MMC 9.13 supports the Theater Pro

[bbeiler]

For quite some time I have been messing around with tweaking the theater pro. I had some serious issues when it came to capturing. There was very little software support. I eventually found a work around and the hardware capture inside the card is outstanding. Last night I downloaded mmc 9.13 from ati and it now supports the theater pro. It gives options under "map presets" for choosing different ways to capture and it even gives you the choice for using their software or choosing hardware.

I thought I'd post this thread for anyone having trouble with the theater pro. With this new software support, I'd recommend it to anyone.

Brent

[mikiem]

IMO of course, might want to hold off fully embracing v 9.13 just yet, though I know folks are anxious.

Loads of problems -- google on it -- just with this version of MMC itself. & whilest it might work, last I checked ATI doesn't list it for the theater pro's yet. Anyway, just a word of warning.

[greymalkin]

I gave up on MMC long ago. Once I got the 550 and they told me they don't support it I just found other programs to fill the void. I use gb-pvr for scheduling/recording tv and it does more than MMC every dreamed of doing.

For captures I use virtualdub to raw avi or huffyuv.

[dun4cheap]

I went back to MMC 9.08. The 9.13 is always in TV On Demand mode which is not always needed. With MMC 9.08 I am able to pause and play real tv without a resource problem.

The Remote Wonder 3.03 drivers are pretty buggy as well.

I am hoping GameEx will offer ATI AIW support soon.

[bbeiler]

I've actually have been using mmc for quite some time. Since befoe 8.1. I had an original AIW Radeon (32MB), that I used mmc for everything. Once I got a new computer with PCI-express I couldn't transfer the card(I'm not a gamer), So I bought the Theater Pro Sapphire for video capture, and I use a seperate card for video.

Any other version of mmc wouldn't even have a recored button. This version has it and upon installation recognized the theater pro and is listed everywhere in the preferrences. It's seems odd the ATI is new suggesting mmc 9.13 doesn't support it. I'm also wondering for anyone who is using mmc 9.13 w/o a theater pro what the settings look like. All my mpeg-2 presents have two versions (one for sofware (SW), and one for (HW)). I think that is pretty cool. I, also, had no problems installing like what is mentioned from others. Every button does exactly what it said it should do. I'm installing software for the remote in just a moment. I'll let you know how this goes.

dun4cheap mentioned TV on Demand is always on (I agree, that IS annoying). I looked forever to find the off button.

greymalkin: I wasn't able to use virtual dub. It wouldn't recognize the card. I used Christv to try the huffyuv to tmpg to convert mpeg-2. but I found that the theater pro could do a better job of mpeg-2 capturing directly at 8000CBR if Mpeg-2 was your desired end result. (I'm sure tmpg could do a better job at lower bitrates, VBR and all that, but I'm not pressed for space). I also have Media Center Edition for viewing and scheduling TV, I only am going to use mmc to capture and maybe view tv while surfing the web (that feature has always been great.)

Brent

[mikiem]

"I went back to MMC 9.08. The 9.13 is always in TV On Demand mode which is not always needed. With MMC 9.08 I am able to pause and play real tv without a resource problem."

Possibly worse, it seems the display on your monitor goes off the lower quality vcr it stores for on demand -- orig display seems MUCH worse the recorded.

"The Remote Wonder 3.03 drivers are pretty buggy as well."

As in orig post when I 1st installed, only way I could get install to happen was to register 3.02 files & then stick 3.03 back before restart.

FWIW, I know for some it's better then nothing, but again suggest googling on this new version of mmc & checking out all the various complaints. THat way you at least know what you might be getting into.