WatchHDTV Version 1.8

Been watching all day for this. Thanks for the update.

Awesome! Just downloaded it. I actually clicked the submit button twice. The 1st time I just did it cause you asked (No e-mail), and the second time I put in an e-mail address (Of course I'd like updates via e-mail. Doh!) Thanks!!!!!

EDIT: WOW! Wasn't in the beta and this is my first experience with the new version . Amazing! ATI needs to hire you for their official version. Spectacular!

Good news first?

TV watching works great still. You can even copy over your working channels.txt file into the new version.

Bad news (for me at least). Hitting the record button (or attempting to time shift) crashes the program. First an Error window with the words "NO SINK" pops up. The record window runs for a second or two and then I get the Windows crash.

The instruction at "0x0041ee44" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "read".

Debug Output:
The thread 'Win32 Thread' (0x748) has exited with code 0 (0x0).
Unhandled exception at 0x0041ee44 in WatchHDTV.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x00000000.

Disassembly block with pointer at 0041EE44
0041EE1F int 3
0041EE20 push ebp
0041EE21 mov ebp,esp
0041EE23 sub esp,10h
0041EE26 mov dword ptr [ebp-10h],ecx
0041EE29 lea eax,[ebp-4]
0041EE2C push eax
0041EE2D push 4286D8h
0041EE32 mov ecx,dword ptr [ebp-10h]
0041EE35 mov edx,dword ptr [ecx+514h]
0041EE3B mov eax,dword ptr [ebp-10h]
0041EE3E mov ecx,dword ptr [eax+514h]
0041EE44 mov eax,dword ptr [ecx]
0041EE46 push edx
0041EE47 call dword


Feel free to ignore me. I mean ATI does once I say those three magic words -- "I'm running Win2K". 24 GB of free space. Running on the C drive as Admin.

Is there a way to customize mouse buttons/wheel to work with this?

And thanks for your hard work in providing this great little softwear.

It looks good. I haven't done a throroughly check yet but the Record function seems to work just fine.

Looked at your website but am unclear if this will work for QAM on my FusionHDTV.

Thanks,
Nick

It looks like DirectShow BDA stuff, so I don't think QAM is available until MS implements it

Al, this program is amazing!! Please let me know where I can make a donation.

Thanks,
Frank.

Thanks dude. Got to test out the program for about 15 minutes; timeshifting and recording worked fine with no errors or crashes so far.

I was wondering why you decided to go with the ".dvr-ms" extension as opposed to ".ts" or ".mpg"? I'm not very familiar with it; it does play back in WMP10.

Wow, this is great! It seems a bit rough around the edges but timeshifting works spectacularly... Thank you so much!

A few quick comments after a few minutes playing around with my HDTV Wonder:

1. It'd be nice to see a cancel button on the Setup menu, just in case I make changes I don't want to keep.

2. Is there any way to have a "live" FF/RW setup, instead of what appears to be a pre-set 15 second (30 second, 1 min, 2 min adjustable) jump? Not a huge deal, it just took me a while to figure out why I wasn't rewinding! (it was set to 1 minute and I only had like 15 seconds in the buffer)

3. I am having trouble playing the resulting timeshift files back in WMP 10; they are choppy and the display is totally wrong (it's only showing like the upper 1/4th of the screen even though it played back fine within WatchHDTV while timeshifting). PowerDVD didn't like it much either, was a tiiiny bit smoother but not much. They play fine in the WatchHDTVPlay app. Is this normal, or is something set up wrong somewhere?

4. The Recording dialog seems really confusing; is there some way to make it only record for "X" number of minutes? I know the wording says "change/add time" but I only see how to add time, no matter if maybe I only want it to record for 5 minutes.

Thank you so much for keeping working on this!! I hope these comments help...

Awesome app!

All the functions seem to work great.

Now if I can only figure out how to get Dolby Digital passthrough to work. I'm convinced it has something to do with how my computer is configured, not your application. I can't get the passthrough to work in Windows Media Player 10 either.

Thanks! I truly enjoyed watching the Yankees vs. Angels last night without the flickering screen bug!

Thanks so much for this program. I was about ready to give up on HDTV Wonder as all my channels would stutter constantly. I pretty much have a direct line of site to the SFO antenna on Sutro so I couldn't imagine why this would be.

With your program the picture quality is AMAZIng and NO stuttering. I actualy watched Monday night Football last night. Thanks

Mark

I have a myHD mdp-130, and I occasionally want to watch a previously recorded .ts file at the same time as recording another.

I do not have supported card, but I was wondering if I can install the software for just the player portion of the application.

I have vlc and a couple of the other free programs. I am ok, with the quality of the playback (it's not as smooth as the MYHD's playback), and I am always looking for the better mouse trap.

Is this even possible? Would I see any benefits in PQ?

Well Done. Thanks so much for the update!

Any screenshots for the scheduling/recording setup?

I am looking to add a fusion or something to my rig as a second recorder for when the MyHD is busy with other things. Would like to have a simple/stable interface that will be able to setup a few timed recordings a week.

Also, (and I realize that the recorded video format may be up to the drivers/out of your control) but would you happen to know if this program could be used to record HD streams that the MyHD will play back?

Thanks.

-Suntan

Hey dude, read the instructions that came with version 1.8 before posting. You can find answers to all your questions in there. If not, wait for the FAQ.

You can change your forward/remind if you click on that skip option in the middle of the control panel.

If your time-shift files are not playing correctly, it means your WMP was not setup correctly to connect to the right decoder (video and audio). Uninstalling any third-party codec packs should help. If not, change the decoder yourself using a text file in WatchHDTV folder.

