Latest MV Hackable Drivers for AIW 9700 Pro?? Please Help!!

[Offroad]

It appears my AIW 9700 Pro under Catalyst 4.4 and MMC 9.0 is detecting Macrovision on my old VHS home movies. These were shot on a Hi-8 Sony then transfered to VHS, the one I just tried was from 1994.

I tried all the MV hacks but they didn't fix the problem on this driver level.

Can someone tell me what were the latest drivers supporting the AIW 9700 Pro that the MV hacks definately work on? I'm going to try to just install another OS partiton just for Capping VHS and install these drivers and the MV hacks and then go to work.

When I want to capture from Tuner I'll just reboot back to XP and Catalyst 4.4

I can install another XP, Win2000 or Win98 Partiton but need help deciding what drivers to use and might need help finding them as I don't know how far back ATI's website holds drivers.

Any advice is appreciated, I would really prefer doing this as to buying additional hardware since after my Home movies are on DVD I won't be capping VHS anymore.

Thanks

[BrainStorm69]

My experience has been that the MV hacks will work with Catalyst 2.X and MMC 8.X together. The only problem is that it doesn't cure the light/dark picture cycling. I need my SIMA SCC to fix that.

Now, given that what you are talking about it home movies, I'm not sure if the hacks will cure your problem or not. My experience, FWIW, is that ATI AIWs are picky about the signal strength of the source video, and a weak signal causes the problems you are experiencing. So you might have to get some sort of weak TBC, such as one of the "video clarifiers" or a SIMA Copymaster, to fix things.

[Offroad]

So what I'm seeing maybe as a result of a weak signal, not the ATI drivers incorectly thinking my home movies are macrovision encoded?

Did some searching and looks like the Sima Copymasters price is not to bad if it fixes the problem. I'm just not in the market for a $300 TBC machine. By the way, what does a $300 TBC do that a video clarifier doesn't?

Would like to find one of these locally so I can take it back if I'm not happy. Is the Sima SCC better than the Copy Master? Are the Sima products the best around for this purpose?

Thanks.

[thecoalman]

It's been my experience the hacks don't work on my 9800, it have not seen anyone post any success with the hacks on any 9000 series card. If your movie looks like the examples at the bottom of my page it's my opinion your only alternative is to purchase additional hardware (tbc or different capture card).

Another person I was in contact with reported that he had a lot of success with the TBC.

See the exaples here: http://www.coaldelivery.com/ati

[BrainStorm69]

So what I'm seeing maybe as a result of a weak signal, not the ATI drivers incorectly thinking my home movies are macrovision encoded?

Did some searching and looks like the Sima Copymasters price is not to bad if it fixes the problem. I'm just not in the market for a $300 TBC machine. By the way, what does a $300 TBC do that a video clarifier doesn't?

Would like to find one of these locally so I can take it back if I'm not happy. Is the Sima SCC better than the Copy Master? Are the Sima products the best around for this purpose?

Thanks.

Actually, it's the weak signal that makes the ATI think your home movies are MV encoded. If you want to find something locally, Best Buy here in Dallas is carrying the SIMA CopyThis! (newer version of the copymaster) for $60, so I imagine they would have it at all their other locations, too.

Bestbuy URL:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1074788291354&skuId=6296563&type=product

Whether the SCC is better or not depends on what you are looking for. I like the SCC (SIMA Color Corrector) because it lets you play with the tint, color, sharpness, brightness, contrast, and red, green, and blue. But is about $80 at Amazon for the SCC-1 (what I have - which is analog), or they have the SCC-2 (newer, digital version) for about $143.

[Offroad]

Actually, it's the weak signal that makes the ATI think your home movies are MV encoded.

Maybe thats what I'm seeing.

If I use a commercial tape I get distortion at the top of the screen that looks like what coalman is getting.

If I try to capture one of my home video's I get a flashing over pretty much the whole frame. It looks like someone was taking flash pictures while I was filming only stronger. The problem repeats every few seconds although its not at regular intervals.

Does this sound like something one of the Sima units might correct?

I'm going to try using Catalyst 2.5 and MMC 8.7 with the Hacks tonight.

[ajc53]

You are exactly where I was a month ago when received my ATI. You can almost write a thesis on the post from this forum just in the past month. Just search ATI and ATI Macrovision.

I got a few acceptable DVD’s from home movies when using the SIMA CT-1 that I purchased from Best Buy online. On the lowest setting it stopped that entire frame spasm, and most of that flash cube effect. I also had to change VCR’s for better results and rolled back the drivers and software to the 8.1 group, and applied all the hacks

To improve on quality and reduce jitter, I felt I had to choose between buying a TBC and a better VCR or another capture device. I decided on the latter and just ordered the ADVC-100, based on reviews from this site.
I still plan on using the ATI when ever possible and may still end up getting the a TBC.

