Generic Computer Woes...

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:12 am

I finally got around to installing the multimedia drivers from my Radeon All-In-Wonder card to start using it and it has the same problems it always has had.

First of all when I start up the TV tuner program to input a signal from my PS2 I immediatly get this message:
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/2415/dmauh5.jpg

I know for a fact DMA is enabled on my hard drive, it is set to UDMA2. So what the hell? What's wrong here?

The next problem is the picture quality. I use the basic PS2 input cables (composite) to get the signal to my video card and the picture quality is SHIT, extreme emphasis on shit. Is it because I'm using composite and would it improve if I use S-Video? Here is a picture from Soul Calibur 3 to show how low quality the out picture is (thumbnail):

And finally the biggest problem of all... the games are unplayable considering there is a 1 second delay from when I input a command from my PS2 controller. I know for a fact people have this working without any lag using crappy old beaten up ATI TV tuners so what's wrong with mine?

I would seriously like to play my console games on my monitor rather than the current TV in my room so if anyone uses an ATI All-In-Wonder card and may know what's wrong here any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:16 am

Take a picture of what Windows tells you the driver status is. The only thing that could go wrong is if you installed special IDE drivers for your mobo instead of using the default one Windows provides.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:18 am

Deathlike2 wrote:Take a picture of what Windows tells you the driver status is. The only thing that could go wrong is if you installed special IDE drivers for your mobo instead of using the default one Windows provides.

My hard drive is SATA and this Asus motherboard didn't need 3rd party RAID drivers for SATA to work like some other low-end Asus boards do.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:21 am

You still haven't done what I asked though.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:24 am

Deathlike2 wrote:You still haven't done what I asked though.

Okay done, here you go:
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/7881 ... ersdt9.jpg

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:39 am

That's not exactly what I was looking for.

This is what I was looking for.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:49 am

Mine doesn't look quite the same:

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:53 am

Looks like you did installed the mobo drivers... I think. In any case, it's probably poor ATA driver detection that is the problem here.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:58 am

Deathlike2 wrote:Looks like you did installed the mobo drivers... I think. In any case, it's probably poor ATA driver detection that is the problem here.

Oh man

I keep running into problem after problem. Bah, could it not detecting DMA possibly have anything at all to do with the poor picture quality?

Oh well, I can wait 500 years for PS2 emulators to be completed and then I can play those games on my computer assuming I have one which is powerful enough.

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:12 am

s-video will help a lot

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:29 am

sweener2001 wrote:s-video will help a lot

I'd need the composite cables to go through something that has S-Video output first such as a modern TV or VCR/DVD player but if composite goes through S-Video wouldn't it be low quality even though the output is S-Video because it's just being rerouted from a low quality signal? I don't suppose they sell PS2 S-Video output cables?

Edit: Arrrgg, so many typos.
Edit again: And are you sure S-Video is better than composite? I need to look that up.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:38 am

Cyrus wrote:I don't suppose they sell PS2 S-Video output cables?

YES.
They do, and you should buy them YESTERDAY.

As far as the lag goes, it's probably just your specific TV tuner model.
Different tuners and drivers have different levels of lag.
So that likely isn't fixable without buying a new TV tuner, and doing reseearch beforehand on lag levels.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:51 am

Gil_Hamilton wrote:
Cyrus wrote:I don't suppose they sell PS2 S-Video output cables?
YES.
They do, and you should buy them YESTERDAY.

As far as the lag goes, it's probably just your specific TV tuner model.
Different tuners and drivers have different levels of lag.
So that likely isn't fixable without buying a new TV tuner, and doing reseearch beforehand on lag levels.

It's an AIW Radeon X800XT, the most powerful All-In-Wonder video card availible for AGP AFAIK so that's what I went with...

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:06 am

Soul Calibur III is very blurry using composite cables (even on a TV). However, the screenshot you provided seems more blurry than on a TV. Upgrading to S-Video will help greatly.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:13 am

Cyrus wrote:
It's an AIW Radeon X800XT, the most powerful All-In-Wonder video card availible for AGP AFAIK so that's what I went with...

Power has very little to do with TV tuner lag.

I know Adaptec sells one called the GameBridge that explicitly targets people wanting to play console games on their PCs(actually 2, the GameBridge TV has an actual tuner, the plain GameBridge is AV inputs only). It's supposed to be pretty good about lag(obviously), but I can't personally speak for it.

SquareHead · Post by **SquareHead** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:53 am

You want lag, try using an ADS Instant DVD + TV. It has almost a second of lag. I know it has an on-board MPEG2 encoder, but I don't know if it runs the video feed through there first. But the fact that its USB prolly is a good start on whats wrong with it. My old ass AIW Radeon 9200, didnt have much for lag, played my PSOne through it with no trouble. But it's picture quality was crap. Picked up a Hauppauge PVR-150 a couple days ago should be geting it soon. WOnder how that'll fare.

