ATI Theater 550 Pro Cards/Info

[dutchfudge]

Just wanted to start up a thread for this new card. There isn't much info available yet, so I'm getting the ball rolling.

First up, there is an updated driver available at ati.com (version 6.14.10.52 March 1, 2005 i believe). This is updated from the install cd.

Next, using the Capture window test DVD available for download here on Doom9, I tested my sapphire Theatrix card and it appears to have a full 53.333 uS capture window.

That thread is located on page 3 here:http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66191

Please add info on this new piece of capture hardware as you learn more!

P.S. Powercinema 3 really sucks!

[dutchfudge]

Interesting entries in oem22.inf file, structured my search in the registry:


GUID.PROPERTY_PAGE_ASICFILTERS = "{DF3704D7-E0A9-4802-80AD-B0B27EF3BB5B}"

GUID.PROPERTY_SET_ASICFILTERS = "{50EC5D69-BD95-4d84-BF55-573D02D1DAD}"

GUID.PROPERTY_SET_VIDEO_MPEGCOMPRESSOR = "{119511E7-4461-4d78-8841-
5C4AE61EEF8A}"

GUID.PROPERTY_PAGE_VIDEO_MPEGCOMPRESSOR = "{08DAC99A-6B17-4332-B990-
0081A9B9A15E}"


These are the registry entries I find most interesting:

VideoStreamConfig Property Page
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaSets\{C6E13340-30AC-11d0-A18C-00A0C9118956}\PropertyPages\
{71F96467-78F3-11d0-A18C-00A0C9118956}

leads to kswdmcap.ax

MPEGCompressionPropertySET
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaSets\{119511E7-4461-4d78-8841-5C4AE61EEF8A}\PropertyPages\
{08DAC99A-6B17-4332-B990-0081A9B9A15E}

leads to atinavpp.ax

VideoProcAmp Property Page
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaSets\{C6E13360-30AC-11d0-A18C-00A0C9118956}\PropertyPages\
{71F96464-78F3-11d0-A18C-00A0C9118956}

leads to kswdmcap.ax

ASICFiltersPropertySet
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaSets\{50EC5D69-BD95-4d84-BF55-C573D02D1DAD}\PropertyPages\
{DF3704D7-E0A9-4802-80AD-B0B27EF3BB5B}

leads to atinavpp.ax


The above VideoProcAmp is available in capture programs(virtualVCR, Vdub, etc). It may be possible to enable the ASICFilters as a tab?


ASICFIltersInterface
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaInterfaces\{50EC5D69-BD95-4d84-BF55-C573D02D1DAD}

string value: ASICFiltersInterface

binary value(IID):
0000 5A BB A5 CB 76 9A BE 49
0008 BA 30 B5 B7 0A E9 F5 52
0010

This entry is the MOST INTERESTING to me. Are these settings or something else?

[Arachnotron]

stupid question perhaps, but are you sure this filter is hardware, and not a software directshow filter?

If you look at the filters tab in VVCR and select the "show all filters" option, does it turn up in the filters list? (or can you find it in the filterlist using GSPOT?)

[dutchfudge]

Originally posted by Arachnotron
stupid question perhaps, but are you sure this filter is hardware, and not a software directshow filter?


I think you are on the right track, the 550 pro boards have 16MB ram onboard, so maybe it is simply a DSP that offloads mpeg2 and other software filters.


I looked in the VVCR filters tab, found a few filters I suspect/that are interesting:

*AXMPEGAV
VIdeo Port Manager
AVI_PASS
AVI Draw
WIA Stream Snapshot Filter
WMT Log Filter

None of them have a property page though. Are any of these common/universal to other cards? Nothing seeming to relate to noise reduction either, maybe I am mistaken about having noise reduction built in?

*AXMPEGAV is interesting, did a search for AXMPEGAV and found a forum somewhere listing a file called axmpeg_av.ax, under the category of "directshow filters"


Thanks for your input!

[Arachnotron]

Try gspot. It will show you where these filters point to. (system, list codecs and other filters)

I have most of these too:

-*AXMPEGAV
Don't have it

-Video Port Manager
-AVI Draw
both point to quartz.dll, so are part of DirectX

-AVI_PASS
Don't have it

-WIA Stream Snapshot Filter
I suspect from the filedate it came with XP and is part of Active Movie

-WMT Log Filter
Comes with MS moviemaker (as does any filter starting with WMT)

[dutchfudge]

Used gspot, and discovered that AXMPEGAV and AVI_PASS are both from an old PCTV pro that I had.

