For the bars next to the dots I get 16 and 239, if I check the BTB and WTW (next bars over), I get 5 and 249.

As AR said, that 239 should be 235. Is some other contrast setting perhaps minutely above default? ("use application" in CCC ticked? something in zoom?).

I''ve found a little more detail about expansion not happening btw. Turns out it's not hardware acceleration in VMR9 that causes expansion, it's mixer mode. You can stop it expanding by disabling this in VMR9 renderless (not possible in VMR9 windowed I think). This disables all color controls in CCC as well, so looks like it's basically screwing the routine within the drivers that causes >720 to be expanded. Quite possibly zoomplayer or others might not have this on by default.


ps MPC allows you to disable VMR9 mixermode. In graphedit mixermode is not used for standard VMR9 (so no expansion), but you can enable it by going to procamp under vmr9 settings, moving any of the sliders, then defaulting them back. Similarly, the CCC colour controls don't work until you do this, because you're not in mixermode yet.

I adjusted the color controls within ZP and got that upper band down to 235. Now all of the values match up (+/- 1) across the board with what AR posted up.

Oh and I have the SD version of DVE, and those values match exactly with the ones from the ramp.ts file. So, this would appear to indicate that the string works in XP.

I adjusted the color controls within ZP and got that upper band down to 235. Now all of the values match up (+/- 1) across the board with what AR posted up.

Oh and I have the SD version of DVE, and those values match exactly with the ones from the ramp.ts file. So, this would appear to indicate that the string works in XP.


Hrrm - what is at when zoom colour controls are at default? The driver/card shouldn't be doing any processing unless you tell it to (in theory!) - the dots should be 16 and 235 without touching them. On mine they're 0 and 255, aka a full levels expansion, until I do the CCC brightness16/contrast86 to reverse that expansion.

I'm getting auto expansion in Media Center in Vista 32. Are any of you guys using ATI cards getting double expansion? I'm with an Nvidia 8600GTS, with its overlay (or EVR, whatever) calibrated so as to make 16 black and 235 white, so my contrast in PowerDVD looks good, but on Media center it looks double-expanded.

Just got my Sapphire HD2600xt yesterday. Up til today I was loving, tried playing Flyboys and had a bad case of ghosting. I had an image behind the image going on. This problem didn't happen with my eVga 8800GTS just with the 2600xt. Anyone have any idea why this is doing this or maybe know of a fix. I would love to be able to watch it again without the ghosting.

Hrrm - what is at when zoom colour controls are at default? The driver/card shouldn't be doing any processing unless you tell it to (in theory!) - the dots should be 16 and 235 without touching them. On mine they're 0 and 255, aka a full levels expansion, until I do the CCC brightness16/contrast86 to reverse that expansion.

If I turn the controls off, they do indeed go to 0 and 255. I checked both HD (ramp.ts) and SD of that ramp pattern. Oh, and it still does it even with renderless exclusive - still 0 and 255.

Yesterday you said you're using a monitor. Because the ATI is defaulting to 0-255, if you're using a monitor you might want to just stick with that signal. You wouldn't have to have two desktops that way and you wouldn't have to make so many changes that could possibly degrade the image. You've already seen how you can add below black (<16) or super-white (>235) if you want to, but there's not necessarily a reason to do so. As long as all your video ends up at similar levels it can be calibrated and expansion isn't always a negative.

I set all the color vibrance values in the registry to 0. Now the colors look good, but we get blockage appearing every so often. It is not in the stream. Are people seeing this as well? Random but not very often.

Thanks!

Yesterday you said you're using a monitor. Because the ATI is defaulting to 0-255, if you're using a monitor you might want to just stick with that signal.

I'd agree with that. The expansion+contraction is visually lossless for SD (even zoomed right in), but possibly it might not be for HD - it's harder to test for, because it expands HD in almost all circumstances, and the method of getting an original frame might be introducing other processing differences.

Anyone know how to manually restart the ATI drivers (or whatever controls HW acceleration)?

I've found that when switching between HD-DVD titles, HW acceleration will sometimes disappear. Restarting PDVD doesn't help, a full system reboot is required.

Setup:
* Asus EAH2400Pro
* WinXP
* Bioshock Hotfix drivers
* PDVD 7.3 Ultra build 2911

THANKS!

Sorry, just had to quit reading this (and AVS forum in general) for a few weeks, lest I went crazy. And oh look, I gained a bunch of worry-free hours back in my day to day life! :D

But you know how it goes, I just gotta check on what's happening, and it looks like you guys have been busy. I tried poking through what I've missed and I've got to ask: where are we now?

It looks like official drivers are still 7.8. Arfster has a set of tweaked, early 7.9 drivers. This includes fixes that makes SD levels expand like HD levels?

Great!


...now what do I do? Let's say I'm happy with where my TV is calibrated as far as contrast/brightness (my girlfriend says Princess Buttercup's dress looks appropriately red and blue in various scenes of The Princess Bride :D).

...so if I throw The Princess Bride DVD in again, after using these drivers, are you saying the colors will look a little off? If so, that means mean either re-balance the TV (preferable), or use the slider trick in CCC right?

...might that explain why some of the 720p video clips (gametrailers.com) look like I've lost a lot shadow detail, show perhaps more black crush, etc? I seem to see a lot more on my desktop PC, but admittedly, the monitor is running pretty bright.

Perhaps it should be in another thread, but heck, it's related to my 2600pro.

Haven't gotten the ATI dongle yet, but I have noticed screenshots from people who have, it looks like it only supports output at 48khz?

...the SPDIF connection on my motherboard seems to support the range from 41 - 192 khz.

... *scratches head* makes me think when I eventually get a new shiny receiver, I may actually want to use HDMI for video only and run a coax or optical SPDIF connection for audio?

Will it make much a difference? I mean, there's available media that will do better than 48khz (like DTS 24/96 DVDs) out there too, right?

Did some calibration testing with the w6rez.net 601/709 75% colour bars.... as above, the ATI drivers expand all HD, except when you use vmr9 with mixermode off (ie no color controls work). However, that's useless as a way to avoid expansion because it then uses bt601, and the decoding thus produces wonky colours for HD content, since that's in bt709 (eg what should be blue 16/16/180 is 17/5/173).


Good news on colour conversion accuracy though: as with SD (after usebt601csc is set), auto-expansion followed by the 16/86 CCC contraction method appears to be visually lossless. You get the occasional 16/16/181 or 16/17/180, but in a movie that's not at all visible.


Some odd things with MPC + VMR9 when hardware acceleration is turned on, and you use the CCC controls. To bring it back to tv levels, you need to use 8/92 rather than 16/86. Fortunately graphedit and DVBViewer VMR9+hardware acceleration are free from this problem. This isn't the first time with the ATI 2xxx cards I've noticed some wacky/unique MPC behaviour either, so if you must use a VMR9 app in Vista it's probably best to choose something else. If possible at all, stick with EVR.

Might be an idea for XP users to test with the same patterns btw....


Edit: uh, my other logon doesn't do the MPC/vmr9 colour weirdness. Might be because it's using cat7.7, or might be something else. Worth checking anyway, if you have to use vista+vmr9.

It looks like official drivers are still 7.8. Arfster has a set of tweaked, early 7.9 drivers. This includes fixes that makes SD levels expand like HD levels?

Great!


...now what do I do? Let's say I'm happy with where my TV is calibrated as far as contrast/brightness (my girlfriend says Princess Buttercup's dress looks appropriately red and blue in various scenes of The Princess Bride :D).


Basically HD always expanded, and it appears there's no reg setting to change that. SD doesn't expand with default drivers, but this tweak means it does, thus HD and SD will be at the same levels (ie PC 0-255). With the default drivers you needed a different calibration for SD and HD, now you just need one.

If you only feed the TV from your PC, just install the tweaked 7.9s, calibrate your display to 0-255 and be happy. However, if your TV has other inputs (dvd player, sat box, tivo, whatever), those will all be running at 16-235 video levels, so you need to have your PC do that also. To do this go into CCC basic colours, untick use app settings, brightness16, contrast86. This simply reverses the previous expansion.

I had a 1650XT that i changed for a Sapphire 2600 pro. When i connect it to my Mitsubishi HC3100 i don't get any signal with a dvi/hdmi cable who worked perfectly before i changed my graphic card. When I use a hdmi/hdmi cable with the dongle everything rules. Anyone has a solution, because I would prefer using my dvi/hdmi cable ?
Anyone has an idea ?

One thing that I would like to make clear is that if you're using 0-255, you will not want to use the black bars picture that has been referenced in some of these posts. If you're using 0-255 and do not modify things to add the below-black (original 0-15) or super-white (original 236-255), you can instead use http://tft.vanity.dk/monitorTest.exe to show the extremes of the scale. It has 1% steps at the high and low ends that many calibration videos I've seen do not show. 1% steps are nice so you can tell if you're cutting off information on the low-end. If you do add below-black or super-white to 0-255 though, you'll for sure want to use all video for calibration.

I actually use http://tft.vanity.dk/monitorTest.exe for a quick 1:1 pattern, but if someone was to check the main page bars pattern I'm guessing it matches exactly with 0-255 showing bars. I checked the bottom and top which do show 0 and 255.

Do you remember that dual monitor issue? No video playback on the second monitor:-( It is solved now: first time that ATI support has given a solution. And - it worked. Here it is:

Video image is black on a secondary display or TV in Clone Mode / Extended Desktop

Open catalyst control center by double-clicking the icon called ATI catalyst control center on your desktop. Choose to view catalyst control center in advance view. On the left hand side there’s a menu. Select video and then theater mode.

When clone mode is enabled, the Video window appears black on the secondary display.

One of the new features of the CATALYST™ driver is the THEATER MODE feature.

THEATER MODE allows overlay to be available in a full screen mode on a dual head capable product.

Using ATI CATALYST Control Center:
The THEATER MODE option can be enabled using the following steps:

For Clone Mode
select the Advanced Settings under the CATALYST Control Center "View" menu
Under Video, select Theater Mode
In the Overlay Display in Clone Mode section, select the Theater Mode radio button

For Extended Mode
select the Advanced Settings under the CATALYST Control Center "View" menu
Under Video, select Theater Mode
In the Overlay Display for the second monitor, select the Theater Mode fullscreen

Hi guys,

Have the HD 2600XT under xp64. I ran a HD video that I recorded (h.264) and the cpu usage is 35-40%, is this normal? I could of sworn that my old 1600hdmi did the same thing with 5%.

Is it possible that the hardware acceleration is not kicking in?

I even added the Cyberlink player and still high usage.

P5W-DH w/E6400@2.66, 1GB, HD2600xt

Did some calibration testing with the w6rez.net 601/709 75% colour bars.... as above, the ATI drivers expand all HD, except when you use vmr9 with mixermode off (ie no color controls work). However, that's useless as a way to avoid expansion because it then uses bt601, and the decoding thus produces wonky colours for HD content, since that's in bt709 (eg what should be blue 16/16/180 is 17/5/173).

Are you saying that FSE VMR9 with YUV Mixing enabled works correctly in that it doesn't expande HD, but is borked as far as colorspace conversion goes?

Are you saying that FSE VMR9 with YUV Mixing enabled works correctly in that it doesn't expande HD, but is borked as far as colorspace conversion goes?

More or less, yes. It's not FSE though, just plain vmr9 renderless. Also mixer mode and YUV mixing are something different.

I've got a ticket in with ATI on my sound issue. I'll post, if they have an answer. Thanks again.

Hi guys,

Have the HD 2600XT under xp64. I ran a HD video that I recorded (h.264) and the cpu usage is 35-40%, is this normal? I could of sworn that my old 1600hdmi did the same thing with 5%.

Is it possible that the hardware acceleration is not kicking in?

I even added the Cyberlink player and still high usage.

P5W-DH w/E6400@2.66, 1GB, HD2600xt

Currently there's not AVIVO HD support under 64 bit operating systems, unless I'm mistaken. The same is true of nVidia as they have no PureVideo support under XP 64 bit and Vista 64 bit.

More or less, yes. It's not FSE though, just plain vmr9 renderless. Also mixer mode and YUV mixing are something different.

I'm sorta confused, what exactly do you mean by "mixermode"? If it's YUV Mixing is not a "mixermode" then I'm not familiar with it.

I currently run a 6800 with FSE VMR9 and YUV Mixing enabled. Ideally I'd like to run the same setup if I were to get a 2x00.

Well this is a little dis concerning. I contacted ATI about my issue with the screen being all messed up when I watch x.264 material via the cyberlink decoder with DXVA on. Tech support emailed me back and asked me to install k-lite so to make sure I had all required codecs before they could further help me.

Is it me, or is that a bad idea? I mean I was under the understanding that its generally not a good idea to install codec packs because they bloat your system. Also, I'm not aware of any x.264 decoder in the k-lite packs that will take advantage of avivo. :/

Is it me, or is that a bad idea?

It's not just you: that's a very bad idea indeed :-) You already have the only avivo compatible h264 decoder out there anyway.

On top of that, the issue isn't anything to do with ATI, it's a cyberlink problem. Mail them and ask for PDVD to support the mkv format.

I'm sorta confused, what exactly do you mean by "mixermode"? If it's YUV Mixing is not a "mixermode" then I'm not familiar with it.


That's what MPC calls it :-) There's a separate tickbox for yuv mixing, but that has no effect.

It's not just you: that's a very bad idea indeed :-) You already have the only avivo compatible h264 decoder out there anyway.

On top of that, the issue isn't anything to do with ATI, it's a cyberlink problem. Mail them and ask for PDVD to support the mkv format.

I have the same problem with .mp4 h.264 movies as well. I just have been trying to determine if I have an defective card before my 30 days is up to return it.

Hey guys, im having trouble making my two 2400s work with crossfire i have the internal bridges and catalyst 7.7

i dont know if the problem is i need an external cable or i have bad software
i have a certified crossfire motherboard and 2 Saphire 2400XT exactly the same

my pc specs are
amd 5600+
4 gigs of ram but my computer only reads 2.5
vista home premium 32-bit

i have been trying to fix this problem for 2 weeks now so anything would help

Perhaps it should be in another thread, but heck, it's related to my 2600pro.

Haven't gotten the ATI dongle yet, but I have noticed screenshots from people who have, it looks like it only supports output at 48khz?

...the SPDIF connection on my motherboard seems to support the range from 41 - 192 khz.

... *scratches head* makes me think when I eventually get a new shiny receiver, I may actually want to use HDMI for video only and run a coax or optical SPDIF connection for audio?

Will it make much a difference? I mean, there's available media that will do better than 48khz (like DTS 24/96 DVDs) out there too, right?

this is a slightly confusing point right now as i have heard people say that the HD cards convert your audio to 16/48 5.1 when it send the audio out the hdmi port. However i also spoke with someone from AMD at a show a couple weeks ago who said they just pass the raw audio from your computers soundriver to the hdmi port.

either way your system spdif output can ONLY do 5.1 @ 16/48 max or stereo 2 channel at 24/192. this is a limitation of spdif. If you want higher rez 5.1 then you need to add a soundcard that supports 24/192 5.1 with analog outputs. i am currently using one to get lossles highres tracks from movies and it works fine.

What renderers and settings do people here use? In Vista I stick to VMR9 and EVR. If I went with another, it would probably be Haali. I was thinking I might install XP for some testing over the holiday weekend. So aside from VMR7, is there anything else I should try? Renderers or settings still seem the most likely reason why others didn't get the same results as my 7.7 and 7.9 Vista installs.

Isn't HD a 0 IRE and SD a 7.5 IRE?

Looking at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=494606 this appears to be only a concern for analog and a non-issue for digital.

Because the ATI is defaulting to 0-255, if you're using a monitor you might want to just stick with that signal.

Rick Guynn probably had the right initial idea of wanting to maintain studio (16-235) levels. In the above guide it's repeated to do so a number of times. In considering if I might want to use 0-255 it sounds like it could quite possibly introduce some problems the way the ATI is working, so I expect to stick with 16-235 for video. I still don't think there should be so many changes need as he was reporting though, so I might check things out on XP while I have it installed. That's why I'm asking for renderers and settings, because aside from using overlay (which runs horribly on my computer) I've never been able to replicate any of the problems that were previously reported with black-levels not matching.

This http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=32137&d=1105765568 might be a good image to use in checking if the registry modification ends up causing any color-space issues.

Looking at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=494606 this appears to be only a concern for analog and a non-issue for digital.

IRE is a measure of voltage, and thus only applicable to Analog, yes. However many, many people use IRE incorrectly when discussing levels in video.

I believe what Mntneer is saying/asking is if HD has a different "setup" as SD. The answer to that is NO. BT.601 (ITU standard for digital coding of SD) and BT.709 (ITU standard for digital coding of HD) both specify the exact same range, 16-235. 16 being black and 235 being white, with values 1-15 as toeroom, and 236-254 as headroom and 0 being reserved for sync.

7.5IRE is what digital 16 is normally represented as in analog voltage.

Rick Guynn probably had the right initial idea of wanting to maintain studio (16-235) levels. In the above guide it's repeated to do so a number of times. In considering if I might want to use 0-255 it sounds like it could quite possibly introduce some problems the way the ATI is working, so I expect to stick with 16-235 for video. I still don't think there should be so many changes need as he was reporting though, so I might check things out on XP while I have it installed.

Please let us know how it goes. I'm very interested in the results. I'd very much like to get a new video card for my HTPC that will allow it to deal with HD DVD and Blu-ray, but it's AGP so that means 2400 or 2600. Also it's running XP and there's no compelling reason for me to drop $200 on a copy of Vista for it.

