ATI Radeon HD 2X00 (2400,2600,2900) series owners thread [Text View] - Page 5

Andy o

08-08-07, 04:19 AM

Arfster or Sarvatt or anyone who's knowledgeable about the video capabilities of these cards, could you break down for us some of the advantages/disadvantages, in your opinion, for video of GPUs like the 2400 and 2600 vs. their Nvidia counterparts? I think it's well known by now that Nvidia will pretty much smoke ATI on 3D graphics. I remember somewhere in this thread Arfster or someone mentioning that ATI had better potential for video, like deinterlacing and such.

I personally have had a much, much less problematic experience with the Gigabyte 8500 GT than with both the Sapphire 2400 pro and HIS 2600 pro, but alas, Nvidia cards don't provide audio over HDMI.

Thanks.

Sarvatt

08-08-07, 05:59 AM

outside of incompatabilities that are going to happen because people have wildly varying setups, it all comes down to the drivers for both of the cards for me. I have had way more of a headache on the 3 Nvidia cards that have gone through this HTPC, including a bug where media center would crash randomly halfway during video playback that they didn't fix for 3 years that you can imagine turned me off of the brand for HTPC usage :D in comparison the problems I've had with this card are just minor irritations and user errors. here's a list of acceleration modes available on 8500gt in vista x86-

DXVA2_ModeMPEG2_IDCT NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeMPEG2_MoComp NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeVC1_IDCT NV24 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeVC1_IDCT NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV9_IDCT NV24 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV9_IDCT NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeVC1_MoComp NV24 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeVC1_MoComp NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV9_MoComp NV24 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV9_MoComp NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeVC1_PostProc NV24 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeVC1_PostProc NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV9_PostProc NV24 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeWMV9_PostProc NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
1720ac81-9d1b-4f63-9a37-4a88483d0b87 NV24 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
1720ac81-9d1b-4f63-9a37-4a88483d0b87 NV12 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
DXVA2_ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT NV24 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080
215da78e-a71b-417e-8ef8-463251a57206 NV24 720x480 1280x720 1920x1080

More WMV9 less VC-1 more mpeg2 on nvidia. VC-1 is more important to me than mpeg-2 and WMV9 is useless to me, so I'm happy with the ATI. There is a forceUVDmpeg2 option in the 7.8 beta drivers that didn't exist in the video acceleration dll for catalyst 7.7 (haven't gotten working though) so hopefully one day they add that and give us VLD mpeg2 decoding which will put the ATI cards on top with no questions about it. I can't comment on the 2600 series mpeg2 performance as I only had about an hour to play with one, and my opinion is based on my experience with a HD 2400 Pro with all of the mpeg2 quirks and lack of acceleration problems. As of now I don't see any other major reason to go with one over the other though, both are pretty much equal gambles as to if they will work with your components :D 2600 pro definitely seems to be the sweet spot for a HTPC though, I wish they were available back when I purchased the 2400!

Andy o

08-08-07, 06:57 AM

Thanks for your input. In reality, pretty much the only thing that makes me wanna switch to Nvidia right now from my otherwise OK-working 2600pro is the HDCP thing, but I still have a bad flavor in my mouth because of the 2400pro that I had, and the recent (and not so recent) marketing lies from ATI. OK, maybe not flat-out lies (then again, maybe yes!), but misleading enough to be counted as such. Oh, and the abysmal and disgraceful experience I had with their software for the HDTV Wonder.

magnusr

08-08-07, 06:58 AM

I have ordered the HDMI dongle and suspect it will work. (assuming I can cram the passively cooled 2400 card into my PC and that I do not have a card with a bad chip...!)

There also might be a receiver interaction going on here, besides computer settings. On the Onkyo 875 thread, people nave noted that for audio on hdmi to work; hdmi is actually set to OFF on the 875 (seems weird...but there you go).

Here is the full text from the ATI ordering page. I think the key part is the second notation about which boards are supported. So I agree with the comment that ATI is covering its proverbial corporate assets.

Note: "This as a replacement to lost or damaged adapters ONLY. It can not be sold separately. This adapter will not enable HDMI through the DVI output of any Radeon™ HD 2000 series board; it will only work if your product was originally shipped with a DVI-HDMI adapter."

Supported on the following product:

* RADEON HD 2900
* RADEON HD 2600
* RADEON HD 2400

The Yamaha has no such problem. Its doing audio over hdmi with my ps3. All the way to 7.1 PCM. Other people are using standalone hd-dvd/blu-ray players with this receiver over hdmi also without a problem (including audio ofc).

Besides im not trying to do audio over hdmi with the 2600xt. Since the 2600xt dosent support 5.1/7.1 audio over pcm i dont want its audio. Im doing analog 5.1 audio connection to my receiver. Ive also tried disabled the ati hdmi audio, but it dosent make a diffrence on the blinking.

The problem here is that the ati 2600xt simply dont seem to support a receiver in the middle of the hdmi chain when watching video with hdcp (causing a blink every 15 seconds). Strip the hdcp from the movie and it plays fine. Connect the card directly to the monitor bypassing the receiver works fine with hdcp video without blinking. But since i dont have more than one plug in my monitor i want to do it through the receiver. I dont want to swap cables all the time. Besides im not using the tvs remote, im only using the receiver remote :)

lkuech

08-08-07, 07:01 AM

Hi @ll.

Is it necessary to remove all handmade registry hacks before updating to the catalyst 7.8 (when it comes out) to have a brand new start. Or does the driver delete the whole section anyway?

Bye
Lars

Andy o

08-08-07, 07:23 AM

The problem here is that the ati 2600xt simply dont seem to support a receiver in the middle of the hdmi chain when watching video with hdcp (causing a blink every 15 seconds). Strip the hdcp from the movie and it plays fine.
How do you strip HDCP? :D

I just wish the numbnuts who came up with HDCP were reading forums. Maybe they don't even know how to read. At this point the only people for whom it's gonna be a deterrent is the legitimate, lay customer who doesn't know about AnyDVD, and it's gonna be a deterrent against proper playback, not against piracy. Just like with every other popular media copy protection ever uttered under the sun.

magnusr

08-08-07, 07:30 AM

How do you strip HDCP? :D

I just wish the numbnuts who came up with HDCP were reading forums. Maybe they don't even know how to read. At this point the only people for whom it's gonna be a deterrent is the legitimate, lay customer who doesn't know about AnyDVD, and it's gonna be a deterrent against proper playback, not against piracy. Just like with every other popular media copy protection ever uttered under the sun.

HD Decrypter from: http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm

I only did it to test.

I agree that hdcp pretty much sucks. But this is ait's fault. They havent implemented hdmi/hdcp 1.1/1.2a/1.3 according to standards.

magnusr

08-08-07, 08:32 AM

Microsoft has released 2 important hotfixses (the same that was beta released last week). They can be downloaded from microsoft for both vista x86 and vista x64.

KB938194
KB938979

They are supposed to fix display problems and so on.

Gonna try em when I get home.

Digitalspirit

08-08-07, 08:57 AM

millerbrad

08-08-07, 09:16 AM

Digitalspirit

08-08-07, 09:32 AM

millerbrad

08-08-07, 10:06 AM

Here is the latest ATi response.

"The solution in the KB article does apply to Windows Vista as well.

Are you not using the DVI-to-HDMI adapter that came in the box/packaging?"

How stupid do they think people are. How would I connect it to my HDTV if I didn't use the boxed DVI>HDMI dongle? LOL. Now they are telling me the drivers (which make no mention of Vista) are also for Vista!

Thanks for that response millerbrad. Do you think it could be the quality of the lead? I am using the Philex 5m HDMI to HDMI Cable (Transfers true High Definition pictures and up to 8 audio channels). Maybe I require a higher grade lead. I really don't know now and as you can see, ATi are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Thanks anyway.

If you have another HDMI component to test your HDMI cable, you could make sure the cable is OK. I use this cable (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024004&p_id=2504&seq=1&format=2&style=) with no problems at all.

Also, you may have already done this, but make sure that you have the correct device set as default in the Sound menu of Control Panel.

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

Sarvatt

08-08-07, 10:19 AM

ATi technical support is a total waste of time.

I am running the Radeon HD 2900XT with the Catalyst 7.7 drivers and am using Vista Ultimate x64, Asus P5W DH Deluxe mainboard. ATi claim the DVD > HDMI dongle and 2900XT supports video and audio via HDMI, I get only video from the card when plugged into the HDMI port on my Panasonic HDTV. I have asked for a solution but receive only useless generic responses with useless solutions that even a n00b would know. They even sent me a link the the Windows XP drivers for HDMI audio, even though I reported that I am using Vista!!! The HDMI audio driver shows up in device drivers, but there seems no way to enable it. It's doing my head in now. :(

I also get the 'Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered' problem, which also has no solution. Bearing in mind this is a brand new PC, it's pretty discouraging.

I'm not too impressed with ATi or their card so far and am wishing I had stuck with Nvidia. If anyone has any ideas on the HDMI audio issue then I would appreciate it! Thanks.

This is like the 5th time I've posted it in this thread now, but try these drivers :)
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3

ATI HDMI Audio Device R1.68 2007/5/23 15112k GO GO GO

I get ac3 5.1 passthrough and 2.0 PCM just fine. I just use ffdshow audio for everything, and have it convert everything into a 640k ac3 stream. If you check all the ATI information pages they only list AC3 and 2.0 PCM support now even though other manufacturers and reviews have stated its supposed to pass DTS, and I have a feeling they are going to pull another bait and switch with it like how they have done with mpeg2 offloading. Keep at it with submitting tickets until you feel satisfied with their response though, even if you're just submitting blank ones because you still have the problem and they didn't fix it. If they think you have resolved the problem the people that actually fix the crap probably wont even see that there's a problem and after 3-4 responses they usually get it to people that can actually help. Their early tier support is funny though, no? I get a laugh every time I put in a ticket with some of the crap they come up with :D

Digitalspirit

08-08-07, 10:30 AM

Thanks a lot guys. Will check out your solutions when I get home. Nice to know "real" world users are far more help than the actual vendor themselves.

I have to admit, as irritated as I was with their response, it did raise a laugh as to how stupid their replies were.

i will report back to let you know if I got a result. Cheers! ;)

dildano

08-08-07, 12:30 PM

dildano,

I have the same MSI 2600XT fanless card and it behaves exactly as you describe. MSI needs to release a new BIOS and fix the borked UVD with the 7.7 CC drivers.

I managed to get that MSI card to work with the MSI drivers from their site but since it doesn't have scaling in the the CCC it was not fitting my 37" Westy properly.

I got a Sapphire 2600XT and it works fine. Also got a Sapphire 2400pro and it works fine too.

Sorry to hear about your similar experience with the MSI RX2600XT, but I'm glad that it's not just me! Newegg has been gracious enough to take the card back and even provide a return shipping label, so it's going back to Newegg tonight. I think I'll try the MSI RX2600Pro instead since it at least has a BIOS update available. I really want the fanless design!

By the way, MSI was totally useless when I called them about the problem with the RX2600XT. They haven't gotten many calls on that model, so had nothing to offer. They basically told me that my best bet was to return it to the place where I bought it. That's just bad tech support!

DJ79

08-08-07, 01:49 PM

Is this the type of corruption some of the earlier posters mentioned with the 2600?

This is with MSI 2600PRO (BIOS Version 010.053.000.003, BIOS Date 2007/06/28), MCE 2005, PowerDVD 3104 (latest patch), Catalyst 7.8 beta (8.40), but was no different with 7.7.

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/1748/dsc04716qo9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/9599/dsc04717qi3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/4708/dsc04718es4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

slymobile

08-08-07, 01:59 PM

Sorry to hear about your similar experience with the MSI RX2600XT, but I'm glad that it's not just me! Newegg has been gracious enough to take the card back and even provide a return shipping label, so it's going back to Newegg tonight. I think I'll try the MSI RX2600Pro instead since it at least has a BIOS update available. I really want the fanless design!

By the way, MSI was totally useless when I called them about the problem with the RX2600XT. They haven't gotten many calls on that model, so had nothing to offer. They basically told me that my best bet was to return it to the place where I bought it. That's just bad tech support!

The weird thing is the card does actually work, but not with the ATI drivers, and only with the HDMI adapter. Its definitely a driver issue and I feel it may be a simple fix on MSI's or ATI's part, maybe the next round of driver updates will fix this. I too like the fanless design, it looks cool too. I was holding out for a fix so I haven't returned it to Zipzoomfly. I bought there because of free shipping, its like next day delivery since they are located close to me.

I may change it to the 2600pro model, since I don't play games anymore, only blu-ray, hd-dvd, and dvds. Keep us informed on the MSI fanless 2600pro model once you get it.

slymobile

08-08-07, 02:11 PM

Sarvatt

08-08-07, 02:13 PM

slymobile

08-08-07, 02:18 PM

Which drivers are working for you? I downloaded a set when you posted that but I dont think I got the right ones as the umdva dll wasn't different. I'd be interested in looking through the working ones to see whats different :) I grabbed these http://download1.msi.com.tw/files/downloads/dvr_exe/ATI_8.383_Vista.zip

Yes, this driver works, but only when using HDMI adapter with the MSI 2600XT. This driver doesn't have scaling in the Catalyst control center so it is useless for me to use with my 37" Westy.

indieke2

08-08-07, 02:29 PM

Is this the type of corruption some of the earlier posters mentioned with the 2600?

This is with MSI 2600PRO (BIOS Version 010.053.000.003, BIOS Date 2007/06/28), MCE 2005, PowerDVD 3104 (latest patch), Catalyst 7.8 beta (8.40), but was no different with 7.7.

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/1748/dsc04716qo9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/9599/dsc04717qi3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/4708/dsc04718es4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I have this with a Sapphire 2400 Pro, but at 48 hz only. I have a few blocks though in 60 Hz, but very short and once and a while.

Digitalspirit

08-08-07, 02:40 PM

Ok, i need to post 5 times ...

Digitalspirit

08-08-07, 02:41 PM

to be able to post an image! Jesus!

Digitalspirit

08-08-07, 02:42 PM

This is like the 5th time I've posted it in this thread now, but try these drivers :)
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3

ATI HDMI Audio Device R1.68 2007/5/23 15112k GO GO GO

I get ac3 5.1 passthrough and 2.0 PCM just fine. I just use ffdshow audio for everything, and have it convert everything into a 640k ac3 stream. If you check all the ATI information pages they only list AC3 and 2.0 PCM support now even though other manufacturers and reviews have stated its supposed to pass DTS, and I have a feeling they are going to pull another bait and switch with it like how they have done with mpeg2 offloading. Keep at it with submitting tickets until you feel satisfied with their response though, even if you're just submitting blank ones because you still have the problem and they didn't fix it. If they think you have resolved the problem the people that actually fix the crap probably wont even see that there's a problem and after 3-4 responses they usually get it to people that can actually help. Their early tier support is funny though, no? I get a laugh every time I put in a ticket with some of the crap they come up with :D

Ok fixed. DVI closest to motherboard is the only one HDMI audio enabled.

DJ79

08-08-07, 02:49 PM

Yes, thats the type of corruption with similar setup. Not only that, it will crash my computer. Sometimes will work when PowerDVD is in fullscreen mode, but corruption will recur if exit to windowed mode. System will crash when it wants to when PowerDVD is running with this setup.

In my case, PowerDVD itself crashed once or twice upon exit. Several times, maybe twice per day, the system froze while just browsing the web (even the mouse pointer wouldn't move), and about ten seconds later video signal would go out. After loading the beta 7.8 drivers three or four days ago, it only happend once, except that I got a blue screen instead of video going out. In all cases, the board itself was just mildly worm to the touch, in other words, quite cool.

I'll see if I can upgrade the BIOS, and wait until the official CC 7.8, hoping the board is not physically defective.

dildano

08-08-07, 03:10 PM

Is this the type of corruption some of the earlier posters mentioned with the 2600?

This is with MSI 2600PRO (BIOS Version 010.053.000.003, BIOS Date 2007/06/28), MCE 2005, PowerDVD 3104 (latest patch), Catalyst 7.8 beta (8.40), but was no different with 7.7.

Yep, that's exactly the type of corruption I'm getting on my MSI RX2600XT. Thanks for posting the pictures! Now I know I'm not just crazy or incompetent.

Have you tried upgrading the BIOS on your RX2600PRO? You can find it here (http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=bios&maincat_no=130&prod_no=1234). I'm really curious to see if the updated BIOS fixes your RX2600PRO since I literally just ordered one a couple hours ago. I'll be extremely pissed if I get another MSI card with the same problem, and it can't be resolved.

Slymobile, you made an interesting point about HDMI. I don't have an HDMI port on my monitor (which is where I'm doing all my testing), so I guess I can't test that theory. Would a DVI --> HDMI cable work? Also, I'm not sure I understand your comment on scaling. Why won't it work on your Westy 37"? I'm able to send 1920x1080 straight through HDMI to my Toshiba 47" with no problems - no scaling required. Haven't tried it yet with the RX2600XT though...

