What is the best solution to my video card problem?

[mikef208]

I had been using a radeon VE for a few weeks, it worked great especially for watching DVD's on my TV. I recently picked up the All In Wonder and tried to watch a DVD and it just looked bad, it looked fine on the monitor, but bad on the TV. Plus I don't like the fact that it resizes my screen, even if it is running 800x600 it smashes it down smaller. Plus the display on the TV is a bit too big, but the controls don't fix it. The VE doesn't have any of those problems.

If I do return this, what would be the best way to go. I am looking to be able to play games and watch DVD's on my TV. I want to be able to record TV on my hard drive. So should I stick with the radeon VE( I do play some games, but I am stupid or blind and don't notice a differance between many cards) and get a TV tuner card with PVR ability, the VE can handle the DVD decoding can't it? Anything else?
The radeon VE will work fine for me watching DVD's and playing games on the TV, but I wanted the PVR ability, the only other PVR card I know of is made by hauppague and costs about the price of the AIW .

 

[Philly C]

Go to Rage3D.com and try the different (or should I say mass amounts) beta drivers they have. One of them should work for you. Happy hunting.

 

[mikef208]

I just downloaded the new drivers from ATI, still looks crappy, and the screen is too big for the TV, it is a little too tall, but adjusting with th controls doesn't work. What is my problem, I thought this card was supposed to be good, I must be stupid.

 

[mikef208]

Would I be better off going back to the VE and then getting a TV tuner with PVR capabilites? cause the VE worked great displaying DVD on my TV, and I didn't have the problem of the screens not fitting.

 

[Noriaki]

That's very odd....

In my testing with a Radeon Vivo 64MB I found that the Rage Theatre chip could output DVDs with quality almost as good as a dedicated DVD Decoder card.

I'm pretty sure the AIW Radeon uses a Radeon theatre chip....

If you want the absolute best TV-out quality you want a hollywood plus...though I've heard it hurts 2D quality at high res.

Maybe your AIW is defetive? Or maybe you just need different drivers...there are lots to try :confsed;

Personally I like the H+ option because then you can get a remote control for it and use it the same as a set top (no mouse control for me!)

 

[mikef208]

Well the DVD is outputted to the monitor just fine, looks awesome, but on the TV, it seems like it has a lot of red lines horizontally through it, maybe I need to adjust my TV settings, but why didn't it look like that with the VE.


Also is there anyway to fix the annoying screen size. I run the monitor at 1024x768, when you enable the TV display, it shrinks the mon. res. to the res. of the TV, which streches the screen across my monitor and leaves bars at the top and bottom, but the display on the TV is a bit too tall. I don't know about this card, it may be going back.

 

[Davegod75]

try totalling uninstalling all video drivers and mmc.
install dx8a
install MS video patch
install latest video drivers
install mmc 7.0

 

[Noriaki]

<< Also is there anyway to fix the annoying screen size. I run the monitor at 1024x768, when you enable the TV display, it shrinks the mon. res. to the res. of the TV, which streches the screen across my monitor and leaves bars at the top and bottom, but the display on the TV is a bit too tall. I don't know about this card, it may be going back. >>

No that's unavoidable unless the card has two RAMDACs (Matrox G400, G450, GF2MX w/ TwinView, the Radeon VE). Some cards look better than others on the monitor while TV-out is on (the black bars I mean) but your desktop has to be in the same res as the TV, unless you have a second RAMDAC.


When I said the Rage Theatre chip could output DVDs with nearly as good quality as the Hollywood Plus, I meant for TV-out...your problems sound kind of odd...at very least I would return it and get a new one. Or just return it flat out and get an H+.

The H+ has great TV-out quality and when you set it to TV out it just puts the control box on your desktop. You can have your desktop in whatever res you want and you don't have to have the DVD on your desktop if you are showing it on your TV, so you can surf AT while watching the DVD

I believe Haupagge has a TV-Tuner/DVD Decoder combo card. I'd take that and your Radeon LE...probably cheaper than the AIW to, and then you still have your TV-Tuner and Decoder if you want to upgrade to a GF3 or RadeonII

 

[mikef208]

Okay, I am prolly gonna take it back, what are the main differances between the AIW and say the Radeon VE?

I know it has the TV tuner with PVR ability, which i like
It decodeds DVD quite well, but doesn't the VE do that too
What else, I know it has that breakout box, but don't really know all it's capablities, I don't need the digital sound thing, cause my sound card handles that. Am I missing anything?

 

[Noriaki]

AIW: 166Mhz default clockspeed, HyperZ enabled by default.
LE: 143Mhz default clockspeed (or was it 148?), HyperZ disabled by default. But you can enable it with a little registery hack. Search the forums for it...

I know it has the TV tuner with PVR ability, which i like obviously the VE doesn't do that...the VE doesn't have a TV-Tuner built in..that's the main draw of the AIW.

It decodeds DVD quite well, but doesn't the VE do that too Yes, but the TV out quality *should* be better on the AIW...



The AIW is just a Radeon with a TV-Tuner stuck to it's arse. If you had a different Radeon and got a PCI TV-Tuner the two of them would magically become an AIW

(Well you'd need your soundcards digital output port as well as the PCI TV-Tuner)

 

[mikef208]

You keep speaking of the LE, I have the VE, I believe they are somewhat differant.

Plus I just looked at the hauppague WinTV-PVR, it is 249.00, thats more then I paid for the whole AIW, what should I do.

 

[Noriaki]

Oh...I'm sorry
Yes VE vs LE are very different.

The Radeon LE uses a standard radeon chip, just clocked lower.
The Radeon VE is a different chip altogether.

No Hardware T&amp;L and 1/2 the fillrate for the VE compared to astandard radeon.

The PVR is $250!!! Holy crap! That's ridiculous you could get a Hollywood Plus and a regular TV tuner for like $100...

Ok...well the Radeon VE is pretty crappy performance...and you don't want to pay for a PVR...

First thing I'd do is return the AIW as defective...tell them there is something wrong with the TV-output and you want a new one.

Then see if you still have the problem...

 

[mikef208]

Well I just looked at some of my stuff from the VE, it looks like the TV Wonder USB edition has a 10.00 rebate on it, and I think it is under 100.00, I didn't think it had the PVR, but apparently it does. What performance do you say is crappy with the VE, the gaming?
I do play some games, and I don't notice much of a differance in a lot of cards I am not a videophile I guess.
Even the plain Tv Wonder has PVR for 79.00, I don;t know how hauppague can charge so much for it, so now getting one of those is sounding like a better deal. I think DVD's look fine on my TV with the VE, games aren't bad, but text is not good. I bought the AIW for the TV tuner and the higher performance I guess, but I don't know if too me the higher performance in games is worth having it not fit on the monitor and TV screen, unless that is just a problem with my card, or does all of them do that? I understand they need to run both monitors at the same res., but TV's can do 800x600 can't they, so if I run my monitor at that res why does it still get squished and stuff?

 

[Noriaki]

Any 3D performance with the VE is crappy...Games, Pro3D work, whatever...

It's like the MatroxG450...good 2D features...but minimal 3D wise.

 

[mikef208]

Well the 3D doesn't need to be awesome for me, it would be nice, but I would rather have the normal sized screens then good 3D.

 

[Wiggo100]

Most TV's will only display 640x480 anyway.

 

[mikef208]

Oh, I thought they did 800x600, maybe that is why it was still smashing my screen