I really want an AGP card with good VC-1 and H.264 accelleration that will provide proper levels for both SD and HD in FSE VMR9 under XP.

How do I run full screen exclusive in XP? I saw that Zoom Player has the option, but it's listed with some warnings about compatability. What are the benefits of FSE?

How do I run full screen exclusive in XP? I saw that Zoom Player has the option, but it's listed with some warnings about compatability. What are the benefits of FSE?

I use SageTV or TheaterTek. FSE basically gives control of the graphics card completely over to the app, like a D3D game. Benefit is it's harder for things to interrupt the process, for me it seems to result in smoother, more reliable playback.

I mean I was under the understanding that its generally not a good idea to install codec packs because they bloat your system.

I propose the death penalty for codec packs creator.... :)

Anyway, which is the last version of cyberlink h.264 direct show filter knew to fully support new ati 2x00 series or nvidia 8x000.
thanks a lot.

Updated post of Vista32 79biofix + HTPC tweaks. Beyond updating the comments on the reg changes to current knowledge, this changes little from the previous one. For the 2400 dxva_nohddecode was set to 0 to enable mpeg2 HD acceleration, and more importantly vforce was set large enough for PDVD to fill a 1080p screen. The last post had it just a little low so some people were still getting extra borders.


http://rapidshare.com/files/52529639/Vista32_79biofix_plus_HTPC_tweaks_V2.zip.html


NOTES:

1) These drivers contain support for more brands and types of 2400/2600 than the official ones - particularly AGP cards.

2) I still can't figure out how to deselect colour/flesh "enhancements" by default. They're set to zero so probably not doing anything, but you might want to switch them off in CCC anyway.

3) This driver expands SD levels, the same way as HD is expanded automatically by the drivers. If you want 16-235 (video levels) then go into CCC/avivo video/basic colour and turn "use application settings" off, brightness to 16, contrast 86. This expansion then contraction is less than ideal, but fortunately the drivers/card make a good job of it, and it's visually lossless.

4) If you have a 2500*1600 screen, you will have to increase vforcemaxressize, see below under registry changes.



Before installing, run the complete ATI self-destruct sequence to rid your machine of driver remnants: in control panel/programs, uninstall ATI Catalyst Install Manager, and tell it to delete all ATI software. Reboot after, then delete any ATI directories in c:\program files, and if you have them run drivercleaner or xdc.



BORING LIST OF REGISTRY DIFFERENCES FROM OFFICIAL DRIVERS:

These exist under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\.. .. , and in whichever one is your card (just hunt till you find the one with 0000 and 0001 with bazillions of entries). The entries below go under \UMD\DXVA, and in Vista are regstrings (except for a few which already exist and are reg_binary). In XP I think they go in the 0000 root, and are dwords.


added trdenoise 0 = turns off forced temporal denoise, which just blurs things

added dxva_detailenhance 0 = turns off forced sharpener. Some people may like this, so have a play - personally I think it results in too many unnatural edges with low bitrate stuff.

added VForceMaxResSize 2800000 = this sets the PDVD HDDVD/Bluray max render size in pixels. The formula appears to be screen width squared * 0.75, so for 1920 wide screens it needs to be at least 2764800. If the key doesn't exist at all as in the default installs, it assumes a value of approx 2 million pixels, not enough to fill a 1080p screen. The above value is OK for up to 1920 pixels wide, but if you have a 2500*1600 screen it needs to be 4687500 or greater. Since there's maybe a performance reason for a limit, it's probably worth not setting it higher than you need.

Fleshtone and ColorVibrance minimum/defaults changed to 0. The standard 2600 install has these on and at 25, but if you disable them in CCC they actually still continue to work at their default, ie 25. Setting mins and defaults to 0 means that when you deselect them in CCC, they actually turn off - your choice of course, but several people have reported that vibrance in particular results in posterisation.

added UseBT601CSC 1 = causes SD to expand to 0-255, in the same manner as HD (which expands regardless what you do) for a consistent single calibration between the two.

(2600 only) default di mode to VA. In Vista there's a bug where auto mode in CCC for 1080i just selects bob. This reg change forces the issue. Unfortunately, it won't work for the 2400 in Vista because only bob/weave are allowed in standard directshow (powerdvd is the exception, its manual deinterlacing selection options somehow bypass this).

(2400 only) dxva_nohddecode added and set to 0. Enables mpeg2 HD acceleration. This can potentially create problems - if your GPU (see rivatuner) is being maxxed out by 1080i mpeg2 after this, set this back to 1 and use PowerDVD with hardware deinterlacing in options/video/advanced forced to 3C (vector-adaptive, the best) or 55 (motion-adaptive, next best). This avoids the enormous hit of mpeg2 HD decoding, which is around 50% GPU on a 2400pro or 35% on a 2600pro, but still gets you hardware deinterlacing. As above, in Vista the drivers for the 2400 will happily ignore whatever deinterlacing mode you select in CCC. XP is better behaved and will obey the CCC mode, but outside PDVD to get deinterlacing without acceleration the only choice (afaik) is the Bitcontrol mpeg2 decoder.


Other known bugs: PAL film is misdetected as video (barely noticeable), mpeg2 not in UVD but in shaders, 2400 Bluray mpeg2 not accelerated regardless of regsettings, 50hz displays have no overscan correction.


Version 2, 31/Aug/07

UseBT601CSC 1 = causes SD to expand to 0-255

Running VMR9 I still couldn't get SD to do anything other than 16-235. The only way I could seem to get SD to do PC 0-255 levels was by running some of the overlay modes or EVR.

Running VMR9 I still couldn't get SD to do anything other than 16-235. The only way I could seem to get SD to do 0-255 was by running some of the overlay modes or EVR.

What client are you using? Some VMR9 apps don't use mixermode, thus colour controls are disabled and the drivers can't expand - decoder colours are way off though, if you look on colour ramps.

If you go into vmr9 properties, fiddle with something on procamp then set it back to default, you should find things are suddenly getting expanded (seems moving a procamp control enables mixermode).

If you have the DVE dvd, try title12, ch7. The colours are at 75%, so should be 180. Expanded they'll be 191/192.


ps you are in Vista I assume? (some people have taken to implanting EVR into xp!)

Other known bugs: PAL film is misdetected as video (barely noticeable), mpeg2 not in UVD but in shaders (stresses the 2400 cards a lot), 2400 Bluray mpeg2 not accelerated regardless of regsettings.

They are bugs of only 2400 or both, 2400 and 2600?

They are bugs of only 2400 or both, 2400 and 2600?

Both - MPEG2 in shaders doesn't matter much for the 2600 though, because they have enough power to cope with it. The PAL dvd thing happens with 2600 and 2400.

Bluray mpeg2 is accelerated by the 2600, but not at all by the 2400. The same thing happens with HD mpeg2 file playback, where the 2400 needs dxva_nohddecode 0 to get acceleration, but that doesn't work for Bluray mpeg2.

I watch a lot of Live TV, SD mpeg2, both film and video. Xp, latest Cyberlink mpeg2 decoder, vmr9. BTW, my display (LCD DVI/HDMI via) is calibrated for contract 0-255 to 16-235 video levels. The PAL mpeg2 thing says that the Ati will deinterlace like video the film in my setup ¿ok? But I can manually force to cyberlink decoder to use film instead of video deinterlace through HA. This has some effect?

EDIT. Sorry, is a stupid question. The Ati is she herself the mpeg2 decoder. Still I think with purevideo1 mentality.

But I can manually force to cyberlink decoder to use film instead of video deinterlace through HA. This has some effect?


Yes, that works.

I might be out of date on the film thing, you never know, haven't tested for a bit. It didn't make much difference anyway, cos the deinterlacers have so much to work with the picture is barely affected.

Yes, that works.

Ok. It is a lightening. I was almost totally convinced that this would not affect anything.
Perhaps it is necessary to indicate a more bug: in PAL we cannot correct the overscan.

Ok. It is a lightening. I was almost totally convinced that this would not affect anything.
Perhaps it is necessary to indicate a more bug: in PAL we cannot correct the overscan.

You mean the 720p 50hz thing?

What renderers and settings do people here use? In Vista I stick to VMR9 and EVR. If I went with another, it would probably be Haali. I was thinking I might install XP for some testing over the holiday weekend. So aside from VMR7, is there anything else I should try? Renderers or settings still seem the most likely reason why others didn't get the same results as my 7.7 and 7.9 Vista installs.



Looking at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=494606 this appears to be only a concern for analog and a non-issue for digital.



Rick Guynn probably had the right initial idea of wanting to maintain studio (16-235) levels. In the above guide it's repeated to do so a number of times. In considering if I might want to use 0-255 it sounds like it could quite possibly introduce some problems the way the ATI is working, so I expect to stick with 16-235 for video. I still don't think there should be so many changes need as he was reporting though, so I might check things out on XP while I have it installed. That's why I'm asking for renderers and settings, because aside from using overlay (which runs horribly on my computer) I've never been able to replicate any of the problems that were previously reported with black-levels not matching.


Yeah, it's really not that much trouble. Now that I have it set up, it's just a matter of a hotkey. I switch back and forth between my monitor and a projector anyway, so having hotkeys set up is no big deal. I'd rather have the proper video levels and deal with the slight inconvenience.

Oh, and I am currently using the VMR9 windowless version of the renderer. I'd use FSE, but I like having a UI.

You mean the 720p 50hz thing?
I have forgotten if the people who reported this issue spoke of 720/50p or both, 720/50p and 1080/50p.
I have a problem very seemed with my 8800GTS. With a trick I can correct overscan in 720/50p and 1080/50p, but it is much more difficult to obtain this that in 60Hz. In addition, with this trick I lose HDCP compatibility.

Hey guys, the promotional trailer for HD-DVD in the Batman Returns and Corpse Bride HD-DVDs (begins with a blue screen and "Everything you know about DVD just got a whole lot better...") is actually 0-255 as far as I can tell. Meaning that with ATI cards (including my x1900GT) you lose detail as it is expanded. Testing a bit, I think you can just bring back the detail by messing with the video controls, though I'm not 100% sure.

With my nVidia 8600GTS setup in Vista x86 that video actually looks 0-255, without any messing with the video settings. The black bars for the clips of movies in 2.35:1 ratio are black, not gray. If I turn on the calibration that I've made for regular movies (i.e. my own expansion) then I clearly lose detail in the dark areas, the same as with the default settings with the ATI in my other PC.

So what's the deal? Is there any possibility that some movies might actually come in 0-255? Anyone knows?

Hey guys, the promotional trailer for HD-DVD in the Batman Returns and Corpse Bride HD-DVDs (begins with a blue screen and "Everything you know about DVD just got a whole lot better...") is actually 0-255 as far as I can tell. Meaning that with ATI cards (including my x1900GT) you lose detail as it is expanded. Testing a bit, I think you can just bring back the detail by messing with the video controls, though I'm not 100% sure.

With my nVidia 8600GTS setup in Vista x86 that video actually looks 0-255, without any messing with the video settings. The black bars for the clips of movies in 2.35:1 ratio are black, not gray. If I turn on the calibration that I've made for regular movies (i.e. my own expansion) then I clearly lose detail in the dark areas, the same as with the default settings with the ATI in my other PC.

So what's the deal? Is there any possibility that some movies might actually come in 0-255? Anyone knows?

I stand (sit actually) to be corrected, but all video is 'technically' 0-255. It's just that 'standard' video puts most of it's information between 16-235. If have seen analysis in the past showing that alot of video still has BTB and WTW information in the signal outside of the 16-235 range, hence the existence of these types of fields in the calibration software.

The loss of that information is what I have been discussing here with Arfster and AR.

Is it normal for the visiontek 2400Pro AGP card ar start-up to show a need for a PCI driver and lists the location of the AGP card? I tried with two computers and both showed the same need for a PCI driver. The computers both use AMD processors and does not occur after I reinstalled the previoius AGP boards.

Haven't found the answer to this in this thread, but why is it I can't get accelerated HDDVD playback in PowerDVD with any of the tweaked drivers except for the tweaked 7.7 version? Using 2600 pro with latest PowerDVD Ultra on Vista 32

Thanks, John

It´s obvious necessary that the decoder runs to 0-255 levels, where 16 is gray black and 235 is gray white. The display must be able to work to 0-255 levels, but must be calibrated for make the conversion 16->0 black level and 235->255 white level, creating the levels BTB and WTW. This is the ONLY correct way ¿ok?
I have not understood well yet if the ATI, in HD, runs at the 0-255 video levels (correct) or make the conversion 16->0/235->255 (ones call to this expansion, other contraction and becomes confused) Somebody can clarify it?

The latter: ati converts 16-235 to 0-255. This is correct behaviour in PC world, not really correct or good in TV, video world.

Anyway can be corrected easily.

It´s obvious necessary that the decoder runs to 0-255 levels, where 16 is gray black and 235 is gray white. The display must be able to work to 0-255 levels, but must be calibrated for make the conversion 16->0 black level and 235->255 white level, creating the levels BTB and WTW. This is the ONLY correct way ¿ok?


The correct way is a matter of dispute on PCs, but I look at it like this: the original video is in 16-235, where 16 is full black, 235 is full white, and anything outside that is not intended to be seen. If you connect a DVD player/tivo/Bluray to your TV, it will not expand this, it will just send it straight through in 16-235.

For PCs, some people like an expansion to 0-255, because that's what the rest of the desktop uses, which particularly matters for photos and so on. However, doing this expansion _automatically_ is, in my opionion at least, completely idiotic, especially for cards that are quite obviously aimed at the HTPC market.


I have not understood well yet if the ATI, in HD, runs at the 0-255 video levels (correct) or make the conversion 16->0/235->255 (ones call to this expansion, other contraction and becomes confused) Somebody can clarify it?

The official Vista drivers do this:

HD: original is 16-235, but it's expanded automatically to 0-255. There is absolutely nothing you can do about this.

SD: original is 16-235, it is not expanded.

Thus you have different levels for SD and HD - in practice this means they have considerably different contrast and brightness, so one will look fine, and the other will look terrible.

The only way to make this consistent is by setting the registry value usebt601csc to 1, which expands SD also - this is what my tweaked 79 drivers do. You then have both SD and HD at 0-255, or you can reverse the expansion via brightness16, contrast86 in CCC, which would bring them both back to 16-235.


Rick: yes, anything outside 16-235 is lost in the expansion. Ideally we'd have no expansion at all (or at least optional), but from all the tests I've done it's not making any difference. Perhaps the scaling/deinterlacing these days is good enough it doesn't need any beyond-black or beyond-white.

Rick: yes, anything outside 16-235 is lost in the expansion. Ideally we'd have no expansion at all (or at least optional)


Precisely why this is a bad idea. I am running with a 2600Pro and you can see from the HD DVE that they whites and blacks are crushed. I did not set my TV for anything special so I think this may cause problems more often than not.

- Rich

Precisely why this is a bad idea. I am running with a 2600Pro and you can see from the HD DVE that they whites and blacks are crushed.

Sure, but it's only crushing anything outside (original) 16-235, which isn't intended to be seen anyway.

I did some SD tests with screenshots of original DVD material, then the same expanded by usebt601csc and recontracted by CCC 16/86, and the two look the same if you flick between them. Checking pixels there are minute changes, but even zooming in and flicking between the two, I couldn't see the difference despite knowing exactly where the different pixel was.

Obviously I can't do an identical test with HD because there's no option to stop expansion in the first place, but 75% colour ramps show it's maintaining the values in the same way.

this thread is HUGE, my apologies if this was asked and responded to previously

What software do you use to check hardware acceleration when viewing video files?

I did some SD tests with screenshots of original DVD material, then the same expanded by usebt601csc and recontracted by CCC 16/86, and the two look the same if you flick between them. Checking pixels there are minute changes, but even zooming in and flicking between the two, I couldn't see the difference despite knowing exactly where the different pixel was.
As far as I understant this is one of the rare things done correctly in drivers. Levels expansion is done in the same step as ProcAmp (which you can control in CCC or in VMR9 configuration dialog). Thats why no detail is lost during this reverting.

STEP 1 – REGISTRY CHANGE
You can use the modified drivers from #1709 onward, or take the risk yourself and manually make the related change in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{V ideo Card GUID}\0000\UMD\DXVA\ adding the string value UseBT601CSC set to 1.

Folders UMD and DXVA does not exist in my XP environment. All other tweaks are done in 0000 directly. Are you sure to create new key-folders?

The official Vista drivers do this:

HD: original is 16-235, but it's expanded automatically to 0-255. There is absolutely nothing you can do about this.

SD: original is 16-235, it is not expanded.

Yes, the different treatment for SD and HD was already clear. Nevertheless, now is when I understand what makes ATI with the HD: it turns 16->0 and 235->255, clipping WTW and BTB, just as it does the classic overlay. Good idea for a display calibrated for PC use. Bad idea for a display calibrated for Cinema use. Mmmm...
the original video is in 16-235, where 16 is full black, 235 is full white, and anything outside that is not intended to be seen. If you connect a DVD player/tivo/Bluray to your TV, it will not expand this, it will just send it straight through in 16-235.
More correct it would be to say: original video is in 0-255, where 16 is treated like 0 output IRE and 235 like 100 output IRE. In fact i must not have said that my TV is fit to turn 16->0, but fit to treat 16 like 0 Ire, which causes that it does not need two calibrations to see video from the PC or from a standalone player. Only one detailing, I believe that already we have understood all what we mean each one

this thread is HUGE, my apologies if this was asked and responded to previously

What software do you use to check hardware acceleration when viewing video files?