Andy o

08-08-07, 03:23 PM

I also got that type of corruption with my Sapphire 2400 pro in Vista, when using hardware acceleration for HD-DVDs, ripped or not, in Power DVD 7.3. I wonder if it's the same reason.

DJ79

08-08-07, 03:24 PM

Thanks for the link. I'll try this a little bit later. Funny, MSI's Live Update 3 just informed me that my BIOS version 010.053.000.003.025741 from June 28 is the most current one.

slymobile

08-08-07, 03:27 PM

you made an interesting point about HDMI. I don't have an HDMI port on my monitor (which is where I'm doing all my testing), so I guess I can't test that theory. Would a DVI --> HDMI cable work? Also, I'm not sure I understand your comment on scaling. Why won't it work on your Westy 37"? I'm able to send 1920x1080 straight through HDMI to my Toshiba 47" with no problems - no scaling required. Haven't tried it yet with the RX2600XT though...

The 1920x1080 output of the card both DVI and HDMI doesn't match exactly to the 37" Westy, it is smaller than the screen. So I have to use the software scaling in CCC 7.7 or 7.8 to match it to the display which the MSI drivers, for some odd reason doesn't have this scaling feature.

dildano

08-08-07, 03:29 PM

I also got that type of corruption with my Sapphire 2400 pro in Vista, when using hardware acceleration for HD-DVDs, ripped or not, in Power DVD 7.3. I wonder if it's the same reason.
When you disable hardware acceleration, does it make any difference? It didn't matter for me which makes me wonder if it really doesn't have anything to do with the UVD. Also, a previous post by Slymobile indicates that he resolved the exact same issue by using the vendor-provided drivers and an HDMI cable. Interesting...

dildano

08-08-07, 03:32 PM

The 1920x1080 output of the card both DVI and HDMI doesn't match exactly to the 37" Westy, it is smaller than the screen. So I have to use the software scaling in CCC 7.7 or 7.8 to match it to the display which the MSI drivers, for some odd reason doesn't have this scaling feature.
What's the res on your Westy? According to the manual, I'm not supposed to hook up my Toshiba 47" directly to a computer via HDMI or DVI, but it actually works beautifully. 1-to-1 pixel mapping in native mode on the TV. Guess I can try lugging my HTPC downstairs to test out the HDMI theory...

slymobile

08-08-07, 03:37 PM

What's the res on your Westy? According to the manual, I'm not supposed to hook up my Toshiba 47" directly to a computer via HDMI or DVI, but it actually works beautifully. 1-to-1 pixel mapping in native mode on the TV. Guess I can try lugging my HTPC downstairs to test out the HDMI theory...

The native res of the Westy is 1920x1080. I have the same scaling problem with 8600GT, so the scaling issue is not just with ATI HD 2000 series.

Andy o

08-08-07, 03:38 PM

When you disable hardware acceleration, does it make any difference? It didn't matter for me which makes me wonder if it really doesn't have anything to do with the UVD. Also, a previous post by Slymobile indicates that he resolved the exact same issue by using the vendor-provided drivers and an HDMI cable. Interesting...

You know, I'm pretty sure I didn't get it with HW accel off, but after so many tweaks and trials and errors with 3 different cards, 2 of them ATI, I am not 100% sure anymore. Make it 95%. Unfortunately I already returned the card, so I can't test again, but almost anything can cause those kind of artifacts, so I wouldn't bet that it's the same thing for all of us.

DJ79

08-08-07, 04:57 PM

When you disable hardware acceleration, does it make any difference? It didn't matter for me which makes me wonder if it really doesn't have anything to do with the UVD. Also, a previous post by Slymobile indicates that he resolved the exact same issue by using the vendor-provided drivers and an HDMI cable. Interesting...
The problem is that in the latest versions of PowerDVD you can't even disable it. The 2605 version didn't support hardware acceleration on these boards, and it displayed properly. The later versions have it on no matter what you select. Sure, you can downgrade PowerDVD, but what are you going to do when you're forced to upgrade in order to get new DRM keys?

dildano

08-08-07, 05:06 PM

The problem is that in the latest versions of PowerDVD you can't even disable it. The 2605 version didn't support hardware acceleration on these boards, and it displayed properly. The later versions have it on no matter what you select. Sure, you can downgrade PowerDVD, but what are you going to do when you're forced to upgrade in order to get new DRM keys?
You can't disable it? Like the checkbox is greyed out? I've tried PDVD 2911 and 3104, and in both cases I've been able to uncheck the box. However, it didn't make any difference with the video corruption problems.

arfster

08-08-07, 05:19 PM

You can't disable it? Like the checkbox is greyed out? I've tried PDVD 2911 and 3104, and in both cases I've been able to uncheck the box.

You can uncheck it, but it'll auto-recheck itself when you playback with hardware capable of acceleration. Try it :-)

DJ79

08-08-07, 05:20 PM

You can't disable it? Like the checkbox is greyed out? I've tried PDVD 2911 and 3104, and in both cases I've been able to uncheck the box. However, it didn't make any difference with the video corruption problems.
That's what I'm saying. You can uncheck it, but it doesn't make any difference at all. While the video is playing, you see it's grayed out and checked.

On the other note, I just looked at the first page in this thread, and I realized some 2400's also have this corruption. Unlike those, the 2400PRO that I tried did the acceleration fine -- actually, PowerDVD was pretty much the only thing it did right.

Let's try the BIOS update now... I'll keep you posted.

Edit: Nothing... It says Flash already updated. Oh, well...

dildano

08-08-07, 05:50 PM

Let's try the BIOS update now... I'll keep you posted.

Edit: Nothing... It says Flash already updated. Oh, well...
Doh! Now that sucks because I've got an RX2600PRO on the way from Newegg. This is just bizarre! I'll try the MSI drivers and an HDMI cable tonight to see if I can get my RX2600XT working like slymobile did...

tawd1992

08-08-07, 06:43 PM

I've been trying to keep up with this thread, but there are so many pages now I'm sure I've missed a lot. Most of the people using this card here are using it for HD video, so it's been hard to find anything regarding this card & sd content.

I have the Sapphire 2400 Pro & it's practically unusable. I really don't know whether it's a driver issue or the card is defective. My setup is very simple, s-video cable straight from card to tv, Vista Ultimate, Nvidia Dualtv, Amd 3000, 2GB ram. I just want to be able to watch sd tv in Vista Media Center playing simple mpeg2 files & I have nothing but problems.

I initially installed Catalyst 7.7 drivers & whenever I FF or RW the picture has artifacts (skinny lines a few inches wide that are different colors randomly spaced on the screen.) I also got these same artifacts when changing channels. About 10 or 15 minutes into the video the artifacts would come back & the video would play 2-3x as fast as normal, but the audio would play normal. Sometimes I would get a hard freeze. I uninstalled the 7.7 drivers & tried the 7.6 drivers & while there aren't really any artifacts the driver will still crash after playing a video for 15-30 minutes with the screen going blank. I have to restart the pc.

I've been monkeying around with this card for 2 weeks now thinking that it justs needs the drivers fixed, but I'm not sure if it's the drivers or if it's defective. Is anybody using this card for sd video without experiencing these types of problems? It's almost a waste to return it, after paying the 15% restocking fee & shipping & handling, I'll be lucky to get $30 back.

Luar Azul

08-08-07, 07:30 PM

When you disable hardware acceleration, does it make any difference? It didn't matter for me which makes me wonder if it really doesn't have anything to do with the UVD.

I have also got this kind of corruption with PDVD, but only with VC-1 video and with hardware acceleration on. I have tried it with a previous version of PDVD, and the artifacts disappeared when the hardware acceleration were turned off.

My graphics card:
Graphics Chipset ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO

BIOS Version 010.051.000.002
BIOS Part Number 113-B16905-X04
BIOS Date 2007/05/17

Thanks for posting the pics, it's exactly the same kind of corruption I'm getting!

millerbrad

08-08-07, 09:11 PM

I get ac3 5.1 passthrough and 2.0 PCM just fine. I just use ffdshow audio for everything, and have it convert everything into a 640k ac3 stream.

Hmm.. maybe ffdshow is the key to getting 5.1 over HDMI. The Realtek drivers didn't do the trick for me using the pre-installed Microsoft codecs. I even disabled my mobo's onboard Sigmatel audio, thinking maybe that was interfering with the HDMI sound.

I'll give ffdshow a try when I'm free on Friday.

Sarvatt

08-08-07, 09:12 PM

I've been monkeying around with this card for 2 weeks now thinking that it justs needs the drivers fixed, but I'm not sure if it's the drivers or if it's defective. Is anybody using this card for sd video without experiencing these types of problems? It's almost a waste to return it, after paying the 15% restocking fee & shipping & handling, I'll be lucky to get $30 back.

My Sapphire Radeon HD 2400 Pro accelerates SD Mpeg2 just fine, it's the only form of mpeg2 acceleration that works perfect for me. I had a bunch of driver stopped responding errors in 7.6 and 7.7 drivers but the 7.8rc3 have been working great here.

I noticed sapphire added bios flashing tools to the HD 2000 series download pages, so I did a bit of digging and I found that they are giving out bios updates through email if you have problems. I found an updated Sapphire Radeon HD 2600 Pro bios dated 8/1/2007 given out by sapphire's chinese division if anyone has the card and fully understands the risks involved and knows how to backup/recover and would like it.

BIOS 010.060.000.000
BIOS 113-B14802-X01
BIOS 2007/08/01

http://www.shkl.com.cn/SR3E42KC.BIN

I really wish I spoke chinese at times like these, seems like all the really good information and updates for these cards are posted over there and filtered over to here eventually :D

Sarvatt

08-08-07, 09:26 PM

Hmm.. maybe ffdshow is the key to getting 5.1 over HDMI. The Realtek drivers didn't do the trick for me using the pre-installed Microsoft codecs. I even disabled my mobo's onboard Sigmatel audio, thinking maybe that was interfering with the HDMI sound.

I'll give ffdshow a try when I'm free on Friday.

Does the AC3 test in the playback devices page for the HDMI device output 5.1 AC3 for you? Easiest way to check if it's working..

Sarvatt

08-09-07, 12:53 AM

Well I finally found a program that does what I've been looking for, you can drag and drop files into it to find out what's actually going on with acceleration. Here's the results for HD2400 Pro in vista x86 and 7.8RC3 drivers.

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/9904/mpeg2dxvaxk2.th.jpg (http://img368.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mpeg2dxvaxk2.jpg)

Cyberlink DXVA available modes in EVR for MPEG2. These are DXVA1 acceleration modes only, Cyberlink isn't using DXVA2 for MPEG2 on the 2400 at least. No wonder all the problems!! We don't even get HD resolution DXVA1 MPEG2 acceleration with current drivers without DXVA_NOHDDECODE, sad when 6 year old cards can do better :D The Microsoft MPEG2 decoder uses ModeA and ModeC only, also limited to DXVA1.

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/6259/mpeg2deinterlacingwy9.th.jpg (http://img368.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mpeg2deinterlacingwy9.jpg)

Even worse, check out this pathetic deinterlacing modes list showing whats available in each colorspace. Only bob and weave are available for HD resolutions with DXVA, this is why we couldn't force it arfster... Maybe you should pass along that pic with your ticket :D I'm sure theres a similar registry entry to DXVA_HDDECODE for deinterlacing to enable the higher resolutions, theres so many options in the atiumdva.dll...

Craigger

08-09-07, 02:30 AM

My Sapphire Radeon HD 2400 Pro accelerates SD Mpeg2 just fine, it's the only form of mpeg2 acceleration that works perfect for me. I had a bunch of driver stopped responding errors in 7.6 and 7.7 drivers but the 7.8rc3 have been working great here.

I noticed sapphire added bios flashing tools to the HD 2000 series download pages, so I did a bit of digging and I found that they are giving out bios updates through email if you have problems. I found an updated Sapphire Radeon HD 2600 Pro bios dated 8/1/2007 given out by sapphire's chinese division if anyone has the card and fully understands the risks involved and knows how to backup/recover and would like it.

BIOS 010.060.000.000
BIOS 113-B14802-X01
BIOS 2007/08/01

http://www.shkl.com.cn/SR3E42KC.BIN

I really wish I spoke chinese at times like these, seems like all the really good information and updates for these cards are posted over there and filtered over to here eventually :D

I was hoping I wasn't the only one with these hardware errors triggering the VPU recover. I have hope now that the 7.8 Cats will fix these problems.

Sarvatt

08-09-07, 02:57 AM

yeah I haven't had a single VPU recover error since moving to the 7.8RC3's, definitely give them a shot if thats your problem. The only issue I have with them outside of the video acceleration problems that are no different than 7.5, 7.6 and 7.7 is the control center crashing and restarting itself whenever I switch from remote desktop and back, not really that big a deal and I had the same problem in every other driver release too :D They add GPU load and DXVA based clocking support too, my card runs at 110mhz most of the time now on these 7.8's.

Also one thing I read about thanks to babelfish off of a chinese forum is there was also a compatability problem with 680i based motherboards for all of the 2400 and 2600 series that the bios updates help (it was part of the reason for the recall) if anyone is having problems and is using one of those.

M007

08-09-07, 03:56 AM

I got an MSI HD2600Pro.
When used with Vista Media Center, on DVB-T sd sources, sending 1080p60 to the screen, I get some kind of remanence on the obscure parts of the screen.
Does anyone else noticed that?

Another problem is that from time to time I got to remove the card from the mainboard to let it start working. else the screen stay blank and nothing to do : shutdown disconnect, hardreboot, ... nothing to do except removing the card and re-plugging it.

saintsaints

08-09-07, 05:49 AM

Tried a 2600pro agp, with 7.8 as soon as boot up, I get a 50 percent cpu usage without starting any apps and with 7.6, cpu idles at zero but play a hd-dvd with PD in XP crashes instantly with or without acceleration checked, but sd dvds work.

magnusr

08-09-07, 07:00 AM

Anyone got a newer bios than may for a 2600xt 256MB GDDR4?

cybrsage

08-09-07, 09:07 AM

lkuech

08-09-07, 09:11 AM

@Sarvatt:
Is it necessary to remove self made registry hacks like the NOHDDECODE etc. before updating the Catalyst driver or is the driver deleting the whole section anyway? I want to be sure that everything is "ATI default" after updating to 7.8 to have a "clean" start to test which values make sense under the new driver version.

Bye
Lars

arfster

08-09-07, 09:37 AM

Even worse, check out this pathetic deinterlacing modes list showing whats available in each colorspace. Only bob and weave are available for HD resolutions with DXVA, this is why we couldn't force it arfster...

Yuck, no wonder. Good spot :-) Downloaded it myself, for deinterlacing modes the 2600XT has the same range of modes, but all are avaiable for HD resolutions:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3867/untitledxd7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This matches with what we've found in practice at least: the 2600 uses them with standard directshow, the 2400 doesn't. I wonder how PDVD is managing to force 2400 HD 3C-deinterlacing though?

For acceleration I get (no dxva_nohddecode added, just standard registry):

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8625/untitledeb8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

No WMV cos it's Vista, and I think your extra mpeg2 ones are cos of 7.8.

The cyberlink decoder is pretty flexible though, it can use dxva1 and dxva2. Acceleration in Vista EVR can only happen with the latter, so it definitely works.

brotbuexe

08-09-07, 12:37 PM

Is this the type of corruption some of the earlier posters mentioned with the 2600?

I have this here only with HDDVD, and only for a couple of seconds when the movie starts or changed resolution/title or so.

With MSI RX2600XT T2D512EZ (512MB DDR3)

BIOS Version 010.053.000.003
BIOS Part Number 113-AB21100-100
BIOS Date 2007/06/29

All with Detonator 7.7 and latest PowerDVD.

I hope MSI will bring a bios update for the corruption problem.

Currently with the 7.8 RC3 i didnt get any accleration in PowerDVD. Don't know why.

BrianH33

08-09-07, 01:05 PM

Looks like those bad cards are untrue

False Alarm: Defective Radeon Report "Completely Untrue (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=8374)

dildano

08-09-07, 01:11 PM

Now everyone's denying the bad BIOS/UVD situation (from DailyTech (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=8374)). Maybe it really is a driver issue. Has anyone tried anything like tweaking their PCIe voltage?

arfster

08-09-07, 01:17 PM

Has anyone tried anything like tweaking their PCIe voltage?

My 2400xt was _really_ sensitive to PCIe voltage, corruption everywhere when I had +0.1. Might be some vdroop issues for others here?

hooded

08-09-07, 01:27 PM

I have an older AMD 3000+ machine in a HTPC box that will not really allow me to upgrade the mobo due to power supply issues.