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:04 am

they most certainly sell ps2 s-video out cables, and yes, s-video is way better than composite. way better. a visual inspection of each video cable could probably clue you in as to which is better.

ati and tv tuners are gay. i have a tv wonder pro pci, and it's basically quit on me. the thing is so freaking finnicky.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:47 pm

Gil_Hamilton wrote:
Cyrus wrote:
It's an AIW Radeon X800XT, the most powerful All-In-Wonder video card availible for AGP AFAIK so that's what I went with...
Power has very little to do with TV tuner lag.

I know Adaptec sells one called the GameBridge that explicitly targets people wanting to play console games on their PCs(actually 2, the GameBridge TV has an actual tuner, the plain GameBridge is AV inputs only). It's supposed to be pretty good about lag(obviously), but I can't personally speak for it.

Thanks a million for pointing out that product, it turns out a nearby store has a lot of those in stock so I'm probably going to go pick one up today but I don't know if I should get the one that just takes console input or the one which is a full TV tuner:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.ph ... &id=CC.344

$23 for just console and $40 for a TV tuner with it. The thing is if it doesn't increase the video quality and only gets rid of lag I probably don't need the TV tuner but then again I won't know unless I buy it.

On a side note I spoke to someone who works for ATI and he says the 1 second lag thing is a known problem and is standard on the All-In-Wonder cards. All the more reason to buy that GameBridge TV tuner. Now I just need to find a store which sells PS2 S-Video cables.

There is a BestBuy which is within 10 minutes walking distance from where I live and they sell S-Video cables but they're jerks and lable it "Über Godly Golden PS3 CABLE FROM HEAVEN" and sell it for $40. $40 seems a bit overboard for a tiny console cable, is that price standard for Playstation cables or are they just assholes?

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:21 pm

walmart sells cables that have s-video for the PS2/Xbox/GC

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:38 pm

how you went this long without knowing about s-video is amazing

it looks so much better. even more so on an actual television.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:53 am

sweener2001 wrote:how you went this long without knowing about s-video is amazing

it looks so much better. even more so on an actual television.

Only the TV in my living room is good (and is always used so I can't connect my PS2 to it), the one in my room is ancient. It can't connect to S-Video or even composite so to connect composite I have to route it through it's VHS player first. So S-Video was out of the question, now you know why want to connect it to my monitor, aside from saving some space and taking screenshots.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:48 am

You're... using... RF modulation?

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

With luck, the GameBridge should generate a better image. It sounds like the AIW is doing nasty things to the image.

An alternate path is to just upgrade your monitor. It's not hard to find one with composite, s-video, or even component inputs, making the whole issue moot.

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:49 am

http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802616

Here's a S-Video cable. It should still work on a PS2, since both the PS2 and PS3 use the same AV output.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:55 am

Gil_Hamilton wrote:You're... using... RF modulation?

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

With luck, the GameBridge should generate a better image. It sounds like the AIW is doing nasty things to the image.

An alternate path is to just upgrade your monitor. It's not hard to find one with composite, s-video, or even component inputs, making the whole issue moot.

My monitor is just dandy, it's a ViewSonic VX922, 19" viewable, 2ms response time, good contrast ratio and luminance. But anywho I went ahead and bought the GameBridge TV tuner and it works EXACTLY as some dude wrote in a review:

The picture is the same as it was with the All-In-Wonder but I suppose that's just because it's composite and not S-Video, but there is no lag at all, works flawlessly as advertised not to mention it's smaller than the palm of my hand and easy to transport. The hardware is fine but the software is enough to piss anyone off. Everything about it is subpar. The sound options override your control panel settings, it's a pain in the ass to install (of course it's own CD doesn't automatically do it, you have to manually) and in general is set up horribly.

Superior hardware that works as advertised + inferior software that will piss you off. Overall I got what I paid for, a mini external TV tuner and no lag in my console gameplay. Meh, 7/10. Too bad it doesn't have radio options as well, then I could disconnect the extra wires of my All-In-Wonder.

snkcube wrote:http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802616

Here's a S-Video cable. It should still work on a PS2, since both the PS2 and PS3 use the same AV output.

Awesome, thanks. There is an EB games at a nearby mall, I'll pick one up tomorrow. I had found a universal console one at The Source/Radioshack but they don't have any shipments until April.

EDIT: Did I mention how much I HATE it's software?! It makes me want to kill something, imagine how you would want TV tuner software to be, this is the opposite of that. Hell, it doesn't even have any directory options and doesn't state which directory your files or stored and you can't access them through it's main program. You have to randomly guess where the snapshots/videos are.

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:41 am

sweener2001 wrote:they most certainly sell ps2 s-video out cables, and yes, s-video is way better than composite. way better. a visual inspection of each video cable could probably clue you in as to which is better.

ati and tv tuners are gay. i have a tv wonder pro pci, and it's basically quit on me. the thing is so freaking finnicky.

I have one that works as well as can be expected. The biggest problem with them is they rely entirely on software encoding, so they're major resoruce hogs, even on a decent system. The software that comes with them is crap and never records on cue. I tried using one in a knoppmyth box, but the linux support for it is even crappier. I had to adjust the color settings for each individual channel if I didn't want everything to be purple.