B
Bad Breath
Well they did it again...ATI released a new MMC called 9.14. Nope, have not
installed it.
I'll stay with CAT 6.2 and MMC 9.08 for a LONG LONG time to come.
ATI's CAT drivers on their own seem to be well done and organized. Kudos to
the
driver team! Wonder if it's the same team that "works" on MMC? Doesn't
really matter.
I have to give the MMC team credit for at least delivering a new version
prior to the 8+
month release cycle they used in the past. Perhaps 9.15 will be released
around 02/01/07?
Who knows. Looking bellow at the MMC 9.14 release notes, both in the
resolved and known
issues, demonstrates that most of the show stopping bugs have not been
considered for this release,
and there is no clear indication they understand or care about the major
problems with this software.
Hopefully some of you folks out there can benefit from this release and the
issues they've addressed.
It addresses nothing for me... I feel sorry for the poor soles out there who
purchase and/or have a
AIW card installed in their system for the purpose of recording video, only
to be confronted with:
a) A psychotic install/uninstall/reinstall process for MMC and it's
components. Yes average user,
you must use 'Add or Remove Programs' to uninstall our stuff. Then
you'll have to use the
'AtiCimUn.exe' utility to CLEAN out our crap, but in some versions of
CAT, you'll have to dig
around in your 'C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\UninstallAll'
directory for it. Then it's possoble
you'll have to download a driver residue cleaning utility to make sure
our 'AtiCimUn.exe' did it's job
on our own components. Next you may have to reboot your PC in Safe mode
and run the driver
residue cleaner to be extra sure our stuff is gone!
b) Massive changes to MMC which are either undocumented or poorly
documented. Analog to
PCI bus digital audio comes to mind here. If you want to go back to
analog audio (no delay between
your AIW and a nearby TV), you have to use older CAT's, or do a HACK
install of the NSP and SP
drivers. ATI does not sponsor this HACK, it's a community discovery
thing. Also TVOD will magically
be forced ON in MMC 9.13+(?) But you can do a registry HACK to disable
that. Easy enough for the
average user right? And if your MMC 9.13+ based recordings start to
skip and stutter and die after
30+ minutes, you'll just have to jump back to step a) in this list and
start all over again.
c) Etc..etc...etc...ATI please read the issues in this group, and the
countless other forums (www.rage3D.com)
for a REAL customer MMC bug list.
MMC does a lot of things well, and it's a shame this product has been
suffering from a poor reputation
for this long. Please fix this product correctly, or completely dump MMC in
favor of licenseing a solid
product which customers can use without fatigue.
* * * ATI MMC 9.14 RELEASE NOTES (NOTE: Start chugging your Malox NOW) * * *
Resolved Issues
The following section provides information on issues that have been resolved
with the latest release of the ATI
Multimedia CenterT. These include the following:
1) An AVI file can now be played back when a TV recording is also taking
place
2) Launching the radio no longer results in the Select the default FM Radio
device
being listed as "Unknown AVStream Source 1"
3) The TV Source is no longer listed as "Unknown AVStream Source 1" in the
"Scan for
Channels" dialog box that appears during the TV initialization
4) A "No Signal Found" message is no longer displayed in the center of the
screen
after re-launching the MMC after its initial launch
5) Using GuidePlus+ to set a scheduled recording no longer results in the
recording
failing to activate
6) Creating a scheduled recording and selecting Start in Eazylaunch, no
longer results
in the recording starting in a windowed mode after restarting the MCE
system
7) Argentina is now set to PAL_N_COMBO resolving issues that may have been
experienced
when using the TV
8) Using the MMC to watch TV followed by launching GuildPlus+, no longer
results in the TV
station change to channel 2
9) An ATIMMC.EXE error message is no longer displayed when using the ATI MMC
to run a TV scan
under the Windows operating systems
* * * AUTHORS NOTE: Simply stunning... * * *
Known Issues with the ATI Multimedia Center
The following section provides information on known issues and product
limitation for the ATI Multimedia
CenterT 9.14. These include the following:
1) Entering the Broadcast time option and selecting to start watching a TV
program from the
beginning after watching TV for an extended period of time may result in
the Time Shift
slider bar moving to the beginning, but the playback of the video
remains in the same place.
Further details can be found in topic number 737-21519
2) Scheduling a TV recording using any supported format, may on rare
occasions result in the
scheduled recording failing to start until using the mouse to click on
any portion of the
ATI MMC. Further details can be found in topic number 737-20031
3) Starting a UTV session, followed by switching from UTV to
Component/S-Video, and then back to
UTV may result in a momentary flash of static video and audio before
the UTV session resumes
normally. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21498
4) Setting the region to PAL may result in the UTV window appearing slightly
off center. Further
details can be found in topic number 737-21513
5) When playing a timeshifted file in EAZYLOOKT mode the content cannot be
exported by pressing
the "Record" button on the remote control. Further details can be
found in topic number 737-22384
* * * AUTHORS NOTE: This must be the bug list for OS/2 WARP? * * *
* * * ATI MMC 9.14 RELEASE NOTES (NOTE: Increase or decrease your Malox
chugging NOW) * * *
installed it.
