Jerky Video in Homebrew AIW 9800 Pro-based Media Center PC

[Herb]

I built this Windows XP Media Center PC with an ASUS A8V-MX motherboard,
an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual-core CPU, WD 400 GB SATA hard drive, 2 GB
of Kingston DDR RAM, and an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro video card. I
figured the way I'd spec'd this box, I'd surely have no performance
problems. But the live digital satellite video coming out of it is very
often jerky to the point of unwatchability, though payback of recorded
programs is as smooth as silk. But when I run the video into the
computer and use the system as a TIVO, it appears to be freezing the image
momentarily, dropping several frames, then catching back up. Sound is
always smooth though, never choppy.

I've never gotten close to filling even a fraction of my drive space. I
have tried defragging the drive, I've reduced the video recording quality,
and installed all the latest ATI drivers and Microsoft patches--all to no
avail.

If I bypass the computer and direct the satellite video feed directly from
the satellite box into the monitor, the picture appears perfect, so I'm
sure that the signal is not the problem.

I strongly suspect that the All-In-Wonder's video tuner might be at the
root of the issue, because it's also very prone to crash to a black screen
if I minimize the Windows Media Center window for more than a few seconds,
or open and navigate other menus while watching a program.

The All-In-Wonder is otherwise a sound performer. Would I be better off
replacing it with a plain video card and a separate tuner? Which tuner
assures the highest performance with the setup I'm using?

Thanks in advance,

Herb

 

[Tom Scales]

The All-In-Wonder is otherwise a sound performer. Would I be better off
replacing it with a plain video card and a separate tuner? Which tuner
assures the highest performance with the setup I'm using?

Thanks in advance,

Herb

Herb,

The AIW is a software encoder card. ATI finally released MCE drivers, but
it is not technically an approved card as MCE requires a hardware card.

Do yourself a favor and go buy a Hauppauge PVR-150MCE. I've seen them for
under $70. You can still use the 9800 as your video card.

Tom

 

[Andy]

Do you have Cool & Quiet enabled?

 

[Herb]

Do you have Cool & Quiet enabled?

I did at first, but part of my troubleshooting was to eliminate as many
unnecessary processes as possible, so I disabled C&Q in the BIOS. I also
stopped ASUS's monitoring application PC Probe too, along with Symantec AV.
With literally nothing but WinXP and Media Center taxing the system, the
annoying, stuttered video persisted.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm pretty convinced Tom is right on the money
with his contention that the ATI's software-based encoder is overmatched by the
task at hand. Come to think of it, this problem is similar to the one I
suffered through back when i installed one of the first computer DVD drives, and
tried (on the cheap)using a software-based DVD player on my 166 MHZ PC. DVDs
were painfully unwatchable until I added a Creative Labs DVD Encore hardware
decoder card.

Thanks to you both for the suggestions. I'll order the recommended hardware
card!

Herb

 

[T Shadow]

I did at first, but part of my troubleshooting was to eliminate as many
unnecessary processes as possible, so I disabled C&Q in the BIOS. I also
stopped ASUS's monitoring application PC Probe too, along with Symantec AV.
With literally nothing but WinXP and Media Center taxing the system, the
annoying, stuttered video persisted.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm pretty convinced Tom is right on the money
with his contention that the ATI's software-based encoder is overmatched by the
task at hand. Come to think of it, this problem is similar to the one I
suffered through back when i installed one of the first computer DVD drives, and
tried (on the cheap)using a software-based DVD player on my 166 MHZ PC. DVDs
were painfully unwatchable until I added a Creative Labs DVD Encore hardware
decoder card.

Thanks to you both for the suggestions. I'll order the recommended hardware
card!

Herb

If your having problems it's probably because Media Center requires a
hardware encoder, not because your system can't do it. I use an AIW Rage128
PRO with a P3-450mhz CPU to PVR. Have to lower the quality but still, it
works. Have no problems doing full PVR with a AIW9600XT on a P4-2.4ghz
system. Can even do HDTV on this system with the HDTV Wonder. Using W2K and
WXP respectively. The HDTV Wonder can be used with Media Center using a hack
called the Kram drivers. Not suggesting you should use it just put it in for
reference.
You might check that DMA is on for the drives and IRQ settings for
conflicts but probably you need a card and O/S that can work together.