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Radeon 8500 QUESTION ???

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  • #1

    Radeon 8500 QUESTION ???

    Hey Everybody,

    I was contemplating getting a Radeon 8500, and have heard the dualhead is not as good as the Matrox G550. In particuliar, the Radeon does not support DVDMax. Now my question is, why do you really need DVDMax? Can't you just maxamize the DVD screen on both monitors, individually. And for that matter, are there any differences between the two outputs of the Radeon card (aside from the fact that one output has a DVI connector, while the other has an analog output)? I should be able to run any application, on either display, right?
    Also, I have heard that ATI's display drivers were terrible initially. Has the
    situation improved?

    Any input would be greatly appreciated!

    -X-
    ASUS P2B-DS REV 1.06 D03 w/ DUAL 1.4GHZ Tualatins; Matrox Parhelia; M-Audio Delta 410

    Apple Powerbook G4 - 1.33GHZ
    Tags: None
  • #2
    The thing is: the Radeon will NOT give you a true PAL/NTSC Overscan image on the screen. With my TV there are no real black borders on the Radeon, though.

    But beware. The Radeon 8500 currently is suffering from 800x600 TVOut problems (a "pixelized" image) that were not apparent on the old RadeonDDR (and are not apprent on the R7500), until now nobody knows if this is a hardware problem or simply a driver/timing matter (I tend to believe the latter after looking a bit into this). 640x480 TVOut works fine and with good quality, though.
    I 've found a (kind of) workaround for now: create a PAL fullscreen 768x576 custom resolution (e.g. with PowerStrip), this works as good as the 640x480 one while still providing full PAL/DVD resolution. As a slight drawback there are VERY small black borders on the top and the bottom of my TV, but since most movies I watch are 16:9 and I have a 4:3 TV there are those borders anyways, and I don't notice the few extra millimeters. With some adjustment of the TV you could even get rid of those, fully.

    New drivers do support the 1024x768 resolution which is said not to show this "pixelized image" problem as well.
    Look here for more on this.
    But we named the *dog* Indiana...
    My System
    2nd System (not for Windows lovers )
    German ATI-forum

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    • #3
      since the Radeon doesn't do DVDMAX, is there a way to output anomorphic widescreen DVDs to TV without scaling the video vertically (in 16:9 mode)?

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      • #4
        What's wrong with having your're cake and eating it too?

        I would imagine a G450 PCI could be used as a secondary displaya adapter, thereby giving you the DVDMAX output feature plus allowing you to game your heart out on the Radeon.

        RT-2000 users do this all the time in order to get multiple displays.

        Dr. Mordrid
        Dr. Mordrid
        ----------------------------
        An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

        I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

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        • #5
          Doc, don't suppose you have a G450 PCI as I have some questions about the card ;-)

          Rob.

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