ATI HDTV Wonder Choppy and Multimedia Center Errors!

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and just purchased the HDTV Wonder. I already have a Sony HD-200 on my HD TV and the OTA signal is crystal clear. I've encountered a few problems with the card and am begging for any help! Thanks in advance!

In ATI System Compatibility Check
1) "DirectX components are not installed properly"..I've re-
installed the provided files numerous times and manually re-
installed DirectX 9.0, everything seemed solid.
2) "Capture driver INF files are not installed." Not sure what this
means...I have tried to re-install the WDM files off the Catalyst CD many times.

When attempting to watch DTV,
The video is choppy and channel switching is slow and delayed (many times sound will switch, video will turn black).

Another question...Does anyone know of any other DVR software that is compatible with the card? At least, how can I set TV Listings to have the channel+sub listings as TitanTv has...

Here are my specs:

AMD Athalon XP 2.6 GHz
Diamond S70 128 MB w/Radeon 9200 SE
512 DDR RAM


Again, please help me if you know anything that might solve this, I've waited tooo long!
email: skiingfoolusa@hotmail.com THANKS!

Okay, first of all, update your drivers for your ATI Graphics card to the latest one and then get the latest DirectX 9.0c (chances are that you have 9.0b. i dont see a vast improvent in the update but i say just update it). Also, make sure when you reinstall the WDM files, make sure that you uninstall first, this may help. Try reducing your system resources. Make sure you have a fast enough hard drive cuz you may experience lag from your poor hard drive speed.

Please note: These are my recommendations. By doing this, you agree that you are willing to risk going into more trouble. This statement doesnt mean that i mean to do harm to your computer, but to protect me from you getting pissed off at my recommendations cuz i personally dont have the HDTV wonder, but if i had this product and experienced problems, these are what i would do.

BTW, it could be because you have an athalon....lol, jk...i couldnt help it, i just had to....btw, i will not email you back since this is a forum and the point of a forum is to help you and other people who are experience what you are experiencing.

Thanks, sonicularulus. But, I've already tried doing all of those. This software seriously sucks. I've seen loads of 3rd party programs that replicate the TIVO Interface onto the PC...any that would work with this damn card?

Have you contacted Tech Support about this?

I'm unwilling to set on the line to Canada for three hours but I have emailed an inquiry two days ago. No response yet... Is anyone else noticing the same issues?

You probably have done this, but for others that are experiencing slow computer issues, adware and spyware can soak up a lot of computer time. Ad-aware and spybot are a couple of cleaners that work very well. Also I use a program called Hijack This to tell me what has been installed on my computer unbeknownst to me at least once a week. If you do much internet surfing, you will pick up the parasite software programs. These programs can be found at www.download.com (http://www.download.com).

ps. Be careful of Hijack This if you try it. Heed all of the warnings!

good point rbinck, but he could also have a trojan or a virus, something that ad-aware, spybot, and hijack this doesnt catch and remove.so may i also recommend doing a virus scan. if u do not have a virus scan, go to http://uk.trendmicro-europe.com/enterprise/products/housecall_pre.php

When attempting to watch DTV,
The video is choppy and channel switching is slow and delayed (many times sound will switch, video will turn black).

Again, please help me if you know anything that might solve this, I've waited tooo long!
email: skiingfoolusa@hotmail.com THANKS!

Many have reported the same problem. Everything you may attempt to do WILL NOT SOLVE the problem with the current implementation. The problem lies in the TV-ON-DEMAND feature that is permanently enabled. This is what is chewing up all your CPU - and you cannot turn it off.

On all other ATI TV-Tuner card, CPU usage is normally below 10% while, on the HDTV, it is at the top. Check it out, you'll see. This CPU increase cannot be explained by the increased HD bandwidth alone.

Take a closer look and you'll notice constant disk activity. Do not think your system is swapping - it is not. You'd waste your time and money adding more RAM (like ATI suggested to me).

What's happening is the time-shift functionality that is compressing and recording to disk. Unless I am wrong, what you see in fact is pseudo-LIVE video/audio that is somehow buffered to disk and uncompessed before being rendered on screen.

Hence the high CPU utilisation, disk activity and ultimately your choppy video.

Like me you'll have to wait for a s/w fix (if it can be fixed).

More on HDTV WONDER choppy video:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=784708

I have a similar but not identical situation. MY DTV function works pretty good. I am running AMD 3200+, Rosewill Radeon 9600XT, Samsung Hard Drive 160 GB. I have tinkered with this thing for about 3 weeks. I get about 12 stations. Signal strength is from 50 to 88 on the ATI scale. I get some occaisonal choppiness which I think is due to problems at the stations. I also get hours of good reception. I can change the mix of stations by slight positioning changes of the antenna. My antenna is also at the end of 100' of cable.

