPEG2_IDCT NV12 720x480
bb0796ae-2ed4-468d-a182-38f2ceadecf8 NV12 720x480
b1a56f6c-2e7f-432f-8f09-8ded43b3cee4 NV12 720x480
04f3c94d-2485-45b3-9e28-4dd74dfb6ec4 GetDecoderRenderTargets failed: 0x8000400
5
30af325c-3cdf-4539-9d95-0548dcb6cd25 GetDecoderRenderTargets failed: 0x8000400
5
DXVA2_ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
0184c6d4-f80c-4299-ada9-6a6087fb9d00 NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeVC1_VLD NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
51911e1a-9fad-424e-9c9a-d1d97e17f56b NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV8_PostProc NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV9_PostProc NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080

And that seems to show that the first 3 entries are Mpeg2 ones so DXVA2_ModeMPEG2_MoComp and DXVA2_ModeMPEG2_VLD might actually be those other 2 GUIDs that only PowerDVD is using since they aren't standard DXVA2 ones? Hopefully they fix this up in the drivers some day..

Sarvatt

07-30-07, 08:37 AM

a little off topic, but a new vista update just got released to testers with some really promising video playback/driver fixes in it, might be worth grabbing if you're having problems.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=8231

arfster

07-30-07, 11:03 AM

Thanks Sarvatt, will check some of that later (DIY day today!).

On another note, got my Sapphire 2600XT today. Noise is OK, pretty quiet by graphics card standards (will find some way of slowing that fan down I'm sure). Heat so far is surprisingly fine, and casetemps are no different compared to the 2400pro - although the fan exhausts in one particular direction, which in my PC's case roasts the poor hard disks.

Best news is that these don't have the irritating Vista CCC deinterlacing bug - it gives you whatever mode you select (and auto gives vector adaptive with HD). Seems like this is a deliberate power thing with the drivers for the 2400 models, although it's not necessary for the 2400xt, and only borderline necessary for the 2400pro - with a little tweaking those have the power for vectoradaptive in Vista, but ATI don't give you the choice.

No fix for the HD levels, so that looks like a consistent Catalyst bug.

The power on these things is wild overkill for HTPC though - the 2600pro is more than enough for everything, and if not for the deinterlacing bugs even the 2400xt:

VA deinterlacing MPEG2 Scaling to 1080p
2400pro 55% +50% +25%
2600xt 18% +14% +7%

Thus all three together, with Aero off: 2400pro 130% (!), 2600pro 65%, 2600xt 44%. I remember the 2400xt managed this too, but with very little to spare, something like 90%. The above are also all done on the shaders, so for H264 and VC1 decoding add a big fat +0%, since they're decoded on the UVD.

VMR9 still adds a heavy hit, raising above to 60%. Probably this means the 2600pro is the minimum for mpeg2 acceleration and VA deinterlacing in XP - although even in Vista the CCC deinterlacing bug means the 2400xt isn't that usable for HD interlaced atm (other than in PDVD).

brotbuexe

07-30-07, 11:10 AM

@sarvatt

do you have a link for dxva2info? only get 2 google hits but didnt find a link.

IAM4UK

07-30-07, 11:31 AM

Seeking opinions: Should I return my ASUS 2600Pro to NewEgg and buy a different brand 2600Pro to get HDCP compliance? How about these brands: HIS, or Sapphire?

Sarvatt

07-30-07, 11:34 AM

I think mpeg2 will be fine as soon as they get their crap together with the drivers, if they had a standard DXVA2_VLD GUID available it would be fine and even the MS codec even could handle the whole process but I only see the most basic acceleration type and everything is probably using that :D For what it's worth, I get ~50% GPU usage on a 1080i mpeg2 with aero and VA/3:2 on outputting at 1080p with the 7.8 drivers but it's a shame PAL acceleration is messed up with the 7.8's for all the PAL users. If Mpeg2 acceleration was my main goal I would skip the radeon series right now and go for a 8500/8600 without any hesitation, but these are brilliant for HD-DVD/Bluray playback. Can you run this DXVA2Info program on your 2600 and paste the results? I know what ya mean about having a hard time finding it brotbuexe, took me 2 hours cut and pasting everything to babelfish to register and find the program on those forums :D The program is for Vista only BTW, doesn't work in XP even with .net 3.0.

