Catalyst 5.10 Windows XP ?

[steingra]

Has anyone upgraded to this software and had problems. My current setup seems to be working pretty good. But at some point I know I should update my catalyst software. I have a 9600 XT AGP card now. Current Catalyst driver says its 03.8. Probably installed it when I built the pc like almost 2 years ago now.

I saw the Powerstrip software, (I want to have ability to tweak a bunch of video card settings and see how it goes) but Powerstrip seems like it will only work with latest Catalyst drivers? But maybe it will work OK with the version I have.

Just figured I would ask before I install it. I hate to mess with stuff like this, when the machine is working good. So I very well may just leave it alone, and try to find another tweaker program that can work with what I have.

Thanks

[dvd_maniac]

I was playing with PowerStrip about 2 years ago trying to get my AIW hooked up to component SDTV without overscan issues. Worked with the ATI driver suite then...

[steingra]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

I was playing with PowerStrip about 2 years ago trying to get my AIW hooked up to component SDTV without overscan issues. Worked with the ATI driver suite then...

I looked everywhere in my current catalyst settings, and cant find anyway to change resolutions to custom settings. I want to try a few things with the resolution on the 9600 XT card, to get a 1-1 pixel mapping to match the projectors native resolution which is 854 x 480 (16 x9). Currently I just use 800 x 600 settings on the Windows desktop. And it makes text a little hard to read on the wall (from projected image). I just thought I would like to match resolution of windows with projector and see how it looks.

The projector is upscaling/downscaling images depending on what data I throw at it. Just curious how this would work... and what it would look like.

Since I am a tweaker by nature, I read about this Powerstrip here on the forums, and it looks real nice to try out!

But it also seemed like I had to have latest Catalyst to use it, but maybe I read their website wrong?

[Jesse]

Hello,

I am running CCC 5.9 with winXP pro SP2. No problems whatsoever. The newer CCC's give you the ability to set some custom resolutions when using an HDTV. I understand it is not nearly as versatile as PStrip, but it does seem to work well for some. I am not able to use it since I am connecting to an SDTV via component and the tv does not like anything other than 480i.

I see no reason you should not try the latest CCC.

HTH

Jesse

[Kanati]

if your sage box is dedicated... The common mentality that's been beat into people about "upgrade your drivers... make sure you have the latest drivers..." should be ignored. If your machine is running well. Don't touch ANYTHING. The old addage of if it works, don't fix it applies here.

[steingra]

Originally Posted by Kanati

if your sage box is dedicated... The common mentality that's been beat into people about "upgrade your drivers... make sure you have the latest drivers..." should be ignored. If your machine is running well. Don't touch ANYTHING. The old addage of if it works, don't fix it applies here.

That is exactly what I am talking about. You hit the nail on the head. I am still fairly new to this world of the HTPC and to SageTV. And right now, everything seems to be working great. I am spending time trying to get the Client pcs to run SageTV client, working on getting network as fast as possible, etc But all in all, the SageTV server *seems* to be doing great. I am recording shows using 2 different stb's and 2 different capture cards. And just watching shows, so that I can pick out the best resolutions to use for tv shows, movies, HDTV channels that I record, etc

I guess I shouldnt be watching/playing stuff back on the HTPC Thats the whole issue I just thought of.

I was just sitting here thinking about the *if it aint broke dont fix it* and made me realize I have a second PC that is running Sage Client and it is also connected to the projector using DVI cable, AND it has a ATI card in it too. 256 MB. Silly me, So that is the one I can fuss with. If it breaks I wont break down.

Cool, now I can tweak away and not worry about crashing the mothership.

So I will first try upgrading to the latest catalyst on the Sage Client PC, and then also install Powerstrip on there.

Thanks for making me think about this option.

