Hi all... I have an ATI AIW 9600xl agp graphics/TV card... and a TV Wonder
550 Theater Pro as a secondary tuner... I have read a few post here about
"hardware encoding" or is it decoding ? and its suppost to be better... Why
is this? I was also reading at the ATI site about the 550 Theater Pro chip
set and I guess the TV Wonder elite is base on this chip set, but it wasn't
clear about it being a "hardware encoder"... and I was also reading about the
AIW 9600 series being MCE compatible and also having "Hardware assisted
encoding"... hehe... isn't that the same thing as "hardware encoding"?..
hehe... and its my understanding the elite card is 12bits and the AIW is
10bits TV tuning... IMO the AIW has a pretty good looking picture with a
strong input signal...

If anybody can enlighten me please...

Secondly, I am currently using MCE 2005 with whatever "roll-up" I think its
#2, whatever windows up-date site gives me is what I got.. and I think this
is the greatest piece of software MS has come up with... although it was
"tricky" to get MCE to recognise both TV tuners, but they are both operating
and I can record two programs at once on differant channels (no STB) and
watch a DvD and cruse the web too... this thing is Grrrreat....

Obliviously, I would want MCE to record TV using the 12bit hardware
encoder... How does MCE choose which tuner to use first ?... Say I have no
recordings going on in the background and I turn on the TV, Which tuner is
used ? is there a way to configure the MCE TV to always use the 10bit tuner?

Is there a plug-in or powertoy or tweak for doing this? Would someone
please write one, Yes... Please... I will pay you money like I did for the
DvD codec, Yes... and while your at it, Please write a tweak for MCE to
record TV in standerd *.mpg format... that would save me hours in converting
and editing time... hehe... who was the bonehead who thought up *.dvr-ms...
Mmmm, let me guess...

Hi,

I used this program and it allows you to say which tuner does what.

http://www.salloway.org.uk/MediaCenter/util/

Good Luck

"rgpsmoker1" wrote:

> Hi all... I have an ATI AIW 9600xl agp graphics/TV card... and a TV Wonder
> 550 Theater Pro as a secondary tuner... I have read a few post here about
> "hardware encoding" or is it decoding ? and its suppost to be better... Why
> is this? I was also reading at the ATI site about the 550 Theater Pro chip
> set and I guess the TV Wonder elite is base on this chip set, but it wasn't
> clear about it being a "hardware encoder"... and I was also reading about the
> AIW 9600 series being MCE compatible and also having "Hardware assisted
> encoding"... hehe... isn't that the same thing as "hardware encoding"?..
> hehe... and its my understanding the elite card is 12bits and the AIW is
> 10bits TV tuning... IMO the AIW has a pretty good looking picture with a
> strong input signal...
>
> If anybody can enlighten me please...
>
> Secondly, I am currently using MCE 2005 with whatever "roll-up" I think its
> #2, whatever windows up-date site gives me is what I got.. and I think this
> is the greatest piece of software MS has come up with... although it was
> "tricky" to get MCE to recognise both TV tuners, but they are both operating
> and I can record two programs at once on differant channels (no STB) and
> watch a DvD and cruse the web too... this thing is Grrrreat....
>
> Obliviously, I would want MCE to record TV using the 12bit hardware
> encoder... How does MCE choose which tuner to use first ?... Say I have no
> recordings going on in the background and I turn on the TV, Which tuner is
> used ? is there a way to configure the MCE TV to always use the 10bit tuner?
>
> Is there a plug-in or powertoy or tweak for doing this? Would someone
> please write one, Yes... Please... I will pay you money like I did for the
> DvD codec, Yes... and while your at it, Please write a tweak for MCE to
> record TV in standerd *.mpg format... that would save me hours in converting
> and editing time... hehe... who was the bonehead who thought up *.dvr-ms...
> Mmmm, let me guess...

