G400 Expert needed ;)

[FreeRider]

Hello MURCers,

I want to ask you Matrox experts the following, after searching this board for any threads covering my problemo :

I it possible to draw any overlay screen (movies, dvd etc.) on the secondary port WITHOUT DVDMax enabeled (with clone enabeled only) ?

This is an issue, since I am using my G400 Max whitout monitor (directly connected to TV by RGB cable). The PC functions as a stand-alone DVD/DivX/VCD player, and has continuous TV-OUT (DOS TV-OUT flashed and clone enabeled). When I enable DVDmax, the controls are on the primairy screen. Any overlay is played normally on the secondary port, but I can't control anything.

The hardware is able to do this, since it is possible to play a DVD fullscreen on both screens (monitor + TV).

Perhaps there is a little trick to get this working ?

Thanks in advance.

[Indiana]

Re: G400 Expert needed

Yes, it is possible, but only on the G400 (which you have). The G450 and G550 apparently only support Overlays on the primary when in clone mode and thus are not suited for TVOnly setups.

Unfortunately Matrox have disabled this feature of the G400 in their newer driver revisions, probably to avoid making the newer cards look worse...
So you've got to use a quite old driver set, every thing starting with "5.x" is good, every 6.x driver-set seems to have this annoying limitation. I'd recommend the PowerDesk5.52 driver.

See more about this topic e.g. here

EDIT: Corrected a stupid typo. DOH!

EDIT2: Corrected an even more stupid wrong link adress...

[Ali]

Indiana, I think you meant the G400 (which you have).

Dont typos suck?

Ali

[Indiana]

Originally posted by Ali
Indiana, I think you meant the G400 (which you have).

Dont typos suck?

Ali

Of course you're right.

[FreeRider]

Hey Indiana, I'm gonna try the old drivers (hope they work with Windows 2000). I also posted on the official Matrox forum, and this was the -lame- reply :

This is normal because overlay is not supported on the 2ndary display.

Also, using a TV (regardless of the type of cable-connection used) as the primary/only display is not supported or recommended with our cards.

The DVDMax option is designed/written to output video to the secondary display in full screen whether you use a TV or a PC monitor as the 2ndary display - so, no controls will be shown for the player itself. The only thing I can suggest to cancel the video during a playback (in this case) will be to press [Alt]+ [F4] (this command should close the active window).

It just sucks. Nearly all modern VGA cards can work without TV, and I'm sure a G400 Max can do this with no problem.... I actually have seen my card play codec-crapped videos on both screens.

But thanks, I will try the old drivers (gets rid of macrovision too ) IF I can find them.

Greets,
Niels

[FreeRider]

Erhm, do you know which driver version I should take for Windows 2000 ?

[Indiana]

Well, that's a good question, actually.
At that time I always used Win98 to playback my DVDs (due to Creatives crappy Win2k drivers with non-functional AC3 support), so I never really tested this with the Win2k drivers.

But since this "feature" (read: limitation) was introduced with the first Win98 drivers that also supported the G450, I think it might be the same for Win2k.

Here is a list of many older Win2k driver releases.
The last one supporting only G200 and G400 but not the G450 seems to be the 5.11 Beta driver so I'd suggest you start with this one.

[FreeRider]

Thx Indiana,

As soon as everybody is out of my FTP i will change the driver and post results here. Guess that will be tomorrow

Greetz

[Indiana]

Another DOH!
I just realised that the link I gave above was a wrong one... (happens when you copy&paste those things without checking - it's fixed by now)

The thread I meant was this one :

http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22110&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

The reply Chromium got from the Matrox support is nearly exactly the same as the one they gave you.

[grey bear]

Hi,

You could try using the "Generic-TV" Monitor description as your driver on your primary, if you got it. Of course then you got no DVD-Max *but* you still have overlay. Of course this'd work on any video card.

Pat

[FreeRider]

ALLRIGHT ! , the PowerDesk 5.11.017 beta drivers work !

I am going to try the next version, on and on until overlay stops working. I'll keep you informed. I also read the other thread, good info.

Thanx so far. Finally I can stop using Remote Administrator to control my DVD/VCD's (stupid as it is!).

[Indiana]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably build an other system from old parts that I've got lying around and keep this near the TV, so I don't have to carry my rig around when I want to watch a DivX CD. And I will try to make it a bit less noisy (my current capture rig has four 7200rpm HDs and some fans in it.. )

The G400 will most likely go into this and then I know which driver to use...

[FreeRider]

People, I hav found another fix !

I installed the last PowerDesk for Windows 2000, enabeled Multi-Display and set the 2nd port as primairy desktop. After that I dragged the start bar on this desktop. Now I can play movies full screen ! I haven't tested DVD's yet, but have good hope this will work !

Greetings Niels

[Indiana]

Again, thanks for the feedback!

[Greebe]

I missed this thread for some odd reason, but if I'm not mistaken was answered back a year or so ago (doing a search) with the same fix.