MMC must go away...

B

Bad Breath

I simply do not understand ATI's motives with MMC. This last MMC (91.3)
seems almost intentionally defective. Like Husky and others described
below,
having TV ON DEMAND always on is almost a perfect definition of
incompetent. Here is a list of things I've experienced with MMC over time.
Please feel free to correct and / or add to it:

1) A ridiculous install / uninstall ritual you must go through in order to
possibly
get MMC to cooperate with it's OWN components, and work reliably.

2) Worthless feature additions added prior to fixing MAJOR show stopping
bugs.

3) Unexplained lockups at random times during record sessions.

4) Eight month release cycles which do not address outstanding bugs..


Yes I am venting! I have not found a replacement for MMC besides going to
new
hardware and it's version of a capture application. ATI's MMC seems like a
legacy
application built on top of a shakey foundation. Now more feature creep
code gets
thrown at it every 2-3 quarters and released. ATI, rewrite the freak'in
thing and not with
..NET BLOATED MOLASSES CODE like you did with the control panel.
 
G

Gerald Todd

Bad Breath said:
I simply do not understand ATI's motives with MMC. This last MMC (91.3)
seems almost intentionally defective. Like Husky and others described
below,
having TV ON DEMAND always on is almost a perfect definition of
incompetent. Here is a list of things I've experienced with MMC over
time.
Please feel free to correct and / or add to it:

1) A ridiculous install / uninstall ritual you must go through in order to
possibly
get MMC to cooperate with it's OWN components, and work reliably.

2) Worthless feature additions added prior to fixing MAJOR show stopping
bugs.

3) Unexplained lockups at random times during record sessions.

4) Eight month release cycles which do not address outstanding bugs..


Yes I am venting! I have not found a replacement for MMC besides going to
new
hardware and it's version of a capture application. ATI's MMC seems like
a legacy
application built on top of a shakey foundation. Now more feature creep
code gets
thrown at it every 2-3 quarters and released. ATI, rewrite the freak'in
thing and not with
.NET BLOATED MOLASSES CODE like you did with the control panel.
Click to expand...
I use the TV Wonder card but not their shitty software. I have used most of
the available software and prefer Cyberlink's Power VCR II. The only ATI
feature I ever liked was Guide+ and Titan TV (supported by Power VCRII) has
most of the features of Guide+. It sucks to have to buy additional
software, but its worth it to have a stable and working system.

Gerald Todd
 
B

Bad Breath

Gerald, thanks very much for the info. I did not know
about Power VCR II. I'll give that a try. Almost
anything is better than ATI's crap.
 
T

Thomas A. Horsley

I too found that PowerVCR was infinitely more reliable than MMC. In fact I
gave up on MMC being fixed years ago after I got tired of expecting the bugs
to be fixed in every release and finding they weren't fixed and new bugs
were added in each release instead. I am happy to have that decision to give
up validated by reading that MMC still doesn't work :).

Better than Power VCR though is my panasonic stand alone DVR. I've never
found that a PC could work reliably. The pana unit is much more solid (but
it is a pain in the patoot to get recordings off it onto my computer -
fortunately I don't need to do that often).
--email: (e-mail address removed) icbm: Delray Beach, FL |
<URL:http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley> Free Software and Politics <<==+
 
B

Bad Breath

Thomas,

That's a good point. I agree that going with external hardware is the way
to
go. I seldomly archive any recordings these days, but it is nice to have it
on the hard drive after it's done. Well of course that's only when MMC
decides to work, haha. I usually use MS Movie Maker 2 (yeah that may
sound funny but it works well for the simlpe things) to edit out commercials
and to trim the start and end. Then NERO Express to render a DVD.

I'll give POWER DVD a try for now. Thanks for your input.
 
A

Aloke Prasad

Bad Breath said:
Thomas,

That's a good point. I agree that going with external hardware is the way
to
go. I seldomly archive any recordings these days, but it is nice to have
it
on the hard drive after it's done. Well of course that's only when MMC
decides to work, haha. I usually use MS Movie Maker 2 (yeah that may
sound funny but it works well for the simlpe things) to edit out
commercials
and to trim the start and end. Then NERO Express to render a DVD.

I'll give POWER DVD a try for now. Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

Will PowerDVD handle multiple tuners?

I have a Radeon 9800 Pro AIW (connected to analog cable) and a HDTV Wonder
(OTA broadcasts).

The latest MMC (from what I hear) integrates the two. Can PowerDVD also do
that?
 
