ATI MMC:Need help to reinstall...

[neomaine]

I'm in the process of rebuilding the OS (Win2K pro) to clean up a bunch of things. I've saved this for last figuring it will be the funnest...

I reinstall MMC 7.1 from the CD to reinstall all the tools. Once I start to install (read: upgrade) any of the later versions of MMC I lose my DVD player and the ability to capture to MPEG1/2.

In what order and what software should I install, uninstall/install in order to get back to MMC 8.7 and retain the ability to keep the DVD Player and MPEG1/2 codecs?

I've tried simply installing the latest Catalyst and MMC 8.8 but the ATI-CDWIZ doesn't recongnize my CD as an original?

[Ripper2860]

Try this utilitiy to make sure that all ATI related drivers and reg entries are deleted and try a clean install of the MMC 8 drivers.

http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/

It may not help or actually relate to your problem, but either way it's a great util to have as ATI is notroious for not uninstalling everything!

[bottle-necked]

If you want your ATI DVD player to work you will need to install from your original ATI CD-rom (mmc_7.1) then uninstall all the ATI stuff except the DVD program. They will be listed seperatly in ADD/Remove Control Panel. If you want the updated version of DVD you need to buy the $9.99 CD from ATI and I think it's V8.1. I've got my DVD installed now but I don't ever use it. I use PowerDVD. I don't think the DVD player will install after the update, I don't remember.

The order to install ATI drivers I use is:

Upon boot and Windows finds new hardware (your card) cancel the 'find driver wizard' box. If you're wanting the DVD player then install the full load from the ATI cdrom. Reboot and set your desktop stuff right. Uninstall #1MMC, #2ControlPanel, #3ATI Display Driver, then reboot. When at the desktop again Windows will find new hardware and ask for the driver but again Cancel the Driver Install Wizard. Windows will load a VGA display driver (excellent). You DVD player will still be installed.

Next, Install #1_Cat 4.1 download (with included WDM and Control Panel) then reboot. #2_Install MMC_8.8 (download from ATI) and reboot.

Good luck.

Oh yea, there are certain reqirements for the updated drivers. Read the install text file and follow their instructions to a tee. I think you need WM9 and DX9 and Service pack 1 on XP, 2k I don't know.

[neomaine]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm almost there. Though the problems I'm still having most people are going to say 'Its just ATI!!'. They are:

- Slight sync issue. Things really cleaned up from 8.1 to 8.7 for me for MPEG2 captures. Perfect sync. Now, at 8.8, I'm seeing this.

- The wizard to schedule PVR recordings doesn't display properly. For instance, though the options are there, they don't display in the scroll down boxes anywhere. The first screen where you chose to record audio or use the ATI VCR has the scroll bar and what seems to be 4 to 5 choices...but it is blank. Same with choosing what connection to use for vcr recording. Once I take a crap shoot and figure out what the options are (good thing I used it often) things seem to work just fine. Well, other then the sync issue noted above.

What I did to get there:
- Install full package (7.1) from CD.
- Downloaded DVD 7.6 and 7.7_nodvd and installed in that order. (This finally gave me the seperate install of DVD with SUCCESSFUL check of my install CD.)
- Uninstalled the old drivers, control panel and MMC.
- Installed earlier Catalyst and 8.1. DVD and TV still worked.
- Installed latest Catalyst (driver, control panel, capture).
- Installed latest MMC 8..8

What I'm going to do next to see if it takes care of the sync and menu display issue:
- Defrag my capture drive to make sure.
- Uninstall MMC 8.8
- Install MMC 8.7
- Create a friggin restore DVD for my OS drive....

EDITED for really really bad spelling...

[bottle-necked]

Last night a movie was coming on I wanted to capture and I decided to cap AVI/huffy and was going to encode with Tmpgenc. I started the cap and at the first commercial I stopped and checked my file. The framerate was like 30.30fps!!!!!! What.... I tried a few more clips and yea, odd ball framerates ranging from 28-30fps. I tried to create a new preset and didn't have 720x480 anymore, it went to 704x480 max. I knew right there what was going on. I had upgraded to Cat.4.1 and MMC 8.8 a day or two ago and didn't test everything again. I went back to my Cd install MMC 8.5 and everything is now back like it's supposed to be. 29.970 and 720x480. I suppose either ATI's newest drivers are junk or something else in my system doesn't like them. As of right now 'I can't use them' for AVI capture.

Talking about restore CDs. I like my dual OS in removable drive trays. I've got *2* 30G hdd with XP on both of them. I just slide one out and put in the other. I've got a restore hdd (D with Ghost image files on it dating back to my initial windows activation and bare system. I can reimage a drive in about 5-6 minutes and 'go-back' to a known state. I didn't do that last night but I've got that image saved. lol

Later

[neomaine]

:P ..............

[neomaine]

Finally have everything back to normal.

- Downloaded and installed DVD 7.6 using my 7.1 cd. Important that I didn't load the full 7.1 CD first. This keeps the DVD player as a seperate install. It complained about not have some drivers, but installed anyway.
- Reboot.
- Installed the Catalyst driver (v6.14.10.6368). Came out in August with mmc 8.1
- Reboot.
- Installed the 7.7 upgrade.
- Reboot.
- Installed MMC 8.1. Now everything is at least working well.
- Reboot.
- Installed MMC 8.5. No reboot.
- Installed MMC 8.7. No reboot.

Now I have perfect sync in my MPEG2 captures once again. However, I still had crappy looking results (stepping effect on edges, ghosting, blocking...) until I installed WinDVD again. Once I did this, I can honestly say that everything is working just as good as it did before.

Lessons learned:
- Keep a cleaner image of my boot drive.
- Latest Catalyst/MMC 8.8 doesn't work well with my AIW Radeon.

Thanks again DVDRHELP for a site like no other....