Yes the wonder Elite uses the 550 chip.
Hardware encoding is better since software encoding uses a large amout of
CPU power. For MCE 2005 Microsoft does not approve of an tuner that uses
software encoding (they did with 2004) because they wanted 2005 to be able
be able to used multiple tuners at the same time.
Other advantage of not using an AIE card is that you have the complete
choice of graphics cards to choose one. This give you the ability to pick
one with the output interface(s) you need now and plan on haveing the future
and allows yu to pick one that has the power you need. If you plan on also
adding an HDTV tuner than you need a more pwerfull graphics card than one
will only handle SD. Also if you are a serious gamer you would want to pick
a more powerfull graphics card.
"rgpsmoker1" <rgpsmoker1@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:874160AE-59A0-4116-8685-FE9A755D87AB@microsoft.com...
> Hi all... I have an ATI AIW 9600xl agp graphics/TV card... and a TV
> Wonder
> 550 Theater Pro as a secondary tuner... I have read a few post here about
> "hardware encoding" or is it decoding ? and its suppost to be better...
> Why
> is this? I was also reading at the ATI site about the 550 Theater Pro
> chip
> set and I guess the TV Wonder elite is base on this chip set, but it
> wasn't
> clear about it being a "hardware encoder"... and I was also reading about
> the
> AIW 9600 series being MCE compatible and also having "Hardware assisted
> encoding"... hehe... isn't that the same thing as "hardware encoding"?..
> hehe... and its my understanding the elite card is 12bits and the AIW is
> 10bits TV tuning... IMO the AIW has a pretty good looking picture with a
> strong input signal...
>
> If anybody can enlighten me please...
>
> Secondly, I am currently using MCE 2005 with whatever "roll-up" I think
> its
> #2, whatever windows up-date site gives me is what I got.. and I think
> this
> is the greatest piece of software MS has come up with... although it was
> "tricky" to get MCE to recognise both TV tuners, but they are both
> operating
> and I can record two programs at once on differant channels (no STB) and
> watch a DvD and cruse the web too... this thing is Grrrreat....
>
> Obliviously, I would want MCE to record TV using the 12bit hardware
> encoder... How does MCE choose which tuner to use first ?... Say I have no
> recordings going on in the background and I turn on the TV, Which tuner
> is
> used ? is there a way to configure the MCE TV to always use the 10bit
> tuner?
>
> Is there a plug-in or powertoy or tweak for doing this? Would someone
> please write one, Yes... Please... I will pay you money like I did for the
> DvD codec, Yes... and while your at it, Please write a tweak for MCE to
> record TV in standerd *.mpg format... that would save me hours in
> converting
> and editing time... hehe... who was the bonehead who thought up
> *.dvr-ms...
> Mmmm, let me guess...

Thanks so much for that like, I thought someone would have writen a Fix for
this situation... This program worked very well...

"Osteocruncher" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I used this program and it allows you to say which tuner does what.
>
> http://www.salloway.org.uk/MediaCenter/util/
>
> Good Luck
>
> "rgpsmoker1" wrote:
>
> > Hi all... I have an ATI AIW 9600xl agp graphics/TV card... and a TV Wonder
> > 550 Theater Pro as a secondary tuner... I have read a few post here about
> > "hardware encoding" or is it decoding ? and its suppost to be better... Why
> > is this? I was also reading at the ATI site about the 550 Theater Pro chip
> > set and I guess the TV Wonder elite is base on this chip set, but it wasn't
> > clear about it being a "hardware encoder"... and I was also reading about the
> > AIW 9600 series being MCE compatible and also having "Hardware assisted
> > encoding"... hehe... isn't that the same thing as "hardware encoding"?..
> > hehe... and its my understanding the elite card is 12bits and the AIW is
> > 10bits TV tuning... IMO the AIW has a pretty good looking picture with a
> > strong input signal...
> >
> > If anybody can enlighten me please...
> >
> > Secondly, I am currently using MCE 2005 with whatever "roll-up" I think its
> > #2, whatever windows up-date site gives me is what I got.. and I think this
> > is the greatest piece of software MS has come up with... although it was
> > "tricky" to get MCE to recognise both TV tuners, but they are both operating
> > and I can record two programs at once on differant channels (no STB) and
> > watch a DvD and cruse the web too... this thing is Grrrreat....
> >
> > Obliviously, I would want MCE to record TV using the 12bit hardware
> > encoder... How does MCE choose which tuner to use first ?... Say I have no
> > recordings going on in the background and I turn on the TV, Which tuner is
> > used ? is there a way to configure the MCE TV to always use the 10bit tuner?
> >
> > Is there a plug-in or powertoy or tweak for doing this? Would someone
> > please write one, Yes... Please... I will pay you money like I did for the
> > DvD codec, Yes... and while your at it, Please write a tweak for MCE to
> > record TV in standerd *.mpg format... that would save me hours in converting
> > and editing time... hehe... who was the bonehead who thought up *.dvr-ms...
> > Mmmm, let me guess...

Hardware assisted encoding is NOT the same as full hardware encoding.

AIW's that are currently released do not do full hardware encoding. They
still rely on the computer's CPU to do the bulk of the work. The AIW's will
not make it on the Designed for Media Center list for this reason.

Don't bet on MS switching away from dvr-ms for the forseeable future (if
ever).

