[hdtval21]

Hello to everyone. I've been a frequent visitor to the site and now have a contribution for ATI HDTV Wonder users. In light of some of the recent issues with ATI's own software, I decided to write my own program to play live HDTV.(This is all individual, no connection with any business, just my own self) The program works only with ATI's HDTV Wonder. The program is very simple and just plays HDTV, no recording, etc. I am making this program free to use(for the moment, but I don't have any plans for anything different). It is very straightforward and easy to use. Please read the README first for instructions and some other stuff. A remote wonder plug-in is also included. I use it regularly due to issues with ATI's own program and hopefully others may find it useful. I also plan on posting this at rage3d.com as well.


Updated 3/1/05- New Version 1.3 with subchannel support, a signal strength meter, and some minor fixes, including one that may help VMR issues. Subchannels- if you currently have no channel problems, keep subchs at -1. If you have problems, try 1. Other subch. are 2, 3, ... however many you want. Remote doesn't work for subch, so you can change the channel to first subch, then change channel up. Signal strength- It has a +-3%, so it isn't super precise. So it will go from 85 to 88%, nothing in between. So if you get 72%, it could be close to 69%.

If you have no problems with current version and don't need additions, then you don't need to change, but stability, etc. should remain the same since the changes/additions were subtle.

Enjoy!


Update-3/17/05

Version 1.35- Works with newest ATI DVD decoders released 3/9/05. I believe it will also work with previous ATI DVD decoders, but will no longer work with ATI DTV decoders. So V 1.3 is for ATIDTV decoders, V 1.35 is for ATIDVD decoders. I will include both versions in WatchHTDV V1.35 zip.


UPDATE 5/2/05

Version 1.5- Minor fixes/improvements/additions. Should work with MCE now. Either ATI DTV or DVD decoders will work. Please read the README first for new information and setup.


UPDATE 5/30/05

Version 1.6- Added support for Avermedia AVerTVHD A180 and DVICO FusionHDTV. Fixed Remote Wonder power button problem when video window in focus.

For AVerTVHD A180, decoders used will be chosen based on merit and compatibility. Decoders chosen may not work 100% correctly though, so you may have to uninstall or change the merit of decoders. For MCE, this may not be as much of an issue as with XP.

For FusionHDTV, all versions should hopefully work, as I have only tested with FusionHDTV 2. The program uses the FusionHDTV DXVA decoders.

I will leave both version 1.5 and 1.6 up for the time being. Version 1.5 is ATI HDTV Wonder only.


UPDATE 6/19/05

The Fusion5 series will likely work with version 1.6. I've had some reports of success with it. Try it and let me know.


UPDATE- 10/10/05

Version 1.8 is out. See here- http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=590020

 

[VBB]

Is there any way to make this work with decoders other than Cyberlink's? If your little app could use the Nvidia or, even better, the Dscaler decoders, you might have created something spectacular . No matter what, though, thanks for making it.

 

[grogs]

This is a great program.


The following is the list for channel setup in St. Louis.


26 11

31 30

35 5

39 9

43 2

47 47

56 4


This is a small program and highly recommend (at least by me).


No recording and no sub-channels. But for general play some of the features are hard to match.


Switching between 16:9 and 4:3 on stations while they are broadcasting SD programming has never been as easy.


The only problem I have seen with the program is you must setup the "channels.txt" correctly. Read what is asked for and remove all text except for the channels to be used. If there are "//" comments left in the file the program will crash.


This is a must download for anyone who is using the ATI HDTV WONDER card.

Also, if you want to start the MMC/TV+ program you must do so before you run WatchHDTV. And yes they both can work at the same time.


Very nice....


Greg

Quote:

Originally posted by hdtval21 Hello to everyone. I've been a frequent visitor to the site and now have a contribution for ATI HDTV Wonder users. In light of some of the recent issues with ATI's own software, I decided to write my own program to play live HDTV.(This is all individual, no connection with any business, just my own self) The program works only with ATI's HDTV Wonder. The program is very simple and just plays HDTV, no recording, etc. I am making this program free to use(for the moment, but I don't have any plans for anything different). It is very straightforward and easy to use. Please read the README first for instructions and some other stuff. A remote wonder plug-in is also included. I use it regularly due to issues with ATI's own program and hopefully others may find it useful. I also plan on posting this at rage3d.com as well. Mods- If you have any problems with this post or need to contact me, go ahead and email or pm me. I have no problems with changing anything if necessary. Now I'm off to watch the NBA All-Star game, go #8!!!

 

[jswclw]

I just tried WatchHDTV. Very nice. Good job!


My observations -


I tried in to see if the CPU usage would be reduced on 1080i programs. Unfortunately it was not. It only dropped about 2-3% below what MMC was doing. I cannot believe that 720p only requires 10-20% CPU while 1080i requires 50-60% CPU. Must be ATI driver or decoder issues.


