Installing HDTV Wonder with AIW 9800

[mjenison]

Hi all,

I have a Windows XP system currently running MMC 8.8 with an ATI AIW
9800. Just getting that to work reliably was hard enough. It's been
stable for the past year and I decided to upgrade my HTPC by getting
the HDTV Wonder card. I'm dreading installing it however, due to my
previous experience with the AIW 9800.

A few questions about how I should go about installing the HDTV Wonder:

1) Do I need to upgrade my MMC in order to use the HDTV Wonder? I
don't really like the new easylook interface...

2) Will I be able to use PIP?

3) What about remotes? Do I need to use both, or will I be able to
access both with a single remote? How is the switching between tuners
done?

4) Do I need to get a second harddrive to use the capture ability of
both cards?

5) I am running 512MB RAM right now. Is that enough with both cards?

6) Can someone with experience with this combination tell me about any
pitfalls I might encounter?

7) Any installation tricks I need to do when installing the HDTV
Wonder?

Any and all tips, recommendation, etc with this hardware combo would be
appreciated. Thanks!

 

[T Shadow]

Hi all,

I have a Windows XP system currently running MMC 8.8 with an ATI AIW
9800. Just getting that to work reliably was hard enough. It's been
stable for the past year and I decided to upgrade my HTPC by getting
the HDTV Wonder card. I'm dreading installing it however, due to my
previous experience with the AIW 9800.

A few questions about how I should go about installing the HDTV Wonder:

1) Do I need to upgrade my MMC in order to use the HDTV Wonder? I
don't really like the new easylook interface...

Yes, AFAIK MMC 9.01 was the first version to have the Digital TV Player
program. Easylook can be set to not come on easily.

2) Will I be able to use PIP?

Not using MMC, at least for the time being. MMC 9.10 that is now shipping
with the latest AIW, can do it but the digital tv on it is what's used in
Europe. No clue as to whether it will work with the HDTV Wonder or if it's
going to be released for the rest of us.
It can be done using a great little free program called WhatchHDTV. You can
get it by going here.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=590020&page=1&pp=30
TV Player has to be run first.

3) What about remotes? Do I need to use both, or will I be able to
access both with a single remote? How is the switching between tuners
done?

I'm using the RW2 that came with the AIW9600XT. I think the RW+ is shipping
with
the HDTV Wonder now so you probably would want to use it. One can run
everthing.
You can use the AIW tuner and the HD tuner as described above. The HD tuner
and the analog tuner in the HDTV Wonder can't be used at the same time. The
two analog tuners can be used at the same time to a degree with a free SDK
called GraphEdit. It's sort of a DIY kit. Too long a story to go into now.

4) Do I need to get a second harddrive to use the capture ability of
both cards?

I did and it seemed to work better with the extra bandwidth of HDef.That was
just for using the PVR function of DTV. Tried watching 1080i with WatchHDTV
and recording with the AIW tonight but had problems. I'll have to
investigate further.

5) I am running 512MB RAM right now. Is that enough with both cards?

Probably but I have a GB.

6) Can someone with experience with this combination tell me about any
pitfalls I might encounter?

Installing software in the correct order. Reception if your really close or
far from station antenas.

7) Any installation tricks I need to do when installing the HDTV
Wonder?

I'm using MMC 9.08 but if you have to use Guide Plus, use 9.06.1.
Connecting the RW is the last thing you do.
I would run the Cat Uninstaller program to clean everything out.
Install the WDM drivers for the AIW (do not reboot).
Install the Display drivers
Install Control Panel
Install DAO-UCI
Install the HDTV drivers
Install DVD Decoder CD Wiz
Install MMC-ENU
Install RW=ENU
connect the RW

The order is very important. If you can't figure out my abreviations ask.
You could try just uninstalling and reinstalling MMC and the RW but I think
getting newer WDM drivers woudl be a good idea.