Sarvatt

07-30-07, 11:42 AM

Seeking opinions: Should I return my ASUS 2600Pro to NewEgg and buy a different brand 2600Pro to get HDCP compliance? How about these brands: HIS, or Sapphire?

I would be more worried the problem lies in your TV/projector vs the video card, can't imagine the HDCP issue would change with a different card as the HDCP part on these cards is built into the GPU core itself and wouldn't change between manufacturers :( Do you have the HDCP compliance issues without AnyDVD-HD installed? I know I can't run the DVE disk right using AnyDVD-HD, and I dont even install it anymore as it causes more problems than it helps here :D

magnusr

07-30-07, 11:49 AM

Yeah, seriously! I've got a 2600XT on Vista Ultimate x64, and I don't think it's accelerating anything. I've spent two days screwing with this and all of the registry hacks to no avail. I basically can't get any HD-DVD or Blu-Ray content to play smoothly (except the Corpse Bride Blu-Ray). Has anyone gotten the UVD to work in Vista x64 yet?

As a side note, how can you tell how your HD-DVD or Blu-Ray content was encoded (H264, VC-1, etc.)? PowerDVD doesn't give me any useful info, and I can't open any of these files in Media Player Classic. Ideas?

Hardware acceleration dosent work in vista x64. Sucks. Box says Vista, UVD. Lies.

Anyway got the same myself. No acceleration in Vista x64.

arfster

07-30-07, 11:49 AM

Ball

07-30-07, 12:07 PM

Yep, this is what I am seeing when using VMR9 on XP with Mpeg2 material.

I cannot believe this card got decent HTPC reviews/recommendations.

Overlay is ok, but I want VMR9 without any levels expansion.

How hard is it to put in a support ticket to ATi?
I have the EXACT same posterization issue others have pointed out, seems to be most prevelent in reds. I changed all the Fleshtone_DEF, Detail_DEF and ColorVibrance_DEF registry settings to 0 restarted and still no change...
My specs:
WinXP MCE 2005
ATI/Cyberlink Decoder
MSI K9N Platinum nForce 570 board
AMD Athlon X2 6000+
2GB DDR2 800 memory
Sapphire ATi HD 2600XT
Catalyst 7.7

Sarvatt

07-30-07, 12:10 PM

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!

Yeah the more I look into it the more it looks like it only supports passing dolby digital and PCM 2.0 over the HDMI connection, every ATI product sheet and PDF only lists AC3 5.1 support when I know I read in early reviews that DTS passthrough would be supported. I only get DD passthrough personally but I am not able to use a receiver so the TV is doing the decoding. What I do with everything anyway is use FFDShow Audio with AC3 640k as the output to send everything over toslink to my receiver. Talk about yet another bait and switch with these cards though.. PCM 5.1 was never advertised as supported, and all the reviews said from the start it wouldn't support anything more than normal SPDIF does, dunno why people think it'll pass it. Is there even a PC soundcard in existance that passes 5.1 (L)PCM over HDMI?

magnusr

07-30-07, 12:17 PM

Yeah the more I look into it the more it looks like it only supports passing dolby digital and PCM 2.0 over the HDMI connection, every ATI product sheet and PDF only lists AC3 5.1 support when I know I read in early reviews that DTS passthrough would be supported. I only get DD passthrough personally but I am not able to use a receiver so the TV is doing the decoding. What I do with everything anyway is use FFDShow Audio with AC3 640k as the output to send everything over toslink to my receiver. Talk about yet another bait and switch with these cards though.. PCM 5.1 was never advertised as supported, and all the reviews said from the start it wouldn't support anything more than normal SPDIF does, dunno why people think it'll pass it. Is there even a PC soundcard in existance that passes 5.1 (L)PCM over HDMI?

No there is no such card that cad do PCM 5.1 over HDMI yet. Im guessing Nvidia 8900 series will.

My motherboards audio chip is intersting though: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2533&ModelName=GA-P35-DS3P

Says: Blu-ray/HD DVD Full Rate Audio Support
The ALC889A enables high quality Full Rate Lossless Audio for content protected media and support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats for an exhilarating home theater entertainment experience.

But i made analog audio connection to the analog 5.1 connections on my yamaha rxv-1700 receiver.