It seems like several people here have purchased AGP versions of this card, however I have been completely unable to find anyone selling it on the internet. Could someone help me out and direct be to a reseller.

nownot

08-09-07, 02:34 PM

i have a problem that is driving me crazy. today is 1 1/2 weeks ive been trying to get hd playback going and im still stuck. hardware is e6300 (od'ed 2.8 mhz), sapphire hd 2600 pro, 37 westinghouse 1080p, onboard optic out to receiver, asus p5b mb 965 chipset, 2gb ram. software is powerdvd 7.3.2911 patched with newest update, drivers vary. with new drivers and powerdvd updated and non updated i get green and black blocks all over the place unwatchable. with old drivers and nonupdated it get green and black blocks, and with powerdvd updated i get no video, hardware acceleration is enabled on all combinations. any help on this. old drivers are 8.380 and new are 8.391 (i believe or something similar). also not getting any sound from powerdvd, dont know whats up with that. any help is greatly appreciated. thanks.
p.s. im playing evofrom hdd.

arfster

08-09-07, 02:41 PM

.....with new drivers and powerdvd updated and non updated i get green and black blocks all over the place unwatchable. with old drivers and nonupdated it get green and black blocks, ....

Green blocks usually mean hardware acceleration has gone loopy. I'd just send it back for a refund - the drivers are bad, but they're not that bad.

Sounds like there's a lot of faulty hardware out there, or perhaps incompatiblities with motherboards (cards overly sensitive to voltage variation?). Personally I've only ever seen corruption with a 2400xt, and that was down to overheating from its badly seated heatsink. The 2400pro and 2600xt have always been fine, with Xp and Vista, and 7.6/7.7/7.8.

nownot

08-09-07, 02:47 PM

ya i just got this a few days ago from newegg so i might be giving them a email. would like to try all options before i do though.

should i give dx10 a try and see if that matters any?

deniax

08-09-07, 03:14 PM

The video is all blocky and choppy (sorry about the lack of technical terms here). It really seemed like my whole machine would slow down because it was difficult to get the mouse over to the stop button in PDVD. I thought maybe it was the motherboard or CPU, so I put the RX2600XT in my main machine which is known to play HD content with no problems (E6600 with an X1900GT). Exact same corruption issues there. My HTPC was running over VGA at 1680x1050, and my main machine was running over DVI at 1680x1050.

Maybe it's not really the UVD, but something is definitely wrong with this video card. In PDVD, it doesn't make any difference if I enable or disable hardware acceleration.

So now I'm trying to figure out if I should try getting the exact same card again, or maybe go for the MSI RX2600Pro instead. At least the RX2600Pro has a BIOS update available if it really is the UVD at fault.

Thoughts?Have the same card and also the same problems :(
MSI really needs to fix these issues....

arfster

08-09-07, 03:16 PM

ya i just got this a few days ago from newegg so i might be giving them a email. would like to try all options before i do though.

should i give dx10 a try and see if that matters any?

Nah. With me they all work with fresh XP-SP2 and Vista installs, and those were Sapphires also incidentally (2400pro, 2400XT, 2600XT).

nownot

08-09-07, 03:20 PM

edit :: also installed the new avivo and it didnt seem to help. :(

while playing i can look at info vc1: shows no data passing through or nothing. mlp 5.1 640kbps for audio. i dont even think the program is trying to play the video. must not feel like it, lol.

BJ.Eagle

08-09-07, 04:04 PM

Hi guys I need some help with a small problem. I can play back just about any movie with hardware acceleration on my ATI 2400 Pro.

But when I try to display subtitles with DirectVOBsub (version 2.37) UVD hardware acceleration is turned of. I might have something to do with the Hali Media Splitter (ver 1.7.189.11) I'm using to play .mkv files. But Hali works fine with HW acceleration _without_ DirectVOBsub...

It dosn't seem to matter if the subtitles are .vob or .srt nor if they are embedded in the .mkv or not...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :confused:

Best regards

nownot

08-09-07, 04:05 PM

i just sent sapphire a message explaining the problem and asking if it was a known issue or maybe a bios update for the card. if not this im stuck in mud and dont know what to do. i could just convert to mkv and not loose any quality but then i have to conver audio which is where i got stuck last time. so well see what happens, will post response from sapphire when i get it.

nownot

08-09-07, 04:08 PM

how do you enable hardware acceleration for mkv playback?
Hi guys I need some help with a small problem. I can play back just about any movie with hardware acceleration on my ATI 2400 Pro.

But when I try to display subtitles with DirectVOBsub (version 2.37) UVD hardware acceleration is turned of. I might have something to do with the Hali Media Splitter (ver 1.7.189.11) I'm using to play .mkv files. But Hali works fine with HW acceleration _without_ DirectVOBsub...

It dosn't seem to matter if the subtitles are .vob or .srt nor if they are embedded in the .mkv or not...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :confused:

Best regards

nownot

08-09-07, 05:06 PM

here are a few pics the first is what i see when i dont update powerdvd. green black and crazy
[img=http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/9995/untitledrj5.th.jpg] (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitledrj5.jpg)
2nd is after i update i get a black screen with no video being output through powerdvd.
[img=http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/3377/pdvdupwd4.th.png] (http://img184.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pdvdupwd4.png)

cybrsage

08-09-07, 05:58 PM

Sounds like there's a lot of faulty hardware out there, or perhaps incompatiblities with motherboards (cards overly sensitive to voltage variation?). Personally I've only ever seen corruption with a 2400xt, and that was down to overheating from its badly seated heatsink. The 2400pro and 2600xt have always been fine, with Xp and Vista, and 7.6/7.7/7.8.

You are talking about PCIe cards, right? I have been unable to get the HD2600PRO AGP to work with MCE2005.

I am trying again tonight, though.

Sarvatt

08-09-07, 06:10 PM

Yuck, no wonder. Good spot :-) Downloaded it myself, for deinterlacing modes the 2600XT has the same range of modes, but all are avaiable for HD resolutions:

The cyberlink decoder is pretty flexible though, it can use dxva1 and dxva2. Acceleration in Vista EVR can only happen with the latter, so it definitely works.

Are you using EVR in DXVA Checker? Right click and check the EVR box if not. What you showed there is Cyberlink using DXVA1 on your card as well, on another card with DXVA2 (Geforce 8500GT) I get ModeMPEG2_IDCT reported as being used not the DXVA1 mpeg modes (A,B,C,D aren't DXVA2) its listing.

Hi guys I need some help with a small problem. I can play back just about any movie with hardware acceleration on my ATI 2400 Pro.

Vobsub doesn't work with hardware acceleration :( You have to find a playback program that will set up a custom presenter for EVR because the method of showing the subtitles while using EVR works in a way VobSub wont work with. KMPlayer is the only one I have found with an actually working EVR custom presenter but it's too much of a pain in the butt to use that just for mkv's with subtitles so I use coreavc until playback programs get better :D

@Sarvatt:
Just uninstall the drivers, then delete the registry keys that may be left over and reinstall.. it should delete DXVA_NOHDDECODE just fine as thats one of the things it looks to delete in the inf. If you have a 2400 you'll have to put the key back in thogh, thats the only registry tweak I need on 7.8's.

maxleung

08-09-07, 06:15 PM

UVD lost with DirectVOBsub

Yes, this is a known issue (well, at least by me - I posted about it a few pages back i think). There is nothing you can do about it AFAIK.

The only player that will render subtitles AND let you have h/w accel on these new ATI cards is KMPlayer.

arfster

08-09-07, 06:46 PM

Are you using EVR in DXVA Checker? Right click and check the EVR box if not. What you showed there is Cyberlink using DXVA1 on your card as well, on another card with DXVA2 (Geforce 8500GT) I get ModeMPEG2_IDCT reported as being used not the DXVA1 mpeg modes (A,B,C,D aren't DXVA2) its listing.

Yeah, I tried with and without EVR ticked, but it produces the same thing. However, I'm definitely getting acceleration with EVR + Cyberlink + mpeg2, and that's only possible with DXVA2. Maybe the tool's EVR thing isn't accurate or fully functional? For example, if I untick EVR and load some h264, it tells me it's using modeh264_vld_fgt, which won't work with anything except EVR in Vista.

nownot

08-09-07, 09:21 PM

sapphire told me to rma my card. so i guess ill be emailing newegg tomorrow, maybe, still dont think its the card but wth. if i dont go w/ sapphire who should i go with what card. right now i have a 2600 pro. thanks.

hendermd

08-09-07, 09:48 PM

tawd1992

08-09-07, 10:20 PM

My Sapphire Radeon HD 2400 Pro accelerates SD Mpeg2 just fine, it's the only form of mpeg2 acceleration that works perfect for me. I had a bunch of driver stopped responding errors in 7.6 and 7.7 drivers but the 7.8rc3 have been working great here.

:D
That's good to hear. I guess I'll hold out till the 7.8 drivers come out & try those. I really do like how much smaller the 2400 pro is than my Gigabyte 8500GT & also that it idles around 53C compared to 70C for my 8500GT. The hotkeys are nice for switching displays & of course being able to adjust overscan is a necessity, when is Nvidia going to add overscan to their drivers?

nownot

08-09-07, 11:38 PM

installed 7.8 beta and this is what i was greeted with. [img=http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/9319/1001149ee1.th.jpg] (http://img170.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1001149ee1.jpg)
not to pretty. pretty sure i have a defective card no. going to rma on monday. well any objections.

cybrsage

08-10-07, 10:27 AM

My try failed again.

I still cannot use the HD2600Pro AGP with MCE2005. I canot use the new card AND the media center app at the same time...it is not supported hardware.

BJ.Eagle

08-10-07, 11:29 AM

how do you enable hardware acceleration for mkv playback?

I installed Hali Media Splitter, ATI xcode Avivio dirvers, PowerDVD Ultra 7.3 on my Vista Ultimate. That's it for hardware decoding in just about any player (WMP 11, WMP classic, VLC etc.).

If you want HW decoding in Vista Media center theres a small program called vmcd.exe (Vista Media Center Decoder Utility <- google) that lets you set Powerdvd HD codec for playback in Media Center (only choose it for video - media center doesn't like the audio codec - at least not on my system), and disable the shell thumbs extension in Hali or you will have frequent crashes when browsing your movie library.

Theres also a registry entry floating around on the Internet that lets Media Center see .mkv files as well as .avi

Vobsub doesn't work with hardware acceleration You have to find a playback program that will set up a custom presenter for EVR because the method of showing the subtitles while using EVR works in a way VobSub wont work with...

Thanks for the answer - though not quite what I hoped for :(

iolaus

08-10-07, 11:35 AM

Hey all,

My saga to get smooth 24Hz playback on DVD and HD-DVD material continues.

I switched from a 8600GTS to a 2600XT yesterday and reinstalled Vista from scratch.

Installed Catalyst 7.7 drivers/panel and things looked good. Encountered the first snag when I set refresh rate to 24Hz and projector couldn't lock on. OK, installed Powerstrip, tweaked, and got 24Hz working.

At this point I tried playing a DVD in Media Player and got terrible tearing.

Slightly bummed, I installed PowereDVD Ultra to see if it would do any better but it didn't. I then installed Zoom Player so I could tweak things further.

At this point, it seems the only way I can get smooth playback of DVDs is with 23.976Hz Refresh, Cyberlink Decoder, Reclock, and Overlay. DScaler5 seems to freak out no matter what I pair it with unless I set the refresh rate to 60Hz.

On the bright side I have a solution that seems to work but on the other hand I'd rather not have to use Reclock (which I don't think is built for Vista) and would like to use Haali or EVR instead of Overlay if possible.

Has anyone else gotten DVD content to play back successfully at 24Hz in Vista? If so, could you share your configuration?

Thanks,
Ryan

lkuech

08-10-07, 01:26 PM

madshi

08-10-07, 01:35 PM

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.
How do you enable that downclock stuff? I'm having a brand new 2600Pro installed in my XP system with the 7.8 rc3 drivers and my clocks always stay at 630/500MHz.

gbcrush

08-10-07, 01:42 PM

A little puzzled over this one. got my new 2600 Pro yesterday.

Traded This card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121083) out for This one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125074) .

Getting rid of problematic HDCP and a fan (albiet a quiet one) in the process.

But, and it might've just been paranoia. I had the feeling that maybe the deinterlacing wasn't as good on the new card, and maybe there was some oversharpening or something (some small areas where I could see "corners and blocks on slightly curver surfaces) when scaling SD DVD material up to 1080p.

...Of course, I started my comparisons with related, but not the same source material as I usually use (including TV shows on DVD). so that might have contributed to the buyers paranoia...

But I got to thinking, well the 2400pro doesnt select some deinterlacing modes because it doesnt have the horsepower. Maybe the new card is slower enough that the auto select picks a worse kind? But I checked the stats this morning on new egg, and the new card is actually faster (plus, those numbers are verified for the Gigabyte card on their site).

But then I remembered something. I re-ran the Vista performance rating tool last night after installing the new car. My rating dropped from a 5.0 to a 4.7 (caused by the Gaming score). The Desktop Aero rating went down from 5.1 to 4.8 I think. But this is faster? What gives?

Any thoughts?

topcaser

08-10-07, 02:36 PM

How can i check this HDCP thing? I have no HD DVD player. Can i download a short sequence with HDCP from internet?

RogueWarrior

08-10-07, 02:46 PM

I have the HIS 2600 Pro and Vista Ultimate - but I do not have PowerDVD Ultra. I am using Vista's codec and FFDShow for Divx.

To mimic Topcaser - how do I test the card's hardware acceleration? I do not have a HD DVD or Blue Ray player or PowerDVD - but I want to test the card. Can you point us to a place where we can get files with 5.1 sound and VC1 or such files? I can download RivaTuner to validate the hardware acceleration - what we need is a set of files that run long enough to test.

Thanks!

Sarvatt

08-10-07, 03:03 PM

millerbrad

08-10-07, 03:04 PM

Does the AC3 test in the playback devices page for the HDMI device output 5.1 AC3 for you? Easiest way to check if it's working..

Good news! Installing ffdshow audio decoder gave me my 5.1 sound over HDMI. Dolby Digital and DTS both play when I set 640k AC3 output. I also get 5.1 in Media Center.

Unfortunately, now I've lost 2-channel sound through my TV when I play digital sources (DVD / ATSC). If there is only 2 channel sound to begin with, the sound plays fine on the TV (i.e. with analog cable channels and Windows system sounds).

Any idea how to play both 5.1 and 2-channel sound streams simultaneously?

Sarvatt

08-10-07, 03:07 PM

A little puzzled over this one. got my new 2600 Pro yesterday.
But I got to thinking, well the 2400pro doesnt select some deinterlacing modes because it doesnt have the horsepower. Maybe the new card is slower enough that the auto select picks a worse kind? But I checked the stats this morning on new egg, and the new card is actually faster (plus, those numbers are verified for the Gigabyte card on their site).
Any thoughts?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11258527&&#post11258527
2400 only does bob and weave at HD resolutions right now, advanced deinterlacing is only available with hardware accelerated surfaces too. Nothing higher than bob/weave in YUY2 software mode at any resolution :( 2600 works fine as per arfsters post not far after that one but it looks to not use the better deinterlacing modes in YUY2 either.

How do you enable that downclock stuff? I'm having a brand new 2600Pro installed in my XP system with the 7.8 rc3 drivers and my clocks always stay at 630/500MHz.
Click the lock button on the overclock page..

How can i check this HDCP thing? I have no HD DVD player. Can i download a short sequence with HDCP from internet?
http://www.cyberlink.com/english/support/bdhd_support/diagnosis.jsp

Sarvatt

08-10-07, 03:15 PM

Hi.

I have tried to use the 7.8 beta. But I'm now back to 7.7 because my analog audio out is lost after installing the 7.8. But I need it in my configuration.

I have a Realtek HD Audio (onboard ASUS P5W DH Deluxe). It makes no difference if I install the ATi audio driver or not.

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot

Bye
Lars

I notice all of the posts from people not getting it working right and having config issues all have one thing in common, they're using realtek HD audio sound mixed with the ATI HDMI audio. Driver issue using 2 different realtek drivers maybe?

Sarvatt

08-10-07, 03:22 PM

Good news! Installing ffdshow audio decoder gave me my 5.1 sound over HDMI. Dolby Digital and DTS both play when I set 640k AC3 output. I also get 5.1 in Media Center.

Unfortunately, now I've lost 2-channel sound through my TV when I play digital sources (DVD / ATSC). If there is only 2 channel sound to begin with, the sound plays fine on the TV (i.e. with analog cable channels and Windows system sounds).

Any idea how to play both 5.1 and 2-channel sound streams simultaneously?

Do you mean you have a problem getting ffdshow to output 2.0 streams as AC3 to your TV/receiver, or do you mean you want to have sound output to 2 different outputs at the same time? If it's the former, make sure you don't have encode only multistream audio checked and disable the mixer completely, it encodes and passes 2.0 as ac3 just fine for me. Glad to hear it works for you too though :D If you meant the latter it's a vista limitation and theres no workaround that I know of, but MS has posted over on thegreenbutton saying they are looking into changing it in the future.

maxleung

08-10-07, 03:39 PM

I have a Realtek HD Audio (onboard ASUS P5W DH Deluxe).