And the record box is easy, just type 5 min, and you will get 5. If you want to record for only five, just stop recording, and start again.

I been a beta tester for a couple weeks now, version 1.8 is better than the ATI package program. So be nice everyone!

I did read the instructions, and I don't think any of my questions were answered in them.

I did click on the forward/rewind panel to bring up more options, my question was if it could be used (or added later to function this way) more like a VCR that didn't jump in time-segments, but was just a continuous rewind.

I can watch the recorded HDTV stuff fine in WatchHDTVPlay, as I stated. Other people are mentioning they can view the video in WMP10 which I am having trouble with.

As for the recording, my comment was that it could be made more intuitive; I didn't see how to hit record and make it record for ONLY 5 minutes (or whatever), it was only adding 5 minutes to the hour it defaults to no matter what I tried. I will check again when I get home.

I completely agree that WatchHDTV is now a complete, and entirely more useful, replacement for the ATI MMC.

Thanks hdtval21...Great job!

I wonder if the fools at ATI know enough to be embarrassed.

Any way to play a TS file from a Fusion card in this player? Renaming the extension didn't work.
TIA

WatchHDTV player only plays the windows media type "dvr-ms".
WatchHDTV only records in "dvr-ms" format as well.
The "dvr-ms" filetype will work with Windows Media player #10 as well as a host of other media players.

If you want to watch older shows you recorded in ts format then you have a few options.

The best free option is the VLC player.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Greg

I don't suppose any of you know of a cheap solution to edit out commercials? I tried using Windows Movie Maker, but it won't let you open .dvr-ms files. Thanks!

Thanks HDTVAL21, 1.8 seems to work great on my system as did 1.6. I haven't tried out all the bells and whistles yet. You have made an excellent program!!!

I get a Windows Media Player shut-down error when I try to run the recorded file from the Windows player. The WatchHDTV player works fine.

This is in the error window

AppName: wmplayer.exe AppVer: 10.0.0.3646 ModName: ivivideo.ax
ModVer: 1.0.0.1 Offset: 00013c67

Just a note I had alot of of codec issues I believe originally with windows media player, I disabled all of them and windows automatically removed them all and all was well again.

It would be great to find a way for this to work with DVHSCap 1394/Firewire http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403695

Bear with me as I lay this out. I have an ATI HDTV Wonder (obviously). I also have a Buffalo Link Theater (a.k.a blt). The blt will stream HD. Here is what I am going for - use the PC to record HD, then stream it via the blt to watch on my HD TV. Using the junk ATI software, I can record HD, then convert it to mpeg, then stream to the blt. This works, but the ATI software is bad, and the conversion step is a pain. I found a software called Meedio TV which will record HD in the dvr-ms format. THe blt will supposedly stream dvr-ms files. The problem is, when streamed to the blt, there is no audio. When I play the dvr-ms file on the PC, it does have audio. I am anxious to try WatchHDTV, which I just found today, and see if its' dvr-ms files stream to the blt with audio.

THe meedio software is nice, it works with the ATI HDTV Wonder, and can record in the backround, no need to have the tv or audio on screen.

Is there any way to configure dvr-ms file recording properties? There is nothing in Meedio other than a general quality setting. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

I will let you know if WatchHDTV dvr-ms files have audio on the blt when I try it tonight.

Paul33993, it looks like VideoReDo will work as long as you save the edited file as mpg.

Secondly, I've got WatchHDTV set up and everything seems to work great. I have run into 1 problem while trying to watch live HDTV. After a couple of minutes (5-10) the audio starts to stutter and then completely goes quiet then the video becomes very choppy right after that. I was trying to force the PowerDVD 6 (Cyberlink) Audio & Video decoders in the decoders.txt file (they seemed to look the best to me) but that's when I ran into this problem. I have PowerDVD 6 Deluxe installed and activated. I decided to go back to the ATi Cyberlink decoders in the text file. I left it run while I'm at work, so I won't know if that worked until I get home.

Does anyone have any idea why I wouldn't be able to use the PowerDVD 6 decoders? I would really like to use the new nVidia Purevideo decoders (as I have a 7800 GTX) but I couldn't get them to work at all.

Also, if I were to get the PowerDVD 6 decoders to work, where would I make changes to the settings for those decoders. When I specify 4 speakers in PowerDVD 6, does that mean the WatchHDTV will use 4 speakers as well?

Sorry for all of the questions, I am really excited to get this program up and running. From what I've seen so far, it blows ATi MMC right out of the water.

Thanks again,
Frank.

Oh, here is my system...

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
Athlon 64 X2 4400+
BFG Tech 7800GTX
2 X 1GB Corsair PC3200
3 X 250 GB Hitachi SATA
Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum

and of course...
ATi HDTV Wonder

Works wonderfully on XP Pro P4 3GHz, 2 GB RAM, with Radeon 9800 Pro AIW, HDTV Wonder.

Please sub-contract with ATI and help them program !!!

5 minutes recorded on to a .dvr-ms file 92 MB in size (1.1 GB/hr). Is there any way to adjust the compression in recordings?

I'll try a timed recording tonight.

Aloke

It would seem that you have already outdone ATI. Now I wonder if you have given any though to accessing the program data that is embedded in the stream. It would be pretty cool to see the program information as you surf the channels.

On a different note, I did notice that in the scheduler, if 2 programs run one against the other (1 ends at 9PM, next one starts at 9PM), the schedule considers that a conflict. For now I just sacrafice the first minute of the second program. Since that's almost always a recap of previous episode - no loss there.