IAM4UK

07-30-07, 12:19 PM

I would be more worried the problem lies in your TV/projector vs the video card, can't imagine the HDCP issue would change with a different card as the HDCP part on these cards is built into the GPU core itself and wouldn't change between manufacturers :( Do you have the HDCP compliance issues without AnyDVD-HD installed? I know I can't run the DVE disk right using AnyDVD-HD, and I dont even install it anymore as it causes more problems than it helps here :D
My TV/monitor is Samsung HLN617, and is HDCP compliant. As for AnyDVD-HD: without it, I can't play content in PDVDU that requires HDCP; with it, I can't use features/menus in DVE-HD (possibly others). I've found work-arounds, but should not have to resort to that.

Sarvatt

07-30-07, 12:19 PM

2600XT on Vista32 with 7.7:

DXVA2Info v0.2 by Orbitlee@Silu

Number of decoder devices = 5
DXVA2_ModeMPEG2_IDCT NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
04f3c94d-2485-45b3-9e28-4dd74dfb6ec4 GetDecoderRenderTargets failed: 0x8000
5
30af325c-3cdf-4539-9d95-0548dcb6cd25 GetDecoderRenderTargets failed: 0x8000
5
DXVA2_ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeVC1_VLD NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080

No WMV acceleration as it's disabled in Vista drivers. Setting it on and these appear:

DXVA2_ModeWMV8_PostProc NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV9_PostProc NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080

Still doesn't actually accelerate anything though.

Can't try your reghacks, cos deinterlacing selection actually works now with the 2600xt :-)

Wow, what the heck.. Even less DXVA2 acceleration options than the 2400 :lol: Probably catalyst 7.8 that added the new ones though. Those 2 other DXVA2 GUID's that are Mpeg2 related in 7.8 report and missing in your 7.7 list are interesting to say the least. The fact that they are only in 7.8 and not 7.7 means there's probably no way the Cyberlink codecs even call them yet so they are sitting there unused. I dont have any doubt they're DXVA2_ModeMpeg2_MoComp and DXVA2_ModeMpeg2_VLD using a non standard GUID. Hopefully that means Mpeg2 working as it should in the next few months :D DXVA2_ModeWMV8/9_PostProc only accelerates the deblocking anyway, you wouldn't notice a speed difference I dont think unless the source was interlaced or encoded with loop filter options. I have a WMV9 encode I did where I enabled it and I do notice a ~10% CPU decrease with it enabled to test it as all of the downloaded WMV's I have were made with it disabled :D I wish I could use the VC-1 VLD decoding, haven't been able to tap into that with anything outside of a HD-DVD disk.

Sarvatt

07-30-07, 12:28 PM

My TV/monitor is Samsung HLN617, and is HDCP compliant. As for AnyDVD-HD: without it, I can't play content in PDVDU that requires HDCP; with it, I can't use features/menus in DVE-HD (possibly others). I've found work-arounds, but should not have to resort to that.

Ok, 2 more questions if ya dont mind me asking :D What is your video bios version, and have you tried and verified HDCP working with any other devices on your TV?

Edit: Make that 3 questions since I see your TV is DVI. What type connectors are on both ends of the DVI cable that you are using and what output resolution are you using? Have you tried booting the system at 720p to see if that works? I see quite a few posts here about HDCP problems with samsung HLN TVs from a quick search on google, wouldn't rule out the TV not being the problem unless you've verified it works as intended with the same cable on another device.

dildano

07-30-07, 12:56 PM

IAM4UK

07-30-07, 01:05 PM

Ok, 2 more questions if ya dont mind me asking :D What is your video bios version, and have you tried and verified HDCP working with any other devices on your TV?
To the last question: yes, I've used DVI connection for upconverting DVD player and SA8300 HD-DVR, including a brief subscription to Showtime. Doesn't that require HDCP-compliant path?
To the bios question: are you referring to the new ASUS EAH2600Pro card in question? If so, I'll have to check this evening.

rajdude

07-30-07, 01:19 PM

Hmmm....i looked at that link....

the ALC889A is a D to A converter. What it means is that chip will convert the audio data on the HD disks to analog audio.

What we are looking for is something which will output the "digital signal" that is usually uncompressed multichannel PCM over HDMI (again, usually)

My motherboards audio chip is intersting though: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2533&ModelName=GA-P35-DS3P

Says: Blu-ray/HD DVD Full Rate Audio Support
The ALC889A enables high quality Full Rate Lossless Audio for content protected media and support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats for an exhilarating home theater entertainment experience.

But i made analog audio connection to the analog 5.1 connections on my yamaha rxv-1700 receiver.