Hmmm that's odd. I thought the Asus P5Ws had the Analog Devices chip? Oh wait - maybe that's only the P5B motherboards. nevermind.

millerbrad

08-10-07, 03:43 PM

Do you mean you have a problem getting ffdshow to output 2.0 streams as AC3 to your TV/receiver, or do you mean you want to have sound output to 2 different outputs at the same time? If it's the former, make sure you don't have encode only multistream audio checked and disable the mixer completely, it encodes and passes 2.0 as ac3 just fine for me. Glad to hear it works for you too though :D If you meant the latter it's a vista limitation and theres no workaround that I know of, but MS has posted over on thegreenbutton saying they are looking into changing it in the future.

With a second DVI-to-HDMI dongle Vista lets me use both HDMI ports on the 2600 for audio & video at the same time. So, I've managed a workaround on Vista only allowing output on one audio device.

I'm trying to get ffdshow to output both 2.0 and 5.1 audio over HDMI simultaneously. My AV receiver has no problem with the 5.1 streams which play on digital content, but my TV doesn't play them. It appears that when 5.1 audio is available, it's the only audio passing over HDMI for me.

Tried disabling the mixer & multistream audio in ffdshow. No luck.

Sarvatt

08-10-07, 04:27 PM

Andy o

08-10-07, 05:01 PM

madshi

08-10-07, 05:48 PM

Click the lock button on the overclock page..
Have already tried that. The clocks still stay the same all the time.

Sarvatt

08-10-07, 05:54 PM

oh sorry, I misread your post! your card must not have the powerplay options in the bios then, or maybe it doesn't work in XP as I have only used it in vista? a rivatuner 2.02 report will tell you the clock speeds in the bios and if there are multiple levels available, every bios I've gone through has it so its weird yours doesn't..

Andy o

08-10-07, 06:12 PM

Does anyone know if ATI will come up with a noise reduction slider, or a "detail" (I guess that means "sharpness") slider, maybe in 7.8? I am using 7.7 in Vista x86, by the way. I see "denoise" and a "detail" strings with DEF, MIN and MAX suffixes in the registry. I already changed them to zero, but the denoise setting was already on zero, I can't remember if I'd changed it before, or is it's the default setting. The Anandtech review said that ATI does apply noise reduction by default, so I don't know. And maybe the denoise thing isn't even for noise reduction, anyway? I really don't want my picture messed with noise reduction or "sharpness" enhancements. Especially noise reduction. NR should be done in the final edit of the videos in my opinion, not in the real-time post-processing.

Andy o

08-10-07, 06:18 PM

Anyone knows about differences of power consumption between a 2600pro and a 8600 GT? My 300W supply has had no problem with a 2400pro, a 2600pro and a 8500GT, and surprisingly, even a X1900GT, but I didn't really stress that card. The 8600 GT I think "requires" a 350W power supply, but I don't know what that means, the ATI "require" at least a 450W from what I remember from their website.

The thing is that I have a Pentium Dual Core 2160 slightly OC'd at 2.25 GHz, 2 laptop HDDs and a laptop DVD drive connected, and the USB HD-DVD drive when I'm watching HD-DVD only, and not much more. Maybe I'm saving some power with the laptop parts.

Thanks.

millerbrad

08-10-07, 06:42 PM

I don't see how that's going to be possible since you're technically only outputting to 1 device and the exact output is getting sent over both outputs at the same time.. Would have thought your TV could handle the 5.1 input stream and convert it to 2.0 as my old junky TV can though. :D I am very confused why you are saying "it's only passing audio over HDMI" when you're saying you are only outputting via 2x HDMI at the same time? It sounds to me that its just a limitation of using the 2 HDMI thing in that AC3 5.1 is only passing to 1 output. The only possible solution I can think of is to look into using FFDShow profiles and mapping profile switching to your remote to switch between a no mixer profile and one with 2.0 channel stereo mixer using something like mediacontrol. If you force 2.0 stereo in ffdshow's mixer does it output to both when the source is 5.1? is ffdshow properly handling AC3 input or does it switch to the MS codec?

It's really good to know that 2xHDMI somewhat works though, definitely will be swapping my hd 2400 for a hd 2600 when I get a new receiver :D

Here's a link to media control
http://damienbt.free.fr/

Edit: Thought of one more thing to check, try enabling or disabling exclusive control in the windows sound properties page, disabling all enhancements and messing with the default format incase its at 24bit or non 48000khz.

Not sure what I meant about the "only passing audio over HDMI", because that's what I WANT. Audio over both HDMI ports. Sorry about that.

Anyhow, I have all enhancements off.

With exclusive mode ON, in Media Center, my Denon receiver shows that the HTPC is sending all of the correct audio modes (5.1 and 2.0). However, anytime the AV receiver says it's getting a Dolby Digital (5.1 or 2.0) or DTS signal, the TV won't play the same sound. The TV WILL play all of the system sounds, however (i.e. when you move the cursor or select something in Media Center), and anything from an analog TV channel. Basically, the TV only plays audio that my receiver thinks is analog 2.0. In Control Panel, the DTS and Dolby Digital tests play on my AV Reciever, but not the TV.

With exclusive mode OFF, I get sound on both the AVR and TV in Media Center, but it's only in non-Dolby Digital 2.0, no matter what the source. In Control Panel, the DTS and Dolby Digital tests play correctly on my AV Reciever, but no sound on the TV.

I find it hard to believe that my TV (8-month old Panasonic TH-58PX60U plasma) won't accept digital audio signals over HDMI. But, that's exactly what my situation seems to imply.

Then it gets weirder.

I tried setting the mixer like you recommended in ffdshow to 2.0 audio. My receiver still picks it up as 5.1 for a 5.1 source.

Am I correct to assume that I somehow don't have ffdshow set up as the codec for Media Center?

Why did I only get 5.1 audio after I installed ffdshow, even though I apparently don't have it set as the active codec?

And the most important question: how do I enable ffdshow in Media Center? I followed the setup instructions in the Sticky of this forum. I also enabled the system tray icons, but they never seem to appear when I'm running Media Center.

Sarvatt

08-10-07, 07:31 PM

is AC3 or DTS set to SPDIF in the codec page of ffdshow by any chance? I set mine to liba52 and libdts to have it decode the stream and reencode it as it fixes any sync problems and my onboard realtek non HD drivers didn't work with SPDIF, but my Envy24 device does. I know all the extra processing just makes it sound worse but I can't tell any difference :D To force FFDShow for audio for TV in vista MCE you need to find out the GUID of ffdshow audio using something like directshow filter manager (mine is {0F40E1E5-4F79-4988-B1A9-CC98794E6B55} for reference)

http://www.softella.com/dsfm/download/6B7A28D8/DSFMgr.zip

then open regedit.exe, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Media Center\Decoder and change PreferredMPEG2AudioDecoderCLSID to FFDShow's GUID.

Also max out the merit in the ffdshow audio settings so it prefers it for all the other audio decoding in my videos :D It's really good to hear you get DTS passthrough by the way, my TV can't decode that so I can't test it and other people have posted saying it wasn't working for them.

I find it hard to believe that my TV (8-month old Panasonic TH-58PX60U plasma) won't accept digital audio signals over HDMI. But, that's exactly what my situation seems to imply.

As weird as it sounds it sounds like it to me too.. It could be the drivers though still! To be sure you can just run the HDMI from the HTPC to the tv and leave the receiver one unplugged completely (and maybe even reboot) and run the tests again. You could also use the media control plugin and have the ffdshow audio load a profile that downmixes and outputs 2.0 16 bit PCM when you want to switch to the TV but that is kind of clunky.. It's definitely going to take alot of work experimenting to get it working right if it will as it's not exactly a common situation and I doubt it's intended to even work in the first place :D

soren

08-10-07, 09:14 PM

My eyes hurts from reading post after post after ....

I simply cannot find an answer to something as simple as getting 1080p24 out from my new Sapphire HD2600XT with HDMI. Could someone point me in the right direction before I go nuts?

I got a JVC DLA-HD1 projector that takes 1080p24.
Watching HD-DVDs at 1080p60 sucks once you get used to 1080p24 (I had it working with a 8600GT before).

magnusr

08-10-07, 10:33 PM

dildano

08-11-07, 01:21 AM

topcaser

08-11-07, 04:00 AM

Has anyone tried this: I am using DVBViewer. When i click on view-filter-Cyberlink Decoder and pressing at the same time the ctrl button on the keyboard, i get more options in the property window. there is a checkbox now which says: Auto (BTW: This is only valid for H.264 Cyberlink decoder). If i click on this, the 2400XT GPU is at 99% all the time during watching germans Bundesliga start on HD.
Nevertheless CPU usage is down 5%.

I will getting my 2600 xt Palit version today. Will try this then if it is also at 100%.

Nevertheless: Worked like a charm.

Andy o

08-11-07, 05:37 AM

This definitely isn't a good sign. I replaced the MSI RX2600XT with an MSI RX2600PRO, and I'm still getting the exact same video corruption issues with VC1 content. I then reloaded Vista32 from scratch, loaded the Catalyst 7.7 drivers, and loaded PDVD 7.3 Ultra. Still getting the same corruption. I'm starting to think that I'll never get this crap working...

That's gotta be pretty frustrating. Sorry if you have said this before, but have you tried different displays and cables, and does it happen the same on both DVI connectors of the card? Have you tried ripped VC-1 content? It doesn't happen with H.264?

madshi

08-11-07, 07:39 AM

How can I make VC-1 acceleration work with my 2600Pro with MPC? It currently doesn't work (Windows VC-1 decoder, XP Prof, 7.8rc3, VMR9 + EVR).

Thanks!

arfster

08-11-07, 07:47 AM

Has anyone tried this: I am using DVBViewer. When i click on view-filter-Cyberlink Decoder and pressing at the same time the ctrl button on the keyboard, i get more options in the property window. there is a checkbox now which says: Auto (BTW: This is only valid for H.264 Cyberlink decoder). If i click on this, the 2400XT GPU is at 99% all the time during watching germans Bundesliga start on HD.
Nevertheless CPU usage is down 5%.

Good spot, thanks. Doesn't do anything with my setup (vista, 7.7, 2600xt) though, no change in GPU usage at all.

What's your GPU at normally with that channel?

topcaser

08-11-07, 08:55 AM

Good spot, thanks. Doesn't do anything with my setup (vista, 7.7, 2600xt) though, no change in GPU usage at all.

What's your GPU at normally with that channel?

Normally it is also at 99% but has several peaks over time down to 50% - 70%. Nevertheless, when i activate this Auto Switch the peaks disappear.

topcaser

08-11-07, 09:05 AM

A few hours ago, my new Palit 2600 xt arrived. I plugged it to my mobo and its the same as with the Saphire 2600 xt two weeks ago (i send this card back since it is really noisy):

I dont get any output on the screen - my LCD says: No signal although the PC boots up. (HDMI connection PC - LCD)

What i have done now is (i did the same with the Saphire 2600 xt last week): pluuging a S-video cable to the card and LCD and i got a signal at least. I was able to install all that driver stuff. Nevertheless: At each boot i dont get a signal at the beginning. When the PC has loaded the driver into XP, LCD gets a signal and prints me the welcome message. I dont see the splashscreen from BIOS or from Windows at all:-(

Really annying. Has anyone an idea.

I tried also a Saphire 2400xt (i used it up to now) and with that card i did not have those problems (except the overscan at beginning: is this normal - didnt get it with my onBoard 6150). It is only with the 2600 xt.

ricabullah

08-11-07, 09:13 AM

I can not follow this topic anymore.
Can somebody make a summary related with 2600 series?
Thanks in advance!

topcaser

08-11-07, 09:15 AM

Another question:
My LCD (LG LB2r) is not capable to show a native resolution at 1360x768@50. I have to switch to 720p@50 instead which let the LCD interpolate. The result is not as sharp as i watch native 1360x768@60 but this frequency has some jedder.

Neverheless: It is worth to connect the LCD with a S-Video Cable and watch TV over this connection (i cant try it because iam using only a cheap and worst compsite cable). Is S-video capable to transport such high frequencies?

Andy o

08-11-07, 09:16 AM

The cards might be booting up at a resolution/refresh rate that your LCD can't take. Does your LCD have any warning messages when inputting any unsupported resolutions/refresh rates? Have you tried with another monitor, via DVI and VGA? Which monitor are you using by the way?

What mobo are you using, and have you disabled the 6150 in BIOS before connecting the cards?

topcaser

08-11-07, 09:37 AM

The cards might be booting up at a resolution/refresh rate that your LCD can't take.

could be. But do you think this card behaves not equally the same as a 2400xt at startup? I dont know...

Does your LCD have any warning messages when inputting any unsupported resolutions/refresh rates? Have you tried with another monitor, via DVI and VGA?

No warning message. Just "no signal" message. The same happens when i tweak the graphics card with power strip. I have no other monitor. I have got only this LG LB2R. It is a 32" TV which can work native with 1360x768@60. Very very good picture quality

[(quote]
What mobo are you using, and have you disabled the 6150 in BIOS before connecting the cards?[/QUOTE]
I am using an Abit Board (NF-M2 nview). The onBoard is disabled as soon as i plug the PCIe-x16 in. There is no additional switch. And: The 2400 xt worked like a charm from booting pointing of view

arfster

08-11-07, 09:59 AM

Normally it is also at 99% but has several peaks over time down to 50% - 70%. Nevertheless, when i activate this Auto Switch the peaks disappear.

Hrrrm. Is your HD provider using mpeg2? A 2400xt shouldn't be maxxed out with h264.

topcaser

08-11-07, 10:18 AM

topcaser

08-11-07, 10:19 AM

Hrrrm. Is your HD provider using mpeg2?

I am not sure about this. How can i double check this? It is Premiere HD.

magnusr

08-11-07, 10:22 AM

4. is s-Video good for HDTV?

sucks! Use dvi/hdmi.

Analog vga or component could also work. But those dosent support hdcp (dunno if powerdvd likes analog connections on hdcp content).

arfster

08-11-07, 10:26 AM

I am not sure about this. How can i double check this? It is Premiere HD.

In DVbviewer click view menu, filters, what decoder is it - Cyberlink AVC, or Cyberlink Video/SP?

topcaser

08-11-07, 10:31 AM

Cyberlink H.264/AVC Decoder

arfster

08-11-07, 10:39 AM

Cyberlink H.264/AVC Decoder

Hrrm, then you should be OK - h264 is decoded on the UVD (mpeg2 isn't), so the GPU only has to do deinterlacing and scaling. I could do this on a 2400pro if I remember right. What output resolution are you using?

If you're in Vista, try disabling Aero - does GPU % drop?

Also try going in to CCC, avivo video, basic quality, switching off auto and manually selecting motion-adaptive. Does your GPU % drop? It shouldn't be maxxed out, that causes smoothness problems. You really have to get it down a little.

madshi

08-11-07, 10:42 AM

Also if i want to start CCC via Start menu dont works. I have deinstalled CCC and installed it again. The contextmenus are now where i expected them to be. But: It does not opens.
Had the same problem. Solved it by starting some services which I had stopped/disabled. Try to start all services which are not started yet (but make a list so you can undo it later). Maybe that helps.

topcaser

08-11-07, 10:59 AM

I could do this on a 2400pro if I remember right. What output resolution are you using?

720p@50

If you're in Vista, try disabling Aero - does GPU % drop?

No i am in XP. Unfortunately my Vista HD crashed and i did not try it there.

Also try going in to CCC, avivo video, basic quality, switching off auto and manually selecting motion-adaptive. Does your GPU % drop? It shouldn't be maxxed out, that causes smoothness problems. You really have to get it down a little.
Can not try it at the moment since:
1. CCC dont works.
2. Working with Palit 2600 xt at the moment.
3. 2400xt will go back on monday

Can you help me with the other problems?
1. fan
2. CCC dont start
3. No signal at boot start
4. is s-Video good for HDTV?

Yeah, i know this output is not hdcp capable. But on television there is no HDCP at the moment... Maybe it is a temporarily solution to me

topcaser

08-11-07, 11:01 AM

Had the same problem. Solved it by starting some services which I had stopped/disabled. Try to start all services which are not started yet (but make a list so you can undo it later). Maybe that helps.
Did you created a ticket at ATI? You mean i should start some services and after each started service try to start CCC?

arfster

08-11-07, 11:05 AM

Can you help me with the other problems?
1. fan
2. CCC dont start
3. No signal at boot start
4. is s-Video good for HDTV?

1) We have to wait for tools like atitool to add fan speed control for these models :-(

2) Urrrgh, sounds like your driver install is totally screwed. Can only suggest a total uninstall, driver cleaner, manually hunt for registry remnants.