Jitter in the video was virtually eliminated.


Synchronization of sound with video is better, but still not perfect on 1080i. The sound is ahead of the picture. At the end of sentences, the sound stops, but the lips are still moving.

 

[qweqaz5]

Thanks hdtval21 !!!!!!! I'm gonna give this program a whirl, can't wait.......



EDIT - ok I'm pretty sure I've set up the channels properly for Detroit. I'm getting 2 errors when I try to launch the program:


1) COULDNT CONNECT PINS

2) CANT CONNECT VIDEO TO VMR


Any help appreciated.

 

[laredogolfer48]

I'm getting the same two errors.


I unzipped the file to a folder on my desktop and edited channels.txt.


In the first column I put the broadcast frequency and the second column I put the channel label. Is this correct?


Does anything have to be done with the plug-in?

 

[eschamp]

Quote:

Originally posted by jswclw I just tried WatchHDTV. Very nice. Good job!

I'm having trouble getting it to work.


I try to load it but it won't run.


Is it perhaps because my list of TV channels is wrong? The author says, "First column is the actual physical(rf) channel number, and the second column is the actual analog channel number."


antennaweb.org lists digital channels with channel (eg., 57.1) and frequency (eg., 32). Which is the RF and which is the analog?


Thanks.

 

[eschamp]

It helps to be able to read!


Removing the comment lines in channels.txt did the trick.


Incidentally, the lineup for Northern Burlington County, NJ is:


64 6

32 57

54 17

34 34

43 43

26 3

42 29

67 10

42 29


Frequency is first; channel num is second.

 

[hdtval21]

I'm glad some of you liked it. Here's some help.


jswclw- I've noticed some slight out-of-sync stuff as well, but on my end it doesn't seem to happen all the time. It seems inconsistent when it happens, and it seems some channels are better than others. CPU usage- your 1080i seems too high. Most work being done is decoders, so that's why cpu usage is so close to ATI's app. What CPU speed and video card do you have? I'm running a P4 2.6 with 9500 pro, and mine is mostly always below 30% for both 1080i and 720p. Either your CPU or video card may be too slow and are the cause. I know I've read others with similar issues and it seems there isn't a big consensus on the causes.


qweqaz5 & laredogolfer48- the errors are caused by some problem with your VMRs. Easiest suggestion I can give is to load up graphedit(you can get it free from MS or other sites) and check the VMRs in there. Under the directshow filters, there will(should) be two instances named Video renderer. One is old, and the other is VMR7. You can load both and one will say VMR7. It may be the first instance. If you don't have VMR7 (but you probably should) then something is wrong with your installation of the quartz.dll file. This can get installed with Windows Media Player, so you can try updating WMP or installing WMP9 again if you have that version. Also, I found this out on my own system as well that other programs may mess up the VMR's. I had installed some trials of powerdvd and windvd and they messed with the way I could call the VMR's in my program. After uninstalling all stuff like that, and maybe doing some more fixing! I got my VMR's back in order. Oh what fun!! If you want to use the remote, you can just import(you don't have to copy it anywhere) the plug-in in the remote wonder software. The buttons to use on the remote are in the readme.


If anyone needs any more help, just post away!

 

[qweqaz5]

I've tried reinstalling Windows Media Player 10 but I think my VMRs are still messed up. How did you fix yours?


This problem probably has something to do with the very high CPU usage(~90% for both 720p & 1080i content) over the last week or so. Prior to that, CPU usage with DTV never peaked above 50%.

 

[laredogolfer48]

Using graphedit I found two video renders, but neither one was labeled VMR7. I tried to run the graph the filters using graphedit, but I couldn't access properties of Microsoft ATSC Network Provider. Error message popped up saying requested property page could not be displayed.

 

[grogs]

I took that as a typo but I could be wrong.

VRM9 works just fine for building the graph.

I posted pictures of the graph on Rage3D, I am grog over there.


Rage3D - ATI HDTV Wonder- alternative software thread
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33805080


GraphEdit Tips and Tricks
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33792569


I have several examples in the graphedit thread including adding ones for HDTV DTV. It should help if you are following the readme.txt file and want to see the graph as well.


Greg


Quote:

Originally posted by laredogolfer48 Using graphedit I found two video renders, but neither one was labeled VMR7. I tried to run the graph the filters using graphedit, but I couldn't access properties of Microsoft ATSC Network Provider. Error message popped up saying requested property page could not be displayed.

