You can either install the software from the CD or you can use the updated software files from ATi's website. If the install is successful, the machine will reboot and you will see the wonderful MultiMedia Center main panel... If you are lucky.
Installation is the HDTV Wonder's weak point. On our Shuttle and homebuilt PCs, the installs did not work on the first try, nor the second, third or fourth tries. You get the picture. Sometimes the MulitMedia Center panel would not come up. Other times, when the panel did come up, clicking on the DTV application gave a "DTV cannot open" error. Even completely uninstalling all previous graphics card drivers and software did not help. We had to recover from a clean Ghost image that had only the OS and Service Pack 1. The complexity of the software, with its many drivers and applications, makes installation a tricky and haphazard affair.
When problems happen, the MultiMedia Center software offers to run the "PC Check" to diagnose any problems with your drivers or hardware. This PC Check often spews out inaccurate information. It told us that we needed DirectX 9, after we had just installed it.
Humphrey Cheung was a senior editor at Tom's Hardware, covering a range of topics on computing and consumer electronics. You can find more of his work in many major publications, including CNN and FOX, to name a few.