G

Gerald Todd

Thomas A. Horsley said:
I too found that PowerVCR was infinitely more reliable than MMC. In fact I
gave up on MMC being fixed years ago after I got tired of expecting the
bugs
to be fixed in every release and finding they weren't fixed and new bugs
were added in each release instead. I am happy to have that decision to
give
up validated by reading that MMC still doesn't work :).

Better than Power VCR though is my panasonic stand alone DVR. I've never
found that a PC could work reliably. The pana unit is much more solid (but
it is a pain in the patoot to get recordings off it onto my computer -
fortunately I don't need to do that often).
Click to expand...

I'm sure its a good option for some. Here's my setup-
Gigabyte K8U-939 with a 3700+ (San Diego)
2 gigs of ram (4*512)
ATI 9600 Pro
ATI TV Wonder Pro (refurb OEM)
8 harddrives (1 60, 2 120's, 3 160's, 1 200, 1 250- all makes, but primarily
Maxtor)
2 optical drives- a 16x DVD-ROM and an HP DVD burner.
Drives are distributed on the onboard IDE controller, a Promise ultra100
tx2, and an SiL 0680 card.

First, I've got my setup built into a desk in a corner of my living room.
This allows me to schedule a virtually unlimited amount of recordings along
with the ability to watch them on a 32 inch Philips TV via the TV out on the
9600 Pro. The only stability problem I've encountered is when 5 or 6 movies
are recorded back-to-back sometimes the last capture won't stop but continue
until manually ended (or the drive fills up).
My wife and I enjoy old (particularly pre-code) and political movies.

Gerald Todd
 
T

Ted F

It's called "Cyberlink PowerCinema 4", All in one suite, play DVD's, Burn
DVD's, Music, Radio, TV (Time shifting - enable and disable), record TV
programs. The complete retail package includes a TV tuner card with
software.

The program detects most ATI AIW cards and TV tuners. Also detects the ATI
Remote Wonder.

I used this program with my ATI AIW 9600 AGP video card with the ATI Remote
Wonder. it worked great.

Look for the 30 day trial of "Cyberlink PowerCinema 4"
www.cyberlink.com
 
T

Ted F

The Electronic Program Guide is just missing...nothing else.

Can anyone say buy a TV Guide at your local store?
 
B

Borderline Psycho

If I'm going to spend $100 on software, I'll make sure to get
something like SageTV or BeyondTV that comes with a working US EPG.
That's all I'm saying.
 
T

Ted F

I don't like SageTV and BeyondTV.

You can NOT turn off/disable the ongoing TV recording leaving your hard
drive fulled with recorded TV programs files.

I bought a seperate TV tuner that included the full retail software, drivers
for card, and even the remote control for $44.99.

One big bundle for one low price.


Borderline Psycho said:
If I'm going to spend $100 on software, I'll make sure to get
something like SageTV or BeyondTV that comes with a working US EPG.
That's all I'm saying.
Click to expand...
 
T

T Shadow

Aloke Prasad said:
snip
Will PowerDVD handle multiple tuners?

I have a Radeon 9800 Pro AIW (connected to analog cable) and a HDTV Wonder
(OTA broadcasts).

The latest MMC (from what I hear) integrates the two. Can PowerDVD also do
that?
Click to expand...
Multview has finally been enabled for the HDTV Wonder. I haven't seen anyone
else mention it but I'm seeing a second Cyberlink ATI2 decoder now. I
watched the SB Sunday without a problem except the sound during the half
time show. From what I've read elsewhere ABC's audio was screwed up but I
could for the first time access that part of the menu. Unforunatly it wasn't
showing in File Player. I'm seeing better PQ on SD channels and better color
on all 3 tuners.
When I booted up Monday I couldn't get TVoD to work. Did a repair install
and got it working but the DTV picture freezes as soon as the station tunes
in. Analog tuners still work great.
I wanted to re-partition my HDD anyway so I've reinstalled XP and am in the
process of rebuilding the system. This is the first time I've had problems
with installing MMC since back when I purchased the cards(9.01) and had to
learn how to deal with the Cats and MMC. This is a pain but if I can get it
working correctly it'll finally be what I expected from the beginning.

I'm Interested in the answer to the PowerDVD question too but I'd rather not
put more $ into this if I don't have to.
 
H

Husky

learn how to deal with the Cats and MMC. This is a pain but if I can getit
working correctly it'll finally be what I expected from the beginning.
Click to expand...

I just did a system restore after using some program that promptly attacked the mmc.

I don't see the problem being so much mmc, as just about every program wants to install something of theirs that sooner or later attacks the mmc.

frinstance. I was running fine, installed 2 programs. mmc went bad.
went to system restore and newest item installed was 'DISK.API'. did the restore to one point b4 that. and it worked.

I think what's really needed is to set the system or hidden or read only bits on EVERY file MMC uses.