3) With s-video?

4) Definitely not :-(

topcaser

08-11-07, 11:20 AM

It works with SVideo - Composite. Dont know, why DVI not works at beginning. Andy_o thinks a resolution is forwarded from the 2600xt cards which the LCD can not deal with. Is there not a sort of norm the cards have to output?

What do you think of disconnect the fan from card and connect it to 5 V directly?

Andy o

08-11-07, 12:03 PM

And the next problem:
After trying several cards (2400xt, 2600xt Sapphire, 2600 xt Palit), CCC is not be installable any more. Better said: I install it and things look very good. But after reboot i can not see any CCC items in the context menu (right mouse click on the desktop). Also if i want to start CCC via Start menu dont works. I have deinstalled CCC and installed it again. The contextmenus are now where i expected them to be. But: It does not opens. I deinstalled all stuff again and in safe mode performed driver cleaner. Installed again: The same again.

Next problem: I get a lot of discontinuties (dont know why) at watching television (Bundesliga Bayern vs. Rostock on HD. Bayern Munich is back again. Wow:-)). Nevertheless: Only at the disconituties i get those pixel mess, we have seen a lot here in this thread. As if the UVD has to have synchroniye again.

Next problem: This fan is really annyoing. It is much quiter than the one from Sapphire. Nevertheless, i have got a low noise system. This is not acceptable at the moment. Four things here:

1. either i install a new, much quiter fan - if this is quiter is the question. Does anyone know, what fan matches on the heatsink?

2. Dismount the heatsink and install one without a fan. (My case is very small (Antec Fusion) Therefore i can not mount most heatsink solutions)

3. Tweak the BIOS or underclock and undervolt the graphics (i have round about 53 degrees at the moment when i watching soccer) (Does anyone knows how to do??)

4. Buy a passive one (Heatsinks are very huge and may not fit in the case (i think Andy_o has asked already in another post!?)

The best thing would be to tweak the card and hold the fan at a certain revolution. I have done this already with my very cheap CPU cooler Alpine 64 hold it @5 V and is very quiet. That is an idea: What do you think about this: clamp the fan directly to 5V. Worth a try.

Here is a list of all my problems:
1. fan
2. CCC dont start
3. No signal at boot start
4. is s-Video good for HDTV?

About your CCC issue, have you tried uninstalling everything with the ATI software uninstall thing in the Add/remove programs list, or did you uninstall only the driver and CCC? I don't know if there's any difference, but it's worth a try. http://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=20561

On the boot issue, I still think it should be the card not outputting at a resolution your LCD can take at startup. It is entirely possible that the 2400 you had did output at some res/refresh rate that your LCD did take. Does your card have a jumper for PAL/NTSC? Long shot, but still... My 2600 pro I think boots up at 1280x1024 at 60 Hz, if I remember correctly. You don't even have an old monitor, or another computer at home? Maybe just take your PC to some friend's place or something and try it there.

About the fan... yeah, I get you. When I bought the card, the fanless 2600s were still not in stock, so I got a Zalman VNF100. Actually I got two by mistake because the first store took too long to ship mine, so now I got one extra that I'm selling ;), but you said you have a small case, so I don't know. I had to modify just a bit (pull the fins together) my VNF100 to fit the case, but it fit the 2600pro perfectly. The VNF100 is pretty much identical in size and shape to the VNF102 that comes with this (http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ov.php?id=320&view=yes) HIS 2600 card, only better (3 heatpipes instead of 2).

madshi

08-11-07, 12:08 PM

Did you created a ticket at ATI? You mean i should start some services and after each started service try to start CCC?
I didn't create a ticket at ATI. I think I disabled the needed services myself when I installed the PC because I didn't need them at that time. Of course it would be nice if the ATI installer could check for that services. But now that I've solved the problem for me, I didn't feel the need to create a ticket. I guess I'm being selfish... :o

looneybindk

08-11-07, 12:27 PM

dildano

08-11-07, 01:09 PM

I just got at Asus HD 2400 pro(passively cooled), but im having problems. When i try to play a HD-DVD movie via PowerDVD (newest version + patch) i get bad macroblocking and shuttering play. Some movies will even lock the pc up and the screen will go blank. I tried catalyst 7.7 and 7.8 RC3, with the same result. If i take the the card out at play the movie with the onboard nv 6150 it plays just fine (but with no VC-1 and h.264 acc, witch was why i bought the ting) Any suggestions before i RMA this sucker?

EDIT: The macroblocking and shuttering play is there even with the hardware acc. turned off in powerdvd, but the crashing only happens with it on.
I feel your pain. A lot of us are having the same problem. Essentially, it goes something like this:

- VC1 content stutters and has macroblocking all over the place
- H264 content stutters and may even bluescreen or reboot your machine
- MPEG2 content plays fine

I've tried an MSI RX2600XT as well as an MSI RX2600PRO, and got the same results on both. The one thing I haven't done yet is hook my machine up to my HDTV via DVI --> HDMI to see if that makes a difference. So far I've been doing all of my testing over an analog VGA cable to my LCD monitor (1680x1050).

By the way, you're not disabling the hardware acceleration even though you're unchecking the box in PDVD. I got educated on that several posts back. That's why it doesn't seem to make a difference whether you've got it enabled or not - because it's actually always enabled when you try to play any HD content.

Time for my to haul my machine downstairs. Will update the thread on my results...

arfster

08-11-07, 01:18 PM

- VC1 content stutters and has macroblocking all over the place
- H264 content stutters and may even bluescreen or reboot your machine
- MPEG2 content plays fine

Looks like a fault with the UVD, either hardware or some BIOS thing (MPEG2 isn't accelerated in UVD).

Don't waste your time - just return it and get another brand.

topcaser

08-11-07, 01:41 PM

CCC Prolems:
Ha! Guys, i know what i have installed until my last CCC installation: DotNet 3.0

I wanted to give it a try since DotNet delivers EVR for XP. What do you think, may be this is the problem?

topcaser

08-11-07, 01:51 PM

@arfster
BTW: My GPU (2600xt) is now at 50% when i watching Premiere HD. No Registry Hack at all

dildano

08-11-07, 01:56 PM

Looks like a fault with the UVD, either hardware or some BIOS thing (MPEG2 isn't accelerated in UVD).

Don't waste your time - just return it and get another brand.
Horishito! I can't believe it was so simple! Everything's working fine now. I hooked up my machine to my Toshiba HDTV via DVI --> HDMI, and VC1 and H264 are now working fine. So I don't know if it was an issue with the VGA cable or the lower resolution on my Dell LCD (1680x1050).

So guys, if you're having problems with corrupt video, try using a DVI or HDMI cable first of all. Then (if you can) hook it up to an HDTV so that you can run it at 1920x1080 (1080p).

Now I need to get the audio working...

As a side note, do any of you guys have experience streaming HD content over an 802.11n wireless network? Is it fast enough for high-bitrate content? I really don't want to fish a CAT6 cable through my wall...

arfster

08-11-07, 02:22 PM

@arfster
BTW: My GPU (2600xt) is now at 50% when i watching Premiere HD. No Registry Hack at all

Hrrrm, rather high I think. My 2600XT (Sappire DDR3) plays BBC HD (also h264 1080i, around 16mbit) at 30% or so - 20% if I turn off Aero. Part of that difference is that Vista's EVR is slightly easier on the card than XP's VMR9, but that's only a smallish gap. Just the same as your 2400xt should never have been maxxed out. Something weird with your setup that's really hurting the card's performance, but I've no idea what :-( Maybe the driver issues are causing problems, I dunno.

Oh, and yeah - reghacks aren't needed to get acceleration working on the 2600 cards. You do need them to switch off colour and fleshtone garbage though (disabling them in CCC doesn't work).

looneybindk

08-11-07, 02:36 PM

So guys, if you're having problems with corrupt video, try using a DVI or HDMI cable first of all. Then (if you can) hook it up to an HDTV so that you can run it at 1920x1080 (1080p).

So what your saying is that instead og running it @1360x768 (witch is my lcd's native res) i should run it @1920x1080? ill try this when i get home...

dildano

08-11-07, 02:43 PM

So what your saying is that instead og running it @1360x768 (witch is my lcd's native res) i should run it @1920x1080? ill try this when i get home...
Well, how do you have your computer connected to your LCD? I'm still not sure if it was the VGA cable of the resolution of my LCD TV.

Also, for the sake of thoroughness, I'm running the Catalyst 7.7 drivers, Vista32, and PDVD 2911 patched to 3104.

Arfster or Sarvatt, any words of wisdom here? :)

soren

08-11-07, 02:47 PM

looneybindk

08-11-07, 03:01 PM

Well, how do you have your computer connected to your LCD? I'm still not sure if it was the VGA cable of the resolution of my LCD TV.

DVI -> DVI

millerbrad

08-11-07, 03:04 PM

is AC3 or DTS set to SPDIF in the codec page of ffdshow by any chance? I set mine to liba52 and libdts to have it decode the stream and reencode it as it fixes any sync problems and my onboard realtek non HD drivers didn't work with SPDIF, but my Envy24 device does. I know all the extra processing just makes it sound worse but I can't tell any difference :D To force FFDShow for audio for TV in vista MCE you need to find out the GUID of ffdshow audio using something like directshow filter manager (mine is {0F40E1E5-4F79-4988-B1A9-CC98794E6B55} for reference)

http://www.softella.com/dsfm/download/6B7A28D8/DSFMgr.zip

then open regedit.exe, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Media Center\Decoder and change PreferredMPEG2AudioDecoderCLSID to FFDShow's GUID.

Also max out the merit in the ffdshow audio settings so it prefers it for all the other audio decoding in my videos :D It's really good to hear you get DTS passthrough by the way, my TV can't decode that so I can't test it and other people have posted saying it wasn't working for them.

As weird as it sounds it sounds like it to me too.. It could be the drivers though still! To be sure you can just run the HDMI from the HTPC to the tv and leave the receiver one unplugged completely (and maybe even reboot) and run the tests again. You could also use the media control plugin and have the ffdshow audio load a profile that downmixes and outputs 2.0 16 bit PCM when you want to switch to the TV but that is kind of clunky.. It's definitely going to take alot of work experimenting to get it working right if it will as it's not exactly a common situation and I doubt it's intended to even work in the first place :D

DSFM and regedit did the trick. Even with the merit turned all the way up on ffdshow, the MS Codecs were still running.

With ffdshow running correctly, I've concluded that my TV can't process Dolby Digital or DTS audio.

I now have ffdshow audio profiles for 2.0 and 5.1 audio that work as I want them to. I just need to figure out how to get the Media Control Plugin working how I want it to (sure would be nice if I could assign an audio preset to a specific button on the remote... I'll need to bug the author about that :) )

Anyhow, I've gone well off topic at this point, so I'll move my questions elsewhere. The moral of the story is that with ffdshow, the Realtek drivers and running in exclusive mode, the 2600XT can output either Dolby Digital or DTS over both HDMI ports simultaneously.

Thanks for all your help, Sarvatt!

Sarvatt

08-11-07, 03:23 PM

No problem at all man! One last thing you might want to check is that you have the right audio input source for your TV set in the TV's menus. I have to pick DigitalHD for the audio input as it defaults to the analog 2.0 input for HDMI, but I do get AC3 over HDMI on my Vizio L37. (Edit: Nevermind, you said 2.0 LPCM passthrough was working) The strange thing is that ATI just put up a knowledge base entry and they don't mention DTS support either, so maybe DTS passthrough only works if you use the second DVI dedicated to the receiver since people trying to passthrough via a video card-receiver-TV link haven't been able to get DTS working? Or maybe you are decoding the DTS in ffdshow and outputting the AC3 from that?

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

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

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

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

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

Also, you could ask the FFDShow tryouts people on their forums or doom9 to work FFDShow audio into the keys and remote thing that already exists for the video plugin :)

Sarvatt

08-11-07, 03:33 PM

Arfster or Sarvatt, any words of wisdom here?

I had to run my 1366x768 native TV at 1280x720 over both HDMI and VGA as there were major problems with CCC's choice of timings at 1360x768/1366x768. It took me way too long finding a set of timings that actually worked right on my TV at 1366x768 in powerstrip and for some reason it would revert to CCC's timings on reboot over DVI. The default 1360x768 actually uses 1080i with the desktop size scaled to a 1360x768 window in the middle of that, then rescaled so that the 1360x768 window is full screen.. CCC is horrible about timings, thats for sure :D

millerbrad

08-11-07, 03:43 PM

No problem at all man! One last thing you might want to check is that you have the right audio input source for your TV set in the TV's menus. I have to pick DigitalHD for the audio input as it defaults to the analog 2.0 input for HDMI, but I do get AC3 over HDMI on my Vizio L37. (Edit: Nevermind, you said 2.0 LPCM passthrough was working) The strange thing is that ATI just put up a knowledge base entry and they don't mention DTS support either, so maybe DTS passthrough only works if you use the second DVI dedicated to the receiver since people trying to passthrough via a video card-receiver-TV link haven't been able to get DTS working? Or maybe you are decoding the DTS in ffdshow and outputting the AC3 from that?

Not sure if ffdshow is allowing the DTS or not. I know I have the codec set to interpret DTS, so maybe. I just don't have any actual DVDs with DTS audio to test it on. I do know that when I run the DTS test in the control panel, my Denon AVR987's (same as the Denon AVR2807) display correctly says that it's receiving "DTS SURROUND" audio.

My TV has choices for "Digital", "Analog", and "Auto" for HDMI audio. I'd already tried them all, and I keep it on "Digital" because it works (technically, so did "Auto"). I threw out a feeler in the forum for my TV, and it appears that it really won't decode multichannel audio beyond 2.0. Bummer.

crapz1

08-11-07, 03:56 PM

Can anyone recommend a low-profile (half height) card for my setup? I'm looking for a card with HDMI output. Thanks.

brotbuexe

08-11-07, 04:09 PM

Anyone?

The 24 Hz listed in the ATI control panel seems to be interlaced???

No, 24hz means 24hz noninterlaced and i can use it fine with dvi-hdmi to samsung le37m86.

soren

08-11-07, 04:33 PM

No, 24hz means 24hz noninterlaced and i can use it fine with
dvi-hdmi to samsung le37m86.

My JVC DLA-HD1 does not work with that setting, It says "frequency out of range". 25, 30, 50 and 60 Hz work fine.

If I look in the monitor settings (normal windows xp dialog), it list compatible modes and says 24, 25 and 30 all as interlaced.

Are you running XP?

24 Hz worked fine on my previous MSI HDMI 7600GT.

/Sören

DJ79

08-11-07, 10:45 PM

Horishito! I can't believe it was so simple! Everything's working fine now. I hooked up my machine to my Toshiba HDTV via DVI --> HDMI, and VC1 and H264 are now working fine. So I don't know if it was an issue with the VGA cable or the lower resolution on my Dell LCD (1680x1050).

So guys, if you're having problems with corrupt video, try using a DVI or HDMI cable first of all. Then (if you can) hook it up to an HDTV so that you can run it at 1920x1080 (1080p).

Now I need to get the audio working...

dildano, could you check for us if the acceleration is still on in 1080p? I just tried this, and it was off. It was also off in some other situations, such as with dual displays. On my singlecore test machine this means no macroblocking, but bad stuttering instead, but on a dualcore you wouldn't notice unless you checked. Thanks.

dildano

08-11-07, 11:13 PM

dildano, could you check for us if the acceleration is still on in 1080p? I just tried this, and it was off. It was also off in some other situations, such as with dual displays. On my singlecore test machine this means no macroblocking, but bad stuttering instead, but on a dualcore you wouldn't notice unless you checked. Thanks.
I'll check it out tomorrow when I lug my machine back downstairs and hook it up to my LCD TV again. I'm guessing that I need to check the hardware acceleration checkbox while playing an HD-DVD back? Yours is unchecked while playing?

DJ79

08-12-07, 12:08 AM

Please don't bother if you haven't planned to tinker with it anyway. Yes, it was unchecked while playing in that resolution, and as I mentioned, in some other situations as well, regardless of what is set. But I don't need to look at the checkbox to see -- it stutters like crazy on this machine, and CPU utilization is at 100%.

madshi

08-12-07, 03:19 AM

Hi guys,

I got information from a nice MS guy about VC-1 hardware acceleration. Here you go:

As far as I know, no ATI driver has DXVA support for Advanced Profile ("WVC1") in DXVA modes A, B ("PostProc") or C. They only support mode D ("VC1_VLD") but that's a mode that the WMV Decoder DMO does not support. Only Cyberlink's latest player support that mode.

So it's both ATI's and Microsoft's lack of support for the combination that you have. WMV Decoder only supports DXVA modes A & B in XP, and A, B & C in Vista. ATI supports modes A & B for VC-1 Main Profile ("WMV3") and mode D ("VLD") for VC-1 Advanced Profile ("WVC1"). You're standing in the middle - where they're not overlapping at all.