What do you wanna check? Riva Tuner works with the new ATI cards to check the GPU % and temps, but the latest CCC also does this, albeit very primitively, so it's probably better to still use Riva Tuner. Alas, the nVidia cards don't report GPU %, I haven't found a program that can extract this info from them.

More correct it would be to say: original video is in 0-255, where 16 is treated like 0 output IRE and 235 like 100 output IRE.

Perhaps, but convention (here at least, probably elsewhere) is to use the terminology "16-235" to refer to ITU-R standard video levels (1-254 range with 16 nominal black and 235 nominal white).

However I must point out that IRE has no meaning in digital context, IRE is a relative measurement of voltage. In the US 0 IRE means 0 Vdc, and 100 IRE mean 716 mVdc.

Perhaps, but convention (here at least, probably elsewhere) is to use the terminology "16-235" to refer to ITU-R standard video levels (1-254 range with 16 nominal black and 235 nominal white).
Of course. That is the terminology, but I talked about to which this means behind the words, so that this subject does not confuse more.
BTW, I´m convinced that Ati will fix the HD bug very soon. It´s a very anti-marketing bug.

EDIT: behind the words...and behind the digital context

My only point is, if you start calling 16-235, 0-255 it will just cause more confusion, and calling 16-235 "0-255 with black at 16 and white at 235" is just overly wordy and isn't any less ambiguous than 16-235.

Folders UMD and DXVA does not exist in my XP environment. All other tweaks are done in 0000 directly. Are you sure to create new key-folders?

Really that's written for Vista. I was guessing that XP worked similarly. I now have an XP install saved on True Image, but I seem to get similar results to what Rick Guynn was saying.

First off it appears that the Avivo Video picture controls in CCC do not work like Vista. I was just trying to get back to 16-235 in XP by only the registry change and the CCC avivo settings, but I couldn't get it to happen. It didn't quickly look like a Dword or string in the 0000 and 0001 changed anything. If it did, then the Avivo Video setting still doesn't seem to work the same as Vista. I think Rick was using player setting to get back to studio levels, so you might read what he was changing if you're looking for a workaround.

My only point is, if you start calling 16-235, 0-255 it will just cause more confusion, and calling 16-235 "0-255 with black at 16 and white at 235" is just overly wordy and isn't any less ambiguous than 16-235.
I use and i´m going to continue using the expression 16-235 to talk about video levels. The other is the concepts that I think simultaneously that I speak, not to forget that life beyond the 16 and of the 235 exists, although we do not see it…BTB and WTW are like aliens...:eek:;)

I''ve found a little more detail about expansion not happening btw. Turns out it's not hardware acceleration in VMR9 that causes expansion, it's mixer mode. You can stop it expanding by disabling this in VMR9 renderless (not possible in VMR9 windowed I think). This disables all color controls in CCC as well, so looks like it's basically screwing the routine within the drivers that causes >720 to be expanded. Quite possibly zoomplayer or others might not have this on by default.

ps MPC allows you to disable VMR9 mixermode. In graphedit mixermode is not used for standard VMR9 (so no expansion), but you can enable it by going to procamp under vmr9 settings, moving any of the sliders, then defaulting them back. Similarly, the CCC colour controls don't work until you do this, because you're not in mixermode yet.
Hmmmm... I've different results on my XP machine with a 2600Pro, Catalyst 7.8 and MPC. It makes no difference for me if I disable the mixermode or not. I'm always having expansion, regardless of settings. The CCC brightness/contrast controls only work for me with Overlay and in VMR7 windowed mode. They do not work in any VMR9 mode (I tried every possible combination) and they also don't work in VMR7 renderless. I've tried both ffdshow software decoder and Cyberlink h264 hardware accelerated decoding. Makes no difference for me.

So currently I didn't find any way to get rid of the expansion... :(

I propose the death penalty for codec packs creator.... :)

To be fair, we'll have to get a DNA sample from the codec pack.

Anyway, which is the last version of cyberlink h.264 direct show filter knew to fully support new ati 2x00 series or nvidia 8x000.
thanks a lot.

I'm not sure what you're asking. Do you mean the most recent or the first version of PowerDVD to support the h.264 filter with Avivo? I think its been part of PowerDVD since they started supporting bluray and HD DVD.

Hmmmm... I've different results on my XP machine with a 2600Pro, Catalyst 7.8 and MPC. It makes no difference for me if I disable the mixermode or not. I'm always having expansion, regardless of settings. The CCC brightness/contrast controls only work for me with Overlay and in VMR7 windowed mode.

Oh, that's a shame :-( Does usebt606csc=1 affect SD?

I guess your only option is to complain to ATI their colour controls are broken. It's unusual that XP drivers are buggier than Vista though, it's normally the other way round.

Of course. That is the terminology, but I talked about to which this means behind the words, so that this subject does not confuse more.
BTW, I´m convinced that Ati will fix the HD bug very soon. It´s a very anti-marketing bug.

Do you have inside information that a Fix is coming?

- Rich

i posted this in an nvidia thread, but thought i'd take it direct to ATI 2x00 owners.

one of the problems plaguing some of us today is the HW acceleration of h264/x264 encoded matroska (.mkv) files. the problem lies in the fact that the PowerDVD decoder will not accelerate .mkv's.

A tomshardware review (http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/24/hd_2600_and_geforce_8600/page8.html) compared CPU utilization between an ATI 2600 and an Nvidia 8600, and found that ATI's UVD performed well with HA via Intervideo while Nvidia's VP2 did not.

Does anyone know if you can get HA of h264/x264 .mkv files using the Intervideo decoder and an ATI 2x00?

edit: seems that WinDVD is not very well thought of due to its bugs so perhaps this is not a solution afterall.

What do you wanna check? Riva Tuner works with the new ATI cards to check the GPU % and temps, but the latest CCC also does this, albeit very primitively, so it's probably better to still use Riva Tuner. Alas, the nVidia cards don't report GPU %, I haven't found a program that can extract this info from them.


Thank for the response

Oh, that's a shame :-( Does usebt606csc=1 affect SD?
I haven't tried yet because I've stopped watching any SD content. So all I need is proper HD playback.

I guess your only option is to complain to ATI their colour controls are broken. It's unusual that XP drivers are buggier than Vista though, it's normally the other way round.
Should I post another bug report? Or is there a possibility to add my "vote" to an already existing bug report?

Should I post another bug report? Or is there a possibility to add my "vote" to an already existing bug report?

If your previous one was about HD expansion, I'd say post another - colour controls are a separate issue.

by all means post another bug report about any issues you have until they fix it, only way the crap will get fixed :D they always respond to my reports saying stuff like i'm the only one reporting it so its not a problem widespread enough to get immediate attention..

Do you have inside information that a Fix is coming?

- Rich

No, only the market logic guides me. 2600/24000 are not gamers card. My 8800GTS 320M is even weak for actual games to actual resolutions. Its market is the HTPC. Any problem of levels is very serious for HTPC. The famous problem of the VMRCCCSStatus in Nvidia made run red rivers, and was a less important problem, because it was the inverse problem. Perhaps by the subject Vmrccc Ati has chosen these default settings for its drivers, but thanks to forums like this one, will be noticed of their error. It is only my hope, because I am wishing to buy the MSI HD2600xt Diamond.

EDIT they always respond to my reports saying stuff like i'm the only one reporting it so its not a problem widespread enough to get immediate attention.. This makes me lose that hope :mad:

Upgrading from a 7600GS for my Vista Media Center. After installing the 7.8 Catalyst and Avivo converter, I set the decoder using DECCHECK and VMCD as suggested here. Works wonderfully, except for an annoying issue with FF/REW button not working anymore in Media Center. Does anyone have a fix?

BTW, I am using a dual monitor setup and the HD 2600PRO will render smooth video on the secondary monitor -- something that the 7600GS could not do.

Has anyone had any problems with their HDMI audio and powerstrip? I have a 2400XT using Catalyst 7.8 and XP. When powerstrip is not installed, I get sound through HDMI. When it is installed there is no sound. While windows is booting up I hear the first few seconds of the windows start music. Then powerstrip applies a custom resolution and refesh rate and the start music stops and I get no sound.

Has anyone had any problems with their HDMI

Same problem if I apply a custom refresh , 1280x720 59,94.
Works if I use 50/60 refresh , CCC or Powerstrip.
HD2600XT GDDR3 Sapphire , Onkyo TX-SR875.

I haven't tried yet because I've stopped watching any SD content. So all I need is proper HD playback.

I think that some media playback programs offer hardware color control like the Catalyist Avivo Video settings offer in Vista. In KMPlayer it's clearly spelled out that way, but I think other programs do the exact same thing. In http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11457253#post11457253 I think that's what he was doing to get back to studio levels (16-235). He later said http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11487289#post11487289 so my thinking is that for XP users, changing hardware color controls in your media playback software seems like the best option to get back to 16-235.

Then powerstrip applies a custom resolution and refesh rate and the start music stops and I get no sound.

Once you have defined a custom resolution, you can uninstall powerstrip if you don't need it to move the picture. On my TV I just use powerstrip to define the resolution then uninstall it.

Once you have defined a custom resolution, you can uninstall powerstrip if you don't need it to move the picture. On my TV I just use powerstrip to define the resolution then uninstall it.

Thanks alluringreality. I will try this. But I was hoping to use Reclock with Powerstrip to set my HDTV to 48Hz for HDDVD/Blu-Ray, 50Hz for PAL DVDs and 60Hz for NTSC DVDs. Can anyone suggest a solution?

I'm just guessing now, but isn't it possible to change frequency with either CCC's profiles and hotkeys or ATI tray tools? I'm not familiar with PAL, but if you can do 48HZ for HD then why wouldn't you also use it for NTSC film DVDs? Isn't it possible to get rid of the whole 3:2 bit and get back to 24 frames with NTSC DVDs too?

by all means post another bug report about any issues you have until they fix it, only way the crap will get fixed :D they always respond to my reports saying stuff like i'm the only one reporting it so its not a problem widespread enough to get immediate attention..
Ok, will do.

I have the ATI radeon HD 2600XT and am having a serious problem since I installed the card my audio output from all connectors on the PC has stopped. The card is suppossed to support HDMI sound output with the included dongle and when I go to the sound panel the HDMI option for sound output doesn't even show up. I have an HP m7330n and would love any thoughts on a cause. Thanks

Remember the macroblocking corruption (see here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11252168#post11252168)) that I posted about earlier? Nobody mentioned anything about that lately, and I was wondering how the other members were dealing with it. I was just about to disable hardware decoding (the HWUVD_DisableVC1 key), when I though I might check if there was a firmware update on MSI's global site, and there it was, released on 8/28. And yes, it did resolve the issue.

Unfortunately, now I'm noticing sparklies over my 50' DVI cable, and ATI Overdrive shows 600 MHz while idling instead of 110 MHz as before the update. I'll try to underclock it to test if these are related. I'll probably move it over to my desktop again to see if the update resolved the other issues with this board, which is blue screens, mouse freezes, vpu recovers, and such.

Hi,

i have connected two monitors to my Palit 2600xt. I use for both a DVI connection. Both are recognized from CCC and show the correct name. I have created three profiles in CCC: For each single monitor usage one and for using both at the same time in extended mode. But: If i have operated monitor 1 and switch on monitor 2, i activate the dual monitor profile - but the settings are not recovered. I have got a certain adjustment of the monitors, different resolutions and that kind of stuff. But nothing is recovered from the profile.

The same is, when i operate monitor 1 and want to switch off this monitor, but switch on monitor 2: I want to activate the profile of monitor 2 to get this working and, with that, monitor 1 is disabled. This also dont work at all. The monitors are not switched at all.

Is there another good profile manager out there, or can i solve these problems??

Once you have defined a custom resolution, you can uninstall powerstrip if you don't need it to move the picture. On my TV I just use powerstrip to define the resolution then uninstall it.

That is right for the resolution, but not for the frequency. My monitor is able to playback @75Hz@highest res (this is advertised) but dont shows that frequency in CCC. But: If i use Powerstrip it is possible to adjust....

Can someone post a howto for XP users how we can get rid of the clipping problem? @Rick: Sorry, i have not understand the post how did you get rid of the problem...

In case you havent noticed, there is a new official bios update for Asus eah2600xt series using Samsung ram on Asus download section.

I've updated my card, but havent had the time for testing to see if there is any stability changes.

DJ79: I too seem to have lost the auto underclock feature, though i havent tried to uninstall CCC or re install windows, i think i'll try that when Ati's new official CCC drivers appear later this month.

Can someone post a howto for XP users how we can get rid of the clipping problem? @Rick: Sorry, i have not understand the post how did you get rid of the problem...

I am not sure why the color controls in the CCC don;t do it, it may have somethign to do with ZoomPlayer Overriding CCC. At any rate, if you have a player with color controls (even PowerDVDs controls seem to work) then you should be able to do what AR and Alfster have been talking about.

What I did was to use Paint.net (any image editing program that can analyze pixel colors will work) and Zoomplayer. Then I used the file that Arfster posted up, which is high-def greyscale ramp and started doing a little bit of an iterative process. I take a snapshot, examine it in Paint.net. Depending on what the values are at what is supposed to be video black (16) and video white (235), I use the color controls within ZoomPlayer to adjust contrast (white level) and brightness (black level) depending on whther what I read in Paint.net was high or low. Repeat this process until your values read in Paint.net are 16 and 236 for black and white.

Then I use the patterns in DVE (specifically Title 12, chapter 2 I think) to adjust the desktop brightness value according to the instructions (basically until the -4% bar disappears and you can barely see the +2% bar). Then I go back to the ramp patter (chapter 12 or 14 I think) and adjust desktop contrast until the video white is about equal to the adjacent bar (whiter than white) and back off a couple of steps so that it is distinctly different then that bar.

I set this desktop configuration up as a profile in CCC and hotkey it with ctrl+alt+v for when I am want to watch video. Otherwise I have another 'normal' profile set up with a hotkey of ctrl+alt+d. So I can easily switch back and forth.

The only other 'special' thing would be to use the 'UseBT..." (I don;t remember the whole key name) thing mentioned earlier in the thread. This causes SD to expand just as HD does so you don;t have to have multiple color profiles set up in your app as well as desktop profiles.

That's the best that I can explain it.

Rick, thanks for this guide. Have understand now in principle. But: what is DVE?

And in principal: I have read that nvidia had similar problems in their product a long time ago, but have fixed it in the newer generation. Do you think it is a driver thing or may it implemented in hardware and can not be fixed?

Further to my earlier post about not getting any output to my projector from my 2600pro card. Ive found that when i use a 3 metre cable between the DVI or HDMI outputs on the 2600 and my projector's hdmi input, it works fine. But when using my 10 metre cable i get nothing - not even a bios post screen. This 10m cable works fine with my old 6600gt card. I can only conclude that the signal levels on the dvi and hdmi 2600pro outputs are so low that the projector doesnt recognise them once they get through the longer cable.

Rick, thanks for this guide. Have understand now in principle. But: what is DVE?
DVE = Digital Video Essentials a disc that helps you calibrate your video & sound system. There is a NTSC, PAL and HD version.

Just to let you know. Someone has alerted me to the fact that on 24th August Microsoft released an EVR patch for jerky playpack in Windows Vista with Interlacing enabled. I have not installed the fix yet but it does replace the EVR dll with a newer version.

I have had a PC in my theater for a couple of years for home automation applications. I am ready to start using the computer for some DVD playback. I am interested in the ATI cards because of the lower CPU usage on my machine.

I have been following this thread for weeks and have read every post, but it has made me scared to pull the trigger and order a card (proably the 2600pro). I am really only worried about SD DVD playback for now but will add HDDVD/Blu-Ray playback over the next 6 months. Is the ATI the right choice for me?

By the way, I know that Arfster released a set of 7.9 based drivers for Vista, but is there a set of tweaked 7.9 drivers for XP?

I really appreciate all the great information!

My Sapphire 2400pro is going back
Had enough of the video line tearing and constant VPU crash and recovers

A stupid question: Is this the color clipping problem?

intence posted it in thread number 482 (see attachment)

this is what i get and it is very annoying... It is only in red colors. How can i get rid of it?

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

Hi guys! I need help...i think this is the best place to get it. I have a ATI Radeon HD 2600Pro, i installed it,PC monitor is connected to one DVI,all fine, on second DVI with DVI-HDMI cable I connected my HDTV LCD Phillips PF3321, and its not recronised by card,CCC,if i force to detect it on LCD i get No input signal like before(cables checked), i have latest drivers,iam on XP SP2. I had no problems with my previous card Radeon 9600. What could it be,please help! :(

Rick, thanks for this guide. Have understand now in principle. But: what is DVE?

And in principal: I have read that nvidia had similar problems in their product a long time ago, but have fixed it in the newer generation. Do you think it is a driver thing or may it implemented in hardware and can not be fixed?

It's definitely a driver issue. Whether they will get fixed or not... who knows?

This workaround seems fine. It's funny that I was ignorant of the issue when using ZoomPlayer, and now I can't believe I was watching my recorded HD like that. Watching HD on PDVD was never a problem, because using the color controls in there seems to accomplish the same thing as I ended up doing with ZoomPlayer.

