I recently built a new computer, and repurposed the older machine as a guest computer for LAN gaming. In addition, I am also using it as a TV/DVR thanks to Windows Media Center and my ATI HDTV Wonder card. This is a write-up of the configuration and some specific problems and solutions I encountered putting it together. I assume the reader has installed Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, or as in my case, Windows 7 Beta, and can use the Media Center interface to configure their guide/tuner/various settings.
But first, the bad news:
ATI HDTV Wonder and Windows x64
At first I tried to install my TV tuner in my shiny new rig, on which I had already installed 64-bit Windows to make full use of its 4GB of memory. From what I tried, this configuration does not work. Vista and Windows 7 recognize the card and install 64-bit drivers automatically from Windows Update. Media Center recognizes the tuner and goes through the configuration wizard just fine. Even the channel strength indicators appear to work correctly – I got a mix of full and weak signals which were accurate based on past reception. However, once you actually try to watch a channel, you get nothing but a black screen. Eventually Media Center claims there’s no signal. Some web searching only revealed a single forum comment indicating that the problem is not exactly 64-bit Windows, but actually a compatibility problem with having 4GB or more of RAM. I wasn’t about to ditch my RAM just because of the tuner, so I moved it back to the older computer.
Installing the HDTV Wonder in Windows Vista / Windows 7
Installing the card is really easy. All you have to do is put in a PCI slot and boot. Windows should recognize the card and, if you’re connected to the internet, download the drivers from Windows Update automatically. If it doesn’t (which happened for me in 7 Beta), you can force Windows to look for drivers from the Device Manager. Just type “Device Manager” in Start Menu search. Look for a category called “Unknown Devices”. Look for any items under that category with names like “multimedia controller” or “audio/video controller”. Right-click those items and select “Update Driver Software…”. Select the automatic search option; Windows should install the driver from Windows Update. Repeat for all three items. After installing the third, Windows should pick up two more. Either way, you need to have the following five items listed under “Sound, video and game controllers” for the tuner to work correctly:
- ATI DTV Wonder Analog Audio Capture Device
- ATI DTV Wonder Analog AV Capture Device
- ATI DTV Wonder Analog AV Crossbar Device
- ATI DTV Wonder Digital and Analog Tuner Device
- ATI DTV Wonder Digital BDA Capture Device
If you only want/need to watch OTA digital ATSC channels, you’re pretty much done. You should be able to fire up Media Center, step through the TV setup wizard, and start watching and recording live TV. If you want to also use the analog NTSC tuner in Vista, you will need to do additional work, see http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/vistahdtvinstall.html for details.
Installing the Remote Wonder in Windows Vista / Windows 7
Windows will automatically detect the Remote Wonder, but unfortunately the provided driver doesn’t seem to offer any functionality. There are two options: coerce the Windows XP driver into working on Vista, or use the Remote Wonder Plus driver for Vista. I prefer the latter when using Media Center.
- Using the Windows XP driver – see http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/vistaremotewonderplus.html. Substitute the Windows XP Professional/Home – Remote Wonder – Remote Wonder driver in the instructions, if that is the version of the remote that you have.
- Using the Vista driver – download the driver from ATI. Install. Plug in the remote receiver. Because the driver is designed for the Plus version of the remote, some of the buttons on the vanilla version do not work as expected: mouse controls do not work, volume +/- are reversed, letter buttons have different functions, as do the top five function buttons. The good news: channel +/-, mute, numbers, arrows, ok, play, pause, stop, record, ff, rev buttons work as expected. Other buttons I have deciphered:
- TV - Media Center / Live TV
- DVD - Media Center / Movies
- Web – Media Center / Pictures
- [Book] – Media Center / Music
- [Check box] – Media Center / Recorded TV
- [Timer] – Close Menu
- [Full Screen] – Back
- A – Mute
- C – Ok or Enter
- D – Menu
- E – Skip Backwards
- F – Skip Forwards
Note: I happen to have the original Remote Wonder. If you have the Plus model, obviously the second option would work the best.
Power Options
One of the really nice features that Windows 7 offers is the ability to wake your computer back up from sleep or hibernate using timers. This works nicely with Media Center once you have your tuner set up and schedule television recordings. You leave your computer on and let it go to sleep; a few minutes before your show comes on, the wake timer turns the computer back on and Media Center records the show. When the recording is done, the computer goes back to sleep. Fantastic. My computer has problems waking from “normal” sleep mode, so I chose to configure it to go directly to hibernate.
Open the Power Options control panel by typing “Power Options” in Start Menu search. Click “Change Plan Settings” on the “Balanced” plan (or which ever is active). Click “Change advanced power settings”. Click the plus next to “Sleep” and each option under it. If you want to hibernate directly set “Sleep after” to “Never” and “Allow hybrid sleep” to “Off”. I set “Hibernate after” to “20 Minutes”. Be sure “Allow wake timers” is enabled.
Next expand the “Power buttons and lid” category. In order to make sure that it’s hard to shut the computer off, I set both button actions to “Hibernate”. Now click “OK” on the Power Options dialog and close the control panel. You may also want to change the default start menu power button. Right-click the Start button (aka Windows “orb”) and select “Properties”. Change the “Power button action” to “Hibernate”.
If your Media Center PC is on a network with other Vista or Windows 7 computers, you may notice that it won’t hibernate while other computers are on, or won’t stay in hibernation mode. It may also turn on automatically when other computers boot up. This is due to a feature called “Wake on LAN” that allows special network packets to wake the computer. Fortunately, if only want to turn the computer on manually and for scheduled recordings, you can shut this feature off.
Open the Network and Sharing Center (search or click the network icon in the tray). Click “Change adapter settings”. Right-click the active network adapter (most likely “Local Area Connection”) and choose “Properties”. Click the “Configure…” button. Click the “Advanced” tab. Scroll the Property list until you see “Wake on …”. Disable any options that start with “Wake on”. Click “OK”. Close the control panel.
Other Tips
Here are some other useful tidbits I found while configuring my Windows Media Center setup:
Use a separate hard drive for TV recording. This will reduce stutter when you are watching live tv, and help when background recording. On systems with low RAM, this will help prevent paging from interfering with recording.
Windows 7 uses a new .wtv format for recording TV, which can’t be watched in Windows Vista with either Media Player or Media Center (actually not quite true, this change came in a non-distributed update codenamed “Fiji” which shipped on newer Vista media center PCs).
You can share your Recorded TV folder over a network, and add that folder into the Recorded TV library on another Windows 7 machine. This is a great way to quickly find and watch recorded shows anywhere on your network.
