ATI 2600 XT (Spahhire) - AGP

[nitrogen_widget]

To test this, am I able to add a second PS and connect one of the HDD molex plugs into the card (as it's currently got a converter from molex to graphics cards for +12V)

Yes, but you need to jump two pins on the main connector to turn it on.
I don't know which ones though off-hand.

[coolvibe]

Just finsihed this process. PVRX2 hardware acceleration still does not work with my sapphire hd2400 pro AGP, I am going to re inatall all the ati dirvers and then if no joy this card is going back.
It looks like it is going to work and then you just get a black screen. It looks as if the gpu api supplied by ati is not correct for the h.264 stream.
When I did have the stream going to the card gpu without the following method, it was around 95% utilised and the screen window was cycling garbage.
DirectX 10 seems to work. with the dxdiag tools

I found this method on the geekzone site. Just as I was just about to burn this sapphire. after being at it for over 24 hours now.
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?For...icId=22768 rest copied from the forum for your convenience
snip
I've done it !!
(well, its getting late so I'm going to continue later ...)
However tonight I performed the following tasks:

1) Installed Power DVD 8 (CyberLink_PowerDVD8_Ultra_080401.exe)
2) Installed Power DVD 8 latest patch (CyberLink.1730U(b)_Ultra_Patch_DVD080411-04.exe)
3) Installed hack DirectX 10 for XP (dx10_xp_www.area51warez.info_BY_MALIKhaijanab.rar)
reboot ...

Now I am able to play the TV3 HD sample file (04-15_09-31-44_TV3_.ts) with 3-5% CPU usage, Catalyst Control Center is reporting 34% GPU Activity.
Current restrictions I hope to overcome in the next few days ...

a) Currently only got DVB Viewer working
... really want to get GB-PVR working too
b) Currently only able to play video on my primary 24" LCD monitor (via DVI)
... really want the image on my secondary CRT TV monitor (via S-Video)

But in any case getting the HD2600XP AGP H.264 hardware acceleration working under XP IS POSSIBLE, now for some fine-tuning!

FYI: My DVB Viewer DirectX options are:
Video Renderer: Overlay Mixer
Audio Renderer: CyberLink Audio Renderer (PDVD8)
and all ... Decoders are set to "CyberLink ... (PDVD8)"

I will fine tune things over the next week and update this thread on required options (after experimentation) and how I get it working with other applications.


snip

[coolvibe]

I now have the saphire HD2400 pro card working in dvbviewer on ALL channels HD (no glitches no stammering drop out or tearing).
I have spent over 50 man hours on getting this card working.
I will post a file list of all the tools and patches I used and hopefullly if you had the misfortune to buy one of these, this thread can help you get the card hardware acceleration working on xp.
I will post all the info as soon as I have gbpvr working.
One interesting thing which threw me initially was the the gpu does not show any signs of h.264 decoding now that it is working. I am assuming it is totally transparent to the gpu utilisation. Because it is a hardware embeded decoder. Originally I was using the gpu as an indication that h.264 was working. ( this was mainly because of most threads refering to the gpu as being an indication of performance.)

Shortly after I posted this I switched the output to 1080i It went to custard on tv3 . So I have switched it back to 720 p where there are no issues.
I could be wrong about the ha working, if anyone knows for a fact if gpu shows h.264 usage please post a reply. I will also try to ask sapphire about it.

Hi All I have confirmed that the hw accel is working on the hd demo channel gpu is sat around 6-8% and the cpu is the same 8%
full screen 720p I think channel 3 is selecting the wrong renderer which is possible in dvbviewer.

I will with a bit of help from sub get gbpvr working. No progress on this yet I completely stuffed up my directx install
to recover, I had to remove all ati drivers roll back to directx8. Then install the ati original drivers, then work up through the latest drivers 8.5 then 8.6 as described earlier, I installed directx10 last
1080i still does not work It must be the powerddvd renderer not accepting the stream.

I busted my directx trying to get gbpvr working. I will give it another go now. My pc is much more stable now.

[coolvibe]

You need to get the cyberlink driver PDVD8. use that as the renderer for everything,
search for these exact file names.
Install Power DVD 8 (CyberLink_PowerDVD8_Ultra_080401.exe)
Install Power DVD 8 latest patch (CyberLink.1730U(b)_Ultra_Patch_DVD080411-04.exe)
Installed hack DirectX 10 for XP (dx10_xp_www.area51warez.info_BY_MALIKhaijanab.rar )
reboot ...
Now you have xp with directX 10 capabilities
make sure you have ati driver vers 8.5 to get this you need to modify the .inf file C:\ATI\SUPPORT\8-6_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_64783\Driver\XP_INF\CX_64783.inf

add this line verify your chip type it should be 94c4
"ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO AGP" = ati2mtag_RV610, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_94C4&SUBSYS_0D021028
place it with all the other ATI Radeon descriptions
now install the driver from the driver page of the video card do an update and tell it you want to specify the location and then point it to the location of the .inf file you just modified.
select HD 2400 PRO AGP its the only one.
now the onto the geek stuff this enables the hw acceleration for the powerdvd8 renderer
add the DXVA_NOHDDECODE 0 flag. the powerdvd.zip contains the .reg file just click it and it will write to the correct location its just a text file with a .reg extension look and learn.

its a negative so you set it false =0 which means I have a hardware acceleration.
why they could not use DXVA_HAVEHDDECODE is beyond my logic.
you must also have .net 2 framework installed also get the full distributable from microsoft not the bootstrap

This next part is optional after a full re install of my whole system, I did not need this for tvbviewer.
I also registered another few files as follows
regsvr32 atimcenc.dll
regsvr32 atixcode.dll
regsvr32 atidvcr.dll
regsvr32 evr.dll

I expect this will work on most ATI HD cards just make sure you add your chip type if your card is not supported.

