OK folks, I'm now really confused.

I've been up most of the night and used most of this morning trying to work out what I did to get MCE working. I've messed about with some stuff and now...I've gotten it working again with my ProSavageDDR! And I've not got a clue what it was that got it working! Argh!

OK...here's what I've done so far this morning which has resulted in MCE working. I imagine that it could be a combination of everything that has worked.

Firstly, the version of driver that I currently have installed for the ProSavageDDR is (according to the system properties) 6.14.10.25. (Sorry - I know that the version numbers when you download the driver are different, but I'm not sure what this one is - I'm pretty sure that it is the most up-to-date one that Windows update downloads and installs.)

The videocard is set to display at 1024x768 and 16-bit colour.

As I mentioned earlier, I had added the registry settings to allow a card with less that 48MB RAM to run MCE. I went in today and DELETED those, along with the other entries in HKLM/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/ Media Center/Display Settings. There were some entries relating to resolution and colour depth.

I also ran dxdiag again and disable the DirectDram acceleration setting.

Then I tried to run MCE and was given a message saying that my videocard was not supported...but then MCE ran anyway!

I'm confused through lack of sleep and food! Knowing my luck, it'll probably stop working later on!

Hope this helps some people!

I don't know if it has been suggested but I downloaded Omega drivers for my 9600 video card and I have never seen a clearer picture and I don't get the MCE error mesage when starting media center.
 

I have a ThinkPad x24with a radeon mobility M6.  I've tried the registry hacks (DisableDxCheck and DisableDx9CapsCheck)... that stopped the error messages, but now I get sound and a black screen when I try and play a video in MCE (rollup 2).  I have the Omega drivers and
have tried dissabling DirectDraw.  Videos work fine in windows media player.  Does anyone know how I can get this to work?

Cheers

TheArchedOne

yes with a new system, the M6 (7000) series card just wont cut it.

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http://www.spore.com/view/profile/Vengence_IRL

What do you mean by "with a new system"?

Is it possible to use an external (USB or PCMCIA) video card?

Thanks

TAO

I think he means the card won't work, even in a new machine.

hello i have recently reformated my computer. before i did the media center was working and now it doesnt. i continually got the video card or drivers not compatable. so i downloaded and installed a driver and it took away the error but now when i try to play the movie the screen stays the same but i can hear the dvd playing. any clue whats wrong?

what graphics card are you trying to use?

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http://www.spore.com/view/profile/Vengence_IRL

I came late to this thread but I thought I'd add some info on older notebooks with ATI mobility VGAs.

I have an older notebook with the ATI mobility 9600 64Mb and, when I tried to install MCE2005, I got the "your VGA is not supported in MCE" error.

The notebook mfg did not offer any newer drivers, so I tried support.ati.com

After seeing that there were no drivers for my VGA in the Media Center Edition category, I chose Windows XP Professional/Home drivers instead. Here there is an option for "Mobility Radeon" that includes the 9600/9700/9800 and Xxxx series.

Choosing any model you get to a page where you can download a compatibility checking program (Installation Verification Software). If your VGA is in the supported list this tool will offer to automatically download and install the latest Catalyst Mobility drivers which, in my case, stopped MCE2005 complainig about the VGA.

You can keep the Verification Tool and run it every 2-3 months to check for newer versions, ATI seems to continue support and driver updates for these products!

Hope this helped.

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My System
Silverstone LC14M
P4 641 3.20GHz
Intel DG965OT
1Gb DDR2/667
NVidia NX6200 128Mb
Hitachi Deskstar 250Gb
Liteon DVD HD163D
ATI TheaterPro 550 (Engin. sample) PowerDVD 6.0.0.1014 Decoder
MCE2005 with all updates

Hey guys, thread is getting a bit old but i thought i would keep it going...

I have an IBM R40 laptop with a Radeon M7 IGP.  I have Media Centre running fine but am also having the same problem with video playback displaying just a black screen.  Now it seems there is no hope for this old piece of hardware running MCE correctly...  my question is why?

Videos play fine in Media Player and other media software, and the menu system seems to run fine so what is it about MCE that messes with the playback?

I can understand Microsoft superficially adding requirements for minimum specs (they need to maintain a certain level of performance and support), fair enough but these restrictions have been circumvented.  What is it that physically stops this old hardware from displaying movies correctly.

First thought would be a codec issue, but the movies are playing fine outside of MCE.  The hardware itself doesnt seem to be the problem as it can cope with the playback, as well as other more intensive things.

So does anyone have any information on why this would be an issue?  I could understand if the hardware was really low, the playback would stutter or display artefacts etc.... but this has got me stumped!

Anyway, my two cents is in...

its not going to happen, media center requires DX9 hardware support to render properly, no way around that.

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http://www.spore.com/view/profile/Vengence_IRL