ATI R8500 64mb, ATI MMC says I don't have any WDM INF files?!?

[Fredde]

My problem:
When playing movies, dvd or divx etc, the window showing the movie on my TV is black –the corresponding window on my monitor looks fine. I can see my desktop on my TV –just the window with the movie on TV is black, sound’s ok.

Checked my system:
ATI Multimedia Center /System Compability Check:
ATI DVD Software Installation/Playback impossible on this system. Check for details.
/Details /Failed/ says:
DirectShow Components are not installed properly. WDM INF files are not installed onto the system.
/Details /Warnings/ says:
Sound card with Clock Stability –1.86%
Hard Drive: ST360021 A SCSI Disc Device (?? Got an IDE Seagate Barracuda..)
DMA for hard drive operation may not be enabled

I am running WinXP home edition (DirectX8.1 installed)
ATI Multimedia Center ver.7.6
ATI DVD Player ver.7.6
Catalyst 02.1 driver 6.13.10.1094
(All installed after format and fresh install, including windows service packs etc.)

My system:
ASUS A7V133
ATI Radeon 8500 64mb DDR retail
AMD 1,4GHz Athlon T-bird
256mb PC133
Soundblaster PCI 128
60gb IDE Seagate Barracuda UATA100


How do I solve this? Why don’t I have WDM INF files installed (don’t even know what they are..). All help highly appreciated.

[pradhan_aditya]

check this out
http://www.ati.com/support/compatibility/wdm.html

found out a good site for ati drivers and stuff
http://www.omegacorner.com/

[Fredde]

Thanks, I'll see what goodies I can find at those sites!

[MuFu]

Try turning on "Theater mode" in the Display Properties section (I think it's on the "Overlay" tab in the "Advanced" properties section...). This should enable video overlay in the secondary display.

MuFu.

P.S. I think the WDM drivers are only needed for the All In Wonder/VIVO cards.

[Fredde]

Ahhhh, thanks, yes "Theater mode" worked!! And I've been reading through the links pradhan provided and it looks as WDM drivers are not for my card. Then why the heck do they scare me with such a message in System Compability Check?.. Couldn't they have a tag that says don't worry if you only have tv-out you don't need WDM INF..

I've still got a lot to learn about the R8500, my picture quality could be better -looks a bit unsharp, and tv-out quality is not quite to my expectations, maybe should have bought a Matrox card.. but they're historically not to good with games.. want it all.

Maybe there are ways to tune the card for better picture? I guess that will be my next mission.

[MuFu]

Well, in my experience Matrox cards (the G400 and G450 I've seen and used) definitely have a very slight edge in terms of signal quality over the competition, but ATi is a close second. Some GF4Ti's are also very good in that respect, although lose it slightly at higher resolutions, IMO.

As for TV out, ATi are pretty much ahead of the game in most respects. If you have an HDTV then you should look into getting their component output dongle because I've heard there's nothing quite like gaming at 1080i (1920x1080) on an HDTV.

2D quality varies slightly between drivers (and BIOS's - although I don't recommend you flash your BIOS just yet). What monitor do you have? Sounds strange, since I haven't heard anybody ever complain of a noticeably fuzzy picture from an 8500 - you probably have a very good eye for that kind of thing.

Glad you got your problem sorted.

MuFu.