Sarvatt

07-30-07, 01:21 PM

Yup you're right, I know the SA8300 wouldn't work over DVI if it wasn't HDCP compliant, sorry to bug you about those but doesn't hurt to rule out the basics first :D Yeah, I was asking the bios version on the asus card, it's pretty trivial to flash bioses on ATI cards and one possibility I was thinking of was that your card could have an older version. And yeah I'm stretching for an answer :D My video bios that is working 100% perfect is 1.1.3 B.1.6.9.0.5 - X.0.4, ya can find it in hklm/system/current control set/control/video/yourdeviceGUID/ and double click on the hardwareinformation.biosstring, but it's probably listed in CCC information as well which I can't access over remote desktop :D

Maybe it's possible the cards dont do HDCP over a DVI-DVI connection? Anyone got that specific setup working?

magnusr

07-30-07, 01:33 PM

magnusr

07-30-07, 01:34 PM

IAM4UK

07-30-07, 01:42 PM

I'll check the video bios, Sarvatt; however, I think it's unlikely a brand new card like 2600Pro-based video adaptors could have bios so outdated as to fail HDCP compliance, particularly when they advertise it in large letters on the front of the package.

Sarvatt

07-30-07, 01:54 PM

It'd still be interested to see, it's something that could effect the HDCP system and would be good to know for future reference in case someone else pops up with the same problem and has it as a common demoninator :) You don't have to look it up though, you're probably sick of messing with it by now I'm sure anyhow :D

arfster

07-30-07, 01:55 PM

arfster, do you have HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray content working properly on your 2600XT? If so, could I get you to post the following?

- PowerDVD version
- any reg hacks
- any other manual changes you've had to make

I already know you're running Vista32 and the Catalyst 7.7 drivers. Have you tried the beta Catalyst drivers?

HDDVD/BD works fine without any changes, with PDVD 7.3 latest patch. That was the case with the 2400pro also (except for needing to delete the SORT lines that stopped it going fullscreen). Both have HD levels expansion though.

The only real troubles that the 2600 models improve are sheer power, enable mpeg2 Bluray acceleration, and the deinterlacing selection (which only affects video content). If you're just playing film discs, the 2400pro will be fine.

Tried the 7.8s, didn't fix anything for me, and broke PAL acceleration.

dildano

07-30-07, 02:46 PM

HDDVD/BD works fine without any changes, with PDVD 7.3 latest patch. That was the case with the 2400pro also (except for needing to delete the SORT lines that stopped it going fullscreen). Both have HD levels expansion though.

The only real troubles that the 2600 models improve are sheer power, enable mpeg2 Bluray acceleration, and the deinterlacing selection (which only affects video content). If you're just playing film discs, the 2400pro will be fine.

Tried the 7.8s, didn't fix anything for me, and broke PAL acceleration.

Thanks for the update, arfster. I'll have to check my system again because I could swear that the PDVD 7.3 patch actually corrupted the video from a HD-DVD VC1 disc. So it sounds like 2600XT + Vista32 + Catalyst 7.7 + PDVD 7.3 (with patch) + HD-DVD/BD = good times! I wish I was having such good luck!

Sarvatt

07-30-07, 02:46 PM

arfster

07-30-07, 04:08 PM

Hmmm something definitely strange here, I just tested some PAL clips and they all had proper acceleration displaying at 720p60. I tested a 1920x1080i25 mpeg2, 576i25 mpeg2, 1280x720p50 h264 and a 1920x1080p25 h264. So then is it the 50hz monitor setting breaking it?

Nah, I was using a 100hz monitor.

Tried 7.8 with the 2600xt in Vista, PAL 1080i50 is fine. Looks like it only broke things for the 2400pro - perhaps a non registry equivalent of dxva_no24fps1080h264.

Rudmeister

07-30-07, 04:42 PM

Guys I am in need of help desperately. I bought a HP Mediacenter(7690, intel dual core , 2gb ram) pc to use as a dedicated HTPC for my rear projection Pioneer Elite PRO-710hd set. After it arrived I found out the original video card(Radeon 7600) does not support component out. My tv does not support dvi or hdmi, only component or vga connectors for HD.I researched here and decided to buy the geforce 2600xt. After recieving the new card I now have video but no audio. I have restored the OS 6 times and here is what I found.

