Video Capture Using ATI's Multimedia Center?

[DukeDiablo]

Dear Forum-

I cannot for the life of me figure out why I'm failing so miserably in recording a TV show using ATI's MMC in conjunction with my TV Wonder VE card.

If anyone has any experience with this software, please enlighten me.

I've scheduled TV shows to record, the TV sub application of ATI's MMC starts up and begins to do something...then, after the show has finished, I cannot find the .mpeg file anywhere; much less where I instructed the file to be copied to.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and I'm running DX 9, so I didn't figure I needed any extra Video Capture drivers, etc.

[edge345]

Did you check out the ATI site.

http://mirror.ati.com/support/products/pc/tuners/tvwondervemanuals.html

[pam123]

You need video capture drivers for your card.
ATI has them as a seperate install.

[DukeDiablo]

Thank you both so much for your replies.

I have installed ATI's Video Capture drivers for the current driver version (Catalyst 3.0); however, the MMC's PC Check diagnostic still says that I have two problems.

DirectX 8.1: Improper Installation
Capture Drivers: No INF files

I'm using DirectX 9, and I've made sure everything is OK there.
I've also installed the video capture drivers for the driver set.

Now one odd thing is this. In order for the TV function on the MMC to work for me, I had to install this universal video capture driver located here:
http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/
Otherwise, everytime I tried to run the TV application, Windows XP did a reboot.

I'll see what else I can find on the ATI site, but I think I've exhausted all possibilities there.

Thanks again and yall have a great week.

[pam123]

ATI is picky about having software installed in a particular order.
http://mirror.ati.com/support/installation/tvwonder/winxp/mmctvwonderinstallwinxp.html
This link is for the TV VE card but there is an order for the capture drivers and regular driver/control panel as well.
I would suggest you uninstall everything and run regclean.
Then reinstall using ATI's recommended order.
You could try reinstalling DX 9 as well.
Pick a restore point frst to save yourself unneeded aggravation.

[DukeDiablo]

Thanks Pam-

This morning I started all over from scratch. I followed the ordering per ATI's instructions with no luck.

I did find out the problem though. At least, in my opinion, what the problem is.

DirectX 9 seems to be the problem this time. I suppose it's not really a Microsoft problem, because it's actually the ATI software/drivers that aren't working well with the newest DirectX version. From the information I've found online, DirectX 8.1 worked well with the same setup. Therefore, I just assume that DX9 is the issue.

I'll just be happy that I've got the TV/Gemstar capabilities(which as a chore by itself!) and wait a few months until ATI will hopefully address this issue (Other ATI TV users seem to be having similar problems with the release of DX9).

Thanks again and have a great week.

[pam123]

I had DX9 problems, or so I thought, and restored to 8.1.
I'm no longer sure it was the issue but since I can wait for another set of ATI drivers I'm leaving my install as is for now.
Sorry it's still not working.
What exact error messages are you getting ?

[DukeDiablo]

Pam-

I guess I spoke too soon. I achieve video capture (quite nicely too) with Microsoft's Movie Maker 2.0.

So, I'm thinking it has to be an ATI Multimedia Center issue, and so I'll just wait for possible software improvements in the future.

Thanks again for the help and now I'm very happy that I can at least record some TV manually. Now if I could just get ATI's MMC to work to it's full potential, I could use the Gemstar Guide Plus Digital VCR feature!

Well, there's always tomorrow.

Thanks again.

[DrZaius]

Thanks for the info and links everyone, I just picked up this card so this will be useful for installing it.

[DukeDiablo]

Dr. Zaius:

This is a post of mine from another forum that may also be useful for you and your new TV Card. Let me know if you need clarification on anything.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Forum-

Yesterday I purchased an ATI TV Wonder VE for my Windows XP box. Unfortunately I didn't check ahead of time to see how many people have problems getting this to work with XP.

Nevertheless, after HOURS of trying all kinds of ATI MMC/Capture Drivers/Video Drivers/etc., I did find a solution that worked for me:

Just to give you a little info on my system first:

Windows XP Pro
ATI Radeon 8500
ATI TV Wonder VE
MMC 7.7 (DVD, VCD, File Player, etc.)
MMC 7.6 (TV)

After I installed the preceding software everything worked just fine, EXCEPT the TV capability. The program either froze or rebooted everytime I tried to run it, no matter what compatabilty mode I ran.

So, after looking around I installed the following, Universal Capture Drivers for XP:

Go to the site below and download "btwdmdrvinstaller5.3.5.zip" and run the executable.

http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/download.html

Make sure you read everything along the way as it trys to autodetect your particular card and make sure you pick the right country/region, as well as the right tuner type (NTSC, PAL, etc.) for you.

Then it will do the rest and after XP crunches the new drivers, you will probably have some issues in XP's device manager. That worried me, but since everything(almost) is working so well, I'm ignoring it for the moment.

After I did all that, I could now watch TV and use Gemstar without ANY problems. I've had the TV on for nearly 24 hours now without a hitch.