--
Gary Tsang
Microsoft MVP - Windows XP Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp


"rgpsmoker1" <rgpsmoker1@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:874160AE-59A0-4116-8685-FE9A755D87AB@microsoft.com...
> Hi all... I have an ATI AIW 9600xl agp graphics/TV card... and a TV
> Wonder
> 550 Theater Pro as a secondary tuner... I have read a few post here about
> "hardware encoding" or is it decoding ? and its suppost to be better...
> Why
> is this? I was also reading at the ATI site about the 550 Theater Pro
> chip
> set and I guess the TV Wonder elite is base on this chip set, but it
> wasn't
> clear about it being a "hardware encoder"... and I was also reading about
> the
> AIW 9600 series being MCE compatible and also having "Hardware assisted
> encoding"... hehe... isn't that the same thing as "hardware encoding"?..
> hehe... and its my understanding the elite card is 12bits and the AIW is
> 10bits TV tuning... IMO the AIW has a pretty good looking picture with a
> strong input signal...
>
> If anybody can enlighten me please...
>
> Secondly, I am currently using MCE 2005 with whatever "roll-up" I think
> its
> #2, whatever windows up-date site gives me is what I got.. and I think
> this
> is the greatest piece of software MS has come up with... although it was
> "tricky" to get MCE to recognise both TV tuners, but they are both
> operating
> and I can record two programs at once on differant channels (no STB) and
> watch a DvD and cruse the web too... this thing is Grrrreat....
>
> Obliviously, I would want MCE to record TV using the 12bit hardware
> encoder... How does MCE choose which tuner to use first ?... Say I have no
> recordings going on in the background and I turn on the TV, Which tuner
> is
> used ? is there a way to configure the MCE TV to always use the 10bit
> tuner?
>
> Is there a plug-in or powertoy or tweak for doing this? Would someone
> please write one, Yes... Please... I will pay you money like I did for the
> DvD codec, Yes... and while your at it, Please write a tweak for MCE to
> record TV in standerd *.mpg format... that would save me hours in
> converting
> and editing time... hehe... who was the bonehead who thought up
> *.dvr-ms...
> Mmmm, let me guess...

Hi JW, thanks for the insight... I agree there are advatages to having a
seperate Graphics adapter and I'm considering a second 550 Pro card anyways,
So do you have any suggestions about a good Graphics card... I've read alot
about NVidia's line and I have a GForce 4 in one of my other machines which
looks about the same as my AIW... and I haven't noticed any CPU "Lag" since I
went to a P4-3.0GHtz with 2048mgs of RAM with a 480GB RAID set up... hehe..
this thing flys... hehe... The Radeon series Graphics cards look like they
have possibilities... What do you think?

Any comments welcome...
Thank you...

"JW" wrote:

> Yes the wonder Elite uses the 550 chip.
> Hardware encoding is better since software encoding uses a large amout of
> CPU power. For MCE 2005 Microsoft does not approve of an tuner that uses
> software encoding (they did with 2004) because they wanted 2005 to be able
> be able to used multiple tuners at the same time.
> Other advantage of not using an AIE card is that you have the complete
> choice of graphics cards to choose one. This give you the ability to pick
> one with the output interface(s) you need now and plan on haveing the future
> and allows yu to pick one that has the power you need. If you plan on also
> adding an HDTV tuner than you need a more pwerfull graphics card than one
> will only handle SD. Also if you are a serious gamer you would want to pick
> a more powerfull graphics card.
> "rgpsmoker1" <rgpsmoker1@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:874160AE-59A0-4116-8685-FE9A755D87AB@microsoft.com...
> > Hi all... I have an ATI AIW 9600xl agp graphics/TV card... and a TV
> > Wonder
> > 550 Theater Pro as a secondary tuner... I have read a few post here about
> > "hardware encoding" or is it decoding ? and its suppost to be better...
> > Why
> > is this? I was also reading at the ATI site about the 550 Theater Pro
> > chip
> > set and I guess the TV Wonder elite is base on this chip set, but it
> > wasn't
> > clear about it being a "hardware encoder"... and I was also reading about
> > the
> > AIW 9600 series being MCE compatible and also having "Hardware assisted
> > encoding"... hehe... isn't that the same thing as "hardware encoding"?..
> > hehe... and its my understanding the elite card is 12bits and the AIW is
> > 10bits TV tuning... IMO the AIW has a pretty good looking picture with a
> > strong input signal...
> >
> > If anybody can enlighten me please...
> >
> > Secondly, I am currently using MCE 2005 with whatever "roll-up" I think
> > its
> > #2, whatever windows up-date site gives me is what I got.. and I think
> > this
> > is the greatest piece of software MS has come up with... although it was
> > "tricky" to get MCE to recognise both TV tuners, but they are both
> > operating
> > and I can record two programs at once on differant channels (no STB) and
> > watch a DvD and cruse the web too... this thing is Grrrreat....
> >
> > Obliviously, I would want MCE to record TV using the 12bit hardware
> > encoder... How does MCE choose which tuner to use first ?... Say I have no
> > recordings going on in the background and I turn on the TV, Which tuner
> > is
> > used ? is there a way to configure the MCE TV to always use the 10bit
> > tuner?
> >
> > Is there a plug-in or powertoy or tweak for doing this? Would someone
> > please write one, Yes... Please... I will pay you money like I did for the
> > DvD codec, Yes... and while your at it, Please write a tweak for MCE to
> > record TV in standerd *.mpg format... that would save me hours in
> > converting
> > and editing time... hehe... who was the bonehead who thought up
> > *.dvr-ms...
> > Mmmm, let me guess...
>
>
>