[JUC]

funny--I just upgraded my 9600XT's drivers two days ago to the latest 5.10 catalyst. No problems at all. lots of options for different resolutions too.
JUC

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by steingra

Has anyone upgraded to this software and had problems. My current setup seems to be working pretty good. But at some point I know I should update my catalyst software. I have a 9600 XT AGP card now. Current Catalyst driver says its 03.8. Probably installed it when I built the pc like almost 2 years ago now.

I'd have to look how old the driver is on my old HTPC, but it's probably about that age.

As far as I know, PS works with every version of ATI's software except 5.3 and 5.4, which is when they added custom resolutions.

I agree with the advice not to upgrade video drivers unless you have an issue. But if you're just setting up a computer as an HTPC it would make sense to use a later driver. I'd probably review threads on each driver over at AVSForum to get an idea of the types of issues that arise with each version (and there are typically a good number of issues, which is the reason not to upgrade just to upgrade).

BTW, one feature PS offers that I don't thing ATI or NVidia offer to date is the abiltity to automatically switch resolutions when a program starts and exists. I startup in 720x480, and PS switches to 1776x1000 when Sage and other video programs start, and then back when they exit.

[Naylia]

i've had no issues with 5.10, unlike 5.9 which i found quite buggy, it does offer quite a number of resolutions, but i didn't think to check whether it can actually do 854x480

i would suggest upgrading your drivers as 5.10 seems to be stable and it adds lots of resolution options many of them 16x9 format, then if it doesn't have 856x480 or 848x480 (i just realized you can't do 854 itself because it's not divisible by 8) you can check out powerstrip, but for many people the newer drivers negate the need for powerstrip...also try an HD resolution and let it downscale like 1280x720

[m0ng00se30]

Steingra... are you outputting DVI or Component?

There is an issue with DVI "not waking up" with some of the newer cat drivers. I don't think they affect everyone, but there are some post around about "DVI blanking". Its basically casued me to have to use companent output at this point versus DVI.

--Mike

[Ryokurin]

I used to do it monthly but then I realized how stupid it was and how it slowly made me feel that the system was bogging down, now I dont see a reason in doing it unless theres something new that the drivers added. The last drivers I used up until 5.9 was 5.2 and the only reason I went with 5.9 was because it added some deinterlaceing and custom res options that I may use in the future. Ever since I started that policy in all the drivers the system has been rock solid. Thus, if its not broke dont attempt to fix it.

[korben_dallas]

The CCC .NET version of the Catalyst drivers runs like *$#% on my PC. I've tried it 3 times on 3 different fresh instances of XP SP1 and SP2.

I'm on Catalyst 5.9 "legacy" driver, and it is working beautifully. Go figure, I use the Nvida DVD/MPEG-2 decoder.

[GTwannabe]

Try the OmegaDrivers (www.omegadrivers.net) They're based on the official Cats, but have improvements and overclocking tools built-in (powerstrip can cause problems)

[steingra]

Originally Posted by m0ng00se30

Steingra... are you outputting DVI or Component?

There is an issue with DVI "not waking up" with some of the newer cat drivers. I don't think they affect everyone, but there are some post around about "DVI blanking". Its basically casued me to have to use companent output at this point versus DVI.

--Mike

I am using DVI output. Seems to work just fine.

So I ended up just installing powerstrip software on my sage tv client, test machine. And it worked fine without upgrading any drivers or installing latest catalyst. So I will just sit tight and be experimenting with powerstrip...and see what it can do for me.

It has a LOT of options. geeeze!!!

At a minimum, last night, I figured out how to use a 16x9 resolution of 848 x480. Then it showed up in the Windows Device settings/properties slider bar.

Then I choose 16 x 9 in sage tv settings. It looked pretty nice. I have a lot more tweaking and/or just experimenting to do, now that I got this program.

