Radeon 15.7 Drivers broke my WMC

[randalotto]

Just thought I'd share my experience here; maybe it will help someone else.

I have an AMD A4-3300 APU in my HTPC. It's been running Windows Media Center and XBMC / Kodi without issue for several years now. A few days ago, however, I installed updated video drivers - the AMD Catalyst 15.7 drivers - and it immediately broke all video on my computer.

Trying to watch live or recorded TV in WMC would produce a flickering black screen with the occasional message popping up about a "Video Error: Files needed to display video are not installed". Trying to watch video in Kodi (XBMC) also failed, but in a slightly different manner - the video would start and then quickly freeze and force me to close the app via the task manager.

I first went back to a previous restore point, which allowed Kodi to function without issue, but WMC produced jittery / choppy video. I also tried a fresh install of the latest video drivers, but experienced exactly the same issues as the first time around - black flickering and no video. I also completely reinstalled WMC. None of it really worked.

Here's what ended up working; a fresh install of / downgrade to the AMD Radeon 14.12 drivers. Video is now working perfectly without having touched any other settings.

At least on my machine, Radeon 14.12 drivers = flawless performance. Radeon 15.7 = total inability to watch video.

[joecrow]

I was about to post a question here regarding any problems with the new 15.7 AMD driver so thanks for the warning. I did install it on my desktop (R7 graphics card) without noting any issues but held off on my HTPC (HD 6 series card) pending any feedback, 14.12 has been arround for a while and has been very solid for me so no need to rush into things.
Regarding your problems with 15.7 are you sure it supports the A4-3300? I did a quick check on the AMD manual download page but did not find it listed.

[randalotto]

Regarding your problems with 15.7 are you sure it supports the A4-3300? I did a quick check on the AMD manual download page but did not find it listed.

Yeah - the A4-3300 graphics chip is the Radeon HD 6410D. The 15.7 drivers definitely support the "AMD Radeon HD 6000D Series". It's also the driver that AMD's autodetect tool recommends and was suggested by the auto-update originally.

[joecrow]

I found some reports of problems (stuttering video) with 15.7 over on the PowerDVD 15 forum. A couple of responses suggested disabling "AMD Steady Video" and "Enforce Smooth Video Playback" which are set by default, fixed the problem. I always turn these and most other enhancements "Dynamic Contrast" etc. off so have not tried it with them enabled. All still looking good on my desktop .