Hi guys! I need help...i think this is the best place to get it. I have a ATI Radeon HD 2600Pro, i installed it,PC monitor is connected to one DVI,all fine, on second DVI with DVI-HDMI cable I connected my HDTV LCD Phillips PF3321, and its not recronised by card,CCC,if i force to detect it on LCD i get No input signal like before(cables checked), i have latest drivers,iam on XP SP2. I had no problems with my previous card Radeon 9600. What could it be,please help! :(

Starting with the 7.8 drivers, I've only been able to get the DVI-to-HDMI conversion to work on the first DVI port.

Either try swapping your plugs to different DVI ports on the card, or possibly go back to the 7.7 drivers.

Starting with the 7.8 drivers, I've only been able to get the DVI-to-HDMI conversion to work on the first DVI port.

Either try swapping your plugs to different DVI ports on the card, or possibly go back to the 7.7 drivers.

I tried,still no luck. Maybe i have to give it try with PowerStrip,to lock output resolution to 1024x768 since my HDTV accept only this resolution from computer? It accept video resolution up to 1080i, but computer resolution up to 1024x768,stupid,but my HD movies looked excelent thru my last card Radeon 9600.

EDIT:

From Manual:

Computers formats:
- Resolution (640 x 480) Refresh rate (60, 67, 72, 75Hz)
- Resolution (800 x 600) Refresh rate (56, 60, 72, 75Hz)
- Resolution (1024 x 768) Refresh rate (60, 67, 72, 75Hz)

Video formats:
- Resolution (640 x 480p) Refresh rate (2Fh)
- Resolution (720 x 576p) Refresh rate (2Fh)
- Resolution (1280 x 720p) Refresh rate (3Fh)
- Resolution (1920 x 1080i) Refresh rate (2Fh)

Hey, does no one know an answer of the problem? In another forum one posted, he had never seen that at his 2600xt

Colorvibrance and co are already zero...

Here is another shot of the problem

http://www.dvbviewer.info/forum/uploads/monthly_09_2007/post-34555-1188994256_thumb.jpg

Colorvibrance and co are already zero...
Have you already modified all those registry keys like TRDenoise etc?

Hey, does no one know an answer of the problem? In another forum one posted, he had never seen that at his 2600xt

Colorvibrance and co are already zero...

Here is another shot of the problem

http://www.dvbviewer.info/forum/uploads/monthly_09_2007/post-34555-1188994256_thumb.jpg

This is too obvious, but have you checked that you are using 32bit color?

- Rich

Hey, does no one know an answer of the problem? In another forum one posted, he had never seen that at his 2600xt

Colorvibrance and co are already zero...

Here is another shot of the problem

http://www.dvbviewer.info/forum/uploads/monthly_09_2007/post-34555-1188994256_thumb.jpg

I had the same problem with a Saphire 2600XT and the MSI passive 2600pro. I tired CCC 7.7 and 7.8. Everything looked fine in media player and VLC - just Media Center had the issue. I was using the ATI DVD decoder and switched to Nvida and the problem was STILL there. As a last resort I turned off Hardware Acceleration in the Nvida control panel and it's gone. ?

Seems that Media Center and Media Player using different settings for hardware acceleration. The ATI decoder has no UI to select or deselected these things so of course I couldn't try (unless there's a reg setting I don't know about).

Anyway it may not be the best "fix" but it works. The downside is higher CPU usage especially while watching an HD broadcast.

I tried,still no luck. Maybe i have to give it try with PowerStrip,to lock output resolution to 1024x768 since my HDTV accept only this resolution from computer? It accept video resolution up to 1080i, but computer resolution up to 1024x768,stupid,but my HD movies looked excelent thru my last card Radeon 9600.

EDIT:

From Manual:

Computers formats:
- Resolution (640 x 480) Refresh rate (60, 67, 72, 75Hz)
- Resolution (800 x 600) Refresh rate (56, 60, 72, 75Hz)
- Resolution (1024 x 768) Refresh rate (60, 67, 72, 75Hz)

Video formats:
- Resolution (640 x 480p) Refresh rate (2Fh)
- Resolution (720 x 576p) Refresh rate (2Fh)
- Resolution (1280 x 720p) Refresh rate (3Fh)
- Resolution (1920 x 1080i) Refresh rate (2Fh)

Updated to Win Vista....same problem...CCC dont detect my HD LCD...:confused: pLEASE hELP!

why would one consider 2400 when it scores so low in HQV?

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3047&p=3

Have you already modified all those registry keys like TRDenoise etc?

TRDenoise is set to zero and yes, it is set to 32 bit. Had the same suspicion.

Have reanimated my Vista partition and the problem is gone under Vista. Then i have loaded the video in WMP in XP and had also no problems. will analyze the graph tomorrow.

But it is really annoying...

Got a HIS 2400 pro and have the ATI DVI-HDMI adaptor. I have installed the ATI HDMI drivers, selected the ATI HDMI option in control panel and also disabled onboard sound but still nothing. Vista says that its working but it isnt.

I have seen a lot of people with this prob on this thread but there doesnt't seem to have been a definitive answer.

Please can someone help me?

it seems like randomly the card just shuts off..and then a couple seconds later turns back on..what is going on here..is there any fix for this?

I was just looking for the MSI Firmware Update on the Global Website but didn't find anything. Do I only get the latest firmware 28/8 by using live Update or where can I get it.

Another question regarding the RegHacks. I use the latest driver from Artsfer (Thank you for this :-) ). For LiveTV I use The DVBViewer in the latest version 3.8. I can switch there betweeen VMR7 / VMR9 and Overlay. Normally I use the Overlay or VMR9 but with this 2600 Card the quality is very poor. Only when I use the VMR7 the quality is excellent. Does somebody here know the reason. I mean I have never used the VMR7 before. Is that just a bug by the DVBViewer. Can someone help please?

Thanks a lot

Alex

Updated to Win Vista....same problem...CCC dont detect my HD LCD...:confused: pLEASE hELP!

Found a problem. Problem was in cable lenght,anyway, PC in my room is connected with 10m DVI-HDMI cable to HD LCD in livingroom,i think card has a "low output signal" or so, because when I connect PC to HDTV with 1.5m cable..boom..i get picture! I cant belive that's was a problem,that sucks,I got to move my PC to living room everytime I want watch a HD movie. :mad: ATI,ATI....:mad:

Found a problem. Problem was in cable lenght,anyway, PC in my room is connected with 10m DVI-HDMI cable to HD LCD in livingroom,i think card has a "low output signal" or so, because when I connect PC to HDTV with 1.5m cable..boom..i get picture! I cant belive that's was a problem,that sucks,I got to move my PC to living room everytime I want watch a HD movie. :mad: ATI,ATI....:mad:
What is your graphic card ? With the dongle and an hdmi/hdmi cable it rules, but when i use a 10m DVI-HDMI cable i haven't signal too:(

What is your graphic card ? With the dongle and an hdmi/hdmi cable it rules, but when i use a 10m DVI-HDMI cable i haven't signal too:(

My card is 2600Pro. Wait a minute,U're saying that i should use DVI-HDMI adapter,and then 10m HDMI-HDMI cabel and then it should work?:confused:

My card is 2600Pro.
Which one ? Sapphire ?

Wait a minute,U're saying that i should use DVI-HDMI adapter,and then 10m HDMI-HDMI cabel and then it should work?:confused:
I works for me.

Which one ? Sapphire ?

PowerColor. MUST be ATI's adapter??

Hi, just want to ask you guys what do you think about that: I have submitted a ticket regarding profile switching. Here is the text:

have connected two monitors to my Palit 2600xt. I use for both a DVI connection. Both are recognized from CCC and show the correct name. I have created three profiles in CCC: For each single monitor usage one and for using both at the same time in extended mode. But: If i have operated monitor 1 and switch on monitor 2, i activate the dual monitor profile - but the settings are not recovered. I have got a certain adjustment of the monitors, different resolutions and that kind of stuff. But nothing is recovered from the profile.

The same is, when i operate monitor 1 and want to switch off this monitor, but switch on monitor 2: I want to activate the profile of monitor 2 to get this working and, with that, monitor 1 is disabled. This also dont work at all. The monitors are not switched at all.


And here comes the answer from ATI. They recommend to use CCC7.7
What do you think of that?

Follow the instructions for a clean removal and install catalyst 7.7.

Remove old ATI software through the add/remove programs list. Use drivercleaner (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745#download) to remove any traces of ATI and ATI CCC.

Catalyst 7.7
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/previous/radeon/radeonxip-cat77-xp.html


Think it is time, that they release 7.9

Or is it another sort of stupid answer dont reading the issue at all?

it seems like randomly the card just shuts off..and then a couple seconds later turns back on..what is going on here..is there any fix for this?

My Sapphire 2400pro returned for VPU crash and recover (shuts off then turns back on) plus line corruption in videos has been tested and pronounced faulty, a replacement should arrive tomorrow. So there is a cure (hopefully) .... return it as faulty.

From everything I have read...for HDMI to work properly, one must use the ATI HDMI adaptor dongle. DVI to HDMI cables will present issues. I know that the dongle works fine with my system...though temporarily I have gone back to VGA until my new receiver arrives.

Also, it will take some convincing to get me to switch from Arfster's 7.7 mod to anther version from ATI. Every other later version seems to disable the nice customization and clocking features of CCC.

Hi, just want to ask you guys what do you think about that: I have submitted a ticket regarding profile switching. Here is the text:


And here comes the answer from ATI. They recommend to use CCC7.7
What do you think of that?


Think it is time, that they release 7.9

Or is it another sort of stupid answer dont reading the issue at all?

I was on CCC 7.7, same problem....If I want to get this to work I must buy dongle and HDMI 10m cable ,I think....Thanks for the help everybody!:)

I did get the sound working on my system. While I was waiting hear back from ATI, I did a clean install and since that time switching the defaults has worked.

I'm not using an ATI DVI to HDMI adapter because I had no interest in sound over HDMI. Not using the ATI adapter may be the reason behind the weirdness.

I did get the sound working on my system. While I was waiting hear back from ATI, I did a clean install and since that time switching the defaults has worked.

I'm not using an ATI DVI to HDMI adapter because I had no interest in sound over HDMI. Not using the ATI adapter may be the reason behind the weirdness.

I have a couple of questions for you. I need to know about the power requirement for this card. I found only one site that lists that info and it says it needs a 400w or greater power supply. Though I read a comment on Newegg that said, though it was said to need more, it was being run on 250w without any problem.

I've read 100's of posts in this, and another, thread and haven't seen the power requirement mentioned.

I've been to the product website HERE (http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=185) and found a link to a PDF about (Important Information for Windows XP & Windows Vista users) (http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/productfiles/Catalogue_HDMI_Sound_output.pdf). It sounds as though you figured out how to switch the default for sound output.

I remember reading somewhere about a month ago an article about how the 5.1 audio was able to be outputed thru the DVI port and transmited to the HDMI in the TV. It seemed to me that any cable with DVI to HDMI would work without a special adapter. I hope this to be the case, since I'm thinking of buying this card just for this feature and I want to use the 25' DVI > HDMI cable I already have.

Got a HIS 2400 pro and have the ATI DVI-HDMI adaptor. I have installed the ATI HDMI drivers, selected the ATI HDMI option in control panel and also disabled onboard sound but still nothing. Vista says that its working but it isnt.

I have seen a lot of people with this prob on this thread but there doesnt't seem to have been a definitive answer.

Please can someone help me?

:(

ARGH!

How many people have gotten the audio feature to work? Besides no audio, how's the PQ?

Please see my post above about power question.

I do not have sound over HDMI. I wanted to send it out of my onboard sound. After researching all of this stuff trying to figure out my problem, I understand the following to be true.

The ATI statement that only cards shipped with the adapter can do DVI to HDMI with sound is apparently false. ATI uses a special DVI to HDMI adapter to allow sound over HDMI. If you use this adapter with any ATI HD 2x00 card, you can get sound over your HDMI cable. (Some dual DVI out cards apparently can only send sound over one.)

You cannot use any other non-ATI spec DVI to HDMI adapter or cable. It won't work.

You can order the adapter from the ATI website, or there is apparently an ATI specific PowerColor adapter that NewEgg carries. There are bound to be other retailers with similar adapters as well. ATI had been out of stock on those adapters. I understand they are back in stock.

HDMI will transport 5.1 or PCM stereo. If you can't hear sound and HDMI is selected as default in the Sound applet (and you are using the ATI adapter), you probably are playing one and have the other selected.

My problem may indicate that using any other cables or adapters than the ATI DVI to HDMI on these cards can mess with the sound. Looking at how some other posters have been having problems with long runs of DVI to HDMI cables showing video, I would recommend that only the ATI spec DVI to HDMI adapter be used with these cards. Of course, YMMV.

Dude.. the 10m cable length with no picture is NOT the card. It's your cable.....you need a pretty darn good cable to go 10m. I would check that first. Given that it does work at 1.5m, that tells me the card is fine.

I just read about monster cable and it ((besides being a ripoff)) is going to start offering different levels of cable to go further distances. I believe the article is over at Anandtech.

-Brian

I did get the sound working on my system. While I was waiting hear back from ATI, I did a clean install and since that time switching the defaults has worked.

I'm not using an ATI DVI to HDMI adapter because I had no interest in sound over HDMI. Not using the ATI adapter may be the reason behind the weirdness.

I also have no interest in sound over HDMI,i want just a picture, and aperently i cant get it with 10m DVI-HDMI cable,with 1.5m cabel no problem. Sound goes thru optical cable to sorround amp. I will try to get picture with non ATI DVI-HDMI adapter and 10m HDMI-HDMI cable, will post results.

Dude.. the 10m cable length with no picture is NOT the card. It's your cable.....you need a pretty darn good cable to go 10m. I would check that first. Given that it does work at 1.5m, that tells me the card is fine.

I just read about monster cable and it ((besides being a ripoff)) is going to start offering different levels of cable to go further distances. I believe the article is over at Anandtech.

-Brian

Cable is fine, i have no problems when i connect same cable to brothers pc with radeon 9600,i get picture on HDTV. I think 2600pro has low output signal or something...weird...9600 is older and i had no problems.

Didn't the cables worked with other cards in both instances? While it is possible, it probably isn't the cable quality in either instance despite the long runs.

After installing the 7.9 vista Biofix drivers I now have sound from my DVI-HDMI cable. Quality sucks, I'm hearing crakling sounds. Anyone else experience this? Have a solution other than buying the adapter. I'm new to this but is there a way to improve standard dvd picture quality? I don't have much HD content at the moment. Thanks

I cancelled my order with ATI, because I called newegg customer service and they're shipping me a free one. They carry it under the Powercolor name. here's the item number: N82E16814999004
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814999004

It should be here in 3 days.

Once again newegg comes through.

So, it's been a while. Did you get your adapter yet?

That Powercolor adapter looks a little different from the ATI model. If the Powercolor one works then why wouldn't any adapter work? LIKE THIS ONE. (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_id=1041902&p_id=2029&seq=1&format=2&style=)

Or a DVI>HDMI cable, for that matter? Supposedly there's something extra special about the adapters included with the cards, but I wonder.

This is soooo confusing. Why would it say this:
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."
on the page under the adapter in question on ATI's site?

I'm wondering if the difference between adapters is about whether they're DVI-D or DVI-I (which is very uncommon for a DVI>HDMI adapter).

Looking to purchase a 2600xt and was wondering if there is a best one?
Should I get one with 256 GDDR4 memory or 512 GDDR3 memory?

I want to hook up my pc to my Mitsubishi Projection TV. I probaly will try going HDMI to a HDMI switcher I have installed now and using with my DirecTV and DVD player, since my TV has a DVI connection.

So, which one on the memory is better and is there a best manufacturer such as Saphire, Powercolor or go with ATI.

Thanks in advance for your help!

So, it's been a while. Did you get your adapter yet?

That Powercolor adapter looks a little different from the ATI model. If the Powercolor one works then why wouldn't any adapter work? LIKE THIS ONE. (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_id=1041902&p_id=2029&seq=1&format=2&style=)

Or a DVI>HDMI cable, for that matter? Supposedly there's something extra special about the adapters included with the cards, but I wonder.

This is soooo confusing. Why would it say this:
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."
on the page under the adapter in question on ATI's site?

I'm wondering if the difference between adapters is about whether they're DVI-D or DVI-I (which is very uncommon for a DVI>HDMI adapter).

Can't say why ATI says sound over HDMI won't work with the other cards. I assume they don't want to support it.

If I recall correctly, it is the ATI website that says why the other adapters don't work. According to whereever I read it, it has to do with the pins. I will try to find the info on that, but I believe it is under ATI Support for the 2900.

I now have one of each adapter. I'll test the pins with an ohm meter to see if to see if there is a difference. I'll also hook up my Sapphire 2400 Pro via HDMI to make sure it works. This card does not ship with the adapter but it does say that it supports sound over HDMI on the packaging.

Edit: I should explain further that the reason I assume that ATI doesn't want to support cards shipping without the adapter has something to do with how the card vendors compensate ATI. I don't really know.

OK, I've found it. It is under Support for all 2x00 boards. I've underlined the operative phrase.

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

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

Here is the link:

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894

The stuff on ATI site only talks about Vista , does anyone know if the audio over HDMI works on XP?

If so can you explain how you got it to work , my card does not show as a audio decive anywhere.

Nars, there are audio drivers needed for XP. ATI uses the Windows driver in Vista. The audio drivers are here:

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/hdmiaudio-xp.html

Does anyone have an XP version of Arfster's tweaked drivers? I would really like to try them out but do not have Vista.

It is going to take me a while to check the differences between the DVI to HDMI adapter pins, but I have checked the sound over HDMI. It works fine on the Sapphire 2400 Pro using the ATI adapter.