Nvidia, on the other hand, supports modes A, B & C for all VC-1 profiles, but does not support mode D at all - for now.
That means PowerDVD is currently the only way to get VC-1 hardware acceleration with these ATI cards. No other VC-1 decoder seems to be accelerated by ATI's current drivers. If you guys don't like that, please open support tickets at ATI, requesting A+B+C support for VC-1 Advanced Profile ("WVC1"). I'll do that, at least.

lkuech

08-12-07, 04:59 AM

Hi all.

I'm still not able to get my analog audio out running with the Catalyst 7.8 rc3.
I have tried to use the most recent Realtek drivers for my Realtek HD Audio (Asus P5W DH Deluxe) which is slightly newer that the rc3, but this changes nothing. Even removing the audio driver and reinstall it after the installation of the rc3 does make no difference... :(

With the 7.7 the sound works well.
I have this problem even if I only install the graphic driver itself (no ATI Audio, no CCC).

Unfortunately I have no chance to check if digital audio out is working, but I guess it is. It somehow looks like the sound is "forced" to digital out even when the settings in the Realtek audio doesn't look different as before. I guess it is really a conflict between the ATI Audio driver (that's AFAIK from Realtek as well) and the Realtek driver required for my onboard sound.

Do I have a chance to open a ticket (or a feedback post) regarding the RC3 somewhere? Or do I need to wait will the 7.8 final comes out... which will most likely have the same problem?

topcaser

08-12-07, 05:08 AM

I have more or less solved this CCC issue: Installed the beta drivers 7.8 and CCC is back. But: What to the hell is installed with this version. I have already seen it at the download: The package has over 100MB whereas the official 7.7 has only 35MB. A lot of stuff is installed automatically but what you need is: Drivers and the Control center ...

Now i have got two issues left:
1. No signal during boot and
2. Fan

Andy_o had some good ideas which i want to discuss with you: Resolution at startup which my LCD dont understands. Is it possible to configure the resolution in the BIOS. I know, ATITools dont work at the moment. But is it possible at other cards?

The same question to the second issue: The fan: Is it controllable via e.g. ATITool at other cards in principal?

Andy o

08-12-07, 06:29 AM

I got a question, what driver cleaner are you guys using in Vista? I have checked out drivercleaner.net and driver cleaner pro, but still haven't used them. Anyone can recommend either, or maybe another one?

Topcaser, do you know if you LCD can display a particular message if there's a signal, but it's not supported? I mean, my LCD will say something like "signal out of range" when that happens, but when there's no signal it will say "no signal" or whatever.

But I think some monitors will just say "no signal" regardless, not making a distinction between "out of range" and "no signal at all". So do you know if your LCD has an "out of range" special message?

brotbuexe

08-12-07, 11:32 AM

My JVC DLA-HD1 does not work with that setting, It says "frequency out of range". 25, 30, 50 and 60 Hz work fine.

If I look in the monitor settings (normal windows xp dialog), it list compatible modes and says 24, 25 and 30 all as interlaced.

Are you running XP?

24 Hz worked fine on my previous MSI HDMI 7600GT.

/Sören

Im using Vista.

http://www.brotbuexe.de/pics/modes.png shows a screenshot of the 1920x1080x32 modes my tv supports. So i can select 24Hz in CCC http://www.brotbuexe.de/pics/modes_ccc.png.

It can be that your monitor don't propose 24hz progressive to your computer. There are people that use Powerstrip do get 24Hz working...

topcaser

08-12-07, 01:40 PM

Andy_o: There is no special message for out of range:-(

Nevertheless: I am pretty sure that the card outputs a not supported resolution/frequency. Is there any means to adjust this with any tool to get access to the VGA BIOS.

BTW: ATITool 0.27 Beta works like a charm. I managed to get access to the fan speed. Runs normally at 50% - now at 23 and i get temps around 70 degrees @45% GPU load, 66@30, in idle around 50 degrees.

If i would get access to the GPU clock than i would decrease it a bit to lower temps further. But this dont works yet.

Furthermore following update, for all who have similar probs:
After installing 7.8beta CCC i didnt get any sound any more. I have Realteks HD Sound onBoard. The beta driver installed also the Realtek driver for the HDMI and i think all the sound was forwarded to that HDMI connector instead to my optical SPDIF. Nevertheless i had to disable (!) ATIs HDMI sound in device manager. And after a boot sound works again...

Further problem:
I get a lot of big pixel in the television picture. Is this already mentioned in this thread and is there any workaround? I hacked:
fleshtone, colour things
TRDenoise and DetailEnhancement.

Any ideas?

My problem list:
1. No signal during boot and
2. Big Pixels - annoying thing

arfster

08-12-07, 02:05 PM

BTW: ATITool 0.27 Beta works like a charm. I managed to get access to the fan speed. Runs normally at 50% - now at 23 and i get temps around 70 degrees @45% GPU load, 66@30, in idle around 50 degrees.

If i would get access to the GPU clock than i would decrease it a bit to lower temps further. But this dont works yet.

Hrrm, didn't work for me with Vista, 2600XT, 7.7. Maybe it needs 7.8, or maybe just in XP. Anyone know?

topcaser

08-12-07, 02:11 PM

Removed all these registry hacks. And much better with the pixel thing. Nevertheless it is really sharp now:-)

I dont know at all if these registry hacks are good. No one knows what these hacks will activate...

Are there any recomendations regarding the reg hacks for 2600xt with 7.8?

My Problem list:
1. No signal during boot and
2. Big Pixels - annoying thing

soren

08-12-07, 02:45 PM

Im using Vista.

http://www.brotbuexe.de/pics/modes.png shows a screenshot of the 1920x1080x32 modes my tv supports. So i can select 24Hz in CCC http://www.brotbuexe.de/pics/modes_ccc.png.

It can be that your monitor don't propose 24hz progressive to your computer. There are people that use Powerstrip do get 24Hz working...

Thanks,

I do have 24Hz listed in the CCC dialog, but the projector say "frequency out of range" when I select it... I wonder what ATI does different from Nvidia, since it worked without any problems at all on the 7600GT on the same projector.

I'll try powerstrip and see what happens.
Most likely a Vista x64 upgrade on the HTPC horizon as well.

mortenkn

08-12-07, 03:08 PM

I've just got my Club 3D 2400pro (low profile). It has som small pixels dancing on the screen, so I'll have it exchanged to another one (it should be a hardware error, as it olso occurs when the PC is booting).

But I've tried the card on both Vista and XP with latest Power DVD ultra, and can't get hardware acceleration enabled when playing Flags of our fathers HD-DVD (the box is greyed out during the movie). Latest ATI driver is also installed.
I'm new to this HD-DVD thing, but do you guys have any suggestions?

Thank you :-)

Kind regards,

Morten

topcaser

08-12-07, 04:26 PM

Hrrm, didn't work for me with Vista, 2600XT, 7.7. Maybe it needs 7.8, or maybe just in XP. Anyone know?
Iam using XP, CCC 7.8 Beta (think it is RC3). Cant try it on Vista since HD is crashed:-(

Andy o

08-12-07, 04:28 PM

arfster

08-12-07, 04:29 PM

Tried it on Vista with both 7.7 and 7.8, the fan control option does nothing :-(

arfster

08-12-07, 04:39 PM

Arfster, have you found any significant differences in video decoding power between a 2600pro and a 8500GT? I'm pretty much tired of waiting for the ATI guy to get back to me about the HDCP thing and I don't think they would be able to do much about it either. I am thinking also of moving up to a 8600 GT, but only if the difference between the 8600GT and 8500GT is significant (as if there are different things enabled in the driver, like on the 2600 vs. the 2400.)

There's certainly a power difference, as the 8500GT can only do basic deinterlacing with VC1/h264 even after Nvidia upgraded the drivers recently (to get better scores on HD HQV reviews!). This probably applies to mpeg2 HD also, but HD broadcast here is in h264 so I can't test.

At a guess, the 8600GT is roughly equal to a 2600pro on the video side, although, with VC1 the 2600 has the advantage because it doesn't need to rely on the shaders for decoding. Unless you're maxxed it doesn't matter though, and you'd have to do something pretty ununusual/extreme to max either a 8600GT or a 2600pro.

For scaling: identical as far as I can see between the 2400/2600/8500/8800 that I've tested. By extension the 8600 should be the same.

Of course, HD levels expansion makes the ATI cards a pita.....

There really isn't much difference between the Nvidia and ATI cards tbh, they seem to have largely converged. Makes sense I think, as there's only so far you can improve scaling and deinterlacing, and as these cards are the first dedicated HTPC cards out there the manufacturers have really optimised that side of things. Of course, some people have unusual bugs, or their particular card doesn't get on with their particular display etc, but that's just pure luck.

Andy o

08-12-07, 05:49 PM

Thanks for the info. Deinterlacing is pretty important to me too, as I watch 1080i OTA HDTV. I guess I'll go for the 8600GT. Nvidia hasn't given me nearly as much trouble as ATI, though i would still miss a little the sound over HDMI. A fix for HDCP would pretty much make me stay with my 2600pro, but at this point, my RMA time window is closing soon.

Although, some 8600s don't come with HDCP, I reckon. I almost made the mistake to buy one of those pretty cool-looking XFX 8600 GT's, which now I see don't have HDCP. I hope I don't get into any HDCP trouble again. Damn the MPAA.

jkcheng122

08-12-07, 07:50 PM

i recently got the hd2600xt and got my htpc built.

specs:
intel core 2 duo 6300
2gb ddr2 800 ram
hd2600xt going hdmi to sony str-dg910 receiver connected to the tv via hdmi
windows xp media center edition
powerdvd ultra 7.3
ffdshow
vlc player

i have a couple of issues. one is i don't know how to get 5.1 sound going. i popped in a dvd and played it via powerdvd and the sound was only coming from the front 2 speakers. audio setting on both the software and in windows is set to 5.1. the receiver is set to auto detect.

issue 2. the image seems to be shifted a bit to the left. the driver controls seem to only allow scaling the entire image bigger or smaller for under/overscan, but no left and right shifting.

topcaser

08-13-07, 12:40 AM

Tried it on Vista with both 7.7 and 7.8, the fan control option does nothing :-(
Arfster, didnt you have also an XP partition? Try it there.

Do you mean, ATItool is up and running, but dont affect the fan when you play around with the numbers?

Try this link (http://www.chip.de/downloads/c1_downloads_27719706.html).

This is what i have used.

Arfster, can you tell me your registry settings you are using for the 2600xt at the moment?

neomagic

08-13-07, 05:32 AM

Just to let undecided folks know:

It's not all bad in 2x00 land. Me and two of my buddies have zero problems with a Sapphire HD 2400 pro on a 3800 X2 AMD. No stuttering or blocks playing back 1080p h264, mpeg2 or AVC (unencrypted).

Level expansion sucks, though. Unless the drivers get fixed, especially dark blacks drown. Raising Power DVD brightness a few notches makes stuff much more watchable.

Very good price/performance.

arfster

08-13-07, 05:55 AM

Arfster, didnt you have also an XP partition? Try it there.

Do you mean, ATItool is up and running, but dont affect the fan when you play around with the numbers?

Try this link (http://www.chip.de/downloads/c1_downloads_27719706.html).

This is what i have used.

Arfster, can you tell me your registry settings you are using for the 2600xt at the moment?

Tried XP (with 7.7) also, no difference :-( The fan speed% changes in the tool, but nothing actually happens. Did you need to use 7.8 for it to work?

For registry settings with the 2600, I use the defaults with the exception of setting Fleshtone_DEF and ColorVibrance_DEF to zero, so when you disable them in CCC they actually switch off.

Oh btw, a little birdie tells me official 7.8s are about to appear.

topcaser

08-13-07, 06:06 AM

I am working with 7.8 Beta. If you cant access the fan speed with XP and 7.8 Beta its the card itself:-(

Nevertheless, i had also tried a Sapphire 2600 xt several days ago. In my opinion the fan is not controlable at all there. When i switched on the PC and the GPU has room temps the fan rotated at the same speed as after several hours. My new Palit dont rotate at the beginning at all!!!

Are you able to measure the voltage of the fan?

Can you monitor the fan speed with ATITool and at which percentage runs the fan?

to the registry hacks:
what about TRDenoise and DetailEnhance? Have you set this stuff?
And is the Fleshtone and Colour vibrance stuff settable in CCC?

arfster

08-13-07, 06:23 AM

Can you monitor the fan speed with ATITool and at which percentage runs the fan?

I get a percentage figure from atitool, and it does change according to temperature, but the actual fanspeed itself looks to be always the same.

to the registry hacks:
what about TRDenoise and DetailEnhance? Have you set this stuff?
And is the Fleshtone and Colour vibrance stuff settable in CCC?

I haven't done the trdenoise and detailenhance now - they seem to have been overtaken by new registry settings. Need to do some tests sometime though.

Fleshtone and color vibrance are settable in Vista CCC, but not XP (you may be able to make them visible by setting fleshtone_na to 0). However, the problem is that when you disable them in CCC, they actually use their registry default setting, which is 25 for the 2600 (0 for 2400). Daft.

RichB

08-13-07, 08:15 AM

Oh btw, a little birdie tells me official 7.8s are about to appear.

Did the birdie mention any fix for the level expansion problem?

- Rich

iolaus

08-13-07, 09:41 AM

did 24hz work the way you wanted it to on the 8600gt? do you have 3:2 pulldown disabled? are you watching 23.976fps material? have you tried forcing vsync on? does your projector switch to another mode like a ruby at non 60hz? are you using a different connection type than you were using on the 8600gt if it worked before? last question is because some projectors that I know of only work right at 24/48hz over one of the inputs and not HDMI. have you looked into the thread on your projector here on avsforum to find the quirks of your specific one to see if there are any limitations that could be stopping you? sorry for all the questions but there are so many variables that could cause your problem, these are just a few things I would look for.

Sarvatt,

Here are the answers to your questions:

24Hz did no work correctly on my 8600GTS (part of why I decided to try the 2600XT).

I haven't tried forcing vsync and I'm not really sure how that is done. Is it the same for all renderers?

I've tried 3:2 pulldown both enabled and disabled.

I don't believe my projector (JVC RS-1) switches to any special mode when receiving a non 60Hz signal. Also, the projector will accept both 24Hz and 23.976Hz.

The material I was testing was standard NTSC film-based DVD material which I believe is 23.976Hz.

All my testing has been done with DVI->HDMI.

Through my reading on JVC RS-1 threads I haven't seen anything about a problem with 24Hz over HDMI.

Thanks for you help,
Ryan

iolaus

08-13-07, 09:57 AM

My JVC DLA-HD1 does not work with that setting, It says "frequency out of range". 25, 30, 50 and 60 Hz work fine.

If I look in the monitor settings (normal windows xp dialog), it list compatible modes and says 24, 25 and 30 all as interlaced.

Are you running XP?

24 Hz worked fine on my previous MSI HDMI 7600GT.

/Sören

Soren,

I had the same issue with my JVC RS-1 moving from 8600GTS to 2600XT. I corrected it by installing Powerstrip and setting the refresh rate to 24Hz or 23.976Hz.

-Ryan

IAM4UK

08-13-07, 10:30 AM

I did revert back to an nvidia card (the ~80-dollar 8500GT) after my experiences with two 2600HD Pro cards (Asus and HIS). I do not mean to bash AMD/ATI, but for me the nvidia performs much better. The image quality on SD content is not even in the same league--ATI's was almost unwatchably bad. The HD image quality is comparable, with a slight edge to PureVision HD over AVIVO. I think AMD/ATI may have the edge in CPU-to-GPU offload, but it makes no noticable difference on my computer, since I'm barely taxing the CPU anyway.

Thanks to everyone here who tried to help me get my 2600Pro cards to work properly--your insights did make a difference.

madshi

08-13-07, 11:03 AM

Did the birdie mention any fix for the level expansion problem?
Rich, didn't you have a Lumagen HDP? If so, why does that problem bother you? Can't you just set the Lumagen to PC input levels instead of video input levels?

Andy o

08-13-07, 11:12 AM

hoodlum77

08-13-07, 11:24 AM

I just got the Sapphire 2400XT. Connected with the DVI=>HDMI dongle(supplied) to my receiver (marantz sr4001, HDMI1.1)

Installed the latest ATI drivers(7.8 Beta read about problems with 7.7) Picture is ok. But i have no sound. So I read the forums and saw you have to choose HDMI audio device. When i go to sound in configuration screen it has no hdmi audio device, only the hd audio on SP/DIF from my onboard soundmax adio device. I disabled the onboard audio but still no go.

In device manager is no unrecognized device nor is there a hdmi audio controller, besides the onboard when enabled.

My OS: Vista Ultimate 32bit
Mainboard Asus A8R-MVP

Screen Plasma Samsung 42Q7h

Anyone any tips. Been googling all day still no clue of what to do.