 

[hdtval21]

laredogolfer48- the property page error means you need to do something that I can't remember at the moment. Something like regsvr something. Try searching here or on google and you should be able to find it. One site said the whole dx9 sdk needed to be installed, but I don't think that is needed, although it probably would work and it wouldn't really hurt, but it is a large download. I'm fairly certain it's something simple to do.


qweqaz5- Do you have an ATI video card or nvidia? I think some people may have had issues with wmp10 and some of ati's drivers. The high cpu usage should be an indication something's not right.


Subchannels? If enough people want them, I don't think it would be too much of a problem to implement, I just never did because I didn't use them that much. I know some stations use secondary or other subch. for HD or other stuff, so I know some of you may be out with some channels you actually want.

 

[jswclw]

Quote:

Originally posted by hdtval21 I've noticed some slight out-of-sync stuff as well, but on my end it doesn't seem to happen all the time. It seems inconsistent when it happens, and it seems some channels are better than others. CPU usage- your 1080i seems too high. Most work being done is decoders, so that's why cpu usage is so close to ATI's app. What CPU speed and video card do you have? I'm running a P4 2.6 with 9500 pro, and mine is mostly always below 30% for both 1080i and 720p. Either your CPU or video card may be too slow and are the cause. I know I've read others with similar issues and it seems there isn't a big consensus on the causes.

I am running a P4 2.8 overclocked to about 3.2, 1GB RAM and a Radeon 9600 128MB. Clearly something is not right in my installation. There is a huge difference for me between 720p and 1080i CPU usage - more than double for 1080i. 720p runs in the low 20s. 1080i in the 50-60 range. Is that normal for there to be such a huge difference?


I guess I need to look at the driver and decoder level. Any suggestions?


Thanks.

 

[eschamp]

Quote:

Originally posted by eschamp Removing the comment lines in channels.txt did the trick.

Hmmm, it's not working again!


It loads and shows Ch 10 as the CHANNEL. If I click on the 10, a pop-up shows the other available channels but any attempt to select a different one or use any of th e"CH" buttons causes the program to terminate.


Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated

 

[GaryHDTV]

Jeff, your CPU usage appears normal to me. I have a similar system. Decoding 1080i 'video' does require more processing than decoding 720p.

 

[rjcress]

Quote:

Originally posted by hdtval21 Subchannels? If enough people want them, I don't think it would be too much of a problem to implement.

If you have the time and inclination to make sub-channels work, I would certainly appreciate it.

Sesame Street is on a sub-channel and I'd love for my kids to be able to watch it.


And thanks for making your program available. As poorly as ATI's software has worked for me, it is great to have another option.

 

[qweqaz5]

I have the ATI 9800XT along with Omega Catalyst 5.1. Funny thing is the high CPU usage problem only started recently; as you mentioned, maybe some software installation during that time period messed up my VMRs.


I figure fixing it won't be an easy task? I'm waiting for MMC 9.06 before I do a fresh install of XP Professional.


My system specs:

Athlon XP 2.4Ghz

1GB DDR RAM

ATI 9800XT

Audigy 2

 

[laredogolfer48]



Originally posted by hdtval21

laredogolfer48- the property page error means you need to do something that I can't remember at the moment. Something like regsvr something. Try searching here or on google and you should be able to find it. One site said the whole dx9 sdk needed to be installed, but I don't think that is needed, although it probably would work and it wouldn't really hurt, but it is a large download. I'm fairly certain it's something simple to do.


Thanks for your help!


I had a problem finding which version of DirectX SDK had the GraphEdit application, there were multiple updates. Found it on Microsoft web site. It was DirectX 9.0 SDK (Summer 2003) version. Downloaded it and GraphEdit now allows property access to the tuner.


I was able to watch hdtv using your filter configuration in GraphEdit, but still couldn't get WatchHDTV to work. Still getting pin error.


Interesting Observation: I have one HDTV channel that mostly has sound and no picture using ATI software. It's a 1080i format. If I go to it from another channel that has 1080i format, the picture comes in for about five minutes and then goes off again. This channel has the same problem in GraphEdit (sound w/no picture) but I can't switch to it from another channel.


Any suggestions?

 

[jswclw]

I looked further into the problem using the GraphEdit tool than I saw mentioned else where. That tool shows all the codecs involved in rendering a particular file. So I recorded some 1080i programming to a vcr file and looked into it. Turns out that some nero video decoder was getting the job of decoding the video stream.


Strikes me that it should be an ATI decoder in order to get the ATI graphics card to do the work. Right? So I unregistered the offending nero codec and now a Cyberlink decoder is doing the job. There are ATI decoders, but how far do I go with this thing?


Any ideas? Should it be the "ATI MPEG Video Decoder" that does the decoding? Do I keep unregistering decoders until it puts the ATI one to work?


I'm betting that if the ATI decoder is put into action that the CPU usage will drop based on the video card doing more work.