How to view preview output on a TV?

[PaulM]

Hi all.

What I'm referring to here is the facility to display previews etc on a TV monitor from within Premiere, MediaStudio etc. When I had my Mystique/RRS it was a simple case of enabling video out. However, it seems that the 7200 model Radeon All-in-Wonder that I bought a while ago to replace it doesn't support the ATI equivalent (Theater mode).

What's my best (i.e. most cost effective!) way of getting this back? Is there a specific Windows feature that a video card needs to support or will any card with a TV out work?

I don't need any sort of analogue capture anymore but I would really like to be able to see my output on a TV again.

Thanks in advance,
Paul

[Peter B]

Have a look at this thread http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40284

the ATI 9000 looks like a cheap option for what you want I think

[PaulM]

Thanks Peter - yeah, I saw that thread just after I posted mine. It looks like that would work but there are a couple of things that still bother me.

1 - I'm not sure I necessarily want to stick with ATI and

2- I'd like to know what other cheap-ish options I've got.

But also, if only for my own curiosity, I'd like to know what a video card has to support in order to be used in this way.

Cheers,
Paul

[Haig]

Hi Paul,

usually, capture cards need a graphic card that support direct draw overlay in order to display the video window on the desktop and also out to tv.

In some cases, it's the player that will drop the ddraw overlay and revert to blit. When this happens, you will still get video on the desktop but not on the tv out.

I don't know what your budget is but our Parhelia cards will allow you to connect 2 crt's and a tv to it and will output the preview window of Premiere 6.5, MSPro 7, AE, 3DSmax, and Express DV out to the tv.

This way, you can edit in a dualhead config and watch your previews/scrubs on your tv.

If Parhelia is > your budget, you aren't in any rush, and you don't care too much about gaming, you should wait a while longer and see what we announce.

[Brian Ellis]

If you are on MSP7, you can also Preview output to a TV via IEEE-1394 and a bridge, on top of what your graphics card allows. With a Parhelia, for example, you can edit on three screens and still have a TV. I use a G-550, for my sins, and, although I usually work on single screen edit + TV, I occasionally use neck-breaking 2 screens + TV if the work I'm doing merits it.

[landrover]

Hi Haig,

I know that you're not in the position to tell us everything that you know, but from your words I get the feeling that my patience with replacing the trusty old Marvel G400 is going to be rewarded. I just hope Matrox's new kid on the block isn't still too far ahead of us.

[PaulM]

Haig,

Thanks for the heads up re. new cards and the info about preview displaying. I'm not really desperate so I may just hang on for a bit. Although I'm not sure if my original question was answered - I probably need to rephrase it!

Can someone complete this sentence?

"In order to display [Premiere|MSP|etc] previews to a TV I need to go into a computer store and ask for a video card that supports ...."

From your response earlier, would '... direct draw overlay and TV out.' be sufficient?

Do all of these programs use the same mechanism to do this? Do all video cards do it in the same way? (Besides MS Pro 7 and its IEEE-1394 output - interesting! Thanks Brian)

Cheers,
Paul

[Haig]

Hi gang,

replacing the trusty old Marvel G400 is going to be rewarded.

Unfortunately, it won't be an all in one replacement, if that's what you're looking for.

From your response earlier, would '... direct draw overlay and TV out.' be sufficient?

Yes. If they're stumped, ask them if the card can output a video clip from the desktop CRT1 to the tv out in full screen.

Do all of these programs use the same mechanism to do this?

No. For example, MSpro 6.x and VV 3 do not use overlay in their preview window.

Do all video cards do it in the same way?

I don't know how ati and nv do their version of dvdmax but in our case, all our DH cards will output the preview windows from any editor provided that window is using ddraw.

[landrover]

I'm not looking for an all in one replacement. I'm looking for a card that does Matrox quality TV-out and is at the same time a leap forward compared to the G*** series. I have my Terratec card for capturing now. A Parhelia on the other hand is a bridge too far for my budget.

[PaulM]

Hi Haig,

Thanks again for all the info - very useful and interesting. One final question - it may be obvious but what is the 'desktop CRT1'? Is this just the primary desktop monitor?

Cheers,
Paul

[Haig]

Hi Paul,

yes that's the primary desktop monitor.

Cheers

[SpiralDragon]

Hi Haig...

i have a question regarding P and OGL..... has any one tested it with Discreet Combustion 2? how good is the performance...

thanx

[Haig]

Hi SD,

I have Combustion 2 on my test system and so far, OGL preformance is slow and there's a problem when using reflections where textures will be blanked out in the sections where the reflection is supposed to be.

[K6-III]

Is it being worked on???

[Haig]

Not at the moment becuase since it is not on our cad/mcad/dcc list, priority is not that high.