Dyre Straits

Just yesterday I picked up the AiW 9600 from CompUSA. It was priced nice and I thought it was time to upgrade from my 64 DDR VIVO that I've been using for over 3 years now.

Anyway, the installation went very well. I was using it in no time to do capturing from my other computer using the S-Video out from the 9600 PRO on my gaming machine, while capturing via the S-Video connector to the other computer.

Two things are happening that are quite annoying:

1. I have to constantly reset the Overscan option on the gaming machine or else the captured video will reduce itself with a LARGE black bar across the bottom of the video. It seems to reset itself everytime my gaming machine's monitor changes refresh rates and/or resolutions. I can't understand why that would be since I have the TV-Out setup like a separate monitor at 1024x768.

2. Using the S-Video there's an annoying 'interference' bar scrolling constantly upward on the captured video. It's a 'soft' wide bar that usually accompanies bad signal or local interference. The composite connection doesn't do this....and hadn't been doing it with the previous VIVO captures. Any ideas where to begin looking for interfence? I really can't turn off very many things in this area.

Thanks,

D.S.

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Vampyromaniac

for number 1, I don't know the cause. maybe try re-installing drivers?
you can also try older drivers, recent ones have had issues with TV-out

number2, the only thing I can think of is to try a diff cable, thicker one.
or try laying out the cable in a different manner, it might be interfering itself.

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Dyre Straits

Thanks for the reply.

Issue #1 is something I've never had happen before now. It never happened when I used the 64 VIVO card to capture. The only thing different now is the AiW 9600. I've tried different settings in the video size option in MMC 9.1....which I'm using for capturing.

I have had to make adjustments to the video size after a new driver install, but, it seemed to always pretty much 'stick' once I set it. I know I used to have trouble with a line showing where the hidden Taskbar would be across the bottom. Overscan has taken care of that.

Now, one other thing I've noticed.... On the gaming machine's TV settings, the screen location options and resizing options are grayed out. I used to be able to use those to move the TV screen around....center it, resize it, etc. Is that one of the issues you're referring to with the newer drivers?

As for #2: It's going to be very, very difficult to try to reroute this cable. My gaming machine is in front of me and the capturing machine is to my left. The cable's length is going to restrict almost any attempt to reroute it. I might mention that there are NO flourescent lights in the room, either. I noticed this occurs on my main TV when I select S-Video input from the satellite signal, too. So, I'm fairly convinced that there's some kind of interference in the room, around the house, or maybe even in the neighborhood. BUT, it really does spoil the feature of having S-Video Input capture ability if the video looks worse than it does with RCA Composite.

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Vampyromaniac

you know what, I haven't had a very good experience with TV-out on my AIW 9700 either
the drivers seem very easy to upset. I remember once, I was trying to change the TV-out res,
then after a reboot, I couldn't turn on the "TV" Display any more, until a driver change.
I don't know why there's so many issues with this, the only thing I could think of is the fact that
the newer cards have dual RAMDAC's (I'm pretty sure most of the mid-high end)
That's the one difference that stands out to me when it comes to TV-out. But who knows.
I could be way off lol. really though, too many problems and too fragile drivers for a major product.
most people have had the black bar issue, and sometimes overscan cuts off too much, etc.
TV-out just seems real flaky lately. I'd go with some older drivers, worth a shot. 4.2 or late 3.x's

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Dyre Straits

Thanks again!

I'll do a little more research and experimenting and see what I can come up with.

My AiW experience goes back to the AiW 8MB PCI card from about '96 or '97. I ended up with that after trying a Diamond Stealth card that only supported up to 640x480 TV out while the ATi card supported 800x600. I've been a fan of ATi since then.

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AIW Guru

Well documented issue. Fixed with Catalyst 4.8 and up. This is not included in 4.9 BETA recently released since it doesn't detect WDM. Just a short while to wait for your fix!

Dyre Straits

Thanks a bunch for the reply.

I have done a little 'tinkering' on my own and installed a WDM package from a prior driver release. It seems to be working so far. At least last night things went very well.

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Vampyromaniac

good news

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Dyre Straits

Just to let you know, it's still working like it should now. I believe I used the WDM from the 4.7 package. I just went into the C:\ATI\Support folder and opened up the one in there. Once I opened the folder for the CAT 4.7s, I just ran the setup for the WDM drivers only.

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AIW Guru

Wait for the official Catalyst 4.8 release. Your fix will be there.

Dyre Straits

Thanks! Can't wait.

(I have a game movie I'm trying to complete to get out this weekend. Must have been a bad time to do any upgrading. )

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