IAM4UK

08-13-07, 12:21 PM

I also am about to switch to Nvidia if I don't get a fix for HDCP in the next couple of days. Next week my RMA period runs out. Any tips on what to tell the nice Newegg lady to have my payment fully refunded? I am of course gonna tell her that the card is defective, which is the truth, but anything else? Should I put on my mad voice, or my hot latino accent?
One attracts more interest with honey than with vinegar. Be nice to the sweet CSR, and she may be nice to you. I did not even request all of what she offered me, but I gladly accepted it.

(You know, this could all be taken grossly out-of-context...)

magnusr

08-13-07, 01:31 PM

cybrsage

08-13-07, 01:34 PM

I am giving up on getting the AGP version of the HD2600Pro to work. I am just going to upgrade the entire system to PCIe instead and be done with it.

hoodlum77

08-13-07, 01:41 PM

I can see that you are also connecting through a receiver :)

One question: When you play hd-dvd and/or blu-ray does your screen blink/flash every 15 seconds?

Btw are you running vista and using powerdvd 7.3 ultra?

Haven't tried a HD-DVD or Blu ray. But with x.264 no probs at all. Just the sound issue.

BTW is there only sound with one of the above mentioned devices?

I hope not,

magnusr

08-13-07, 01:45 PM

Haven't tried a HD-DVD or Blu ray. But with x.264 no probs at all. Just the sound issue.

BTW is there only sound with one of the above mentioned devices?

I hope not,

Please test hd-dvd or blu-ray. No one so far with a receiver has gone clear of the blink/flash

jkcheng122

08-13-07, 01:48 PM

topcaser

08-13-07, 01:58 PM

Can someone tell me, what the thing with the fleshtone and colour was? Wont get through the entire thread a second time :mad:

Arfster: I had also problems with ATITool and the fan revolution switching with Temps. Think its buggy. Try to fix a certain percentage. I have read anywhere, that Sapphire will release a new BIOS. Dont find the link any more. Maybe this fixes it. Try to unplug the card and disconnect the fan connector. I would apply 5 V to it to see how loud the card is. When too loud, send it back

Mntneer

08-13-07, 01:59 PM

I'm looking at getting an HD2400Pro to use for my bedroom HTPC so I can watch HD-DVD's on the 360 add-on drive.

My system is an AMD 3500+ (2.2GHz, and not the FX or X2 models), with 512MB Ram running XP MCE 2005. The Cyberlink advisor seems to indicate all I would need is a new video card, but it makes the processor as being "unknown".

Would the 2400Pro and it's hardware acceleration allow me to watch most HD-DVD content? Or would I also need a slightly faster processor to go along with it? Anyone else using a single core processor like the 3500+ with success?

Thanks for any help.

alfonxs

08-13-07, 02:13 PM

I am giving up on getting the AGP version of the HD2600Pro to work. I am just going to upgrade the entire system to PCIe instead and be done with it.

My 2400 Pro AGP works nearly flawless... at least with XP. Vista gives me BSODs and/or missing HW Acceleration.

Try XP SP2, Overlay and newest Cyberlink Decoder of course.

Or where exactly is your problem?

DJ79

08-13-07, 02:26 PM

arfster

08-13-07, 02:26 PM

Arfster: I had also problems with ATITool and the fan revolution switching with Temps. Think its buggy. Try to fix a certain percentage. I have read anywhere, that Sapphire will release a new BIOS. Dont find the link any more. Maybe this fixes it. Try to unplug the card and disconnect the fan connector. I would apply 5 V to it to see how loud the card is. When too loud, send it back

None of the atiool settings do anything :-( Possibly Sapphire just didn't bother putting a vari-speed fan on it, I dunno.

Anyway, the problem with noise isn't so much that it's a bad fan, it's just the fact it's 50mm so it has to run fassssst. I did some quick DIY - ripped off the heatsink, replace the cheap thermal gunk with arctic silver, remounted minus fan, underclocked the card, and voila. My 2600xt has essentially become a fanless 2600pro :-)

originalsnuffy

08-13-07, 02:59 PM

Are firmware updates for the 2400 Pro series generic? What I mean is....can I update the firmware for a PowerColor with the MSI update?

Does Catalyst 7.8 include bios updates?

Thanks.

topcaser

08-13-07, 03:10 PM

Arfster, thats pretty cool. Maybe it is a good idea to rip off the heatsink anyway and apply a good thermal lubricant on it.

Do you know something about this fleshtone-colour problem?

And: how did you underclock the card? I can not adjust frequencies either in ATITool nor in overclock section of CCC. It sets always to the default clock :mad:

hoodlum77

08-13-07, 03:20 PM

i had the same issue, you have to install the audio drivers off the cd the card comes with. i could not for the life for me find any audio drivers on amd/ati's website.

what's the bug with 7.7 catalyst?

cant find vista audio drivers on the cd, did a full reinstall with the supplied vista catalyst on the cd, but still no audio driver//device found. I thiink my card is broken.

about he 7.7 I heard that ati/amd forgot to put ssupport for 2400 in it.

originalsnuffy

08-13-07, 03:31 PM

With regard to the audio driver; try updating the realtek drivers (if that is what your system has). Also trying removing the ati catalyst drivers, installing the full driver set from the cd that came with your card, then reinstalling the latest driver updates from ati's website.

topcaser

08-13-07, 04:03 PM

CCC 7.8 is available for download

click (http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeonx-xp.html)

Mntneer

08-13-07, 04:23 PM

Yes, your system would be fine. That is assuming your 2400pro is good. The one I tried on page 1 of this thread played HD-DVD well, but it had a lot of other problems, some maybe driver related. Some posters, however, reported having the macroblocking issue, which would render it useless for HD-DVD on your singlecore system. Please let us know what you decided and how it worked.

Thanks. The one I'm looking at is the SAPPHIRE one.

I can play MPEG2 captured from my HD cable box, or recorded from MyHD, with no problems on the machine, but I'm assuming HD-DVD is a different monster when you get into the other codecs.

dildano

08-13-07, 04:34 PM

cant find vista audio drivers on the cd, did a full reinstall with the supplied vista catalyst on the cd, but still no audio driver//device found. I thiink my card is broken.

about he 7.7 I heard that ati/amd forgot to put ssupport for 2400 in it.
This link to the Realtek drivers for the ATI HDMI Audio Device (http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false) was posted a while back in this thread, and these drivers work fine for me. Be sure you download the correct file from the linked page. I can't remember if the device showed up as an unrecognized device before I loaded the drivers or not.

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 04:57 PM

nothing special in the 7.8 inf's, can't wait to try them out. Anyone used the 7.8's yet?

arfster

08-13-07, 05:01 PM

Just put em in now. Same as 7.8 betas, they removed dxva_no24fps and sort lines etc, so no need for reghacking there. I don't have any 2400 cards now so can't test if they fixed HD mpeg2 or Vista deinterlacing probs for them.

Still getting HD levels expansion.

Also the same as the betas, they have the GPU clock % in CCC.

2600xt still doesn't downclock automatically (didn't in 7.8 betas either, but 2400pro did).

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 05:12 PM

well the dxva_no24fps key names all changed in the 7.8 betas looking at the atiumdva.dll, they made it something like VForce24fps_mpeg2 etc and there were a ton more similar vforce settings that looked interesting like VForceUMD_Mpeg2 that didn't work for me.. haven't had time to hex edit the 7.8 release ones, want to get to the pc and try them out first :D I saw the deinterlacing changes as fixed in the release notes though, can't wait to test it!

magnusr

08-13-07, 05:18 PM

YES YES YES

Holy crap. ATI fixed the HDCP issue in the 7.8 driver they released today.

No more blinking every 15 seconds while watching HD-DVD when connected through a receiver (in my case the yamaha rx-v1700).

Guess the good driver development team came back from their vacations.

Thanks you ATI. Wonder if the 30 emails i sent to ATI, sapphire and powercolor helped :p

gbcrush

08-13-07, 05:24 PM

What hdcp problems did it get rid off? Passing through a receiver?

Actually, I haven't confirmed getting rid of HDCP problems. That's just a short cut assumption, and I've been too busy to sit down and try. But Cyberlink HD advisor didnt seem to like the previous card...and combined with annecdotal evidence of this problem I decided not to deal with it.

Either way, In the end, I ended up getting a 2600pro that was silent and cheaper.

Of course, slightly suspect about the deinterlacing, and some problems with SD DVD, though I havent narrowed it down yet to the card or its drivers. For all I know, it could be a Microsoft decoder issue too.

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 05:24 PM

Andy o

08-13-07, 05:25 PM

HDCP... crossing my fingers here. Anyone knows of a good driver cleaner? Is drivercleaner.net worth the 10 bucks, or does driver cleaner professional 1.5 work in Vista x86?

magnusr

08-13-07, 05:26 PM

Actually, I haven't confirmed getting rid of HDCP problems. That's just a short cut assumption, and I've been too busy to sit down and try. But Cyberlink HD advisor didnt seem to like the previous card...and combined with annecdotal evidence of this problem I decided not to deal with it.

Either way, In the end, I ended up getting a 2600pro that was silent and cheaper.

Of course, slightly suspect about the deinterlacing, and some problems with SD DVD, though I havent narrowed it down yet to the card or its drivers. For all I know, it could be a Microsoft decoder issue too.

Yes I can now watch hd-dvd when connected through the receiver. The blink/flash i used to have every 15 seconds is now gone.

magnusr

08-13-07, 05:29 PM

HDCP... crossing my fingers here. Anyone knows of a good driver cleaner? Is drivercleaner.net worth the 10 bucks, or does driver cleaner professional 1.5 work in Vista x86?

I just used catalyst uninstall manager to remove catalyst 7.7 + the driver. Rebooted. Innstaled 7.8 (takes like 5 minutes to shutdown after this one, it dosent change the bios date).

And it even installed avivo64 driver now :)

Using vista x64 here.

arfster

08-13-07, 05:30 PM

Blah, they introduced another deinterlacing problem. The Cyberlink MPEG2 decoder combined with EVR can now only use bob deinterlacing for HD. That includes PDVD itself, and you can't force it with CCC or PDVD.

Oddly enough it's fine combined with VMR9, and h264 is fine also. The AVIVO decoder + EVR works also.

magnusr

08-13-07, 05:32 PM

that's awesome to hear! system is taking a good 5 minutes to shut down after installing the 7.8's so still haven't tried them here :D what card do you have, and is there any change in HDMI audio passthrough for you? the interesting reg keys start around offset F5594 in atiumdva.dll if anyone else wants to play around with the options there at some point :D

Powercolor 2600xt 256mb gddr4.

I dont use HDMi Audio. I use a 5.1 analog audio connection. Since ati hdmi only offcer PCM 2 + ac3, and not PCM 5.1/7.1, I went with an analog 5.1 connection instead.

Just put my receiver to Multi Channel in (analog 5.1 or 7.1), and to input video from the HDMI 2 plug :)

gbcrush

08-13-07, 05:39 PM

Yes I can now watch hd-dvd when connected through the receiver. The blink/flash i used to have every 15 seconds is now gone.
]
*laughs* I just saw that, infact, right before my post. But I just posted first and went back to catch up on my reading, so I didnt know your issue had been solved.

Makes me wonder if it'll fix the issue I had with the ASUS card? I still have it, havent RMAed yet, but I'm getting tired of pulling the case out, opening and reinstalling.

Plus CCC Manager doesnt uninstall for me, and I cant shake the thought that it's doing weird things to vista

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 05:41 PM

No changes in DXVA or Deinterlacing for HD 2400 Pro, guess we get to wait another month hoping they fix it.. :(

gbcrush

08-13-07, 05:42 PM

I just used catalyst uninstall manager to remove catalyst 7.7 + the driver. Rebooted. Innstaled 7.8 (takes like 5 minutes to shutdown after this one, it dosent change the bios date).

And it even installed avivo64 driver now :)

Using vista x64 here.

*Scratches head*

ok, two questions. What is the avivo64 driver. Was thinking avivo functionality was supposed to be part of the main driver package?

And two, what does the catalyst uninstall manager do, or is supposed to do.

I tried running it and basicaly got a "You're screwed. Some file didnt match up and now you cant remove anything" type message. :)

Mntneer

08-13-07, 05:55 PM

No changes in DXVA or Deinterlacing for HD 2400 Pro, guess we get to wait another month hoping they fix it.. :(

Now does that apply to Vista, XP or both?

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 05:56 PM

magnusr

08-13-07, 05:59 PM

*Scratches head*

ok, two questions. What is the avivo64 driver. Was thinking avivo functionality was supposed to be part of the main driver package?

And two, what does the catalyst uninstall manager do, or is supposed to do.

I tried running it and basicaly got a "You're screwed. Some file didnt match up and now you cant remove anything" type message. :)

The avivo64 driver should let you convert video files from one format to another. Im guessing they have UVD working in vista x64 to now (cant confirm since I dont have any H264 hd-dvds, only got VC1 HD-DVDs). And HD-DVD VC1 hardly get my quad core pumping anyway.

Uninstallation manager is supposed to remove ccc 7.7 + driver. Worked flawlessly for me. But then again I never changed any setting in the registry or any files.

jkcheng122

08-13-07, 06:01 PM

*Scratches head*

ok, two questions. What is the avivo64 driver. Was thinking avivo functionality was supposed to be part of the main driver package?

And two, what does the catalyst uninstall manager do, or is supposed to do.

I tried running it and basicaly got a "You're screwed. Some file didnt match up and now you cant remove anything" type message. :)

2. think it lets you do a clean uninstall of the video driver, which is the better way to update video drivers. but since you got a "you're screwed msg" you should prob just install the new one over the old.

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 06:01 PM

Now does that apply to Vista, XP or both?

Only had time to test Vista, by all means run DXVA Checker (http://bluesky23.hp.infoseek.co.jp/DXVAChecker_1200.zip) and post your results in XP as they might be different! I wont be able to check for a few hours and it would be interesting to know.

arfster

08-13-07, 06:14 PM

Did your deinterlacing readout from DXVA checker change at all?

I'd love to tell you, but....

"The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail.."

Of course, there is no such log :-)

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 06:19 PM

It requires Visual C++ 2005 SP1 and .Net 3.0 to run, sorry for not mentioning that

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=200B2FD9-AE1A-4A14-984D-389C36F85647&displaylang=en

magnusr

08-13-07, 06:29 PM

It requires Visual C++ 2005 SP1 and .Net 3.0 to run, sorry for not mentioning that

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=200B2FD9-AE1A-4A14-984D-389C36F85647&displaylang=en

Last time i tried that program on vista x64 I got the same message. And i got both programs you mention installed.

arfster

08-13-07, 06:43 PM

It requires Visual C++ 2005 SP1 and .Net 3.0 to run, sorry for not mentioning that

Thanks - it was the c++ sp1 that fixed it. Was wondering why it worked on my main install but not here.

Anyway, no difference at all with what dxvachecker reports in 7.7. At least it doesn't matter much though, because the avivo mpeg2 decoder works fine.

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 07:08 PM

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 07:09 PM

Last time i tried that program on vista x64 I got the same message. And i got both programs you mention installed.

Ya probably need the x64 version of VC2005 SP1, it works ok here in x64 vista ultimate..

arfster

08-13-07, 07:31 PM

by the avivo decoder do you mean the ATI Mpeg Decoder directshow filter? don't have access to the machine right now but I want to mess with it later so I want to be sure :D I noticed that codec had h264 and divx fourcc's in it?

Yeah, the avivo ds filter. Nice to have, especially given it also works with dxva1 and dxva2, apparently flawlessly.

Had a quick graphedit play with it, couldn't get any h264 or divx to connect.

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 07:44 PM

Wow, I hope to heck they dont expect you to use their codec for playback to get the advertised features.. I dont think I have any h264 with an actual "h264" fourcc and thats the only one it supports.. I just did some messing with it and I actually get full DXVA features even on things not advertised as supported to directshow and CCC deinterlacing settings actually work for HD material.. Divx GPU acceleration works with it! :D GPU usage hovers around 10%, NV12 color space and 4% CPU usage vs ~19% in software for divx acceleration, but it only supports DX50 and DIVX fourcc's which I had to dig to find something supported. It is doing deblocking as well, the picture looks great compared to software playback in ffdshow with no postprocessing.

arfster

08-13-07, 07:50 PM

Hehe, cool.

So I get this right: vista 2400 ccc deinterlacing selection is working? But only with the avivo codec?

nownot

08-13-07, 08:26 PM

NEW DRIVERS ARE OUT AS OF TODAY just incase anyone didnt know.

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 08:35 PM

noticable change in gpu usage with each setting, didnt check VMR9 on the interlaced clip I checked but the 1080p mpeg2 I tried last actually was not getting any noticable benefit from DXVA even though it looked to be working. It's actually forcing bob and 47.95hz even though it's a progressive 23.97fps clip, and I have 3:2 pulldown disabled.

