G400MAX/RR-G/DVD Install problem: Help!

[MultimediaMan]

OK, maybe I'm missing something...

I've got a G400MAX, RR-G and a DVD Daughterboard. I have everything installed together finally but...the Matrox HW-DVD software will not install.

It pithly said your Video Card is not supported (Even in the face of everything on the Matrox Details panel showing up correctly)...others have been able to install this combination (or not)...what am I missing?

Thanks in advance...

[Maggi]

Wasn't that DVD daughterboard meant to be used with a G200 only ?

Just use the 2ndary output of your MAX and hook it up to your TV ...

[MultimediaMan]

I scoured the forums here, but couldn't find it...maybe on the Matrox TS Forums: Haig explained there WAS a way to do it with the RR-G, I believe...this was over a year ago, as I recall.

Thanks for your $0.02.

Maybe hacking the Registry and making the setup program THINK it's a G200...

[MultimediaMan]

Workaround Found!

This is somewhat screwed up, but I DID find a way to make the HW DVD Module work, after a fashion.

Plan A) I tried editing the registry: No Go, the progbios program betrayed me and stopped the install.

Plan B) Lets try a little hardware switcharoo...

Install Desired Ensemble (G400MAX/RR-G/HW-DVD Module),

Install all relevant software, except for the Matrox DVD Module Software.

Power down system...

Remove Desired ensemble and replace with Matrox G-200 OR Marvel G-200 with DVD module attached...

Allow detection...reboot...

Install Matrox DVD Module software...

Shutdown, Reinstall Desired ensemble...

Load DVD software of Choice: WinDVD and Power DVD work just fine: total CPU load with 6 channel analog decoding enabled is less than 50% with P3-600: less then 40% with P3-850.

What a load of $#!t to have to put up with, but the end results are gratifying...

I'm going to do this ONCE more...then Ghost the base installation to a CD to avoid having to go through this crap again for a LOOOONG time.

[dZeus]

Re: Workaround Found!

Originally posted by MultimediaMan

...
Load DVD software of Choice: WinDVD and Power DVD work just fine: total CPU load with 6 channel analog decoding enabled is less than 50% with P3-600: less then 40% with P3-850.

What a load of $#!t to have to put up with, but the end results are gratifying...

are you sure it's working? 40% on a P3-850 sound just about right for pure software decode.

[MultimediaMan]

I am still wondering about that a bit myself.

But, I can tell you that I can resize and move a windowed DVD player with no distortion or lapse...

I can't comment on the CPU load more fully because I can't directly compare the S/PDIF out with the Analog Software 6 channel decoding. (I.E. I don't know how much overhead to expect with a software sound decoder running 5.1 channels).

I would THINK, that the resources would be somewhat high in that regard...

[dZeus]

software decoding of 5.1 AC3 only takes about 1-5% on a P3-850

in fact, output to 6 channel analogue would theoretically take less time to decode than output to 2 channel, since it wouldn't need to downmix the streams with 6 channel output.

I think I've read that with hardware decoding of the module the cpu load wasn't higher than 5-10% in total on something like a P3-500 .. there should be topics on this with search

[MultimediaMan]

My Marvel G-200 with the DVD card would run about 10-15% CPU, but that was with the BoB providing the S/PDIF output.

As far as CPU load...it goes UP with each channel: DVDs are encoded many different ways, and 6 channel decoding in software is going to require some overhead.

I might just go back to the Marvel to take a snapshot of the CPU usage with the 6 Channel Analog output to see what to expect.

[dZeus]

really, 6 channel decode is not intensive at all. If you don't believe me, here's a screenshot of decoding a 6-channel DD5.1 AC3 file (directly taken from a VOB stream) to 6 channel output on my Santa Cruz soundcard:

http://dzeus.student.utwente.nl/misc/ac3decode.jpg