W7 drivers - why is everything being dumbed down

Adrian · 03 Oct 2009

jimbo45 said:

Hi all

Whilst I LIKE W7 I find I'm getting more and more disappointed by the latest drivers and program "updates" that "simplify" everything.

For example

1) Multi-media --- No composite input in WMC

2) My TV application which DOES have a composite input -- there's no Video Brightness, Contrast, Hue / colour adjustments -- there WAS in the XP version (Hauppage WinTV) which means now most of the time I can't watch the feed from my Satellite box (sent via a video streamer to the composite input of the TV card) because the picture is far too dark.

3) Audio -- for example Realtek HD audio -- no equalizer any more - just a horrible set of "canned" presets none of which I like very much.

Then take some "updates" of old trusted applications like NERO -- used to be easy to burn / author a DVD - ok you needed to go via a menu -- but so what. Now you get the "Smart Center" or stuff like that which makes it almost impossible for you do to anything outside the "canned" options.

I would have thought that people should need MORE choices these days with computers rather than less.

Much as I love W7 I'm going back to XP for my multi-media stuff -- I have the drivers I need for XP 64 bit version -- this is STILL faster than W7 BTW but really new hardware probably won't work on it. I'm using this machine now for all my multi-media needs until there's some decent sensible drivers out there on W7.

For the rest of my apps I'm still using W7 - no problem there and I'm lucky enough to have 2 or 3 older spare machines lying around anyway.

jimbo

Jimbo, while I sympathise with your statements and being a XP Professional 64 bit user, there is virtually zero support for this OS!
As a user of multimedia I found moving to a 64 bit system I made a $150 mistake in XP 64 when I found zero support, from grafix drivers to software it was a dead end.
Regards,
Adrian

AstaLaVista · 03 Oct 2009

jimbo45 said:

AstaLaVista said:

@ the OP... I may be wrong here but nothing you mention on your post has to do with drivers but more with software?

Realtek and No Equalizer, Nero and no options, how is this a driver related problem?

Hi the Realtek HD audio lack of an equalizer IS MOST DEFINITELY a driver problem since the whole audio system is installed with the driver - there isn't a separate "Application" piece which if you had Realtek Audio on your computers hardware (often these are embedded sound chips on Laptop computers) you would know that already.

OK Nero isn't but it's part of the general point I was trying to make that the more recent fixes / updates give the end user LESS and LESS choice on how to configure the application / driver.

Standard "Canned" pre-sets aren't always what the user wants.

Suggestion -- Don't be too "Litigous" -- try and see the POINT of the post rather than reading every individual word like an American Lawyer - these aren't LEGAL forums but technical discussion Forums -- I did actually originally post this topic on the "General Discussions" section but it was moved (not by me).

Some topics don't always fit EXACTLY into one category or another.

Cheers
jimbo

I guess I should have used a few more smilies to make my point. I was more Asking than Telling. I am not a PC Guru nor a Lawyer and my understanding of the English Language is not as vast as I would like it to be.

I could, sometimes, expand on my replies though... I just don't know the correct time when to use this

Anyways, I use Onboard Realtek H-D audio, have Win 7 RC 7100 build at the moment and I am not missing anything. Now, perhaps there are different downloads for the drivers? meaning, 1 file you only get the basic drivers while other files bring drivers + more software options? Perhaps you forgot to run the installation with Elevated Admin Rights?

Again, sorry, I was not looking to put down your post.

jimbo45 · 03 Oct 2009

Hi there
could you post a screen shot of your Audio Mixer that you use with the realtek driver or are you just using the standard W7 volume control.

In W7 X-64 RTM with the latest Realtek Audio driver downloaded from the site all the equalizer adjustments have been removed - you just get a "Special effects" panel which gives you the "canned presets" that I was complaining about.

You might have been lucky enough to have a decent sound application already installed with your MOBO.

My laptop (which has the Realtek card) came initially installed with VISTA 32 bit even though the laptop had a 64 bit capable cpu (plus no install disk of course !!). I upgraded this to XP almost immediately as the original Vista (pre SP1) ran hopelessly on the laptop.

This was fine until I installed W7 x-64 after adding another 2GB memory to make the laptop 4GB.

I then had to download the realtek driver from the realtek site and this is where I noticed the lack of facilities in the W7 version of the sound mixer.

The XP version was absolutely fine.

Cheers
jimbo