As I said before, almost everything works. The only thing that isn't working for me at the moment is Video Capture. I can't record a TV show right now. From what I've read, I think this is due to an incompatibilty with DirectX 9. ATI's drivers/software must not like something that the newest DX has.

So there it is. It worked wonders for me and I'm sorry if everyone already figured this out. If it doesn't work for you I'm also very sorry.

Oh and if in fact it doesn't do the trick, just run the btwdmdrvinstaller5.3.5 Utility again and choose the uninstall option. That will take you right back to where you were.

Good luck

UPDATE: Microsoft's Movie Maker allows me to capture video without a problem...

[Confused]

I'm also having problems with TV Wonder VE and XP Pro. I can watch TV fine. My problem is in VCR function. It appears to record fine. A file is created, but I get: Error; Cannot open file when I try to play it back.

I'm still at DirectX 8.1. Have even tried the new Beta drivers from ATI with no luck. Anyone else able to get this to work.

Their lack of support will probably have a negative influence on furture purchases from ATI.
Chas

[DukeDiablo]

Chas-

Well, I guess we have similar problems then. I too can't use the VCR function; however, MS Movie Maker does a great job of general capture.

Chas, where does the MMC save the VCR recordings to? I can't even find a file when I try to record, but then again, I'm still not sure where the MMC tries to save the files by default.

[cobra]

Mine defaults to c:\
but I change that to another drive. I wish I could help, but mine has been working great since day one :( :)

[Confused]

Lo and behold. Heard back from ATI today. They say I need a MPEG-2 decoder. That's what I get for buying white box. No CD. Anyone know where I can get a MPEG-2 decoder, preferably free.

Duke. Mine stores to my "F" drive and file name defaults to channel I'm recording. You can specify drive by clicking setup, choosing VCR function and clicking on Disk Space.
Chas

[pam123]

http://www.moonlight.co.il/download.htm

I don't know too much about these guys but the decoder is free.

[DukeDiablo]

Thanks for the info from both of you. I'm in the process of trying MMC 8 and the subsequent drivers so I'll let you know how that goes.

[HAL9000]

Originally posted by DukeDiablo
Thanks for the info from both of you. I'm in the process of trying MMC 8 and the subsequent drivers so I'll let you know how that goes.

MMC8? Where are you getting MMC8? I only see 7.7 available.

[Confused]

Thanks Pam. Making progress. Am able to open file now and play back but have no sound. ATI site says I need a DVD player. I also tried PowerDVD and have same results. Picture but no sound.
Have a ATI DVD player on a CD that came with my All in Wonder card on the other PC. Problem is it is from 1999 and when I loaded it on my XP PC with the PCI TV wonder I lost all decoder and TV viewing function.

I love XP's chekpoint/restore. I did a checkpoint prior to loading it and simply restored to get back. I believe I need a current version of ATI's DVD player that has XP support or some other decoder in order to get sound and picture.

Any more idea's anyone?
Chas

[Xayd]

Wait a sec.

If you have an ATI CD with the DVD player on it, you can get the ATI DVD player installed, which will give you the MPEG-2 functionality that you need.

Download the latest version of the ATI DVD player, when it asks pop in your old CD and enter the key, then it should finish installing.

As for playing MPEG-2 streams, ATI's player is quite honestly pretty crappy.

Use BSPlayer instead.

http://www.bsplayer.org

[pam123]

Xayd beat me to it.
The DVD update should solve your problems.

[DukeDiablo]

HAL9000-

The AIW 9700 comes with the newest drivers and MMC8. As of yet, I don't believe it's available online. From what I hear, maybe this spring.

[Confused]

Correction I do have the TV tuner CD. Has DVD. I think I have updated it when I downloaded MMC7.1 and again when I tried upgrading to beta version 7.6. Ati site not specific on DVD updates but I believe they are in the MMC.

Must be doing something wrong with bsplayer. I cain't get it to do anything.
Chas

[tminz]

I have capture issues with ATI's Radeon 9000Pro Can't play a DVD. Oddly enough I had the same problems with ATI's Radeon 32 mb sdr card. Was pulling my hair out trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Turns out ATI is aware of the capture driver & DirectX issues and are working on a fix. I hope to see it soon!

[corydaner]

I love DUKEDIABLO Thanks for your help man let me know if you need any. AH HA HA

[Confused]

Originally posted by tminz
Turns out ATI is aware of the capture driver & DirectX issues and are working on a fix. I hope to see it soon!

Tminz

Do you think this would have a bearing on having no sound with video capture playback?
Chas

[HAL9000]

Originally posted by DukeDiablo
HAL9000-

The AIW 9700 comes with the newest drivers and MMC8. As of yet, I don't believe it's available online. From what I hear, maybe this spring.

Ya... that's what I thought but didn't realize that it was actually shipping with the 9700.

[DukeDiablo]

HAL9000-

Well, to make a long story short, the MMC8 suite didn't make any difference in my situation. Have a great week.