Edit: Just checked using VMR9 so I could see the mode being used and it only uses bob for this 1080i mpeg2 .ts, not sure if its just a VMR9 thing or if it wasnt working at all in EVR after all though. The user set mode dropdown box is blank.

arfster

08-13-07, 08:59 PM

noticable change in gpu usage with each setting

Yeah, noticed that too. Booted to my other install to compare, and found that mpeg2 decoding hit was about the same (12-18% or so without deinterlacing), but VA deinterlacing was +19% with 7.7, +32% with 7.8. That's with Aero on, and the playback window minimised so scaling isn't a factor.

That makes quite a difference, because when you add on outputting at 1080p res you're talking 50% for 1080i mpeg2+VA in 7.7, but low 60s for 7.8. Add on VMR9 overhead, and you're at 70% with a 2600xt. That probably means a 2600pro would be maxxed out in that scenario. Admittedly that's worst case, but still.

Possible causes:

1) Bug! ATI driver, so always quite likely

2) Using more shaders for better deinterlacing. Possible I guess.

3) The card is underclocking itself automatically , but just not reporting it in CCC.

Andy o

08-13-07, 09:05 PM

nownot

08-13-07, 09:21 PM

the new driver kills my hdtv via dvi. the screen goes crazy so i have to hook it by vga but then i cant get 1920x1080 so it sucks. but no 1080p lcd for me right now b/c of the new drivers. :(

Sarvatt

08-13-07, 09:27 PM

the strange thing is when its just bobbing and everything it outputting right I get a steady 30-33% GPU usage max and very minor CPU offload (20% tops), but for some reason it seems to be deinterlacing twice (or more!) sometimes with cyberlink and MS mpeg2 codecs on some sources and I get the excessive GPU usage and some nasty looking combing. I haven't figured out exactly what triggers it as it doesnt happen in graphedit. I am going to try renaming the card to the HD 2600 string in the .inf when I get some free time as I remember having a problem a few years ago with ATI drivers in that alot of features of my card didn't work because I edited the just name string which meant that somewhere in the drivers it determined features available based on the reported name. Just thinking they might still do that and I'm desperate :)

Andy o

08-13-07, 09:38 PM

Anyone can get full screen now with Power DVD 7.3 for HD-DVDs? Now I can't, the same as before when we had to delete the sortoverride strings. My HDCP thing is finally and almost miraculously fixed like some ATI rep reads this forum and didn't want me to return my card tomorrow as I planned. If only life should be so convenient...

Other things I noticed, the fleshtone_DEF and the colorvibrance_DEF strings still are at 25 and without tweaking DVDs look like utter crap. The Detail_DEF thing is also set pretty high at 50, and the picture looks oversharpened like hell. One thing seems they fixed is the denoise_DEF, which is now at zero in mine.

Edit: The detail actually doesn't change the oversharpening as far as I can tell, so I don't know what it's for, and the dvds still look like oversharpened crap. They look OK when unchecking HW accel in Power DVD though, so it's only a minor problem. The HD-DVDs not going full-screen in a 1080 resolution is still a major problem though, anyone getting this and/or knows how to fix it?

topcaser

08-13-07, 10:04 PM

Can not adjust clock speed with CCC7.8 on XP. It takes always the defaults at once. Nevertheless, as soon i adjust another clock speed temperaturs of GPU rises. Dont know why...

jkcheng122

08-13-07, 10:16 PM

Now my PowerDVD 7.3 and the cyberlink advisor don't recognize even the driver as HDCP compatible, so now I got two errors, one for the driver and one for the display. I guess ATI doesn't like me. I don't like you back, ATI. I'm gonna go cheat with Nvidia now.

Edit: Damn you ATI! Now with another cable and some inconvenient tweaking HDCP appears to be working. Will do further tests. But res is now set at 1920x1080. If I can't do 1920x1200 you're fired.

odd, after installing the driver AND the powerdvd patch, i can now play hdcp protected files fine. however, i seem to have lost the ability to pass audio via spdif =(

powerdvd can no longer detect my spdif so it keeps reverting to 2 speakers and i can't get surround sound. this is using ati's hd audio onboard the video card and connected via HDMI to receiver.

arfster

08-13-07, 10:27 PM

Anyone can get full screen now with Power DVD 7.3 for HD-DVDs?

No problem with a 2600XT in Vista. Sarvatt mentioned they moved the settings into one of the dlls, rather than the registry, so looks like they just shifted the issue elsewhere :-( You could try changing this to zero...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CyberLink\PowerDVD\UseSORT

Don't think this will work, but the SORT entries didn't cause a problem until PDVD 3104 added the above, so it's worth a shot at least.

For the CCC settings, I checked and nothing changed between 7.7 and 7.8. The 2400 has them all at 0, while the 2600 has detail 50 and flesh/colour at 25. The 2900 is the only one that ever had denoise on by default (at 150!).

However, if you have the PDVD halfscreen problem, then you have a 2400, and they should all be zero? Something bit weird here.

nownot

08-13-07, 10:50 PM

i have a sapphire hd 2600 pro and was wondering if there is a bios update for it. my current bios is 11x-2e4101sa-001 i looked on sapphire's site but did not see anything useful. thanks for the help.

arfster

08-13-07, 11:15 PM

gbcrush

08-13-07, 11:27 PM

I'd love to tell you, but....

"The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail.."

Of course, there is no such log :-)

Hey! that's the "you're screwed" message I got when trying to uninstall 7.7

Fortunately, I installed 7.8 over it, things seemed wonky, but between the 3 installes of 7.8 I did, I managed to get all the device drivers and associated junk uninstalled and got 7.8 in fresh.

Promptly decided I hated it and am going back to 7.7 now.

7.8 is giving me problems, DVI->HDMI. Screen keeps flashing, flickering, even on idle. Mucho annoying.

OF COURSE, it looks like 7.8 fixes one of the big problems I had with 7.7, that some of my DVDs (Ghost in the Shell, SAC and Clue) have this black bar/column that appears and dissapears intermittently on the right side of the screen.

I knew it :)

brotbuexe

08-14-07, 12:13 AM

Just installed 7.8 under vista, don't get any accleration with powerdvd 3104a1 anymore. with 7.7 it worked...

Snipester

08-14-07, 12:30 AM

Could be:

3) That the cards are smart enough to switch off postprocessing as they max out. Certainly running 1080i at 2500*1600 would be way too much for the 2400pro (it's 65-70%ish at 1600*1200), and quite likely for the 2400xt when you add in adaptive denoising as well.

I can confirm to you this is 100% true. The GPU just doesnt have the power. Trust me you can take my word for it.

Sarvatt

08-14-07, 12:40 AM

No problem with a 2600XT in Vista. Sarvatt mentioned they moved the settings into one of the dlls, rather than the registry, so looks like they just shifted the issue elsewhere :-( You could try changing this to zero...

Ahh sorry what I meant is you can see all of the video acceleration registry entries in the dll not that they moved any of there, was saying they changed the names of the keys they had on the 2400 in the earlier drivers so even the old registry keys wont work as ya need to use the new ones :D

Deception666

08-14-07, 01:03 AM

I am looking into picking up the 2600 Pro or XT versions of the card. I am wondering if anyone that has this card can speak a little bit about the noise from the fan. Is the fan speed variable? I am looking at the sapphire versions of this card, but other brands are welcome as well. If anyone has a silent 2600 card, like the one that Gigabyte manufactures, can you please comment as well on how the card is handling and the kind of temperature readings you are getting. Thanks.

dcourtney

08-14-07, 01:24 AM

Hi Guys

Good timing on these drivers as my replacement 2600xt just showed up. I'm running vista 64 and other than a whole lot of stuttering it worked fine with my Nvidia 6600gt. However I'm running into problem with this new card.

1st off I have the card connected via DVI into my Panasonic Plasma where I'm feeding it 1280x720. The 1st problem is that the scaling options (to get rid of under/overscan) only shows up when I use 60hz. As soon as I change to 50hz the scaling options are greyed out. Any advice on how to ungrey them?

Next thing I tried was launching Vista Media Centre. As soon as I went to live tv media centre crashes. The same happened with recorded tv. I just changed MCE codecs to use Avivo and the crashing seems to of stopped. Not sure what I'm sacrifycing by doing this though.

The colours are also wildly different to my nvidia card, very washed out but I'm not too concerned by that yet as my tv probably just needs reconfiguring.

Any advice on the scaling and vmce crashes would be greatly appreciated.

red5goahead

08-14-07, 04:48 AM

I have the Asus 2600xt, and have enabled the sound through the HDMI output, is there any way to have both the HDMI and the standard PC sound card enabled AT THE SAME TIME? so you can have the HDMI sound connected to the LCD TV and the PC sound card to the PC speakers, now I have to switch between the two!

with KmPlayer you can use two sound device at the same time.

noeyedear

08-14-07, 05:08 AM

Digitalspirit

08-14-07, 05:49 AM

Help Please,
I have a Palit HD 2600 pro with HDMI out. Hehehe. Sounds good. Only trouble is I can't get it out. I have read through this entire thread and a couple of posts have got my hopes up but still nothing.

I have the HDMI out from 2600 connected to Yamaha 2700 receiver connected to Sanyo Z4 projector. I am getting video but no audio.

I am running Catalyst 7.7 I have downloaded realtek hd drivers. I have an Asus P5GD1-VM motherboard.

Is there somewhere in the Catalyst CC that you enable HDMI out?

If someone can answer this I would offer to have their children except for I am male. So hearfelt appreciation will have to suffice.

Thanks Bill

Don't know if this is the same problem I had, possibly not (Radeon HD 2900XT), but the DVI port nearest the motherboard is the only one that has audio capabilities when using DVI>HDMI.

noeyedear

08-14-07, 06:22 AM

Don't know if this is the same problem I had, possibly not (Radeon HD 2900XT), but the DVI port nearest the motherboard is the only one that has audio capabilities when using DVI>HDMI.

Thanks Digitalspirit,
This board actually has a hdmi port out. The user manual doesn't even know its there.

Andy o

08-14-07, 07:59 AM

Andy: you may want to try DXVA_DetailEnhance 0. I did some screenshots, and it's clear it's on by default, and it does produce some artifacts - even with Detail set to 0. Frankly, I'm not sure Detail does anything at all, whatever you have detailenhance set to.

I have no such string in my registry. The PowerDVD UseSort thing didn't work either. I'm sure it can be fixed somehow, if not by messing with the registry, by a driver fix, but it shouldn't be this way. My HDCP trouble is gone, but now I have to deal with other problems that I didn't have before.

By the way Sarvatt, the ATI HDMI driver from Realtek is not working for me at all. In my Vista playback devices it says:
Realtek HDMI Output
ATI HDMI Audio
Not plugged in
and it's greyed out with a red arrow pointing down.

The Vista driver also gives me some trouble, the sound gap every 10 seconds or so, but only through one of the DVI outputs, the other one works fine. I have to clean the registry and reinstall the ATI Catalyst drivers to fix it, but the problem would come back it seems. Any ideas? I'm running out of steam here trying to retain my sanity. I'd go to Nvidia, but sound over HDMI is so convenient for me, I carry my HTPC to work and I want everything as simple as possible with the least amount of clutter.

Andy o

08-14-07, 08:10 AM

No problem with a 2600XT in Vista. Sarvatt mentioned they moved the settings into one of the dlls, rather than the registry, so looks like they just shifted the issue elsewhere
...
However, if you have the PDVD halfscreen problem, then you have a 2400, and they should all be zero? Something bit weird here.
Well this sucks. Now we have to go on a wild goose chase to change the settings we need to change for the card to work properly, in a way we shouldn't be doing in the first place. Real classy ATI.

Oh well. I don't have the 2400 but a 2600 pro, but there could be registry remnants. The biggest size of the video is bigger than with the previous problem with the 2400, so I don't think it is exactly the same, but the behavior is the same. I can't even in windowed mode make the window larger than that size. When I installed the 7.8 betas I was getting horizontal squishing in full-screen, but in windowed mode everything was normal. I have been careful to delete the keys I knew were associated with the ATI drivers, but I can't be sure. How do you clean your registry?

magnusr

08-14-07, 08:12 AM

Help Please,
I have a Palit HD 2600 pro with HDMI out. Hehehe. Sounds good. Only trouble is I can't get it out. I have read through this entire thread and a couple of posts have got my hopes up but still nothing.

I have the HDMI out from 2600 connected to Yamaha 2700 receiver connected to Sanyo Z4 projector. I am getting video but no audio.

I am running Catalyst 7.7 I have downloaded realtek hd drivers. I have an Asus P5GD1-VM motherboard.

Is there somewhere in the Catalyst CC that you enable HDMI out?

If someone can answer this I would offer to have their children except for I am male. So hearfelt appreciation will have to suffice.

Thanks Bill

Upgrade to Catalyst 7.8. Trust me im using Yamaha RX-V1700. Catalyst 7.7 will give you a blinking issue every 15 seconds when watching hd-dvd/blu-ray.

Why do you want to have PCM 2ch, ac3/dts only when using hdmi from ati 2x00 series? The card dosent support PCM5.1/7.1. I recommend that you make an analog connection from your sound card to the multi channel in on your receiver. Then set multi channel in to use dtv or dvd hdmi port for video.

noeyedear

08-14-07, 08:32 AM

Upgrade to Catalyst 7.8. Trust me im using Yamaha RX-V1700. Catalyst 7.7 will give you a blinking issue every 15 seconds when watching hd-dvd/blu-ray.

Why do you want to have PCM 2ch, ac3/dts only when using hdmi from ati 2x00 series? The card dosent support PCM5.1/7.1. I recommend that you make an analog connection from your sound card to the multi channel in on your receiver. Then set multi channel in to use dtv or dvd hdmi port for video.

I intend to build a Htpc but for now I am just trying out components and software on my home computer which is in another room. I had a 10m HDMI cable so I just ran that via repeater to my HT from puter.

arfster

08-14-07, 08:51 AM

I have no such string in my registry. The PowerDVD UseSort thing didn't work either.

Yeah, dxva_detailenhance doesn't exist by default, but it's actually on. In other words, if the driver doesn't find it in the registry, it assumes 1, not 0 (same as dxva_nohddecode). I think it's an adaptive sharpener, but it's hard to tell. It's not very good with dealing with heavily compressed mpeg2 at least - the deblocker is rather good on the ATI cards, and probably they don't take account of each other.

Not too surprised usesort doesn't work :-(

For driver cleaning, you need to go to extremes, as your registry sounds a bit screwed. Uninstall the driver and all ATI stuff in the control panel, then reboot and clean out

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video

Anything with ATI keys in it, just delete the section. Run drivercleaner, and XDC. Delete c:\program files\ati. Registry find/delete for keywords ati, catalyst, etc etc. Then reinstall the drivers, and check settings. For a 2600 denoise should be at 0, detail 50, flesh/colour at 0.

I guess you could be having some HDCP instead of SORT probs - the way to tell is that the SORT limit is exactly 1024000 pixels, so just measure it versus your screen res and see if it matches.

red5goahead

08-14-07, 08:52 AM

Hi folks.

I've not hd 2000 yet. but I plan to buy an Asus HD 2600 pro.
Someone talk about an Avivo direct show codec filter directly form Ati few posts ago. is it true? With full support to dxva and dxva2 in xp and vista? I think should be really important to make order...

arfster

08-14-07, 08:54 AM

Someone talk about an Avivo direct show codec filter directly form Ati few posts ago. is it true? With full support to dxva and dxva2 in xp and vista? I think should be really important to make order...

Yes, it's in the standard driver package. MPEG2 DXVA1/2 in Vista certainly, and presumably dxva1 in XP. Apparently it can accelerate some divx types too.

Andy o

08-14-07, 09:20 AM

Yeah, dxva_detailenhance doesn't exist by default, but it's actually on. In other words, if the driver doesn't find it in the registry, it assumes 1, not 0 (same as dxva_nohddecode). I think it's an adaptive sharpener, but it's hard to tell. It's not very good with dealing with heavily compressed mpeg2 at least - the deblocker is rather good on the ATI cards, and probably they don't take account of each other.

Not too surprised usesort doesn't work :-(

For driver cleaning, you need to go to extremes, as your registry sounds a bit screwed. Uninstall the driver and all ATI stuff in the control panel, then reboot and clean out

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video

Anything with ATI keys in it, just delete the section. Run drivercleaner, and XDC. Delete c:\program files\ati. Registry find/delete for keywords ati, catalyst, etc etc. Then reinstall the drivers, and check settings. For a 2600 denoise should be at 0, detail 50, flesh/colour at 0.

I guess you could be having some HDCP instead of SORT probs - the way to tell is that the SORT limit is exactly 1024000 pixels, so just measure it versus your screen res and see if it matches.

Thanks for the tips. Actually, this SORT thing also happens with ripped HD-DVDs, so I don't think it has to do anything with HDCP.