1. With original video card (geforce 7600) i have sound after a restore using realtek audio rear output as the default device under the sound option in control panel.
2. If uninstall all Nvidiea drivers I still have sound
3. If i remove the 7600 and just install the 2600xt with no drivers I lose the sound and there is no default player device under the sound option in control panel and therefore no sound.
4. After installing the ATI driver package I now have ATI audio rear output listed but there is no sound.

I have put in over 20 hours on this and it's driving me crazy.

Please HELP

PS I forgot to mention I am running XP MCE

Thanks

alluringreality

07-30-07, 04:45 PM

No fix for the HD levels, so that looks like a consistent Catalyst bug.

Is this issue you mentioned here related to monitors and irrelevant for a digital TV set for 16-235? At this time my major use would be ATSC recordings and some general computer use, but at some point I might replace my standalone Blu-ray and HD DVD players with the computer when a good combo drive and HDMI sound is available. For those uses on Vista would there be any issues that I might not have using Nvidia, like those posterization pictures?

Basically I'm thinking about replacing my silent MSI 8600GTS with the 2600XT if I can get 1:1 mapping somehow with an ATI card. On the old Nvidia drivers I could get the 1:1 alternating pixel images to display correctly on an overscan-corrected desktop, but now they're all messed up with the newer drivers. I haven't ever used powerstrip, but I read that it can be setup for hot-key switching of settings. So would it be possible to setup a key or some program-related way that I could switch between 1824x1026 for general computer use and 1080p for video? (The media progams I've seen with the option don't work with the Nvidia resolution setup)

ricabullah

07-30-07, 04:59 PM

Hi guys, thanks for your effords one more time!
Can you advise me an GPU monitoring tool running on Vista for both NVidia and Ati?

alluringreality

07-30-07, 05:01 PM

Everest Ultimate has a GPU temp in it. There's a trial version you could check out.

ricabullah

07-30-07, 05:03 PM

Everest Ultimate has a GPU temp in it. There's a trial version you could check out.

Thanks for quick reply,
best!

dildano

07-30-07, 05:12 PM

Hi guys, thanks for your effords one more time!
Can you advise me an GPU monitoring tool running on Vista for both NVidia and Ati?

After reading through this thread, I installed RivaTuner. It monitors the GPU load and temperature among other things. Very nice! And don't let the name fool you - it runs fine with ATI cards.

ricabullah

07-30-07, 05:23 PM

After reading through this thread, I installed RivaTuner. It monitors the GPU load and temperature among other things. Very nice! And don't let the name fool you - it runs fine with ATI cards.

I gonna try, thx. I wasn't sure it's working well on Vista.

arfster

07-30-07, 05:26 PM

Is this issue you mentioned here related to monitors and irrelevant for a digital TV set for 16-235?

Happens with both, with several different 2400/2600 models I've tried, in Vista and in XP, progressive and interlaced, hardware acceleration/decoding/deinterlacing or not, any video format, any bitrate, any decoder, any source container etc etc

The only common factor is that as soon as you hit 720 vertical lines, you get levels expansion. Best way to demonstrate it is with a ffdshow resize - play a dvd and then set a resize to 1000*720, and as soon as you switch it goes to 0-255. Set it to 1000*718, and it's back to 16-235.

dj9

07-30-07, 06:52 PM

I am getting very discouraged... discouraged enough to just go buy another computer with a faster CPU that can play 1080p VC1 (so then I can use the 8500GT). I've got 720/1080p accelerated perfectly, but now I'm having trouble with 1080i.

Calvi

07-30-07, 07:10 PM

Thanks, but yep, I rebooted.

When you set all the values to zero, you can uncheck the box, but you can't move the slider :)

Because the max value is zero, min value is zero, it's just locked.

What I will do is set the max value back to 100 and see if it's working at all.

Also, the posterisation I have is only in VMR9, overlay is unaffected. And so far it only appears to be for MPEG2. H264 appeared ok using VMR9.

I don't think it's the advanced colour settings :(

Mark,

perhaps take a look at

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=676073&page=1&pp=30

It documents a known issue with AVIVO and pal mpeg 2 resulting in smearing/ghosting. There is a registry setting that is supposed to help.

IAM4UK

07-30-07, 07:27 PM

Well, I've talked with ASUS again, and I have to conclude they are lying about HDCP on the EAH2600Pro. I have informed NewEgg, from whom I purchased the card, and they are willing to refund my purchase. Now I need to decide what card to buy as a replacement.