Now the last thing set video renderer to overlay mixer then it will start to work. cpu will drop to a single digit.
No other render turns on the HA.

This next bit did have an effect after I reinstalled my whold system.
enabling or disabling DXVA has an effect in the dialogs.
Thats it for now this was tested on DVBViewer.
channel 3 does not seem to use the HA don't know why yet.
I am now starting on the PVRX2 testing
I Willl update the procedure as I go and then do a final clean up

[coolvibe]

After spending over 2 weeks+ on this. I have come to the conclusion that the ATI drivers still must still be at fault for the HD 2400 agp cards.
I did a full reinstall of my whole system checking at each point when the HA kicked in. My previous post does make HA in tvbviewer work for all channels appart from tv3, which drops back to software.

cyberlinks power cinema does not use HA ati hd 2400 pro agp
gbpvr does not use HA on ati hd 2400 pro agp
cyberlink power dvd 8 ultra driver will access the HA on the ati HD 2400 pro agp. But only in certain apps and not at 1080i ( this may be designed into the driver) My output is component so I could be a victim to an over zelous hdcp system. I will mail ATI but they are a bit sloooooow unless someone has a contact please.

[stustunz]

thats cause maybe tv3 1080i and your not getting the hardware deinterlacing working
where as tv1 and 2 720p
by the way directx10 still does not work in xp and half the hacks out there have viruses hooked in with them

[JonnyCam]

My output is component so I could be a victim to an over zelous hdcp system.

Shouldn't be any hdcp on component - not part of the spec (as it's analogue) (unless Cyberlink is somehow limiting your output based on connection type)

BTW - I ditched this card, and got a PCI-e HD3450 - still average for mpeg2, but will play 1080i - but nothing comes close to the playback of the popcorn hour with gbpvr frontend. (although I get some skips in DVB-T (signal issue) - more problems when using sat on TV1 & 2)

Can anyone else confirm they get much lower signal from the TVNZ mux compared to canwest? (or is the sat dish out of alignment?)

[coolvibe]

thats cause maybe tv3 1080i and your not getting the hardware deinterlacing working
where as tv1 and 2 720p
by the way directx10 still does not work in xp and half the hacks out there have viruses hooked in with them

The directx10 hack file I posted does work and its clean. Do not go any where else on the site alienwhares other than direct to download do not wander on the site. Turn on full security in your browser when your finding the file. I can post it on the news servers if any one wants a known good virus free file. It will have my tag.
without the hack dvbviewer does not kick in HA for the 2400. That was the last thing I did before it started working.

You could have some thing with the interlacing. I will look again when I get some more time.

the hdcp stuff is all about switching back to standard resolution if there is no hdcp device connected to the high def output. I read somewhere that the ati chip has this feature and if so it may be exposed to the software, even though there is no hdmi output. (there are probably lots of NDA's out there that are in place, plus certain requirements that have to be met to use the chips full feature set).

BTW
hdfury will be releasing an adapter that goes from the hdmi i/o to component. It has hdcp handshaking built in, and allows component output.

hdfury 2 available end of july.
I will just use my setup to record HD then transcode to mpeg4 until I have a better solution.

[stustunz]

so you are telling me that
if you select evr in config and select hardware accleration on and tick force bob
you get hardware accel under XP?

[coolvibe]

so you are telling me that
if you select evr in config and select hardware accleration on and tick force bob
you get hardware accel under XP?

Yes it works I orignially used the overlay mixer, but I think in my latest install I have evr enabled. Don't forget I only got this working with tvbviewer not gbpvr. If I put the recorded stream into graphedit. it defaults to the cyberlink 45 demux. (not the one I want it should be the dvd8 I think, however there are some problem with connecting the pins using dvd8).
Unless I can get gbpvr to use the correct renderer that I point to as with tvbviewer I am stuck.
Sub also originally had lots of issues with this type of card and changed it for another. Since then he has had no problems.
Sub needs a stable platform and this card and drivers is anything but stable.

check out how many patches where released in june 08. And on thoss patches you have to hack the inf file to use on the agp card.

overlay takes the least cpu less than 10% with evr it goes to 14% TV3 is around 60-85% it looks awfull when the camera pans (not smooth its like the program has been converted from ntsc to pal badly, frames chopped however the occasional dropped frame would suggest it is not the renderer). It drops the occasional frame but lip sync is not an issue. so perhaps the HA is working on tv3 just a really bad use of hardware Acceleration. when I disabled dxva the picture went to total crap. and lip sync went out of the window.