ATI TV Wonder Pro sound out of sync, and something automatically mutes "line in" when the TV program

[Zoog]

Hi,
I have an ATI TV Wonder Pro that was working well for a few weeks
when last night it recorded the video but no audio. Earlier I had a
problem where the audio was choppy, but that seemed to be a physical
cable connection or static problem. I've cleared that up by fussing
with the co-axial cable. Everything seemed fine but this morning when
I checked the recording there was no sound in the file. Yes, the audio
plays in sync with the other video files on the PC. Right now, when I
start up the ATI TV viewer it mutes the "Line In" control and when I
turn it back on the audio is roughly half a second ahead of the video.
I've Googled for answers but support information seems to be scattered
about and I didn't find anything helpful. One suggestion was to mute
every other input except for "line in", but that didn't help. Another
mentioned my specific problem (ATI and audio out of sync)) but with
DirectX 9b and I'm running DirectX 9c and the latest Microsoft patches
including SP2. Also, the links in the post were broken so I couldn't
follow them down for more info.

I read something about the newer (9.08) software sending the audio
directly on the PCI bus (or something like that) such that the cable
doesn't matter anymore. I didn't see anything that tells me how to use
that information. Also, physically disconnecting the cable kills the
audio.

To sum up, my problems are that the audio is ahead of the video, and
the "Line In" is being automatically muted when the ATI MMC software
starts. Even if I use DVD authoring software to fix the sync problem,
there won't be any audio to sync.

Yes, the cable is physically connecting the TV Wonder Pro card to the
"Line In" port.
The soundcard is built into the motherboard.
ATI Multimedia Center 9.08
DirextX 9.0c
Latest version of Microsoft .Net is installed
PC is a Compaq 6454NX 2.5 Ghz with 256 MB .

 

[T Shadow]

Hi,
I have an ATI TV Wonder Pro that was working well for a few weeks
when last night it recorded the video but no audio. Earlier I had a
problem where the audio was choppy, but that seemed to be a physical
cable connection or static problem. I've cleared that up by fussing
with the co-axial cable. Everything seemed fine but this morning when
I checked the recording there was no sound in the file. Yes, the audio
plays in sync with the other video files on the PC. Right now, when I
start up the ATI TV viewer it mutes the "Line In" control and when I
turn it back on the audio is roughly half a second ahead of the video.
I've Googled for answers but support information seems to be scattered
about and I didn't find anything helpful. One suggestion was to mute
every other input except for "line in", but that didn't help. Another
mentioned my specific problem (ATI and audio out of sync)) but with
DirectX 9b and I'm running DirectX 9c and the latest Microsoft patches
including SP2. Also, the links in the post were broken so I couldn't
follow them down for more info.

I read something about the newer (9.08) software sending the audio
directly on the PCI bus (or something like that) such that the cable
doesn't matter anymore. I didn't see anything that tells me how to use
that information. Also, physically disconnecting the cable kills the
audio.

To sum up, my problems are that the audio is ahead of the video, and
the "Line In" is being automatically muted when the ATI MMC software
starts. Even if I use DVD authoring software to fix the sync problem,
there won't be any audio to sync.

Yes, the cable is physically connecting the TV Wonder Pro card to the
"Line In" port.
The soundcard is built into the motherboard.
ATI Multimedia Center 9.08
DirextX 9.0c
Latest version of Microsoft .Net is installed
PC is a Compaq 6454NX 2.5 Ghz with 256 MB .

AFAIK the digital audio is with the Theater200(AIW Radeon) & HDTV Wonder
only. Don't know about the Theater550.
Your sound cards record setting may also have been changed along with the
line-in. Check Device Manager and make sure the drivers are still installed
correctly. You could remove the drivers for the TV card and sound card and
let Windows reinstall them. Sometimes this helps even if a problem isn't
showing. Then do a repair install of MMC.
As far as sync issues, run the system as clean as possible and try to put
the card in a slot that doesn't share an IRQ.
Good Luck.

 

[DJ]

AFAIK the digital audio is with the Theater200(AIW Radeon) & HDTV Wonder
only. Don't know about the Theater550.
Your sound cards record setting may also have been changed along with the
line-in. Check Device Manager and make sure the drivers are still installed
correctly. You could remove the drivers for the TV card and sound card and
let Windows reinstall them. Sometimes this helps even if a problem isn't
showing. Then do a repair install of MMC.
As far as sync issues, run the system as clean as possible and try to put
the card in a slot that doesn't share an IRQ.
Good Luck.

I think that you're on the right track - check the sound card's
recording settings first. That obvious stuff will kill ya....

 

[Zoog]

AFAIK the digital audio is with the Theater200(AIW Radeon) & HDTV Wonder
only. Don't know about the Theater550.
Your sound cards record setting may also have been changed along with the
line-in. Check Device Manager and make sure the drivers are still installed
correctly. You could remove the drivers for the TV card and sound card and
let Windows reinstall them. Sometimes this helps even if a problem isn't
showing. Then do a repair install of MMC.
As far as sync issues, run the system as clean as possible and try to put
the card in a slot that doesn't share an IRQ.
Good Luck.

Thanks for the reply.
I removed some of the sound card "hardware" through the device manager
but that didn't fix the issue. It did make the "mixer" disappear,
though. Essentially, I did ended up doing as you suggested by deleting
all of the software for the TV Wonder Pro and re-installing. Well,
re-installing twice. I left Guide Plus+ on the first time and that
seemed to keep things from installing properly so I deleted everything
including Guide Plus+ and re-installed from the CD that came with the
card. I didn't use anything from their website to re-install. I saved
that as the next step just in case. Fortunately, except for various
issues that I was able to resolve, I seem to be able to record video
and audio again.
Are people still having to move cards to other slots in this day and
age? Wow.

I have to say I'm amazed that this card can work quite well when it
works and yet still have so many odd issues.

 

[T Shadow]

Thanks for the reply.
I removed some of the sound card "hardware" through the device manager
but that didn't fix the issue. It did make the "mixer" disappear,
though. Essentially, I did ended up doing as you suggested by deleting
all of the software for the TV Wonder Pro and re-installing. Well,
re-installing twice. I left Guide Plus+ on the first time and that
seemed to keep things from installing properly so I deleted everything
including Guide Plus+ and re-installed from the CD that came with the
card. I didn't use anything from their website to re-install. I saved
that as the next step just in case. Fortunately, except for various
issues that I was able to resolve, I seem to be able to record video
and audio again.
Are people still having to move cards to other slots in this day and
age? Wow.

I have to say I'm amazed that this card can work quite well when it
works and yet still have so many odd issues.

Guide+ scheduling doesn't work properly with MMC9.08 and probably not
MMC9.13. You may want to stick with MMC9.06.

Plug n Play has gotten better but may still need some help balancing the
load. I had to disable an unneeded USB2 port on the same IRQ as my HDTV
Wonder. My system has the HDTV Wonder, AIW and Audigy2 on MicroATX m/b with
on board LAN so options are limited. To free up resources I've also disable
the unused serial and parallel ports. Just depends on what your system
needs.