If so can you explain how you got it to work , my card does not show as a audio decive anywhere.

I have a Sapphire HD2600XT GDDR3 and ATI DVI/HDMI adapter is included in the package.
Works in XP , you can try also this driver :
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

I am seriously thinking about giving up, on my Sapphire 2400 pro.

Tried several things now, and I stick to the modified 7.6 drivers posted here a month of so ago. 7.7, is not better.

My biggest issues are:

- Computer crashes easy in 50 an 48 hz mode, using the latest powerstrip. Without powerstrip, no way to enable this anyway.

-Mpeg 2, as well HD as SD, is not as good as with my old Nvidia 7600 card....Could be that with Mpeg 2 the computer crashes also.

In 48 hz, Powerdvd with BD/HDDVD, will not work: blocking, green flashes etc

Am I the only one to have this issue? Is there a sollution, or is something wrong with the card?

In 60 hz, everything plays more or less fine.....Just a few blocks a few time in a HDDVD movie with Pwdvd.

My biggest issues are:

- Computer crashes easy in 50 an 48 hz mode, using the latest powerstrip. Without powerstrip, no way to enable this anyway.

-Mpeg 2, as well HD as SD, is not as good as with my old Nvidia 7600 card....Could be that with Mpeg 2 the computer crashes also.


I have also Sapphire 2400 Pro now, my previous card was MSI 2400 Pro which I returned as I got the feeling that it had some kind of incompatibility with my PC. I am running Catalyst 7.8 and have modified registry entries for trdenoise, dxva_detailenhance, colorvibrance and fleshtone, although not necessarily in a correct manner. PowerDVD Ultra is my codec and player together with DVBViewer.

- I am using 50Hz without powerstrip via TV Out to my old CRT TV and via HDMI to projector. No daily crashes with hw accelerated SD broadcast mpeg2.

- mpeg2 quality is okayish excluding saturated red colors, which sometimes clip very annoyingly (see topcasers posts) and some video content which blinks (often red as well). Some SD material also causes jerky playback (often british productions for some odd reason)

I dont have HD drivers so I cant comment on disc playing, but most of the mpeg4 broadcasts seem to be too much for my setup (AMD 64 3200 in XP). Some of that content can be viewed by using least CPU/GPU consuming options in which case the end result looks fabulous still.

I am using 50Hz without powerstrip via TV Out to my old CRT TV and via HDMI to projector. No daily crashes with hw accelerated SD broadcast mpeg2, but hw accelerated HD broadcast viewing doesn't work for some reason.


In CC, my Ruby shows up, different refreshrates (like 30 hz) but not 50 hz, if powerstrip is not installed, I wonder why that should be!

In CC, my Ruby shows up, different refreshrates (like 30 hz) but not 50 hz, if powerstrip is not installed, I wonder why that should be!

Yes, I have also seen 50Hz missing totally from options, but then it somehow appears. Most recently I had to select some option in CCC to show 50Hz, but I don't have my PC here now so I can't check what it was right now. It was above selection for forcing TV detection, I believe.

Yes, I have also seen 50Hz missing totally from options, but then it somehow appears. Most recently I had to select some option in CCC to show 50Hz, but I don't have my PC here now so I can't check what it was right now. It was above selection for forcing TV detection, I believe.

Strange because this works as it should on my Asus x2600xt card(something that did not work on my x1650 card) i can choose from 24Hz, 25iHZ, 29iHZ, 30iHZ, 50Hz, 59Hz and 60HZ, i have only tried the 24Hz option, but that one worked flawless.

Using DVI -> HDMI on a 6meter cable to my 42" LCD TV screen.

My Sapphire 2400pro returned for VPU crash and recover (shuts off then turns back on) plus line corruption in videos has been tested and pronounced faulty, a replacement should arrive tomorrow. So there is a cure (hopefully) .... return it as faulty.
I'm getting this randomly on my Gecube 2400 PRO AGP - but only when it's running at 1080p. The Samsung 1080p TV just loses signal and then comes back again a few seconds later - incredibly frustrating. I cannot get HW acceleration working at 1080p either so I think I stick to 720p until some better drivers come out... I'm running this on an AMD 3200+ so without the HW accel HD-DVD is unusable (perfect in 720p however).

New drivers out on ATI site, look to be genuine 7.9s, build 52447. This link might work:

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=29459

Might not though, to find it manually go to 2400 or 2600, gaming topic named...

737-29459: ATI Radeon HD 2xxx series: Hotfix for Quake Wars Enemy Territories Demo to improve performance


Funny how it's only the gamers that ever get the driver updates, kinda shows you how low priority HTPC stuff is :-(

New drivers out on ATI site, look to be genuine 7.9s, build 52447. This link might work:

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=29459

Might not though, to find it manually go to 2400 or 2600, gaming topic named...

737-29459: ATI Radeon HD 2xxx series: Hotfix for Quake Wars Enemy Territories Demo to improve performance


Funny how it's only the gamers that ever get the driver updates, kinda shows you how low priority HTPC stuff is :-(


It's not all bad. The new Theater drivers in that package reduced the video distortion and whining noise I'd get with any predominantly white screen in NTSC video.

It still won't let me use dual-HDMI, though. What scares me is that I almost suspect that they intentionally disabled this. I tried swapping plugs, and basically, CCC assigns the first device as HDMI, and the second as DVI. If you unplug the first device, it will then reassign the second as HDMI. Then, if you plug the first device back in, it appears as DVI, and the second stays HDMI.

New drivers out on ATI site, look to be genuine 7.9s, build 52447. This link might work:

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=29459

Might not though, to find it manually go to 2400 or 2600, gaming topic named...

737-29459: ATI Radeon HD 2xxx series: Hotfix for Quake Wars Enemy Territories Demo to improve performance


Funny how it's only the gamers that ever get the driver updates, kinda shows you how low priority HTPC stuff is :-(

It's kind of stupid i'd say, i mean the 3d performance of these cards(2400 and 2600) is really bad, and i would guess the majority of those who bought these cards did it for HTPC use.

BTW: Your modified Vista drivers works fine, very good picture quality, though haven't bothered with HW acc, since all of my movies require Haali media splitter.

Had a quick play with the new Vista 7.9, and the only obvious thing is they added a colour temp meter in CCC. Levels expansion is still the same.

Noticed something that was probably there in 7.8: TrDenoise, which defaults to 1 with the standard setup, has a monster hit on performance. With MPEG2 HD and VA deinterlacing forced, my 2600XT is at about 58% or so, but set it to zero and it's at 39%.

On a 2400 that difference could be enormous, but very likely it defaults to 0 for them, otherwise it would completely eat all the GPU power.

What is needed in order to enable the AVIVO GPU decoding of h.264 files? I was playing a .MKV file in Windows Media Player 11, and my CPU usage was up at around 80%! I was using Haali's Media Splitter for playback. I'm pretty sure WMP 11 is compatible with AVIVO, but I guess Haali's Media Splitter is not?

Also, what are you guys using to play .MKV files? I tried getting them in to play in PowerDVD by installing Haali's Media Splitter and re-naming the file to .h264 but it still did not work.
Thanks for any help. :)

What is needed in order to enable the AVIVO GPU decoding of h.264 files?

Cyberlink PDVD 7.3, or the decoder that comes with it.

Doesn't work for most mkvs though, because that decoder doesn't like some (apparently common) encoding option of x264.

Hmm, gonna have to try something else then.

Is there a list somewhere of all the players and decoders compatible with AVIVO?

The list is one decoder long for h264 :-)

The list is one decoder long for h264 :-)

Just the one that comes with PDVD 7.3 I assume? If so, I guess I'm SOL. Is there any place you can download the AVIVO capable h264 decoder and use it on WMP11? Or can I find the decoder somewhere in my installation folder? I have PDVD 7.3, but it will not play .mkv, only WMP11 and VLC will.

All I'm trying to do is get GPU decoding through my 2600XT while playing h.264 .MKV files. Because right now my CPU load is at 90%, and the video playback is VERY poor.

Just the one that comes with PDVD 7.3 I assume? If so, I guess I'm SOL. Is there any place you can download the AVIVO capable h264 decoder and use it on WMP11?

Urrrm, you've got PDVD already you said? Just run WMP and it'll use it.


Or can I find the decoder somewhere in my installation folder? I have PDVD 7.3, but it will not play .mkv, only WMP11 and VLC will.

All I'm trying to do is get GPU decoding through my 2600XT while playing h.264 .MKV files. Because right now my CPU load is at 90%, and the video playback is VERY poor.

Not possible, sorry. The only answer is to mail Cyberlink and ask them to include mkv support.

Urrrm, you've got PDVD already you said? Just run WMP and it'll use it.



Not possible, sorry. The only answer is to mail Cyberlink and ask them to include mkv support.

Not even possible if I play the .mkv through WMP11 using the PDVD Cyberlink is it? Since the problem is with the decoder itself not working with most .mkv's, not a problem with the player correct?

correct - the problem is not with the player. you'll experience the same results with all directshow players: WMP, Zoom Player, MPC, etc.

PDVD directshow filter will hardware accelerate some 720P .mkv's, but not all. i'm guessing that there is an x264 setting in some of them that PDVD does not like.

i've been able to use PDVD directshow filter for 1080P x264 .mkv's, but HA doesn't seem to work. PDVD regresses into SW decode mode.

I tried getting them in to play in PowerDVD by installing Haali's Media Splitter and re-naming the file to .h264 but it still did not work.
Thanks for any help. :)

try changing the extension from .mkv to .mp4. sometimes PDVD will be able to play/accelerate them this way. when you install haali, make sure to leave the box ticked to have haali handle .mp4's as well.

Thanks to those who suggested registry tweaks and the 7.7 Catalyst drivers.

After having major problems playing HD-DVD to a 1920x1440p72 VGA monitor with a Gigabyte 8500GT, C2D 2.8GHz under XP (CPU maxed in PowerDVD 2911 Best quality and jaggies in Normal quality because no HA), I changed to a Gigabyte HD2400Pro with 7.7 Catalyst.

Suddenly I can play HD-DVD with HA and 5% CPU.

However:

1. I can not get 72Hz refresh on the Mits 2060u monitor in CCC no matter what I do and 75Hz is the closest, so I get some juddering. This has been a consistent problem with ATI from a 7500 to 9250 to X300 to 2400 and I wish I knew why they prevent 72Hz at HD resolutions as it's supported at all <HD resolutions. Nvidia supported 72Hz straight out of the box for all resolutions, no worries.

2. PQ on the 2400 looks a bit flat compared to the 8500GT. In Best quality mode, the 8500GT produced highly detailed, 3D looking images with great contrast, but the 2400 looks soft in comparison. I've turned detailenhance back on, but it doesn't make any difference. Even playback in MPC looks softer and lacking in punch than what I have experienced with Nvidia.

3. Whilst HD-DVD main feature plays smoothly, if I attempt to play a VC-1 extra (such as a making of featurette), I get a 1fps slideshow. Switching back to the main feature and it's all smooth. Curiously, in windowed mode, playback of the extra is smooth, although I notice combing artifacts. I've tried setting Avivo de-interlace to vector adaptive, right the way down to weave, but it doesn't make any difference to full screen playback. I have PowerDVD set to no deinterlace. I don't seem to have an issue with mpeg2 extras. At first glance, it appears ATI has a problem with interlaced VC-1, but I should probably test other VC-1 extras too. I don't recall the 8500GT having issues.

4. Whenever closing an MPC or PowerDVD window, the desktop flickers and has lots of thin horizontal lines running through it.

5. Before actually playing an HD-DVD title, or switching between title, menus and extras, CPU load jumps to 50%+ and even gets to over 90% briefly, before dropping back to around 5% once the main feature starts playing. It looks like HA is taking a while to implement when switching between elements and it briefly drops back to software processing mode.

It's so incredibly annoying to have fantastic PQ with Nvidia, but an inability to properly playback HD-DVD movies without maxing the CPU, contrasted with ATI which can playback HD-DVD movies smoothly at low CPU, but has soft PQ and issues with extras and refresh rate support.

Does anyone have any suggestions on overcoming the issues I'm experiencing with the 2400Pro before I dump it for the 8500GT and live with jaggies until Nvidia issue XP acceleration?

UPDATE: Smooth playback of interlaced VC-1 extras only with no HA and only if Video Quality=Normal. I've also noticed that menus are more sluggish with HA enabled and the background images jerky; when no HA, everything is much smoother. PQ with no HA and Video Quality=Normal is slightly reduced and looking very soft and blurry. I can't call my 2400Pro experience for HD playback particularly good so far.

For the love of all that is good, I can't get my HD-DVDs to go full screen 1080p with PowerDVD. I'm having the same downscaling problem that others are having with black borders around all 4 sides.

I tried the VForceMaxResSize fix, but I don't know if I'm doing it right. I can only add a "hexadecimal" or "decimal" value to the dword, so whenever I enter 2800000 it ends up looking like some different number. Here's what I mean

http://www.directdk.com/temp/VForceMaxResSize0000_2800000_cropped.JPG

Am I doing this right? I tried it in the 0001 folder too but no go. Do I need to install or uninstall anything before I do this? Do I also need to restart everytime I add or change something in the registry?

Here is my current setup:

WinXP
VisionTek Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB AGP
P4, 3.4
Xbox 360 Drive
Dell 2407WFP (HDCP compliant, DVI)
1 gig RAM
CCC 7.8
PowerDVD 7.3.3104a.1

Please somebody save me!!! I've been at this thing for 3 weeks now! I bought a new video card, a new processor, new RAM, and I still can't get it to run in full screen! :(

For the love of all that is good, I can't get my HD-DVDs to go full screen 1080p with PowerDVD. I'm having the same downscaling problem that others are having with black borders around all 4 sides.

I tried the VForceMaxResSize fix, but I don't know if I'm doing it right. I can only add a "hexadecimal" or "decimal" value to the dword, so whenever I enter 2800000 it ends up looking like some different number. Here's what I mean


Am I doing this right? I tried it in the 0001 folder too but no go. Do I need to install or uninstall anything before I do this? Do I also need to restart everytime I add or change something in the registry?

Here is my current setup:

WinXP
VisionTek Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB AGP
P4, 3.4
Xbox 360 Drive
Dell 2407WFP (HDCP compliant, DVI)
1 gig RAM
CCC 7.8
PowerDVD 7.3.3104a.1

Please somebody save me!!! I've been at this thing for 3 weeks now! I bought a new video card, a new processor, new RAM, and I still can't get it to run in full screen! :(

first click decimal, then input 2800000, then quit regedit, and reboot.
if 2800000 doesn't work for you, try use 0

first click decimal, then input 2800000, then quit regedit, and reboot.
if 2800000 doesn't work for you, try use 0

Hey BigTony. Well THANK YOU SO MUCH. IT WORKED!!! :) Finally my goodness I have a full screen picture!!! Playback is flawless too, no stutters whatsoever!

But truth be told, I'm not entirely sure I'm really seeing a 1080p picture. I popped in King Kong, Bourne Identity, Heroes, and 300 HD-DVDs, and it's pretty, but it's not nearly as pretty as watching Pirates of the Caribbean on my Blu-Ray setup (PS3, hooked directly to my monitor's DVI... same as where my PC is hooked up to).

On the other hand, I popped in Kung Fu Hustle and House of Flying Daggers Blu-Rays into my PS3, and those weren't too impressive either.

So... that brings me to 2 questions:

1. Is there any way I can confirm what kind of picture I'm really seeing on these HD-DVDs on my monitor (ie 1080p or is it still being downscaled, and then just stretched to fit)?
2. For those that have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray setups, are the Pirates of the Caribbean Blu-Rays just REALLY good transfers and are simply inherently better looking than all the HD-DVDs I listed above?

Thanks for the help guys and gals!

1. Is there any way I can confirm what kind of picture I'm really seeing on these HD-DVDs on my monitor (ie 1080p or is it still being downscaled, and then just stretched to fit)?
The opening credits (black art-deco font on light yellow background) of King Kong is probably a good indicator of downscaling and then stretching: if it happens, you'll probably get jaggies on edges or similar artifacts.

Hello,
Spent 3 hours last night trying to figure out why I got a black screen on my Benq241wz when trying to use 1920*1200 resolution. Finally when I tried the vga port instead of DVI it worked.. So I tried the Benq DVI with another computer (old ati radeon900pro graphivs card) and it worked fine. So it seems my 2400pro has problems with outputting 1920*1200 on the DVI port? Anyone know if this is a bug or if the card simply isn't designed to do it?

Motherboard: Asus p5k deluxe
Graphics card: Asus EAH 2400Pro
Monitor: Benq 241wz
VGA Driver: Tried Catalyst7.8 from ati, driver 8.391 and 8.401 from Asus with no luck.

1920*1200 works with vga cable but not with DVI.. Why?
1920*1200 works with DVI on another computer (Radeon 9000 pro gfx card).

Thank you in advance,
/D

For the love of GOD!. I am searching for the Registry Changes in XP that allow Mpeg2 HW Acceleration. I don't have a UMD Folder anywhere in my Registry. Do I have to install something first to get that entry there?

Its amazing, I've seen several people ask the same question and nobody will stop talking about F'in Vista for 2 seconds to help us out with this!

