ATI MMC 8.6.0.0 ?

[DereX888]

It's out for few days (for Win2K - it was out even earlier for WinXP).
Anyone installed it already? Please share your thoughts!
I've been burned by MMC 8.0 - 8.5 and every time I had to go back to MMC 7.7.0.1 before, hence now I'm not going to install it until it is clear that there are some real user's advantages in it
TIA

[lordsmurf]

I installed it on my XP Pro machine (formerly a 2K machine).

See my profile for exact specs. Our equipment is similar.

I added RAM, changed some BIOS hardware settings, fiddled with the motherboard, and installed XP with a clean format.

The system now runs better than ever before, and the MMC 8.6 is excellent. Also using new ATI drivers. I used to have small flaws in that machine's capture ability, but no more!

Because of all variables involed in the upgrade/update, not sure how much the MMC 8.6 had an affect on it.

Very, very, very, very, very, very happy with it now!

MMC 7.x and 8.x are night and day in comparison. Worth the upgrade!

[presto]

I seem to be dropping a few frames now that I installed the latest. After I installed the previous version I had a miraculous improvement and was dropping no frames. I can't say for sure what is causing these few dropped frames but I'm going to try reverting.

[lordsmurf]

I seem to be dropping a few frames now that I installed the latest. After I installed the previous version I had a miraculous improvement and was dropping no frames. I can't say for sure what is causing these few dropped frames but I'm going to try reverting.

Switch to CBR and try with less P and B frames. Try 1 each instead of 2 or more.

[stiltman]

It's out for few days (for Win2K - it was out even earlier for WinXP).
Anyone installed it already? Please share your thoughts!
I've been burned by MMC 8.0 - 8.5 and every time I had to go back to MMC 7.7.0.1 before, hence now I'm not going to install it until it is clear that there are some real user's advantages in it
TIA

I'm a newbie, but this was the only version I installed
Before I installed my card I grabbed all the latest stuff from ATI's site.

Everything seems to work as advertised. I haven't had any crashes and the caputures seem ok, once a played around with the settings.
More than happy to post the settings that work for me if you want.
(So far all my captures have been from a Hi8 camcorder)

[non-linear]

I seem to be dropping a few frames now that I installed the latest. After I installed the previous version I had a miraculous improvement and was dropping no frames. I can't say for sure what is causing these few dropped frames but I'm going to try reverting.

I've been having the same problem you are. I was never dropping frames until I installed 8.6 (except if the tape I was capturing from had any problems). I've reverted to 8.5, but am still dropping a couple frames; might be just the tape, but I kept my custom settings from the previous installs (kept them when I installed 8.6, then kept them after removing that and installing 8.5).

Also, for some reason, when I was uninstalling/installing the MMC, it kept messing up the Remote Wonder software, which is installed as a separate program altogether. Obviously, ATI doesn't know how to make good software

[presto]

Yep, It looks like it was 8.6 that was causing my dropped frames. I uninstalled it and reinstalled 8.5 and have not had a dropped frame yet. With 8.6 it was one every minute or so.

(added later)
It's really an amazing difference. I haven't dropped one frame after an hour at my highest setting. With 8.6 it was a frame dropped every minute or so regardless of my settings. (Even so the resulting video looked fine).

I'm glad 8.6 didn't introduce any really exciting features. I've just started really utilizing the power of Guide Plus and MMC for scheduling. I'm going to start another thread to discuss that.

[non-linear]

Anyone having this problem should report it to ATI. I just filled out the email support. the more people that bring up this issue, the more likely it will be looked into seriously and perhaps even fixed.

http://apps.ati.com/cservice/webformcontact.asp

[vchavez]

Where's the link to download MMC 8.6 ? I can't find it in the
ATI web site sometimes is hard to get the link.

Thanks

[non-linear]

The direct link for the file is:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mmc-8-6-0-0.exe

[vchavez]

Thanks for the direct link.

By the way I'm making a XP system restore before doing the update to 8.6 If things go bad all the people should do that in case want togo back.

[FOO]

OK I am having frame drops every few minutes
with 8.6 when 8.5 did not do that
It didn't fix my other problems so I will
revert to 8.5

So much for progress. Don't they test this crap ?

[non-linear]

So much for progress. Don't they test this crap ?

Apparently not.

I got a message back from tech support. They basically said that dropped frames are often a result of configuration issues, blah blah blah. They won't admit the possibility that it's a result of crappy ATI software

[FOO]

Where can I get a job being completely clueless all the time
(other than the local weather service) and still not
get fired ?

[presto]

non-linear,
Thanks for the link to report trouble to ATI. I used it and got probably the same reply you did. It's just an automated reply that you always get. I don't think that means they won't look into it.

[FOO]

I remember the one where i got a dropped frame in AVIs exactly
every second , but it didn't report it while capturing. I had to look
with Vdub to find out. What was happening was the audio sync
mechanism was confused and Inserted a duplicate frame flagged
as dropped every second. This caused audio sync probs.

I tried for weeks to get those guys to help about it but in vain.

8.5 works pretty good.

BTW I don't suppose anybody has a clue whether it's MMC or the drivers ?
I guess we all upgraded it all at once ?

[lordsmurf]

In the OPTIONS menu on the control bar, 8.6 tends to drop your presets if you do not close the options out while on the preset dialog. If you are in color or something else, and click OK to exit, then go back into OPTIONS again, your presets may be dropped (not deleted, just dropped, causing you to remap them).