I'll stay with CAT 6.2 and MMC 9.08 for a LONG LONG time to come.
ATI's CAT drivers on their own seem to be well done and organized. Kudos to
the
driver team! Wonder if it's the same team that "works" on MMC? Doesn't
really matter.
I have to give the MMC team credit for at least delivering a new version
prior to the 8+
month release cycle they used in the past. Perhaps 9.15 will be released
around 02/01/07?
Who knows. Looking bellow at the MMC 9.14 release notes, both in the
resolved and known
issues, demonstrates that most of the show stopping bugs have not been
considered for this release,
and there is no clear indication they understand or care about the major
problems with this software.
Hopefully some of you folks out there can benefit from this release and the
issues they've addressed.
It addresses nothing for me... I feel sorry for the poor soles out there who
purchase and/or have a
AIW card installed in their system for the purpose of recording video, only
to be confronted with:
a) A psychotic install/uninstall/reinstall process for MMC and it's
components. Yes average user,
you must use 'Add or Remove Programs' to uninstall our stuff. Then
you'll have to use the
'AtiCimUn.exe' utility to CLEAN out our crap, but in some versions of
CAT, you'll have to dig
around in your 'C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\UninstallAll'
directory for it. Then it's possoble
you'll have to download a driver residue cleaning utility to make sure
our 'AtiCimUn.exe' did it's job
on our own components. Next you may have to reboot your PC in Safe mode
and run the driver
residue cleaner to be extra sure our stuff is gone!
b) Massive changes to MMC which are either undocumented or poorly
documented. Analog to
PCI bus digital audio comes to mind here. If you want to go back to
analog audio (no delay between
your AIW and a nearby TV), you have to use older CAT's, or do a HACK
install of the NSP and SP
drivers. ATI does not sponsor this HACK, it's a community discovery
thing. Also TVOD will magically
be forced ON in MMC 9.13+(?) But you can do a registry HACK to disable
that. Easy enough for the
average user right? And if your MMC 9.13+ based recordings start to
skip and stutter and die after
30+ minutes, you'll just have to jump back to step a) in this list and
start all over again.
c) Etc..etc...etc...ATI please read the issues in this group, and the
countless other forums (www.rage3D.com)
for a REAL customer MMC bug list.
MMC does a lot of things well, and it's a shame this product has been
suffering from a poor reputation
for this long. Please fix this product correctly, or completely dump MMC in
favor of licenseing a solid
product which customers can use without fatigue.
* * * ATI MMC 9.14 RELEASE NOTES (NOTE: Start chugging your Malox NOW) * * *
Resolved Issues
The following section provides information on issues that have been resolved
with the latest release of the ATI
Multimedia CenterT. These include the following:
1) An AVI file can now be played back when a TV recording is also taking
place
2) Launching the radio no longer results in the Select the default FM Radio
device
being listed as "Unknown AVStream Source 1"
3) The TV Source is no longer listed as "Unknown AVStream Source 1" in the
"Scan for
Channels" dialog box that appears during the TV initialization
4) A "No Signal Found" message is no longer displayed in the center of the
screen
after re-launching the MMC after its initial launch
5) Using GuidePlus+ to set a scheduled recording no longer results in the
recording
failing to activate
6) Creating a scheduled recording and selecting Start in Eazylaunch, no
longer results
in the recording starting in a windowed mode after restarting the MCE
system
7) Argentina is now set to PAL_N_COMBO resolving issues that may have been
experienced
when using the TV
8) Using the MMC to watch TV followed by launching GuildPlus+, no longer
results in the TV
station change to channel 2
9) An ATIMMC.EXE error message is no longer displayed when using the ATI MMC
to run a TV scan
under the Windows operating systems
* * * AUTHORS NOTE: Simply stunning... * * *
Known Issues with the ATI Multimedia Center
The following section provides information on known issues and product
limitation for the ATI Multimedia
CenterT 9.14. These include the following:
1) Entering the Broadcast time option and selecting to start watching a TV
program from the
beginning after watching TV for an extended period of time may result in
the Time Shift
slider bar moving to the beginning, but the playback of the video
remains in the same place.
Further details can be found in topic number 737-21519
2) Scheduling a TV recording using any supported format, may on rare
occasions result in the
scheduled recording failing to start until using the mouse to click on
any portion of the
ATI MMC. Further details can be found in topic number 737-20031
3) Starting a UTV session, followed by switching from UTV to
Component/S-Video, and then back to
UTV may result in a momentary flash of static video and audio before
the UTV session resumes
normally. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21498
4) Setting the region to PAL may result in the UTV window appearing slightly
off center. Further
details can be found in topic number 737-21513
5) When playing a timeshifted file in EAZYLOOKT mode the content cannot be
exported by pressing
the "Record" button on the remote control. Further details can be
found in topic number 737-22384
* * * AUTHORS NOTE: This must be the bug list for OS/2 WARP? * * *
* * * ATI MMC 9.14 RELEASE NOTES (NOTE: Increase or decrease your Malox
chugging NOW) * * *