The add remove programs won't work to get rid of the pinnacle entries, but Im planning to upgrade and start xp fresh again soon anyway.


Found these video codecs under Tables:Video Codecs

VCR3 ATI VCR 3.0 ATI Technologies
.
.
.
VCR9 ATI VCR 9.0 ATI Technologies
VCR1 ATI Video Codec 1 ATI Technologies
VCR2 ATI Video Codec 2 ATI Technologies
VYU9 ATI YUV ATI Technologies
VYUY ATI YUV ATI Technologies
MC12 Motion Compensation Format ATI Technologies
MCAM Motion Compensation Format ATI Technologies

Would these show up in the process list if they were being used behind the scenes during recording?

Will look around more later

[Arachnotron]

Would these show up in the process list if they were being used behind the scenes during recording?I'm not sure what you mean by this. These are compression codecs, so if you select one in VVCR to compress your vid with, it is used, if you don't it isn't.

But according to the ATI site, this chip has the mpeg2 encoder and the noisefilter in hardware (and a 3D combfilter too). Since you can cap using huffyhuf, I assume it can deliver uncompressed video too (which is a nice thing in a hardware mpeg2 encoder :) )

So I suspect you have to enable and disable the noisefilter in the devicedriver.

[dutchfudge]

None of the listed ATI codecs show up in VVCR codec list.

By the way, what is the uncompressed size/sec of yuv video? I get about 6-7mb/s w/audio using huffyuv(fastest).

I'm gonna take a break now :(

[Arachnotron]

Maybe they are decoding only codecs. I once downloaded an ATI codec pack, and the only one I can encode with is the ATI VCR2 codecBy the way, what is the uncompressed size/sec of yuv video? I get about 6-7mb/s w/audio using huffyuv(fastest).If you are using huffy, you have set the Color Format to YUY2, which does 16 bits per pixel.

That gives you 720x576 x 16 bpp x 25 fps = 165888000 bits per second or 20 Mbyte per second uncompressed.

If you uses an YV12 codec, (which is also a YUV format) you would only have 12 bits per pixel.

See http://www.fourcc.org/yuv.php for the gory details.

[dutchfudge]

Hey, MMC 9.06 is out, but doesn't seem to support the theater 550 pro boards(third party at least).

Tried to contact ATI to complain and my ati session timed out on me after submitting, and it couldn't reload the session info, so I got hosed and my email didn't get submitted! I was never idle for more than a couple minutes!

Yay! Great system you have there ATI.

Don't buy this card unless you want headaches and crappy software support!

[dutchfudge]

I have found a forum with a lot of info about the theater 550 pro, 60+ pages in fact!

this is one of the most important posts in the thread:

It seems to indicate that using third party programs(vdub,vvcr, etc.)will bypass the mpeg2 encoding hardware built in.Hexus.net T550P thread (http://forums.hexus.net/showpost.php?p=391311&postcount=224)

[dutchfudge]

Hexus.net Theater 550 Pro Thread (http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=29031)

[Arachnotron]

From the first link you posted, my impression is that if you cap uncompressed, the mpeg2 get's uncompressed again, while it is uncertain if that is being done by the card or the systems mpeg2 codec.

Anyway, that makes capping huffy or anything else pointless. Worse, it would only introduce extra compression artefacts. Best thing with this card is capping mpeg2 only, and process afterwards only when needed.

[dutchfudge]

Originally posted by Arachnotron
From the first link you posted, my impression is that if you cap uncompressed, the mpeg2 get's uncompressed again, while it is uncertain if that is being done by the card or the systems mpeg2 codec.


This part here is the actual answer that the guy received (supposedly) from ati:

"...in case you don’t use MCE or Cyberlink PowerCinema (both use hardware encoding and then decode to let the user see TV) the capture will be done directly using the chosen codec without going through the hardware encoding pattern…"

This implies that mpeg2 circuit is bypassed.

*** New driver released yesterday, seems to give access to the 3d comb filter and noise reduction circuitry! ***