I will do my best to steer as many people as possible away from ASUS, based on this experience. I do not tolerate deception.

Andy o

07-30-07, 07:35 PM

Seeking opinions: Should I return my ASUS 2600Pro to NewEgg and buy a different brand 2600Pro to get HDCP compliance? How about these brands: HIS, or Sapphire?

I'm perfectly happy with my HIS card, while my Sapphire 2400pro came defective, as far as I could tell. I was getting horrible artifacts when playing HD-DVDs and pretty high temps, now that I look back. Though I modified the HIS card (the regular 2600pro 512MB, not the ICE-T or whatever) with a Zalman VNF100 fanless, so I don't know if the fan is any trouble or how noisy it is. But the build quality is pretty high, certainly higher than the Sapphire, whose heatsink was horrible (admittedly, it's the very cheapest Radeon HD card you can get).

But just hold on a bit, I am about to try if HDCP works with my XP machine and the 2600pro, and with my Vista HTPC and my X1900 (gonna swap cards), so once and for all I'll see what the hell is preventing my Vista machine to play HDCP content.

dj9

07-30-07, 07:37 PM

Is there any indication that any of the mpeg2 deinterlacing or vmr9 issues could be caused by poor drivers and not just slow hardware (in the case of hd 2400pro)?

IAM4UK

07-30-07, 07:39 PM

But just hold on a bit, I am about to try if HDCP works with my XP machine and the 2600pro, and with my Vista HTPC and my X1900 (gonna swap cards), so once and for all I'll see what the hell is preventing my Vista machine to play HDCP content.
I await your word on the subject, Andy...

arfster

07-30-07, 07:59 PM

Best news is that these don't have the irritating Vista CCC deinterlacing bug

Slight correction to this: with mpeg2 HD it works perfectly, but
with h264 HD it uses bob if you select auto. At least it obeys your CCC selection though, so you can force VA. Not sure this is ideal for all material though.

This isn't being done as a result of any analysis - in graphedit the pin connections are being made instantly, so it's a result of format or resolution.

Mark_A_W

07-30-07, 10:09 PM

Yep, this is what I am seeing when using VMR9 on XP with Mpeg2 material.

I cannot believe this card got decent HTPC reviews/recommendations.

Overlay is ok, but I want VMR9 without any levels expansion.

How hard is it to put in a support ticket to ATi?

Guys, I made a big improvement to my Posterisation issues.

It's a bit embarrassing, but the out-of-the-box colours settings after installing the drivers are for 16 Bit desktop, not 32 bit. I never noticed, as I have a black wallpaper.

VMR9 obeys the desktop Colour settings, so it was in 16 bit.

What I don't get is the H264 material I have didn't show gross posterisation in 16 bit (WTF?).

So thanks for bearing with me.

BUT. Even with 32bit colours enabled, I still get posterisation, not gross levels, but it's there. I can't say if it's worse than a 6800gt on overlay, but it's visible.

I don't know if it's in the source, but I highly suspect it's from the levels expansion, which I think I have confirmed, as swapping from Overlay to VMR9 (with zoomplayer colours at default) does not change the black level.

Also, the gamma settings in AVIVO in CCC do not affect either the overlay or VMR9 - do you *have* to have DXVA working for them to work?

None of the AVIVO settings do anything for me, which I guess is due to running in software mode.

I don't use hardware acceleration for anything, as Reclock doesn't work properly, I don't really need fancy deinterlacing (yet, but I'd like if for my OTA recordings), and I have enough CPU.

I do find it confusing as to which deinterlacing settings would "win" for instance, say Powerdvd settings or AVIVO settings....

Mark

arfster

07-30-07, 10:55 PM

PDVD's deinterlacing settings always win. That's even assuming the CCC settings actually do anything, which isn't always the case.

digitlman

07-31-07, 12:31 AM

I picked up a Visiontek HD2400 AGP card today. put it in my athlon xp 2600+ htpc replacing my 9600pro card. i installed 7.7 ccc and pdvd 7.3.3104

cant seem to get the acceleration to turn on. i tried a few bluray files and h264 with no luck. seems to just max out my cpu and play same as with my 9600.

any tips?

Sarvatt

07-31-07, 12:31 AM

After reading through this thread, I installed RivaTuner. It monitors the GPU load and temperature among other things. Very nice! And don't let the name fool you - it runs fine with ATI cards.

