Help with DirecTV 2 PC

[Throckmorton]

I'm trying to run DirecTV 2 PC (v5514) on a Lenovo Thinkpad T-60 with ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics adapter. The OS is Vista Ultimate w/SP2 (32bit). The Playback Advisor says everything is okay except wireless, but I'm currently hard wired anyway.

When I launch the application it comes up fine and behaves like you would expect until I try to view a program. The program will start normally and I get the timeline bar and full control, good audio with no stuttering, but no video. Just a black screen.

I've reinstalled drivers and tried different versions but nothing seems to make a differnce.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Stuart Sweet]

I'm moving this to the DIRECTV Extras forum.

[madgrizzle]

I have similar problems, but ATI x1950 Pro and Windows 7. I don't have a "GPU" apparently, but it works under Windows XP (dual boot). Everything seems to work fine (menus, audio, etc.), but I get a black screen instead of video.

[morbid_fun]

I have the exact same issue. The software worked great until the 5514 version then audio/no video. Now I receive error messages that I my monitor or video card can not support protected content. The stats for both my monitor and video cards says otherwise, but still no luck.
I do hope DirecTV fixes or someone has a good suggestion on a fix.

[Throckmorton]

ATI x1950 Pro
I don't have a "GPU" apparently...
The ATI x1950 Pro is your GPU. It stands for graphics processing unit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit).

Apparently it's a driver issue.

I uninstalled the driver I got from the Lenovo site and installed one that was available in Windows Update and it worked. Then I installed the latest from Windows Update and it quit again. I quick Rollback Driver and it started working again. But it's real jumpy and slow, even on wired 100MB ethernet.

*sigh*

[veryoldschool]

The ATI x1950 Pro is your GPU. It stands for graphics processing unit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit).

Apparently it's a driver issue.

I uninstalled the driver I got from the Lenovo site and installed one that was available in Windows Update and it worked. Then I installed the latest from Windows Update and it quit again. I quick Rollback Driver and it started working again. But it's real jumpy and slow, even on wired 100MB ethernet.

*sigh*
ATI might have a better driver.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

[madgrizzle]

Well, when I said I had not GPU, I meant it came up red under GPU for hardware acceleration. I had tried just about every driver I can find for Windows 7 to no avail... however, I checked that link and there is now 9.8 available (wasn't last time I checked). Will see how it works. I'm worried that my system is messed up enough that the codecs are having conflicts.

[veryoldschool]

Well, when I said I had not GPU, I meant it came up red under GPU for hardware acceleration. I had tried just about every driver I can find for Windows 7 to no avail... however, I checked that link and there is now 9.8 available (wasn't last time I checked). Will see how it works. I'm worried that my system is messed up enough that the codecs are having conflicts.
I read your first post and "was going to say" that your GPU is red in the advisor because it is the 1400 and the advisor minimum is the 1900, "but" I googled your specs and then the ATI 1400, and found this GPU supports both h.264 [MPEG-4] and HDCP.
So while it may show red in the advisor, "it should work". Hopefully it's just a driver problem.

[madgrizzle]

Driver didn't help. I'll try again after they release Windows 7 and I reload the PC (I don't want to reinstall it now and then do it again later). I might even swing a newer card by then, who knows... It works under Windows XP (old version) but doesn't under Windows 7 (new version)... I'll figure it out one day.