1) For the 2400 only, mpeg2 HD hardware acceleration doesn't work, and neither does European 25/50fps 1080i50. Set these strings to zero:

HKR, "UMD\DXVA",DXVA_NOHDDECODE (add if it isn't there)
HKR, "UMD\DXVA",DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264
HKR, "UMD\DXVA",DXVA_Only24FPS1080MPEG2
HKR, "UMD\DXVA",DXVA_Only24FPS1080VC1



Where exactly does this go in the XP registry? I don't know what HKR is?? HKeyRoot? I searched my Reg for anything with UMD in it and I got ZIP!. Notta, nothing.

Thanks!

How come I don't have any of this in my Registry?:confused:


I am talking about these:

XP users may try :

DL .. "findreg "

This little app will determine the right string of your HD 2400 pro

Regedit >HKEY _Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\

Now find the correspondent string that will look like this..... 68AACE4......

scroll down until you find :

DXVA_Only24FPS1080H264
DXVA_Only24FPS1080MPEG2
DXVA_Only24FPS1080VC1

change string from 1 to 0

__________

Right click ..enter : New DWORD

DXVA_NOHDDECODE ..........0
SORTOverrideFPSCaps ..........0
TRDenoise .............................0

HD 2400:

With new Cyberlink patch and beta 7.6 ( in this thread) :

H.264 DXVA

1080 i MPEG2 DXVA >20 Mbit @ 9 % CPU

Hardwarechanges:


I had to uninstall the latest Cyberlink patch and put back the latest full installation 2911, as on full screen I had 4/3 on my 16/9 display, once the movie was started in PWDVD (this in every rr).

Then I installed Powerstrip and put my refreshrate at 47.95. When I play movies in let's say KM player, everything is fine. But at this refreshrate in Powerddvd I get all kind of weird green flashes, and pixelisation, that makes it unbearable to watch.

Before the changes it seemed to work. As I came back to the original 2911 version, maybe it is the registry changes that is the reason? If i don't want any jidder, I have to output 47.95, as my Ruby will not accept 23.96....

Hope this is clear.

2. PQ on the 2400 looks a bit flat compared to the 8500GT.

I own an 8600GTS and a 2600XT. They do have different display settings. When running default ATI drivers, I also have different display settings depending on which drivers are being used. If you haven't calibrated your display to the card, then you need to do that. Honestly with the 1080i ATSC recordings I have I can't tell any difference between the cards when they're calibrated to the monitor. I know disks are higher bit-rate, but still flat is a word I would use to describe an uncalibrated signal.

Also, are you getting expansion with the ATI? That might also explain why the cards wouldn't have similar picture quality.

1. Is there any way I can confirm what kind of picture I'm really seeing on these HD-DVDs on my monitor (ie 1080p or is it still being downscaled, and then just stretched to fit)?

www.w6rz.com has vertical and horizontal resolution 1080p patterns that should show if you're getting full resolution. I think they're on the HD DVD disk that can be burned to DVD.


2. For those that have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray setups, are the Pirates of the Caribbean Blu-Rays just REALLY good transfers and are simply inherently better looking than all the HD-DVDs I listed above?


I use a Sony S1 and Toshiba XA2 standalones. I've seen Bourne Identity, the first couple Heros disks, some of the first POTC, and part of Kung Fu Hustle. The last two weren't very interesting to me, but aside from some below-average scenes in Heroes I don't remember noticing picture quality defects in any of those disks.

My RPTV was ISF calibrated and I don't use a super-high contrast for 3d effect, but in general the picture with those should be good. Of course the way most people discuss such things is very subjective and probably has more to do with hardware setup or the style of the photography than the transfer. In Heroes one thing I notice a lot are all the lines in faces, the sort of stuff that doesn't show up on SD.

2. For those that have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray setups, are the Pirates of the Caribbean Blu-Rays just REALLY good transfers and are simply inherently better looking than all the HD-DVDs I listed above?

POTC are not particularly good PQ, many of the shots look soft, the transfer is also misframed. Starship Troopers on BR and King Kong on HD-DVD are about as good as it gets. A lot of the older movies on Blu-Ray encoded in MPEG-4 AVC are also pretty good (Rising Sun, Vertical Limit).

So... that brings me to 2 questions:

1. Is there any way I can confirm what kind of picture I'm really seeing on these HD-DVDs on my monitor (ie 1080p or is it still being downscaled, and then just stretched to fit)?
2. For those that have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray setups, are the Pirates of the Caribbean Blu-Rays just REALLY good transfers and are simply inherently better looking than all the HD-DVDs I listed above?I have the VisionTek 2600pro 512MB AGP, and Happy Feet looks incredible. There is no doubt that it is HD.

I am not sure how many other CGI animation titles are available in HD DVD. However, any modern CGI title would probably be a good test for determining whether you are seeing HD.

-Dave

Where exactly does this go in the XP registry? I don't know what HKR is?? HKeyRoot? I searched my Reg for anything with UMD in it and I got ZIP!. Notta, nothing.


The stuff that in Vista goes in 0000/umd/dxva, instead in XP goes in 0000 - or 0001, depends which DVI you're using. XP needs reboots between settings changes, Vista doesn't.

dxva_nohddecode doesn't exist on any system by default, you have to add it and set to 0 to get MPEG2 HD acceleration. This only affects 2400 cards, the 2600s default it to 0 if it's not in registry.

dxvaonly24fpswhateverthey'recalled exist with 2400 installs in 7.7 and earlier. From 7.8 onwards they removed them from the standard install, and also changed the registry name to vforcesomethingorother. You may not even need to touch those anymore - they only apply to European 1080i50 anyway.

I own an 8600GTS and a 2600XT. They do have different display settings. When running default ATI drivers, I also have different display settings depending on which drivers are being used. If you haven't calibrated your display to the card, then you need to do that. Honestly with the 1080i ATSC recordings I have I can't tell any difference between the cards when they're calibrated to the monitor. I know disks are higher bit-rate, but still flat is a word I would use to describe an uncalibrated signal.

Also, are you getting expansion with the ATI? That might also explain why the cards wouldn't have similar picture quality.
I haven't calibrated the monitor to each card, but I have used the Avivo Brightness & Contrast adjustments suggested to reverse the expansion.

When I say "flat", I mean the ATI offering looks a little soft: there's still a lot of detail but foreground and background seem to be on the same plane and there is no 3D effect. Nvidia in Best quality software mode OTOH just looks incredibly 3D in comparison. This is with Nvidia not calibrated to the monitor either. To me it's like looking at a photograph with one and looking out the window at the scene with the other.

I use King Kong for my common testing. There are scenes near the beginning with Anne Darrow wearing a coat and hat: with Nvidia, you can almost see every fiber texture on the coat and hat surface, but with ATI it's a more uniform texture with very little standing out.

I'm not sure if Nvidia are using detail and contrast enhancement or some other expansion technique, but it sure looks good. I guess I could account for the CPU hit in Best video quality mode, if Cyberlink are using similar filters to those used by ffdshow devotees when enhancing DVD upscaling. Yes, it is artificial, but it does look great.

Interestingly, I get a similar "flat" appearance with Nvidia if I use Haali splitter WMV9 decoder with the King Kong evo, so I reckon it must be PowerDVD enhancing the image in Best mode. Unfortunately, Normal mode produces jaggies so is not ideal either.

It would be useful if Nvidia offered selectable adjustment of the enhancements they are using, so it could be adjusted downwards as required to match the system being used. I can't understand the jaggies in Normal mode, when the source is 1920x1080p and is being displayed 1:1.

Similarly, since the 2400Pro in HA mode only uses around 8% CPU, it would be great if there was a way to include CPU post-processing after the UVD processing block to add enhancement filtering if required.

I came across a post on another Forum, where ATI customers were complaining that ATI seemed to use non-defeatable noise reduction and it caused smearing and loss of texture. What was interesting was the suggestion of adding a TRDenoise registry entry for earlier ATI cards, which was identical to what is being suggested for the 2x00 cards.

As part of the setup of my 2400Pro, I added the TRDnoise registry entry (does the letter case matter?), but it didn't seem to make any difference compared to Nvidia: I still prefer the look of Best quality on the 8500GT in software mode.

I could grudgingly live with the "flatter" look of ATI, but my 2400Pro also has issues playing the extras on 300 HD-DVD: I think the GPU is overloaded (greater computational complexity of the extras? They seem to be VC-1 but show combing so are probably interlaced) when asked to display at 1920x1440p75. If I switch to windowed mode in PowerDVD, the extras play smoothly but have obvious combing distortion: interesting when the main feature plays smoothly in both full screen and windowed (must be something to do with interlaced source?).

Thanks for all of your help Arfster.

My system is a Visiontek 2600 Pro 512mb AGP, running 8.41 catalyst drivers from Visiontek site, PowerDVD 7.3 with 3104 patch, Windows XP SP2 and outputting 1920x1080 to 1080p TV via HDMI. I have an XBOX 360 HDDVD player.

The BD/HD advisor says all system components are set to go (including HDCP). I am having the following issues playing King Kong (my only HDDVD at the moment):

With no registry tweaks
16 bit colour -- Get menus and main movie to work, however they do not fill the screen in full screen
32 bit color -- Menu work (small), however main movie stays black with only sound.

With the VForceMaxResSize set to 2800000 or 0:
16 and 32 bit colour -- menus now work well in full screen!! However, main movie still black with only sound in the background.

Any suggestions?

Thanks a million.

The stuff that in Vista goes in 0000/umd/dxva, instead in XP goes in 0000 - or 0001, depends which DVI you're using. XP needs reboots between settings changes, Vista doesn't.

dxva_nohddecode doesn't exist on any system by default, you have to add it and set to 0 to get MPEG2 HD acceleration. This only affects 2400 cards, the 2600s default it to 0 if it's not in registry.

dxvaonly24fpswhateverthey'recalled exist with 2400 installs in 7.7 and earlier. From 7.8 onwards they removed them from the standard install, and also changed the registry name to vforcesomethingorother. You may not even need to touch those anymore - they only apply to European 1080i50 anyway.

Thank you Arfster for the response..

I have many Entries under "VIDEO" in my registry. Can you clarify exactly where these Reg Tweaks go? Do they go in both 0000 and 0001 under every Video Entry? Mine looks like this:

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/6572/videogh6.jpg

Under every entry there are many that have both a 0000 and a 0001

Again, Thank you very much for your assistance!
B.

Thank you Arfster for the response..

I have many Entries under "VIDEO" in my registry. Can you clarify exactly where these Reg Tweaks go?


Do a search and see which has typical ATI keys like colorvibrance - there should be only one under currentcontrolset/control/video (probably others elsewhere though). It'll then have 0000 and 0001 within it, each representing one DVI on your card - within those is where XP puts its tweaks, while Vista has a further subdir umd/dxva within each 0000/0001.

Do a search and see which has typical ATI keys like colorvibrance - there should be only one under currentcontrolset/control/video (probably others elsewhere though). It'll then have 0000 and 0001 within it, each representing one DVI on your card - within those is where XP puts its tweaks, while Vista has a further subdir umd/dxva within each 0000/0001.

Got it!. Now that makes sense!. Thank you once again! :)

I haven't calibrated the monitor to each card

Setting brightness and contrast is the most basic setup possible. Until you set up the display properly, then sure the ATI will look horrible. Neither my Nvidia or ATI match the rest of my TV settings, but the Nvidia is closer.

In playing around with cards there was a setup I found where the Nvidia looked great, far better than the ATI, but it was non-watchable for 1080i. I don't remember which renderer, decoder, and settings it was, because with it the Nvidia couldn't deinterlace without jumping. I suppose that sort of setup might work for 1080p material, but I mainly use my computer for ATSC so it's worthless for me. My impression at the time was that the only reason it looked better was due to how it was handling deinterlacing, but it wasn't smooth so it didn't matter. I'd be interested to hear a setup where the Nvidia looks better, but aside from that one exception I've never found one.

Thank you Arfster for the response..

I have many Entries under "VIDEO" in my registry. Can you clarify exactly where these Reg Tweaks go? Do they go in both 0000 and 0001 under every Video Entry? Under every entry there are many that have both a 0000 and a 0001Here is an easy and exact way to find the right registry branch.

First, go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\VIDEO

Move your cursor over the data for the registry key \\Device\\Video0, or double click on the key.

Note the GUID. Actually, you really only need to note the last few characters. My GUID is:

{9FA854DF-9A00-4662-A3FC-63F881EDB2C9}

Next, go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video

Look for the GUID that matches the GUID you found above. Double click on that GUID and go into the 0000 branch (or the 0001 branch for the second output).

This is were you need to add/modify the registry keys. After making changes, reboot.

-Dave

I read that too, but I think that way of finding your GUID might only apply to XP. I'm not so sure that's how to find your card in Vista. There's not a GUID in Video0 on my Vista computer. My video card GUID was the only one that shows up twice in DEVICEMAP\VIDEO. I currently have my Nvidia card installed and it shows up on Device\Video3 and Device\Video4.

my replacement Sapphire 2400pro arrived.
I no longer get the VPU crash and recover problem
I do get the line tearing in video playback ..... but after about 1hr of use.

I don't think the passive cooling is good enough, am trying it now with a case fan running at 5v sitting on top of the 2400 ..... looks promising so far.

(61+ c without fan, 41+ c with the fan)

Current problems with my MSI 2600XT:

1. After installing ATI video drivers the Realtek motherboard analog audio does not work. Using XP and choosing not to install the audio driver with the ATI video driver also kills the motherboard analog audio.

2. The card kills ATSC channel 34RF. My Nvidia card can kill the channel or have it work depending on resolution.

I read that too, but I think that way of finding your GUID might only apply to XP. I'm not so sure that's how to find your card in Vista. There's not a GUID in Video0 on my Vista computer. My video card GUID was the only one that shows up twice in DEVICEMAP\VIDEO. I currently have my Nvidia card installed and it shows up on Device\Video3 and Device\Video4.You are right, I was referring XP. Sorry for not stating that in my post.

-Dave

Can it be verified that these cards output an analog 1080i picture through the VGA adaptor?
Thanks John

Obviously, it can, as I'm watching HD mpeg2 stream in 1080p right now over DVI-to-VGA adapter from my MSI RX2600 XT with ati 8.401 drivers/avivo decoders. Smooth, fluid, vector-adaptive interleaved (source is mostly 1080i, but might be 720p, doesn't matter). Personally, I just hate all that HDMI/HDCP-compatibility/DRM Big Brother ideas, to ever try

Now, for the love of AV Science god, can someone explain it in details to me, how one turns the mpeg4 hardware acceleration on? In CCC, I couldn't find any indication/switch for it. Well, my HD mpeg2 streams play just fine, but I suspect it's just my PC's CPU horsepower, again (my previous ATi X1300 card was also fine for mpeg2.

The problem is as follows: to render and interleave on 1920x1080p VGA LCD monitor PAFF H.264/AVC 720p/1080i streams (not MBAFF! though folks with DVB-S2 experience might acquire also some useful knowledge lately, so please don't be shy).

The immediate question would be how to configure DVB Dream player (obviously, after all hardware-acceleration-for-mpeg4 tweaks or beta drivers are turned on, and they working are what? configured how?). That is, what directshow video and audio filters support/understand ati hardware mpeg4 acceleration? How do you may also configure VLC player for the same shining result, what extra filter it might need? how one turns off its creepy and very buggy opensource x264 software internal codec?

I use 8.401 drivers with audio part not installed, as 8.383 audio-over-HDMI drivers messed with my regular Realtek onboard sound to the utmost, has anyone invented a trick for these two to co-exist? Maybe mpeg4 video is not accelerated when there's no ati-branded audio codec present? How Cyberlink 7.x decoders/M$ internal mpeg4 decoders might poison my environment, and are there any tweaks, to squish these?

Sorry for the rant, and some may consider it offtopic, but it's a near tragedy: DVBN site is dead for 5 days already, and I don't know where its gurus went. Here, Mr Arfster looks like he knows what he's talking about, and also comes with fast and useful solutions, maybe he could help me?
Thank you in advance

I have an ATI 8500 card I am thinking of replacing, it will not put out 1080i with the VGA adaptor but will with the component adaptor. I am trying to find out if newer ATI cards still work this way. So I would still like to have someone try to get 1080I from the VGA adaptor.
John

Now, for the love of AV Science god, can someone explain it in details to me, how one turns the mpeg4 hardware acceleration on?
You need a decoder that supports it. PowerDVD does, but I'm not sure which others. If you install PowerDVD, I believe you can use the mpeg4 decoder in other applications (although not for mkv sources).

Afster & DPlettner,

Thank you for the help with the Reg Tweaks. Got them entered, rebooted and now my Mpeg2 stuff is working beautifully with the HD2400pro.

You guys rock!

B.:D

You need a decoder that supports it. PowerDVD does, but I'm not sure which others. If you install PowerDVD, I believe you can use the mpeg4 decoder in other applications (although not for mkv sources).
Thank you IanD, for your prompt answer.

I know PowerDVD, in fact I used its DS filters (mpeg2 decoders) fore more than 3 years for DVB related stream viewing. For software decoding, they are fine. They must be quite good also in hardware assisted decoding of mpeg2/mpeg4 when within PowerDVD player, those Cyberlink decoders. In fact, they were so good that ATi rebranded these as "ATi" for mpeg2 and "ATI MPEG Vid Dec" for mpeg4 part of a decoder within their AVIVO package.

There's one sinister feature of the originals though. Some say because of fierce competition with WinDVD products (Intervideo decoders) the mere presence of Cyberlink decoders in the system contaminated with competing decoders prevents access to hardware mpeg acceleration to any of these outside PowerDVD application.