Always close options on the preset dialog.

A truly stupid error on their part.

No problem on drops though. In fact this is the first time I can use VBR with no drops (on my second system).

[DereX888]

Thanks 4 all replies.
I wouldnt update to this version - frame dropping is unacceptable bug to me, and it seems there is enough minor bugs in it that either update (8.6.0.1) or new version (8.7) will be out rather soon.

But I am forced to update to MMC8.6.0.0 by the newest Guide+ update!
Here's what happened:

After updating just the drivers to newest version, I have unfortunately updated Guide+ Plus to its newest version as well (while keeping MMC 7.7.0.1). From now on Guide+ doesn't load at all, it stucks at initializing tv (MMC).
Since ATI (nor anyone else) doesnt host any full versions of previous Guide+, the only options Im left with is either oldest Guide+ version from installation disc (which I had updated to previous latest version of this software and it was running fine before doing this latest unfortunate update), or updating it to the very latest Guide+ that doesnt work with MMC7701 anymore - and installing MMC8600 as well just to have Guide+ running.
Its ridiculus. Im so pissed I have ever touch it!

Beware:
if you plan on keeping MMC7701 and youre upgrading to latest drivers DO NOT update Guide+ to its latest version, it will stop working.

[presto]

DereX888,
You lost me. Why are you using MMC 7? For me MMC 8.5 works fine. It's only MMC8.6 that is a problem.

[DereX888]

i haven't lost ya. I just didn't want MMC8500 or 8600 - I have no use of 'video soap' (I prefer capturing pure unfiltered streams to DVD-R) and I was happy with MMC7701, I had no dropped frames or any other problems with it and capture quality was great. Plus I could get rid of that moronic MV protection whenever I needed transfer of VHS to DVD-R, what isn't possible yet with any of MMC8.x
But Im heavily relying on Guide+ for scheduled recording of my favorite shows, and if Guide+ doesn't work - its all no use for me. Thats why I upgraded to damn MMC8600.

BTW - I have no dropped frames problem with MMC8600. The main problem I have with it is that I can't set exact bitrates as I used to do with MMC7701 and MMC_Reg_Tool. After so many years ATI should have learn what users need and finally add some additional settings option where we could manually set exact bitrates instead of using slider with approximate settings.

And I can't believe their factory VCD template setting is still improperly set to 1.13Mbps instead of 1.15Mbps. IMHO its a hard case of stubborn stupidity.

[accountwiz]

Can one of you guys point me to where I might download 8.5? I just installed my AIW 9700 last night, but it had 8.1 in the box.

[lordsmurf]

Can one of you guys point me to where I might download 8.5? I just installed my AIW 9700 last night, but it had 8.1 in the box.

www.ati.com

[FOO]

ATI site has "previous versions" when you goto the latest.

I just spent about 3 hours trying to revert to 8.5.
Tried just MMC8.5 and no workee.
then tried the whole thing, but how do you relate drivers to MMC version ?
I did it by file date. Strange errors , TV wouldn't start

This reminds me of the old days of ATI.
Anyway I finally weenied out and did an XP restore.
Still didn't work until I installed MMC 8.5 again

[presto]

I'm using the latest catylist drivers with MMC 8.5. ATI finally made things easy so that you can download one file that installs the TV capture, video drivers and control panel. Much easier.

[non-linear]

ATI site has "previous versions" when you goto the latest.

I just spent about 3 hours trying to revert to 8.5.
Tried just MMC8.5 and no workee.
then tried the whole thing, but how do you relate drivers to MMC version ?
I did it by file date. Strange errors , TV wouldn't start

I had the same problem. When I tried to load the TV program, I got an error; something about it couldn't find the resource, or something like that.

What I did was installed 8.1, then installed 8.5 on top of that. In the add/remove menu, both versions show up, but they're installed in the same place. Doesn't bother me since it works.

[presto]

It seems that when 8.6 is installed your computer may no longer detect MMX. I ran the ATI config test program when I had 8.6 and it reported that I did not have MMX. I just thought it was a mistake in the test but I have since seen others discussing this issue on the Radeon forum and they seem to think this is the cause of the dropped frames,

[aero]

went from 8.5 to 8.7.
Can not believe number of bugs.

1) config test stating I do not have mmx!
2) on screen programming now not functioning (despite toggling many times)
3) dropped frames

[lordsmurf]

It's bad to needlessly update. Hopefully you had a reason. That's too bad about the MMX thing, but I have no problems with MMC 8.1, 8.5 or 8.6.

Only 8.0 was garbage. No 8.2 or 8.4 that I recall.

No need to update to 8.7, at least for me.

If 8.6 gives trouble, have you tried 8.7 ?

[RoyBoy2019]

Well I gotta thank this thread for helping me with selection of MMC drivers after I transitioned from Win98 to WinXP, I tried 8.5 and 8.6 but it gave me the following error.

UCI is not installed on your system. Some applications may not work properly.

What the heck is UCI? So it didn't take long to figure out the TV wouldn't work.

Anyway I settle on 7.7.0.0, although I heard mention of 7.7.0.1 being the bomb... I'm just trying to figure out the best drivers. There are a few probs with the new stuff. When I go to Guide Plus and schedule a program for recording, then try to close Guide Plus through exiting it flashes in the background and generally messes the TV up. I found a work around by double clicking on the TV.

Should I update Guide Plus, or MMC... or both? (Guide Plus v1.0.0.26)

Vid Card: ATI AIW Radeon