You can also search this site for this by going to my profile and look at the forum threads I posted and get a lot of information from resident experts and newbies.

Good luck

[lantern]

Video clarifiers didn't work for me. I just went with the TBC-1000 and haven't had any problems. Even if the clarifier works sometimes, it may not work for every issue. I experienced different "effects" with different tapes.

[thecoalman]

Offroad check this post out....

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=215454&highlight=

Welcome to ATI hell

[Offroad]

Offroad check this post out....

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=215454&highlight=

Yes, I started that post so i've read it.

I tried Catalyst 2.5 / MMC 8.9 and the MV hacks didn't work with my card.

I'm going to stop by Best Buy and pickup a Sima CopyThis to see if that stabilizes my signal from my VHS home movies. If that doesn't help I probably will put my AIW 9700 pro back on eBay where I got it.

A $300 TBC is out of the question for me. I really like the AIW, it screams on games and captures off air TV with better quality than the Phillips and Connexant based cards I tried, but my main purpose for buying it was to capture home movies.

I couldn't care less if it will capture a commercial tape since I only have a few and don't want to put them on DVD anyway, but my home movies are another matter. I want to preserve them the best way I can within reasonable costs.

If the Sima doesn't work I guess I have two choices, either go back to a Connexant based card which doesn't seem to have problems with my tapes or get something like a Canopus ADVC-100.

I was planning on using the AIW 9700 to replace my VCR for timeshifting long sporting events like Football games where the quality gets really awful on a VCR but if it won't capture my video I'm not sure its worth what I paid. I'm only a casual gamer and my Radeon 8500 was working ok there.

[gitreel]

Or you could try www.driverguide.com

[Offroad]

Or you could try www.driverguide.com

What should I be looking for on this site to help me with the problems I'm having?

This appears to be a site for drivers in general.

Thanks

[BrainStorm69]

Offroad, the combo of Cats and MMC that worked for me was Cat 2.4 and MMC 8.1. I know it's a real hassle, but you might try that combo. The only other thing I would suggest is to make sure you are COMPLETELY removing/deleting ALL ATI drivers and MMC parts before reinstalling.

[Offroad]

Offroad, the combo of Cats and MMC that worked for me was Cat 2.4 and MMC 8.1.

Thanks for the tip, do you remember which hack worked with that combo?
There are three floating around it seems.

Did some more experimenting and it seems alot of my problems with the Home Videos was the VCR I was using. I had been using one borrowed from my daughters room and it had flashes of light over the whole frame during playback.

I pulled my Mitsubishi out of my HT cabinet and it doesn't have this problem with my home vids at all. The quality of this particular tape was really bad and at the end I had almost 1000 dropped frames but the audio is in perfect sync all the way to the end, the dropped frames seem to come during a scene change or when the camcorder got the light completely out of whack.

I did pickup a Sima CopyThis CT-1 and it made the problems on the home vids alot worse. Not sure if a Sima SCC would be better or not but the CT-1 is going back to the store.

I'm hoping all my tapes aren't this bad, this particular tape was duped from a Hi8 Sony in SP and is about 10yrs old but I have tapes that are close to 20yrs old.

I think that with the Mits VCR the AIW is doing as well as the signal its being fed. Not sure if there is anything I can do to make the VCR signal any better. I have access to a Panasonic VCR, maybe I'll try it and see if its any better than the Mits.

[BrainStorm69]

As far as which MV hack worked, I think I did them all (at the same time), so I can't say which one actually did the trick.

Sorry the CT-1 didn't help. Did you try it with the Mitsu also? If not, you might try it before you return it. If that doesn't work, I don't think the SCC would help you either. Sounds like maybe you do need a stronger TBC after all.

I'd try the Panansonic, too. You never know, it might help with the dropped frames. I hear that Panasonics do a pretty good job with tapes made on other machines - maybe they do better on home-made tapes, too.

[Offroad]

Sorry the CT-1 didn't help. Did you try it with the Mitsu also? If not, you might try it before you return it. If that doesn't work, I don't think the SCC would help you either. Sounds like maybe you do need a stronger TBC after all.

I'd try the Panansonic, too.

Yup, I tried the CT-1 on the Mits as well and the picture was worse with it. The flashing was back like using the first VCR without it.

Was wondering about ordering a new SVHS JVC, you can get the cheaper ones mail order for $100 now. Smurf's site says they aren't made very well but if I got better results using one and it got me through my tapes I'd probably be happy.