Now that exclusion which might have been enforced stronger in PDVD 7.3 Ultra (probably the only app capable of using hardware mpeg4 acceleration of 2x00 cards correctly, and on an array of containers) may easily extend even to the ATI decoders as inferior, derivative work (Cyberlink 5, or what are this avivo code shows in hexedit?).

ATI answer to that seems to me not so elegant: just dropping PowerDVD7 Trial from their driver CDs. At least my MSI variety doesn't have it anymore. Sure, why bother with a conflicting product?

That's approximately why I was asking, begging for any tweaks, "hotfixes", ATI drivers' betas explicitly capable of turning mpeg2 AND mpeg4 hardware acceleration ON, and not just for some third party decoder, but for its "own" AVIVO's ATI MPEG Vid Dec (well, as I hadn't chance to use ATi's fresh baked audio directshow filter, maybe for it, too; but with an explanation of how I can swap that filter on my regular onboard Realtek audio output.)

So, basically I'm doing the opposite now: cleaning my system out of traces of Cyberlink. Apart from Radlight DS Filter Manager and Graphedit, can someone recommend any other codec conflict analyzer and codec cleaning software?

TIA

Does anyone know if Audio over HDMI works in MCE 2005 on these cards , I tried all the XP driver installs and im still getting no other option to send audio then my Creative sound card.

Hi Arfster...

Any idea why my 2600 PRO AGP work well at 16 bit colour, but not being able to stretch the HD-DVD to full screen (menus + main movie).

If I use the VForceMaxResSize tweak to either 2800000 or 0, then the menus now fill the full screen. However, the main movie remains black with only sound in the background.

I get a similar response if I increase to 32 bit colour....

Thanks!
Sumster

According to Digitimes (http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20070910PD212.html) there will be an update to the 2400 & 2600 chips.

Higher performance, DX10.1, Shader 4.1, PCI Express 2.0, Displayport & 55nm and compatibility to the current PCBs. :)

Planned for shipping in january...

Peekstra.

Current problems with my MSI 2600XT:

1. After installing ATI video drivers the Realtek motherboard analog audio does not work. Using XP and choosing not to install the audio driver with the ATI video driver also kills the motherboard analog audio.

2. The card kills ATSC channel 34RF. My Nvidia card can kill the channel or have it work depending on resolution.

This is the same issue I was having with the Sapphire 2400 Pro card. I was trying to use my onboard sound, but I couldn't get it to work. I just did a clean install and it worked (this is in Vista).

I was not using the ATI DVI adapter and wondered if the sound over HDMI feature was causing issues with the sound. I've sent that card back and I'm waiting for the MSI 2600 XT.

So, my computer died on me,and I had to do a format/reinstall of Vista. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the 7.7 Catalyst drivers to install correctly. This is a problem for me, because this is the last driver release to support dual-HDMI output (I send HDMI to my TV and AV Receiver, because I don't always need to listen to TV in 5.1 sound.) I'd been successfully using the 7.7 Catalyst drivers for dual-HDMI output for about a month.

Observe the following ATI support ticket exchange...

I have two ATI DVI-to-HDMI dongles attached to my HD2600XT. With the 7.7 Catalyst Drivers, I was able to output HDMI video+audio from both ports at the same time. However, with the 7.8 drivers, Catalyst Control Center assigns one device as HDMI, and forces the other as DVI.

How do I enable HDMI output from both ports? Please note that I have reformatted my computer, and the 7.7 drivers now cause my computer to lock up on when Windows loads.

Hi, unfortunately you cannot get audio through both ports. Only one DVI Port you can recieve audio through on the HD 2600 Series. That is for all cards too.

Thank You,
AMD

Actually, this is not true. Audio was sent over both ports using the 7.7 Catalyst drivers. Only with later drivers did this stop functioning correctly.

Should I assume that ATI has decided to disable dual-HDMI functionality in their cards? If so, why?

Hi, audio is not sent over both ports. Only one port the audio is passed through..

thank You,
AMD

Well, I managed to sort my problem out as a faulty ATA driver in the Intel Chipset Drivers for my DP35DP motherboard. Now, I'm once again accomplishing "the impossible": dual-HDMI.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc240/rxbrad/Capture.jpg

Here is an easy and exact way to find the right registry branch.

First, go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\VIDEO

Move your cursor over the data for the registry key \\Device\\Video0, or double click on the key.

Note the GUID. Actually, you really only need to note the last few characters. My GUID is:

{9FA854DF-9A00-4662-A3FC-63F881EDB2C9}

Next, go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video

Look for the GUID that matches the GUID you found above. Double click on that GUID and go into the 0000 branch (or the 0001 branch for the second output).

This is were you need to add/modify the registry keys. After making changes, reboot.

-Dave

I have seen a lot of people ask about the registry location for CCC in Windows XP.

It's not a complicated thing, just open up CCC and it tells you the path in the information tab. :)

I have seen a lot of people ask about the registry location for CCC in Windows XP.

It's not a complicated thing, just open up CCC and it tells you the path in the information tab. :)

Consider yourself recipient of the most-useful-post-of-the-month pri

The official 7.9 drivers were released (along with snazzy new website look). Has anyone tested these? (they're probably not too much different than the ones Arfster tried last week)

The official 7.9 drivers were released (along with snazzy new website look). Has anyone tested these? (they're probably not too much different than the ones Arfster tried last week)

Thanks - same build code as the quake hotfix from a few days back. The atiumd* dlls are from 22/august, same as the quake hotfix again, but more modern than the 7.9biofix patch my last tweaked version was based on (17/August).

First many thanks to the maintainers of this thread. It took me 4 hours today to read it nearly entirely and was very useful.

However one thing still remains uncovered also at other forums where the topic was discussed in general.

Why is it bad to have video level expanded to pc level? I understand that you coud get false values due to rounding however if you calculate with extended precision internally this should not be a big issue. I also understand that then all data below 16 and above 235 is clipped, however what is the practical difference between the values beeing clipped or not displayed at all on the properly calibrated display?

Sorry if this question is stupid but I still did not get it completely as it seems.

BTW: it was often mentioned that certain controls were missing in the control panel under XP which are present under Vista. As a guidline there are many registry values having a "_NA" extension presumably meaning "not available in control panel" setting those values to "0" make them appear under XP.

regards,
grubi.

I have not been able to get H.264 hardware acceleration to work. What is the word on container formats that work with H.264 HA?

MP4, AVI, TS -> HA should work?
MKV -> HA should not work?

I have a VisionTek 2400pro OC (GPU: 700MHz, RAM: 390/780MHz) using AGP on WinXP. I am using DVI -> Component Video @ 720p (resized in CCC to 1200x672).

I tried ATI Catalyst 7.7, 7.8 said it did not have a compatible driver, and VisionTek Catalyst 8.41 (about which they say "This driver is in between [ATI] Catalyst 7.8 and Catalyst 7.9").

I have applied all the DXVA and related regfixes. With the ATI Cat 7.7 drivers, the reg keys were set by default as strings (REG_SZ), so I first tried those, then DWORDs.

I have tried PowerDVD Ultra 7.3.3104, Nero Showtime, and ZoomPlayer with both Cyberlink and MainConcept decoders using the Overlay renderer.

I have tried MP4 and MKV so far for 720p H.264.

Despite the regfixes, in Nero and PDVD, the HA box is checked when stopped, but unchecked and grayed out when playing. CPU is at 50-90%. At one point, in PDVD, I got the HA box to stay checked, but the video playback was all green and magenta.

I did not expect the MKV to work, but I cannot get the MP4 to work, either. I'm waiting on my XBOX HDDVD drive to ship still, so I can't test H.264 or VC-1 from an HDDVD.

Any more ideas on H.264 HA?

Why is it bad to have video level expanded to pc level?

My impression is that, in isolation, there isn't any problem.

But if your TV happens to be hooked up to multiple sources, and some of the sources are doing it one way, and other sources are doing it the other way, then getting your TV's bright/contrast controls set "correctly" can be pretty darn hard.

Given that many sources that are commonly hooked up to a TV (like a set-top box, or a DVD player) probably do it "the non PC way", having your PC do it "the PC way" might introduce the problem.

--Don

Hi guys!!I just registered!!!I own a brand new gecube hd 2600pro agp version with 512mb...I want to say that i downloaded the latest catalyst 7.9 drivers from ati and still there is no compatibility with our card(agp version)...The 7.9 modified drivers by visiontek worked well on my system...But these don't even install..It says that there is no compatible hardware or something with this driver...What are we going to do????:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

My impression is that, in isolation, there isn't any problem.

But if your TV happens to be hooked up to multiple sources, and some of the sources are doing it one way, and other sources are doing it the other way, then getting your TV's bright/contrast controls set "correctly" can be pretty darn hard.

Given that many sources that are commonly hooked up to a TV (like a set-top box, or a DVD player) probably do it "the non PC way", having your PC do it "the PC way" might introduce the problem.

--Don

But modern TVs store the settings for every input seperately. So i did not still get it why many people are so excited about video level enhancing? There must be something terrific I missed.

grubi.

But modern TVs store the settings for every input seperately. So i did not still get it why many people are so excited about video level enhancing? There must be something terrific I missed.

grubi.

The problem is that the card isn't doing it consistently --- HD content is expanded to PC levels, while SD content is not. This means you can't calibrate to one without the other being off.

Some people report banding and such things with levels expansion. In the calibration sticky and included links there's some discussion around some of the issues that can come up. While I haven't tried to really get into the issue, ChrisWiggles has posted some interesting items to read.

The way I look at it is that while below-black never shows up on-screen, above-white does show up on-screen with digital displays. Below-black and above-white are part of the photographed image. They're meant to be standardized so that they match between different material, but honestly that doesn't always happen. If you were to say get a proper calibration for one broadcast channel, it's not necessarily going to match another broadcast channel. So while the intent is that across all material 16 is black and 235 is white and no on-screen information exists outside those ranges, it's simply not true. Digital displays will generally show information above 235 even though that's intended as white. In real world terms I don't know what's whiter than white, so the information above white is of course closer to white in the original photography.

Thanks - same build code as the quake hotfix from a few days back. The atiumd* dlls are from 22/august, same as the quake hotfix again, but more modern than the 7.9biofix patch my last tweaked version was based on (17/August).

How can I let New 7.9 XP driver recoganize my visiontek 2400pro AGP card? Is there a special file in setup package I can add support for my card?

How can I let New 7.9 XP driver recoganize my visiontek 2400pro AGP card? Is there a special file in setup package I can add support for my card?

You have to let it decompress (run the driver package, but cancel at first chance), then goto

C:\ati\support\ drivers\7-9_vista32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_52447\Driver\Packages\Drivers\Displ ay

(or xp equivalent)

Open the CLsomething.inf file, in mine it's called CL_52447.inf. Go down to the [ATI.Mfg] section, and add these lines:

"ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO AGP" = ati2mtag_RV610, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_94C4
"ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9587
"ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT AGP" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9586

Save, close, backtrack through directories, run setup.exe.

You have to let it decompress (run the driver package, but cancel at first chance), then goto

C:\ati\support\ drivers\7-9_vista32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_52447\Driver\Packages\Drivers\Displ ay

(or xp equivalent)

Open the CLsomething.inf file, in mine it's called CL_52447.inf. Go down to the [ATI.Mfg] section, and add these lines:

"ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO AGP" = ati2mtag_RV610, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_94C4
"ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9587
"ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT AGP" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9586

Save, close, backtrack through directories, run setup.exe.

Thanks for quick response, I did what you said, still no success.

c:\ATI\SUPPORT\7-9_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_52443
\Driver\Driver\XP_INF\CX_52443.inf

[ATI.Mfg.NTx86]
"ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO AGP" = ati2mtag_RV610, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_94C4
"ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9587
"ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT AGP" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9586

any other files need to change?

Thanks for quick response, I did what you said, still no success.

c:\ATI\SUPPORT\7-9_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_52443
\Driver\Driver\XP_INF\CX_52443.inf

[ATI.Mfg.NTx86]
"ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO AGP" = ati2mtag_RV610, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_94C4
"ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9587
"ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT AGP" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9586

any other files need to change?For XP, there are two more files that need to be modified. BTW, I figured this out from this old post. (http://www.rage3d.com/board/archive/index.php?t-33659473.html)

The first is Driver\CX_?????.INI and the second is Driver\INSTALL.INI

Both these files need this line:

R6=DriverPath_R6,0x9587,0x94C6,0x94C4,0x9586

I just replaced the R6 line in the 7.9 drivers, but you can also probably just add to the existing line.

I got these lines by downloading a set of drivers from the VisionTek site and comparing the ini files to the ATI drivers.

The 7.9 drivers cause PDVD to crash with my 2600pro 512MB AGP, so I went back to 7.8, which are working well for me.

-Dave

Does anyone know if Audio over HDMI works in MCE 2005 on these cards , I tried all the XP driver installs and im still getting no other option to send audio then my Creative sound card.

Yes it worked for me on my second install of the drivers in XP. My system had a Diamond Dolby Live Card and onboard audio.... I removed the Diamond card and it just worked fine on the second install. This software from ATI is pure trash. I have perfect HD DVD playback but everything else is awful.

So yes audio over HDMI works in XP... although I am seriously considering going back to my Nvidia 7600GT card which at least handled mpeg properly.

Problem solved!

Thanks for you help Arfster and DPLettner....

I uninstalled all my old drivers, and within the registry, I deleted all video entries which had any similarity to the radeon entries. There were over 8 video devices of which I deleted 5.

I installed the 7.9 catalyst using your tweaks on the Visiontek 2600 AGP. I re-installed PowerDVD 7.3 with patches, and I made sure hardware deinterlacing was turned OFF in the advanced video section.

The only registry entry I added was the VForceMaxResSize (I left denoise and sharpening at default for the moment).

Perfect full-screen HDDVD playback on my Athlon 2800+ with 1 gig of RAM, ouput is 1080p via the HDMI dongle. CPU usage is 40-55% on most scenes, but jumps to 75-80% on certain action sequences. No stuttering or skipped frames. I am a bit worried about difficult H264 sources though... can anyone suggest a really difficult HDDVD?

THANKS ALL!

Hello, I purchased a Saphire HD 2600 Pro (512MB DDR2) recently, this is my first ATi by the way.. and I am quite in a haze about how to activate(if at all) the hardware playback.. Noticed that there are certain AVIVO codecs listed on the internet (for the x1000 series only).

My question is: For my video card, If I download the 7.9 drivers and have a player that suports hardware video decoding (example:PowerDVD), do I need to install something else like an Avivo codec pack?

I cannot find any AVIVO HD download drivers,codecs or anything, so should I presume that everything needed is embeded in the drivers?

The problem is that the card isn't doing it consistently --- HD content is expanded to PC levels, while SD content is not. This means you can't calibrate to one without the other being off.

But you can. Simply adding UseBT601CSC = 1 did it for me.

The other strange thing is with level expansion I can nearly use the TV default settings for all devices (The built in dvb-t receiver, a denon DVD Player and the HTPC) whereas without this I have to lower brightness very much from the TV default settings to get the blacks really black again (strange as from what is stated here the opposite shuould be the case). I also found when disabling level expansion and set black level 16 to be black, I do not get black as real black in all cases. In very rare cases suddenly you have parts which sould be black appearing as grey with a lot of noise and then at the next scene black is getting beal black agin. Just annoying. I did not see this with level expansion.

I think my TV is not the worsest on. It's a Panasonic TH50-PZ700 and all equipment is connected via HDMI.

grubi.

Question about the 7.9 drivers...does this package also turn off the special features of catalyst control panel? With 7.8, the CCC capabilities including adjustment of clock speeds and memory speeds were turned off, at least on my 2400. I currently run arfster's modified version 7.7.

Also, I have ordered PowerDVD, which should be fun. Next step is one of those Toshiba HD DVD drives for the 360...which of course will rarely be used on the 360!

I have a Sony KDL32-D3000 and I have my HTCP connected via HDMI from my XPertvision 2600Pro, how can I tell if my Sny is either YV or PC Expansion?

I plan to install Vista this weekend want to prepare for this.

@Arfster
I presume the 7.9 drivers that you modified will work just fine or will you release a modified set from the latest official AMD/ATI 7.9 drivers.

I appreciate all that you do in this forum and wish you the best.

@Arfster
I presume the 7.9 drivers that you modified will work just fine or will you release a modified set from the latest official AMD/ATI 7.9 drivers.


There's only a few days difference in the key dlls, so unless someone notices a difference with the official 7.9 it's probably not worth it.

Do you guys know if the Powercolor card, namely the HD2600XT which ships with a DVI>HDMI adapter, passes sound over HDMI with the included adapter?

I think my card is defective. I have returned to the 7.6, modified drivers, so I should not tweak the register myself.

On 50 hz, it takes almost nothing to make the computer crash.

I run the 1080 P 50 hz movie (h 264), and it will play. if i just touch the mouse to adjust settings, its crashes already.

Of course most of you would not need to use 50 hz, if you just play NTSC dvd's and HD-discs. I think the card is detective.

Do you guys know if the Powercolor card, namely the HD2600XT, that ships with a DVI>HDMI adapter passes sound?

It should. It actually appears that all of the ATI HD 2X00 cards pass sound over HDMI as long as you are using the ATI specific DVI to HDMI adapter. This seems to be true in both XP and Vista (although Nils_Lars was having trouble getting it to work in MCE 2005). If you are having problems, run the Catalyst uninstall utility and remove all ATI software. Reboot and then delete all the ATI folders in the Program Files folder and then reinstall the drivers.

