PC-VCR TV&LINE Inputs unusable w/TV OUT Force Display to Fit Property?

[Verell Boaen]

I'm setting up a system that will use a 27" S-video TV as the only monitor for a system I'm building for an older (mid-70s)person with impaired vision.

'Force Display to Fit onto TV' is enabled on the TV OUT tab of the Display Properties box in order to get the full Windows desktop displayed on the TV screen.

With this setting, when input from either TV or LINE is selected on PC-VCR Remote, it reports 'hardware is in use by another application...'

PC-VCR Remote TV & LINE inputs work fine when
'Force Display to Fit' isn't enabled. However, the desktop screen is badly over-scanned (i.e. most of the Task Bar & also the 1st row of desktop icons are off of the screen).

IS THIS A CATCH22 SITUATION?
My suspicion is that the same HW needed to process the TV or LINE input signal is being used to re-scale the TV OUT signal. Thus the two features are mutually exclusive. Is this the case, or is there some combination of settings that will permit displaying TV in a force to fit environment.

If at all possible, I'd like to avoid the user having to change display properties when he wants to display TV using PC-VCR Remote. The chances of his accidently disabling
TV OUT & making his system unusable are too great.



------------------
Verell

[Verell Boaen]

Another user sent me EMAIL saying that he's used LINE in with fit to screen on his RRS/Mystique220 which is also what I've
got. In answer to his questions:

I actually have two different systems with
RRS/Mystique220. I'm setting up the 2nd one
(a new system) for my father in law who's visualy impaired. I see the same behavior on both.
I'm running Win98 on my system, & Win98
release 2 on the new system.

I've downloaded & am running the latest Matrox Graphics & RR drivers on both systems.

The settings I'm using are:

Video out: NTSC

Display Drivers: 4.31 Display drivers
(Downloaded 1677_431.exe)

VGA BIOS: 1.5 (New System:Came on Mystique card)
1.0 (Old System ")

Rainbow Runner Drivers: 2.10 - English
(Downloaded rr210eng.zip)

Color Palette: HighColor(16bit)
Also tried TruColor(24bit)

Video Tools Version: ???
( Unless they're part of the RR drivers
download, I'm not running Video Tools).

On the 2nd system, I installed Win98, then installed the down-loaded Graphics & RR drivers. I didn't bother with either of the CDs that came with the RRS/Mystique220 as
the new README's indicated I'd have just had to uninstall them.

I've been holding off on doing the Matrox BIOS upgrade out of FUD...
'Gards


[This message has been edited by Verell Boaen (edited 10-01-1999).]

[salacious]

I haven't tried the Mystique and RR under 98 but I have got it to work as you described under Win 95B.

Salacious

[Verell Boaen]

Thanks to salacious for the Win95B works response. I've also got it working:

BUT I'M REALLY CONFUSED...

The 2 systems don't behave the same!!!

OLD PC NOW WORKS:
I installed a SoundBlaster Live! 1024 this weekend. PC-DVT now comes up just fine in
'Force Display to Fit' mode! Also, the system in general seems much more stable. I haven't used the system in a week, & believe that maybe the last thing I did was uninstall & re-install either the Matrox Graphics & RRS drivers, or the SoundBlaster PC-DVD Fxr3 drivers. (can't reconstruct the order.)
At the same time I'd pulled the SoundBlaster64 out & put it in the 'NEW PC'.

Anyway, not only can I now startup PC-VCR Remote in 'force to fit' mode, but ALSO I can then start up PC-DVD & watch DVD movies in the RRS window or full screen! This was my ultimate aim, so I'm especially happy!
(I've connected the Dxr3 S-video output to the RRS S-video line input, & setup PC-DVD to display to TV.)


NEW PC:
Talked to PC Depot who sold me the MB. Changed the jumper so that system RAM now runs off of the 66MHz AGP clock instead of the 100MHz system clock. Then reformated the C: partition & reinstalled Win98,Graphics & RRS drivers. It seems that PC100 DIMMS aren't quite ready for 100MHz, at least with the VIA MB chipset. I'm pretty shure I was dealing with in-memory corruption AND files corrupted when they went thru memory during installation.

This sytem's now much more stable. I can now start PC-VCR Rmt in TV out mode, then enable 'Force Display to Fit' & use TV & Line input video. But still can't get RRS to startup in 'Force.. to Fit'.

Also, PC-DVD doesn't work. I even swapped boards with my OLD PC & got the same behavior: Black screen output both with video overlay & S-Video output. Hmm, Just remembered, the PC-DVD advanced properties has a 'color' tab that I didn't see on my OLD PC last nite. I need to check to see if I'm running different PC-DVD drivers.(I have 2 sets, one with files dated 8/99, & the other w/files dated 4/99)..

While much much improved, The system still is unstable. Infrequently gets errors such as Invalid Page reference, or Illegal Operation, usually while using Windows Explorer, or Control Panel to browse directory trees. However, I've also seen them when trying to exit the Matrox Display Properties, closing down PC-VCR Rmt, or just plain shutting down the system...

I'm beginning to think that maybe some of my problems moved with the SB64 card. Has anyone used a SB64 with RRS?

Sorry for rambling on, but this is really beginning to drive me nuts.

[Verell Boaen]

UPDATE:
NEW PC IS JUST PLAIN BROKEN, TOOK IT BACK TO THE SHOP
After stripping the PC down to RRS, the DVD drive, Floppy, MB, HD, & Memory, then reformatting the C drive & bringing it up with the 'Standard VGA' driver, I could get fatal errors/hangs by just copying a couple of large file folders & then wandering around with Windoz Explorer. I think IDE IO was corrupting in-memory images, or else the PC100 DIMM is bad..

OLD (happily working) MACHINE, BUT WHAT DID I DO RIGHT??
(Or DISPLAY PROPERTIES now has a TV OUT TAB!!!)
I just noticed that DISPLAY PROPERTIES
now has a TV OUT tab just like I've always seen on MATROX DISPLAY PROPERTIES with RRS drivers!!

This appeared at the same time that I got
PC-VCR Remote happily working in Force Display to Fit TV OUT mode!!

I've checked the driver versions displayed by both properties, and they're the same (RRS 2.10, Graphics 4.31) ones I've been running on both PCs. I'm afraid to touch this since it's working great, but want to recreate it when the store sorts out the problem with the NEW PC...

All I can think of is that after following the MATROX complete uninstall procedure
(http://www.matrox.com/mga/tech_supp/faq/driver_uninstall.htm), bringing the system up with the standard VGA driver, & then installing the 4.31 graphics driver.

I think I may have forgotten to select MGA MONITOR before restarting & installing the RRS drivers. (I'm not shure about this, it was about 3 AM & I was a tad sleepy.

Another possibility is that I missed some file when doing the 'complete uninstall'.
(Yeah, I didn't start it till midnite).
However, I searched thru a report from
'System Information' & couldn't find an earlier version MATROX file than from the downloaded compressed files.
'Gards,

[Verell Boaen]

AHA! OLD PC DOESN'T HAVE 2.10 RAINBOW RUNNER DRIVERS AFTER ALL!

It's running the ones from the CD that came
with my 1st RRS! That probably explains the
TV OUT tab on the DISPLAY PROPERTIES dialog box! I do have the most recent Mystique220 graphics drivers for RRS.


[This message has been edited by Verell Boaen (edited 13 October 1999).]