Some of the tape I'm working with has the jitters pretty bad, and thats another place I start dropping frames. The SVHS players are supposed to have a stabilization circuit so maybe that would help. Not sure if the cheaper models have that as well, maybe Smurf will read this and comment for me.

[thecoalman]

As you know I had the same problem with the falshing as you with the AIW. I never had a problem dropping frames though. I think that might be a seperate problem for you.

[Offroad]

As you know I had the same problem with the falshing as you with the AIW. I never had a problem dropping frames though. I think that might be a seperate problem for you.

The flashing problem appears to have been fixed with a swap to another VCR. Working on jitters and dropped frames now.

[thecoalman]

Well I can tell you this I have a system similar to yours and I never dropped a single frame except when I approached the drive capacity.

I purchased a JVC S-VHS HR-S2901U, It had a setting for calibration and stabilizer. When I used the calibration setting it would take away some of the flashing, the stabilizer made it worse. Not sure if this helps as it's not the same problem your having. I'm definitley glad I purchased it.

Good Luck!

[Offroad]

I never dropped a single frame except when I approached the drive capacity. I purchased a JVC S-VHS HR-S2901U, It had a setting for calibration and stabilizer.
Good Luck!

Thanks for the info, my dropped frames appear to be as a result of just really awful video. When capturing, my CPU utilization hovers around 12-15% and my capture drive is more than fast enough so I don't think this is a hardware limitation.

When the video has dropouts is when I drop frames, but the audio stays in perfect sync. I had been looking at that very JVC model as I have found factory refurbs for cheap.

Smurfs site says they aren't built very well, but if I could get through my Home vids and it helped me, I could live with that for the prices I can find these at. How long have you had yours and its still working ok?

I'd love to pick up a factory refurb on one of the JVC models with the TBC built in since thats what I probably really need, but can't find any.

[thecoalman]

I just purchased mine brand new about 2 months ago, I'm just going to be using it for capruting video for now. Considering it will only be used a few hours every week to a month I'm not worried about how long it lasts. Can't really give you any info on how well it performs in the long run because I have barley used it.

Have you checked to insure that DMA is enabled on your harddrive? Is it defragmented? There's a lot of info available on that top thread about dropped frames.

[Offroad]

Have you checked to insure that DMA is enabled on your harddrive? Is it defragmented? There's a lot of info available on that top thread about dropped frames.

Yes and Yes.

Its a fast hard drive that has no problems keeping up with the demands of a capture. 160gb 7200rpm and 8mb cache.

[rtwaits]

Hi
I have been searching high and low for Macrovision issues. I have a PIII 733 Mhz machine with a ATI Radeon 9000 All-in-Wonder. I am using Catalyst 4.2 or 4.3 and MMC 8.9. I tried the MV hacks - they did not work, as expected. I get the pop-up error. If I do nothing, I get 2 hours of the same 3 frames

I decided to create a dual-boot setup on a separate hard disk (SYSTEM, DATA, SYSTEM2) using WinXP Boot.INI settings. I Loaded Catalyst 2.4 and MMC 7.7 from ATI.

Well it worked for the video. Nice picture, no problem. But the audio was awful - lots of distortion. Lowered the volume recording settings, tried again. Finally noticed a bent pin in the purple dongle where it attaches to the card. Bent it back, plugged it in. Looked great. Had sound (synchronised - though I didnt check the whole video)

Somehow, I decided to check the Left and Right. (both TV speakers were working, so I dont know what prompted this). I unplugged the Left RCA cable and the sound was still there. Unplugged the right and there was no sound at all. checked different cables, different VCR, swapped left and right. This is true of playing through the ATI MMC TV app or recording. Input source is stereo

So I then figured I shorted something or broke a wire. Checked recording thru TV tuner, all was well. Rebooted back to the MMC 8.9/Cat 4.3. Everything was fine. Hmmm

Bad Driver? perhaps, but which one? It was a fresh XP SP1 install, though I may need to check the soundcard driver (just using onboard sound right now). I am not sure if I want to upgrade to Catalyst 2.5.

Anyone have any ideas? ( I hope I am contributing more than asking for as I am pretty close in solving this problem!)

-Ross

[lordsmurf]

My 3800 JVC units are on their last legs, and have been that way for about 2-3 years. I got these in early 1999. They still play okay, but only because I take them apart often to realign and clean. If you can live with paying for 1 year for $100, then do it. It's worth it. Just don't assume these will last forever without constant care after that (and at a cost of either time or money or both).

[rtwaits]

Well - if any one is still listening, my problem had to do with XP or DirectX drivers. Updated those and the problem went away.

The dual-boot idea does work for me, while using old ATI Catalyst drivers.

My Nero Ultra 6 cannot seem to make chapters without skipping around, so I am stuck with a continuous feed, but it does work.