Hi,

are there any HD 2400 registry hacks for HA that work in catalyst 7.7-9 ? I just get ist working via 7.6 :(

Question about the 7.9 drivers...does this package also turn off the special features of catalyst control panel? With 7.8, the CCC capabilities including adjustment of clock speeds and memory speeds were turned off, at least on my 2400. I currently run arfster's modified version 7.7.

Well, they seemingly disabled dual HDMI output starting with the 7.8 drivers.

Good thing is, I think I'm the only one who cares... :o

Hi!
I got a gecube hd2600 AGP card and was hoping for the 7.9 drivers to finaly solve my problems, but after I got them installed (with help of the *.inf-tweaks in previous posts) nothing changed.

So here's my problem:
With every "functional" driver that I've managed to install, from the driver-cd, beta-drivers etc. hd-acceleration has worked very well in powerdvd ultra, but only when the player isn't in "file-mode". When in "file-mode" the ATI Avivo-box becomes greyed out an unticked during playback.

For example, if I capture a live hd-stream down to the hard disk and then try to play it in powerdvd I get 100% cpu-usage and the video is stuttering. But if I then convert the live-stream to a Blu-Ray or a HDDVD file structure so I can use the "file-directory mode" in powerdvd the captured stream plays just fine with very low cpu-usage. This is the case for all HD-video files (both h264 and VC1 tested).

First I thought it was something wrong with the drivers for the AGP-cards and perhaps 7.9 would fix this, but then I read on another forum that powerdvd's codec, with the latest Avivo-support, only works inside the program watching movies directly from HDDVD/Blu-Ray discs? But there seems to be people that can use the codec with avivo-support watching live-tv in other players etc.

So my question is, is there anyone else with this problem and is there something I'm missing? I'm using winxp btw but have also tried vista.

I believe that others (with agp) who complain about lack of acceleration-support might have this problem also, because the first thing you test is probably a *.ts file in powerdvd and not an entire hd/blu-ray-movie with the correct file-structure or played from a hd/blu-ray-device.

First I thought it was something wrong with the drivers for the AGP-cards and perhaps 7.9 would fix this, but then I read on another forum that powerdvd's codec, with the latest Avivo-support, only works inside the program watching movies directly from HDDVD/Blu-Ray discs?

Nope, the codecs work with acceleration everywhere - excepting the VC1 of course, which can't be used outside PDVD at all, even in software mode (copyright issue?).

Anyway, for your problem: PDVD apparently doesn't use directshow when in disc bluray/hddvd mode, and whatever internal calls it makes to hardware acceleration are maybe skipping something broken in the drivers. It may be you need to wait for Gecube to get their act together and release working drivers (it's their responsibility, not ATI's) - have you tried theirs?

It should. It actually appears that all of the ATI HD 2X00 cards pass sound over HDMI as long as you are using the ATI specific DVI to HDMI adapter. This seems to be true in both XP and Vista (although Nils_Lars was having trouble getting it to work in MCE 2005). If you are having problems, run the Catalyst uninstall utility and remove all ATI software. Reboot and then delete all the ATI folders in the Program Files folder and then reinstall the drivers.


Yes I have tried both of these drivers and the Realtek ones tell me there is no supported device when trying to install them.

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/hdmiaudio-xp.html

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

I bought the ATI dongle thinking it would help and nothing , can someone tell me when it is working right in XP does it show in device manager or as a selection in sounds and audio device properties?

If there are any other suggestions of things to try I will but I am just running my sound out of my sound card and it is low volume and only plays out of one speaker so I guess its time for a new sound card.

Arfster, you might consider adding the 7.7 tweaks to your signature. Or maybe, millerbrad should do that for everybody needing dual monitor HDMI audio support? :)

Ok, thats good news :).

Yes, I've tried those drivers I got on the installation CD but I have exactly the same problem with those drivers. They seem to be made from the 7.8 driver-set (8.40) and are currently newer than those found on their site (8.282).

Nils_Lars, in Vista it shows up as a selection in the Sounds and Audio applet. It uses a Vista driver which is an Audio device in the Device Manager: http://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=29037

What can I use in XP to monitor my HD2400pro's GPU Activity?

Hi!
I got a gecube hd2600 AGP card and was hoping for the 7.9 drivers to finaly solve my problems, but after I got them installed (with help of the *.inf-tweaks in previous posts) nothing changed.

So here's my problem:
With every "functional" driver that I've managed to install, from the driver-cd, beta-drivers etc. hd-acceleration has worked very well in powerdvd ultra, but only when the player isn't in "file-mode". When in "file-mode" the ATI Avivo-box becomes greyed out an unticked during playback.

For example, if I capture a live hd-stream down to the hard disk and then try to play it in powerdvd I get 100% cpu-usage and the video is stuttering. But if I then convert the live-stream to a Blu-Ray or a HDDVD file structure so I can use the "file-directory mode" in powerdvd the captured stream plays just fine with very low cpu-usage. This is the case for all HD-video files (both h264 and VC1 tested).

First I thought it was something wrong with the drivers for the AGP-cards and perhaps 7.9 would fix this, but then I read on another forum that powerdvd's codec, with the latest Avivo-support, only works inside the program watching movies directly from HDDVD/Blu-Ray discs? But there seems to be people that can use the codec with avivo-support watching live-tv in other players etc.

So my question is, is there anyone else with this problem and is there something I'm missing? I'm using winxp btw but have also tried vista.

I believe that others (with agp) who complain about lack of acceleration-support might have this problem also, because the first thing you test is probably a *.ts file in powerdvd and not an entire hd/blu-ray-movie with the correct file-structure or played from a hd/blu-ray-device.

I had the same issues, BUT with 7.8beta drivers(which are the only that i can run without touch the .inf file) and with the registry hacks, i have EVERYWHERE H/A even in MPEG2.... CPU 5-15%

It should. It actually appears that all of the ATI HD 2X00 cards pass sound over HDMI as long as you are using the ATI specific DVI to HDMI adapter. This seems to be true in both XP and Vista (although Nils_Lars was having trouble getting it to work in MCE 2005).

Thanks, I don't have the card yet so after reading a bit here about the adapters I kinda got worried.

my replacement Sapphire 2400pro arrived.
I no longer get the VPU crash and recover problem
I do get the line tearing in video playback ..... but after about 1hr of use.

I don't think the passive cooling is good enough, am trying it now with a case fan running at 5v sitting on top of the 2400 ..... looks promising so far.

(61+ c without fan, 41+ c with the fan)

Sarah, so do you think this is a temperature issue for the crashes? I seemed to have less problems with the VPU crash and recover when the computer is first on, but subequently especially after playing MPG or using a TV capture card (which raises the temp in my Antec NSK 2400 case), the crashes become much more frequent. Playing HD-DVD alone has yet to cause a problem. But with multiple windows, I see more problems. Anyone with similar problems with their 2400 Pro? Are the 2600XT less likely to suffer this problem? Or is this a passive heatsink issue not adequately dispersing heat on the card?

hi everyone im really struggling with my 2400pro pci-e.
i bought it thinking it would be ok to i play my x264 720p hd films but all i get is what looks like a framerate jerky issue going on, it doesnt matter if i select overlay or vmr9 as it still jerks at a terrible pace, my old 3500+ with a 6200gt played things fine on overlay but my new 4200x2 with 2400pro just doesnt work right,
i have tried 7.7, 7.8 and now 7.9 but exactly the same,
it seams to play ok on normal dvd's and avi/xvids.

please can someone give me some advise as i have nearly run out of time before i wont be allowed to take it back!

hi everyone im really struggling with my 2400pro pci-e.
i bought it thinking it would be ok to i play my x264 720p hd films

Sorry, standard bug with PDVD with VLD acceleration cards (which includes the Nvidia 8500/8600 as well) and files created by x264. Google for the "20fps bug", or "mkv acceleration", there's plenty of detail but it's not fixable. All you can do is turn off hardware acceleration for these files, your CPU should be fast enough.

Mail Cyberlink and ask them to support mkv files, that's all you can do.

i forgot to say i usr mpc with halli, ffdshow and ac3filter

so how would i turn off hardware acceleration?

thank you for the reply

Me again.....I had a problem with my Radeon HD 2600Pro when connecting to HDTV with 10m DVI-HDMI cable,not geting picture. Some1 said that this is common problem for that cable that I should try with DVI-HDMI adapter and then with 10m HDMI-HDMI, so i bought that and still the same problem,NO picture,not even detected by CCC, tried CCC 7.7, 7.8, now iam on 7.9, no luck! What is the problem??? Help!

PS. DVI-HDMI adapter isnt ATI's, cant buy ATI's in Croatia.:mad:

Well depending on your cable, you might actually be losing the signal. 10m is kinda long. What kind of cable is it? I have a similar setup where I split my cable box. The 10m cable however is attached to an amplified splitter.

Well depending on your cable, you might actually be losing the signal. 10m is kinda long. What kind of cable is it? I have a similar setup where I split my cable box. The 10m cable however is attached to an amplified splitter.

I had no problem with Radeon 9600, 10m DVI-HDMI no problem...so its in card..low output signal...or I MUST use ATI's dongle.:mad:

arfster, thanks for the reg tweaks maintenance. I thought I should mention that at least I needed also VForce24FPS1080H264=0 etc. tweaks for Catalyst 7.9 to get hw acceleration working for HD2400Pro in XP (in addition to dxva_nohddecode=0 for mpeg2), so keeping those in footnotes might be helpful to newcomers

arfster, thanks for the reg tweaks maintenance. I thought I should mention that at least I needed also VForce24FPS1080H264=0 etc. tweaks for Catalyst 7.9 to get hw acceleration working for HD2400Pro in XP (in addition to dxva_nohddecode=0 for mpeg2), so keeping those in footnotes might be helpful to newcomers

Ahh, thanks. Anyone check this is the same for Vista+2400? (very likely is).

I recently moved my machine to a rack and by doing so needed a longer cable. I used to use a short (1-2m) DVI-DVI cable. I now bought a DVI-HDMI cable. My TV has DVI in and I bought a normal (not ATI) HDMI-DVI dongle. I connected the dongle to the PC and the hdmi end of the cable to the dongle, and attached the DVI end to the TV.

It looks fine, but I get no post. I used to get a post with my HSI 2600 Pro (on the shorter cable) but the BIOS was always displaying some blocking and the timing was never quite correct on the hardware monitor page in the BIOS, as the data was changing to fat for it.

Anyway - now I get no POST at all! So the cable or the card has to be the problem - just not sure what I can do about it. Anyone seen this before. Also, I do not have an HDMI receiver or such, I ONLY want video from the ATI card - NO interest at all in audio.

Thanks!

It looks fine, but I get no post.

What do you mean? Your video looks fine but you can't see the boot screen?

I had no problem with Radeon 9600, 10m DVI-HDMI no problem...so its in card..low output signal...or I MUST use ATI's dongle.:mad:

I do wonder if the drivers are impacted by the signals (or lack thereof) in the non-ATI adapters/cables? Just looking at how ATI says that they rewired the adapters, it may cause problems? Hardly much to go on though. I've no idea why it would impact the output signal strength. It really shouldn't.

Also, what are you guys using to play .MKV files?

I've been using VLC for awhile. It tends to have the lowest cpu usage too for whatever reason. Although it gives fits on some 1080p files that otherwise play fine on Media Player Classic, not sure why at the moment.

Question: fresh XP32 install with an HD2400pro. One monitor hooked to DVI, and an analog TV hooked to svideo. (Svideo wouldn't work with the VGA monitor hooked to VGA, btw.) CCCP codec pack, Media Player Classic, and VLC are the only things installed.

The 7.8 ATI drivers detect the TV but I only get options to "clone desktop" or "extend desktop" to the TV. If I use clone, it clones the monitor screen (and then is way too big since the TV only displays 640x480, but that's fine), and playing a video file in VLC will play the video fullscreen and perfectly on the TV, but Media Player Classic won't fullscreen the video file, Windows still uses the TV as a real cloned desktop. Fullscreen in Theater Mode has no effect on this.

Anyone know what setting I'm missing somewhere? Fullscreen video output to TV *does* work, but only with VLC, which I assume is because it's self-contained. I also have to re-enable the TV as a second display every time I restart Windows.

EDIT: I switched Media Player Classic to overlay mode, and it displayed TV-out properly. So something's up with my VMR9 mode, which I need for the PVR software to work. CCCP and PowerDVD7 are the only codecs installed.

Sorry for the OT, but arfster or anyone else who knows their stuff, could you take a crack at this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11606664#post11606664)?
Can anyone try messing with the color controls in PowerDVD 3104a.1 with the Bourne Supremacy HD-DVD, please? They don't do anything over here, but for the menus and other movies either in VC-1 and H.264 they do work. It's just for this movie, and only the movie part that they don't work. Just updated to 163.67 drivers for my 8600GTS, so I'll revert to 163.44 and see if it's that, though I don't think so. It's pretty weird. Nvidia Control Panel video color controls do work, though.


EDIT: It wasn't the drivers. Reverted to PowerDVD 2605, and it can't enable HW accel with VC-1 on the 8600GTS. Updated to 2911 and when HW accel is enabled, still only with this move the color controls don't work. I'll stay here, since you can't disable HW accel for the 3104 updates. Weird. Someone has an idea as to why only this movie?

I'm baffled as to why it could happen only with Bourne Supremacy, and only the movie part. It's not the VC-1 movies, just this one, from all I've tried. Maybe this happens with another movie? If anyone has Bourne Supremacy HD-DVD here, would you see if this also happens with your ATI cards?

Is there anyway to convert a x264 file that is in an .mkv container back into a regular Blu-Ray 264 format so that it may be decoded with AVIVO in PowerDVD? Thanks.

arfster, thanks for the reg tweaks maintenance. I thought I should mention that at least I needed also VForce24FPS1080H264=0 etc. tweaks for Catalyst 7.9 to get hw acceleration working for HD2400Pro in XP (in addition to dxva_nohddecode=0 for mpeg2), so keeping those in footnotes might be helpful to newcomers

Hi Karrih could you tell me what additional reg fixes you used to get it HW VA I noticed you used VForce24FPS1080H264 what were the etc fixes

Thanks

Dave

Is there anyway to convert a x264 file that is in an .mkv container back into a regular Blu-Ray 264 format so that it may be decoded with AVIVO in PowerDVD? Thanks.

I have been looking for the same thing. I have found a program called TSRemux which takes MKV inputs and outputs in a Blu Ray folder structure. I have downloaded and will be trying very soon. Google TSRemux and you will get lots of responses.

I haven't noticed anyone else in the thread having this problem but is anyone else getting tearing, especially when using clone/dual mode.

I've a Gigabyte passive 2600 pro and I've finally managed to get it all working great. Clone mode works fine even for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray IF Anydvd is running. But sometimes I get tearing regardless of temps or renderer used. EVR and Haali render both exhibit the problem. What I have to do when it occurs is switch to another mode and then back again. This will usually solve the problem. I'm using Vista 32bit and have already tried a reinstall. Same problem.

It occurs seemingly at random. I've got another 2600 card coming tomorrow to check just incase it's a hardware rather than a software problem since it's very annoying.

I have just finished a fresh install with a 2600xt with Vista Home Premium, using arfster's tweaked 7.9's. This is on a machine with 2gb ram, and C2Duo 3.0GHz

I am getting horrible aliasing on OTA HD, any one else experience this? How do I get rid of it?

Also, I have installed PowerDVD Ultra 7.3, do need to use the vista codec utility to get Vista MCE to use the Cyberlink codec, or will MCE use it automatically?

Another issue I am having is getting WMP11 or MCE to play certain videos with out a slight stutter. I have a particular video, its a clip of an F1 race, that is jerky on fast pans. If I play the same video in PowerDVD, its smooth as silk. Surely if I can play it smoothly in PowerDVD, I can get the same results in MCE and WMP, right?

Thanks.

Fuz.

I just found another title with the problem I mentioned above (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11607600#post11607600). It's The Good Shepherd. Maybe it's some Universal titles, or Matt Damon is screwing with me. Anyone care to check if this happens with the ATI cards, please?

(Short: color setting in PowerDVD with HW on on HD-DVD doesn't work.)

Thanks.

Hi Karrih could you tell me what additional reg fixes you used to get it HW VA I noticed you used VForce24FPS1080H264 what were the etc fixes

Thanks

Dave

I was talking about VForce24FPS1080H264, VForce24FPS1080VC1 and VForce24FPS1080MPEG2

I dont know what the last one does, since earlier I had only dxva_nohddecode added and that was enough to get mpeg2 hd working.

My comments apply to european broadcast hd only, as I don't have hd drive at the moment.

I was talking about VForce24FPS1080H264, VForce24FPS1080VC1 and VForce24FPS1080MPEG2

I dont know what the last one does, since earlier I had only dxva_nohddecode added and that was enough to get mpeg2 hd working.

My comments apply to european broadcast hd only, as I don't have hd drive at the moment.

Hi Karrih

Thanks for the info I take it these would be under UVD\DXVA for Vista 32 and as strings and under the 000\ folder in XP as DWORDS

Thanks

Dave

Sorry, standard bug with PDVD with VLD acceleration cards (which includes the Nvidia 8500/8600 as well) and files created by x264. Google for the "20fps bug", or "mkv acceleration", there's plenty of detail but it's not fixable. All you can do is turn off hardware acceleration for these files, your CPU should be fast enough.

Mail Cyberlink and ask them to support mkv files, that's all you can do.

so is there a way to turn off any "20fps bug", or "mkv acceleration" even though i dont use pdvd? i only use mpc,haali and ac3filter and i still het the problem when playing x264 files!