[JUC]

mongoose, I just noticed my DVI isn't waking up after the computer sleeps. I just upgraded to 5.10 too--that sucks. Any work around for this that you are aware of?
JUC

[steingra]

Originally Posted by JUC

mongoose, I just noticed my DVI isn't waking up after the computer sleeps. I just upgraded to 5.10 too--that sucks. Any work around for this that you are aware of?
JUC

I think I have seen a similar problem, although I never found out why. Sometimes if I hit certain buttons on my remote, it switches my DVI video switch away from PC#1, and then I can never get it back. The pc is running fine, but its like the DVI somehow got hosed up, and is turned off, or just not displaying a proper signal, and the monitor remains blank.

The only way around it, is for me to log in remotely to the machine, choose a different resolution or number of colors, and hit apply, then the monitor comes back on just fine. I have never really done research yet as to what is going on. Too many other things to work on

[kricker]

I have had this DVI not waking problem since cat vs 5.7. Currently I am still running 5.6 because of this. whenever I switched inputs from my TV and went back to the PC's DVI input, it would receive no signal. I either had to reboot or pull the DVI to HDMI cable out of the TV and plug it back in. I filled out a support ticket with ATI, and I got the usual "your card is too old and we don't support it anymore, and we don't support DVI to HDMI". Imagine that tech support that doesn't help...seems like I've been thru that before. I told them "it worked before so what did you do to break it?" No valid response. Still, I am about to try 5.11 and see how that goes. All I want is to be able to run my Sony in its native 1366x768 to get rid of overscan. I've tried powerstrip once and just never got it to work.
I did notice once when I killed some things ATI makes run in the background on startup that my DVI would not wake up under the 5.6 drivers as well. When I re-installed them everything worked fine again. That so far is my only clue in that matter.

[steingra]

Originally Posted by kricker

I have had this DVI not waking problem since cat vs 5.7. Currently I am still running 5.6 because of this. whenever I switched inputs from my TV and went back to the PC's DVI input, it would receive no signal. I either had to reboot or pull the DVI to HDMI cable out of the TV and plug it back in. I filled out a support ticket with ATI, and I got the usual "your card is too old and we don't support it anymore, and we don't support DVI to HDMI". Imagine that tech support that doesn't help...seems like I've been thru that before. I told them "it worked before so what did you do to break it?" No valid response. Still, I am about to try 5.11 and see how that goes. All I want is to be able to run my Sony in its native 1366x768 to get rid of overscan. I've tried powerstrip once and just never got it to work.
I did notice once when I killed some things ATI makes run in the background on startup that my DVI would not wake up under the 5.6 drivers as well. When I re-installed them everything worked fine again. That so far is my only clue in that matter.

Well at least I am not the only one seeing this happen. As I mentioned, I decided to setup VNC server on it (free remote control software) and if it ever loses its signal, I just log onto it remotely, change refresh rate or any other settings, hit apply and then its working again. That is a lot better than hitting the power on/off switch. Which was the only way I could get it to come back I tried unplugging everything else, and nothing else worked. I am still mystified as to what is really going on here. Although I am glad to have a workaround for now.

I am not willing to try latest drivers. Just because everything else is running OK.

And I did try powerstrip on my other SageTV Client, and got it (the windows OS) working in the same native resolution as my projector. And I think it definately looks better overall. I didnt upgrade to latest catalyst on the client machine either. And powerstrip worked OK on it.

[hmca]

Re: If it isn't broke don't fix it.
Upgraded to Catalyst 5.11 and the only way video can be seen is VMR9, standard and Overlay produces nothing but a black screen nomatter what the codec. ANd this VMR9 produces tearing. So I rolled back to what I had that allowed VMR9 perfectly.
I want Sage to be a toaster, always works. So I guess I will stop thinking about upgrading drivers for awhile after a night of chasing settings and drivers.

[kricker]

I too have just tried 5.11 and they are a bust for me too. The DVI wakeing issue is still there. I didn't really try anything else, such as video playback. Has anyone successfully got their resolution set at 1366x768 for Sony HD TVs, using either powerstrip or the catalyst settings?