I personally prefer NVIDIA cards and for SD TV I would suggest any 6xxx
series card.
Just make sure you get a card that has the outlook interface(s) you need now
and might need in the future.
If you plan to get an HDTV tuner later than I redommend an ATI X1300 Pro or
a 128 MB NVIDIA 6600GT The ATI X1xxx series is reported to provide better
PQ than the NVIDIA when used with the latesct Catalyst 5.13 drivers.

"rgpsmoker1" <rgpsmoker1@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9B17D14C-9B30-4824-9692-669E286A1F61@microsoft.com...
> Hi JW, thanks for the insight... I agree there are advatages to having a
> seperate Graphics adapter and I'm considering a second 550 Pro card
> anyways,
> So do you have any suggestions about a good Graphics card... I've read
> alot
> about NVidia's line and I have a GForce 4 in one of my other machines
> which
> looks about the same as my AIW... and I haven't noticed any CPU "Lag"
> since I
> went to a P4-3.0GHtz with 2048mgs of RAM with a 480GB RAID set up...
> hehe..
> this thing flys... hehe... The Radeon series Graphics cards look like they
> have possibilities... What do you think?
>
> Any comments welcome...
> Thank you...
>
> "JW" wrote:
>
>> Yes the wonder Elite uses the 550 chip.
>> Hardware encoding is better since software encoding uses a large amout of
>> CPU power. For MCE 2005 Microsoft does not approve of an tuner that uses
>> software encoding (they did with 2004) because they wanted 2005 to be
>> able
>> be able to used multiple tuners at the same time.
>> Other advantage of not using an AIE card is that you have the complete
>> choice of graphics cards to choose one. This give you the ability to
>> pick
>> one with the output interface(s) you need now and plan on haveing the
>> future
>> and allows yu to pick one that has the power you need. If you plan on
>> also
>> adding an HDTV tuner than you need a more pwerfull graphics card than one
>> will only handle SD. Also if you are a serious gamer you would want to
>> pick
>> a more powerfull graphics card.
>> "rgpsmoker1" <rgpsmoker1@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:874160AE-59A0-4116-8685-FE9A755D87AB@microsoft.com...
>> > Hi all... I have an ATI AIW 9600xl agp graphics/TV card... and a TV
>> > Wonder
>> > 550 Theater Pro as a secondary tuner... I have read a few post here
>> > about
>> > "hardware encoding" or is it decoding ? and its suppost to be
>> > better...
>> > Why
>> > is this? I was also reading at the ATI site about the 550 Theater Pro
>> > chip
>> > set and I guess the TV Wonder elite is base on this chip set, but it
>> > wasn't
>> > clear about it being a "hardware encoder"... and I was also reading
>> > about
>> > the
>> > AIW 9600 series being MCE compatible and also having "Hardware assisted
>> > encoding"... hehe... isn't that the same thing as "hardware
>> > encoding"?..
>> > hehe... and its my understanding the elite card is 12bits and the AIW
>> > is
>> > 10bits TV tuning... IMO the AIW has a pretty good looking picture with
>> > a
>> > strong input signal...
>> >
>> > If anybody can enlighten me please...
>> >
>> > Secondly, I am currently using MCE 2005 with whatever "roll-up" I think
>> > its
>> > #2, whatever windows up-date site gives me is what I got.. and I
>> > think
>> > this
>> > is the greatest piece of software MS has come up with... although it
>> > was
>> > "tricky" to get MCE to recognise both TV tuners, but they are both
>> > operating
>> > and I can record two programs at once on differant channels (no STB)
>> > and
>> > watch a DvD and cruse the web too... this thing is Grrrreat....
>> >
>> > Obliviously, I would want MCE to record TV using the 12bit hardware
>> > encoder... How does MCE choose which tuner to use first ?... Say I have
>> > no
>> > recordings going on in the background and I turn on the TV, Which
>> > tuner
>> > is
>> > used ? is there a way to configure the MCE TV to always use the 10bit
>> > tuner?
>> >
>> > Is there a plug-in or powertoy or tweak for doing this? Would someone
>> > please write one, Yes... Please... I will pay you money like I did for
>> > the
>> > DvD codec, Yes... and while your at it, Please write a tweak for MCE
>> > to
>> > record TV in standerd *.mpg format... that would save me hours in
>> > converting
>> > and editing time... hehe... who was the bonehead who thought up
>> > *.dvr-ms...
>> > Mmmm, let me guess...
>>
>>
>>