Anyone know exactly which files those are ? I think if installing prevents that program from overwriting a file used by mmc, those problemswith mmc will disappear.

That's about the only thing I haven't tried yet.
 
T

T Shadow

learn how to deal with the Cats and MMC. This is a pain but if I can get it
working correctly it'll finally be what I expected from the beginning.
Click to expand...

I just did a system restore after using some program that promptly attacked
the mmc.

I don't see the problem being so much mmc, as just about every program wants
to install something of theirs that sooner or later attacks the mmc.

frinstance. I was running fine, installed 2 programs. mmc went bad.
went to system restore and newest item installed was 'DISK.API'. did the
restore to one point b4 that. and it worked.

I think what's really needed is to set the system or hidden or read only
bits on EVERY file MMC uses.

Anyone know exactly which files those are ? I think if installing prevents
that program from overwriting a file used by mmc, those problems with mmc
will disappear.

That's about the only thing I haven't tried yet.
--

I haven't had any problems with MMC and the analog tuners other than the
Guide+ bug of 9.08 and it doesn't cover my area correctly so that was no big
loss. I've had Nero 6, Studio 8 & 9+ installed They all tap into analog
tuners but have never caused any problems. I use that computer just for
video so very few extra things are ever installed in it. I don't even use
anti-virus software and keep the firewall and network cards turned off
except when needed. It accesses the internet through a router and only to
get updates. 9.13 it appears does have problems at least for DTV and
Multview.
 
T

T Shadow

Ted F said:
The Electronic Program Guide is just missing...nothing else.

Can anyone say buy a TV Guide at your local store?
Click to expand...

Yes but AFAIK it no longer has TV listings. My local newspaper has listing
but they don't list the extra digital channel of PBS or indicate HD.

I don't use Guide+ because it doesn't give complete coverage for my area. I
just use the cable companies guide. It's nice to go on the Guide+ site once
though to get Channel listing set for the ones it does have.

Titan TV requires you to allow cookies from a 3rd party tracking server.
It's always something.
 
B

Bill Kraski

Ted said:
I don't like SageTV and BeyondTV.

You can NOT turn off/disable the ongoing TV recording leaving your hard
drive fulled with recorded TV programs files.
Click to expand...

Sage works very well. And you can either go into the recorded file list &
individually delete files or open your file manager & delete some or all of
the recorded files. It may be kind of klutzy, but it's not that difficult.

Bill K
 
S

stratus46

T said:
Yes but AFAIK it no longer has TV listings. My local newspaper has listing
but they don't list the extra digital channel of PBS or indicate HD.

I don't use Guide+ because it doesn't give complete coverage for my area. I
just use the cable companies guide. It's nice to go on the Guide+ site once
though to get Channel listing set for the ones it does have.

Titan TV requires you to allow cookies from a 3rd party tracking server.
It's always something.
Click to expand...

I program the MMC DVR manually 7 times a week. Yahoo TV listings works
fine after you give them your ZIP code and cable provider. Yahoo does
NOT show digital HD listings for the PBS stations in LA. Until PBS is
interested in DTV, I won't bother with them though there is one show on
PBS we've been watching for 15 years which I record on the DVR in SD
with an S-VHS backup just in case. Its a shame about the PBS HD
listings though as they do look pretty good.

GG
 
T

T Shadow

I program the MMC DVR manually 7 times a week. Yahoo TV listings works
fine after you give them your ZIP code and cable provider. Yahoo does
NOT show digital HD listings for the PBS stations in LA. Until PBS is
interested in DTV, I won't bother with them though there is one show on
PBS we've been watching for 15 years which I record on the DVR in SD
with an S-VHS backup just in case. Its a shame about the PBS HD
listings though as they do look pretty good.

GG
Click to expand...
From a quick look the Yahoo listings seem to be very complete. When I look
at. the digital listing it shows the DTV listing for my PBS station but you
have to find it on the channel that cable broadcasts it on. The local analog
is channel 16 and it's channel 16 on the cable but the digital shows up on
716-720. I assume that's where it'd be if I had a QAM capable tuner.
Same drawback as the listing I get from the cable company. Have to program
it myself. Not too bad once you get it set up. Changing dates is easy
enough.
 
M

Mrlopez

Will PowerDVD handle multiple tuners?

I have a Radeon 9800 Pro AIW (connected to analog cable) and a HDTV Wonder
(OTA broadcasts).

The latest MMC (from what I hear) integrates the two. Can PowerDVD also do
that?
Click to expand...

Is there any procedure for installing both an ATI AIW 9800 Pro & An ATI
HDTV Wonder?
 
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