Hey guys, I just got my first ATI card since the 90s from Sapphire.
X800 Pro with VIVO. I used to have the old Radeon All-In-Wonder 32MB
with the CATV-In and the Multimedia Center. All I got in my box was the
card, the drivers, Prince of Persia, and this overclocking software.
I was wondering if there is anything I am missing, either from Sapphire
or ATI, for the VI part of VIVO. I have Catalyst 5.7 with CCC, but the
ATI site says not to download the Multimedia Center unless it came with
my computer because MMC 9.08 is an upgrade.
Is there anything I can do?
Thanks,
Josh
Check the Sapphire site (
http://www.sapphiretech.com/index.asp) for
info on what should come with your card, Josh. Noob (or N00B etc) and
newb are just contractions of newbie. No problem with using any of
them. ;-)
You should have no problems running the Catalyst drivers direct from
ATI's site, although I'd recommend sticking to the Control Panel
rather than Control Center versions - general opinion ATM seems to be
that Control Center is largly bloat and serves mainly to slow your
system down, although things may improve in the future. YMMV. And
don't forget, of course: always get the all-in-one driver versions -
with a VIVO card, you need the capture drivers, too.
MMC is a different kettle of fish. Yes, you can download and run it,
but with two provisos. First, you'll need an ATI Catalyst Software
disc (not expensive - you can get them from the ATI shop for North
America and appropriate dealers in other countries) to validate
downloading and installing the DVD Player
Second, it's likely that you'll find that the installer will not
install the TV/Video In app for an OEM card, and if it does, it may
not run. It seems that ATI intend this app only for 'Built by ATI'
cards. This can be got round by editing and re-flashing the BIOS of
your card so that it identifies itself as a 'Built by ATI' card, but
this is by no means certain, and you would not be advised to try it
unless you have some idea of what you are doing.
There's no harm in trying it, although if you do and decide to remove
it again, you really should uninstall the display drivers as well as
MMC, then run the cat-uninstaller.exe package ('ATI - Software
Uninstall Utility' in Add/Remove Programs), then reinstall the
Catalyst drivers; or you may find software remnants interfering with
whatever you replace it with. I would say that, if you can
successfullyinstall and run the TV/Video In app, it's then worth
getting the CD to validate the DVD Player: to my mind the MMC suite is
an excellent solution for ATI cards. Otherwise go with something
else.
There are various alternative DVD and TV packages you can use -
PowerDVD/PowerVCR or WinDVD/WinDVR being a couple of the best options.
If you're in North America and receiving NTSC TV transmissions, most
applications will work as well as they can for you; if you're
elsewhere in the world and receive PAL or SECAM transmissions, you may
find that many software providers do not seem to bother optimising
their products for the non-American market and picture quality is
poor.
WinDVR and Showshifter are two products I've found that do provide
good PAL picture quality; WinDVD is excellent; Showshifter has an
interface that, to my mind, is clunky and ugly; YMMV.
HTH Patrick
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