Now for the bad news. I cannot get the TV function to initialize. I couldn't install AuthorScript (DVD authoring) off the installation disc (non-ati card). I have updated the graphics drivers off the web site and have installed three update packages for HDTVW but can't get the last package (MMC) to install. I have tried deleting everything and starting over in SAFE mode but the installshield program won't work for me in SAFE Mode. I have written two e-mails to ATI Customer support and gotten computer generated replys. The ATI PC Utility says my Direct X is flawed and my capture drivers aren't installed but they are and work fine on DTV. I think ATI has something here but it should be in the beta phase based on my experience. If anybody has any revelations I would be glad to hear them.

I have the identical problem with a new OEM install in a Pent 4 with ATI Radeon 9250 graphics card. I tried everything, deinstalled all ATI drivers and reinstalled the new, DirectX 9c checks out with dxdiag tool, and the WDM capture drivers have been taken out and put in numerous times. I'm awaiting tech support reply as well. Everything else works- DTV, DVD, etc. Why the analog TV doesn't is beyond me. Let me know if anyone figures it out.

I have read somewhere (sorry, I can't find a link now) that the HDTV Wonder needs at least a 9500 level card. You may want to check into this.

Also there is this from ATI:

High CPU utilization or DTV image is choppy running DTV Player
The information in this article applies to:

HDTV WONDER
In some configurations, the DTV Player may indicate higher than expected CPU utilization. Other symptoms include choppy display or audio running DTV Player.

The symptoms differ from system to system, and not all systems exhibit this behaviour. ATI has not been able to duplicate this issue.

ATI Customer Care is recommending that the following troubleshooting steps be performed:

Update to the latest HDTV WONDER drivers (http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html) and software on ATI.com.
Ensure that Windows XP Service Pack 1 or higher is installed before the HDTV WONDER software. Service Pack 2 or higher is recommended.
Shut down Virus software, as the scanner operation may yield higher than normal CPU utilization.
Close background tasks to free up system memory.
Ensure that the graphics card in the system meets the minimum requirements.
Check for IRQ sharing in Device Manager. If your find there is an IRQ sharing with another busmastering device, it is suggested to test the card in a different PCI slot.
Check for updated sound drivers.
Check for updated motherboard chipset drivers, or PCI busmastering drivers for your motherboard.
Check the system BIOS for any settings that related to PCI burst transactions, or PCI latency settings, and adjust according to your motherboard vendor’s recommendations.
Other issues I have found that will cause sudden CPU usage include the Task Manager looking for Windows updates frequently and PCanywhere host installed. Basically the bottom line is you don't want anything but the minimum software running while using the DTV player. Like burning a CD requires this on slower PCs.

This is my FIRST post (ever) to a public forum, so please
forgive my awkwardness <grin>. I received my HDTV-Wonder
from Page Computers on November 30th. I have the DTV, DVD,
and audio CD parts of the card and software working, but like
skiingfoolusa, I cannot get the Analog TV function to work on
a brand new IBM ThinkCentre PC with 3.6 GHz Intel Pentium
(Prescott), 1 GByte Main Memory, 160 GByte Serial ATA, and
ATI Radeon X600 Graphics with 128 MBytes of memory.
The MOST Frustrating thing is that the PC Check software doesn't
Recognize the ATI RADEON X600 card as an ATI RADEON series
card! Same issues with Direct X 9.0c and the Capture INF files.

Looks like it's time to RMA this turkey, I'm afraid.

WA2VCS

New info- ATI.com posts Info-base #4744 (under HDTV Wonder - technical issues) "HDTV Wonder - Error starting TV:"TV Player Failed to initialize video". The workaround involves adding a variable to the Path line in the System/Environment variables. It worked for me. Thanks to all.

I finally have the Analog NTSC TV working on the ATI HDTV-Wonder
PCI card. The card uses the middle connector (F-connector) for
the Analog NTSC reception (nuts!). I copied 4 files from the
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers subdirectory to
C:\WINDOWS\system32

vfwwdm32.dll (Video for Windows)
kstvtuner.ax
ksxbar.ax
kswdmcap.ax


vidcap.ax was already in C:\WINDOWS\system32

This is a HACK fix and PC Check still fails. So I am going to
add the PATH update from the ATI website as Sleeper suggests
from www.ati.com Info-base #4744 (from Sleeper's append).
(I should remove them from system32 if it works, as any update
to the files will most likely be only to the files in system32\drivers!)