Catalyst 7.8 drivers work too. GPU load, dynamic automatic clock speed adjustments, temperatures and overclocking all in the control center :D

RogueWarrior

07-31-07, 03:15 AM

Andy o

07-31-07, 05:38 AM

NEVERMIND! The patch was for PowerDVD 7, not the ultra version. Sorry.

(I had linked to a new patch).

indieke2

07-31-07, 07:25 AM

HDDVD/BD works fine without any changes, with PDVD 7.3 latest patch. That was the case with the 2400pro also (except for needing to delete the SORT lines that stopped it going fullscreen). Both have HD levels expansion though.

Can you explain where to find this, sorry if you mentioned allready!!!

I deleted the latest Pwdvd Patch because of this! 4/3 display was very ennoying!

Andy o

07-31-07, 08:21 AM

Can you explain where to find this, sorry if you mentioned allready!!!

I deleted the latest Pwdvd Patch because of this! 4/3 display was very ennoying!

There was a sortoverride_somethingsomething (or something like that) in the DXVA registry key for the card (not for PowerDVD) that had for a value 1024somethingsomething. I don't remember it because I don't think I have that setting anymore, but if you deleted the string or changed the 1024 value to zero, then you could do full-screen on PowerDVD. Weird that it only affected the latest patch, though.

Andy o

07-31-07, 08:29 AM

To those using AnyDVD here... anyone tried the latest version? I just got notified a couple of hours ago, and can't get it to run without ticking the "run as administrator" option on anydvd.exe (I get initialise_dynamic()failed). But that leads to having to accept the UAC thing (running Vista x86). And most importantly, it gets blocked by Windows Defender at logon, so I have to click to enable it anyway. More like an annoyance than a real problem, but that doesn't happen at all with 6.1.6.5. I already reinstalled both versions with the same results always. Deleted any leftover registry entries and all that stuff. Are any of you running Vista having the same trouble?

IAM4UK

07-31-07, 09:05 AM

Andy, I updated AnyDVD to 6.1.6.6, and had no such issues. But I'm using XP MCE2005.

Andy o

07-31-07, 09:13 AM

Andy, I updated AnyDVD to 6.1.6.6, and had no such issues. But I'm using XP MCE2005.

Thanks, but that's an issue with Vista exclusively, because of the annoying User Account Control. It shouldn't be a problem with any versions of XP.

By the way, I'm still planning to swap my cards to test the HDCP thing, yesterday something came up. And also, with this freaking heat, it's hard to get to do anything, let alone screw with my computer under my table (it's harder to take it out), but I'll do it anyway.

IAM4UK

07-31-07, 09:22 AM

Andy o

07-31-07, 09:44 AM

Andy, I already purchased a HIS 2600Pro 512MB from NewEgg last night. I decided it was a low-risk purchase, because NewEgg approved an RMA for the ASUS board (and offered to pay return shipping, without my even suggesting it!).
I like the 2600Pro performance, although I hope for better SD/NTSC picture quality in future drivers, and the registry tweaking should not be required as it is. I will no longer deal with ASUS products. And NewEgg again proves why they are one of the most popular e-tailers.

How did you get them to do that? I don't think they're even waiving my restocking fee, and my card is defective, as probably yours is. Hmm did you have to call them on the phone or something? Anyway, I already paid for the shipping (to newegg), so I am done, but I might need to return something else in the future.

Oh, and have you already tested if your HIS 2600pro actually does HDCP? Mine seems to do OK with the HDMI Aquos 1080p that I mentioned before, but I still can't get it to work with my NEC at home. I hope the swap of my cards tells me something.

IAM4UK

07-31-07, 10:13 AM

RichB

07-31-07, 10:23 AM

Andy, I will receive the HIS card on Thursday, at which time I'll box up the ASUS card and send it back to NewEgg with the pre-paid shipping label they gave me. How did I get them to do that? I called their customer care line, told them I had a problem with the product, and that the chipset maker and card manufacturer blamed each other for the defect. I told them I had concluded that the card manufacturer was lying to me and to them (NewEgg) about a key specification. The CSR said she'd authorize an RMA/refund and send me a shipping label "as a courtesy." Perhaps she liked my voice? I dunno...

I had the same treatment when I explained that I could not get HD playback working with the 2400Pro. I had already ordered the 2600Pro and I think that helped. They sent me the pre-paid shipping label too.

It pays to be a nice and a good customer ;)

- Rich