Triple screen editing setup - how?

[Frank Marshall]

Greets,

I'm curious as to how one's NLE timeline can be spread across two computer monitors whilst previewing the output on a seperate TV monitor.

I'm also curious as to how this could be done with minimum expense and hassle, so, which is the path of least financial and technical resistance:

1. Adding a second (PCI) graphics card to a combo AGP card like Marvel or AIW, or

2. Going with dual-head card and a seperate PCI video capture/output card? I guess you'd need something like a DC30 or Matrox RT to do this or is there some budget solution here?

Any comments welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Frank.

[Haig]

Hi Frank,

I use a G450 with my RT2500 and since the RT has it's own tv out for video work, I use the DH outs on the G450.

If the RT is above your budget, then getting any other pci capture card with it's own tv out would also work.

Note that with the G450/RT combo, you can also have 2 tv outs and a crt if you ever need it.

Regards

[Frank Marshall]

Thanks Haig,

Looks like you're all for option (2). I suppose there's lots of potential for conflict with two graphics cards running in the same system.

I'm happy to hear that any PCI video card with TV-out can display to a TV monitor independently of the graphics card. I thought that was the case but it's nice to have it confirmed. I worked with Radius and Targa cards years ago; too long ago to remember how it all worked.

My budget at the moment wouldn't allow for a Matrox RT solution, I was thinking something along the lines of software compression with a raw video capture card like the Winnov Videum or Hauppauge solutions but with video-out. Haven't found anything like that yet... I see Conexant have developed a Bt-type chip (CX23880/1) that has in and out facilities but haven't seen any products utilising this technology yet.

Maybe someone reading this has? I'd like to hear about it if they have.

Cheers.

[bogieman]

Frank,

I've got a setup working as you describe in your #1 configuration. It consists of an ATI All-in-Wonder 8500DV AGP
and an ATI Rage 128 GL PCI in an Asus A7V266-E motherboard with Athlon XP1800, 768MB memory, running WinXP.

ATI has a beta driver 6.13.10.6018 that introduced a feature similar to DVDMax on the Matrox cards. It sends any video from the DVD player, media player, or preview monitor in VideoStudio 5 (the only editing package I've tried it with-it was bundled with the 8500DV) to the TV monitor that connects to the 8500DV composite or Svideo out. To get it to work, the Rage 128 PCI card is the secondary adapter and must use the generic driver included with WinXP instead of the ATI driver to prevent it from killing the TV on the 8500DV. I am running dual 21" Nokia monitors and the quality is excellent. I am really impressed with the 8500DV - the radio remote, firewire, and TV display work great including timeshifting. The system is rock stable.

There are a few quirks - the live TV display does not go out to the TV monitor but it does when you're timeshifting. The secondary monitor cannot display any video, just programs. The TV monitor is a clone of the primary display until a video starts - then it shifts just the video to full screen. ATI calls it "Theatre mode" in the driver. In VS5, the display only shows full screen video when playing the timeline - not while scrubbing - so that may kill the usefulness of it. VS5 does not let me stretch it to fit accross both monitors so I can't confirm if you could have the timeline stretched on two monitors in this setup but I have done that on a different PC using dual monitors with Premiere. You would have to make sure the preview monitor stayed on the primary display.

Setting it up was a challenge, but I'd be happy to share the details with anyone interested. As I am writing this on the secondary display, I'm watching the Olympics on the primary display in timeshift mode, hidden by a second browser window, but its full screen on the TV - I need to do this as the tuner is shot in the TV.

Dave

[Frank Marshall]

Thanks Dave,

You sound very happy with your configuration and that's very encouraging. I see from a similar thread on analogue cards that others agree AIW's are the best combo cards around.

Would you know of a forum like this where AIW's are discussed? I'd like to lurk there for a while and see how other folks are doin' with their cards and guage the degree of satisfaction they have with them.

Regards,

Frank.

[bogieman]

Frank,

You can check out Rage3D.com, they have forums dedicated to the All-in-Wonder Radeons and 8500DV as well as the earlier AIW cards:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/

These are alot less civilized than the MURC forums and gaming is a primary focus but there is some good info buried there.

Dave

[landrover]

It seems like ATI have finally found something similar to Matrox's DVDMax. Which makes it very likely that my next card will be a AIW....