Now I have to add a splitter (yuch) or bring in the signal from
another antenna to the middle connector (F-connector),
OR, perhaps there is an antenna selection panel that I missed. <===
I use the tuner in "2 through 69 Off-the-Air" mode for NTSC
for Channels 10 UPN(LPTV), 12 (CBS), 20(NBC)LPTV, 26(TBN)LPTV,
34(ABC), 40(FOX), and 46(PBS). No cable TV for this place.
(Time-Warner Road Runner YES, TV service from them a BIG NO!)
I am 8.5 miles direct line of site from the Binghamton, NY
broadcast center so getting the 4 DTV signals and the
7 NTSC signals with ONE antenna bearing is NO problem here.
Channel 10 UPN LPTV is a real reach as it broadcasts with only
9 WATTS of power. Its signal is on DTV-8 as 40-2, so I don't
have to "work" to get Channel 10 NTSC with the digital signal
from DTV-8.

I became suspicious of the DirectX 9.0c installation and asked
the ATI Customer Care person if they tested with 9.0c. Hmmmm.
Looks like they just got around to it it seems.

I could NOT click on the Properties for the Legacy Video Capture
Devices ---> Properties --> Properties without a FAILURE.
Using a Win/XP SP1 ThinkPad PC, I was able to find that the
driver file was vfwwdm32.dll which I found in
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers and I copied to
C:\WINDOWS\system32 to get the "Properties" selection to
respond correctly for the Legacy Video Capture Drivers in
Device Manager.

Then the ATI Web Site discussed kstvtuner.ax and ksxbar.ax
in the DirectX troubleshooting section. I decided to add them and
kswdmcap.ax file to C:\WINDOWS\system32 and THAT's when
Analog NTSC TV started to work. It survived a few power-down
reboots, too. DTV, TV, DVD Playback, CD Audio, File Playback are
all working now. (I don't have VCD's to test that feature.)

I have an RMA already from Page Computers. Perhaps I won't have
to use it now!

Happy Holidays!
wa2vcs

I used the Windows/XP Recovery Console to remove the
4 files from the C:\WINDOWS\system32 and dllcache
subdirectories. (I also took the time to "patch"
the C:\WINDOWS\system32\sfc_os.dll for WinXP/SP2 at offset
0xECE9 from 33C040 to 909090 to enable the
various settings for the SFCDisable registry key where
0x0 enables System File Checking and 0xffffff9d disables it.)

Now I have the ATI.com Info-base 4744 setup which is:

;%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers

added to the System PATH Environment Variable.
Then reboot. See www.ati.com/support/infobase/4744.html

All is well. The ATI supplied UHF antenna functions well, of
course, for NTSC broadcasts. Binghamton, NY is UHF
dominant for NTSC and VHF dominant for ATSC, generally
opposite to other much larger markets. The 35-year old
"bow-tie/rabbit ears" combo antenna with the U/V combiner
(300-ohms twin lead to 75-ohm coax) was needed for the
Digital ATSC feeds. The ATI-supplied antenna wouldn't cut it for
WIVT DT-4.

Even after testing all of the ATI MultiMedia Center features which
I would regularly use (DTV, TV, DVD, CD, and File Play), the
PCCheck function still fails with problems in "DirectX 9.0c
installation", no recognition as a RADEON class card for
my ATI RADEON X600 card (!!!), and Capture INF files missing.
I'll work with ATI Customer Support to resolve those minor
issues. I also cannot execute the ATIINFO.exe, ATIInsp.EXE, or
ATIIPRXX.EXE Problem Reporting software commands
extracted from ati-util-jan-2004.exe from the www.ati.com
web site. The commands FAIL with an exception in
the ATIICDXX.DLL file.

Question:
Why are DX9 executables like the ks*.ax and the vfwwdm32.dll
in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers and not in system32 itself???

Happy Holidays
wa2vcs

Sleeper - you have the right idea in entry 14. Just go to www.ati.com (http://www.ati.com) and search for infobase #4744. Now this only works with HDTV wonder cards with the following condition:

1. DTV (and all other ati programs) are functional
2. When you try to open TV, it states that it fails to initialize the video capture device
3. When you run the PC compatibility check in the MMC configuration, it states that the capture INF files are not installed

This is likely due to a XP SP2 issue. I tried multiple times uninstalling, installing, etc...without any progress, but following 4744 worked great