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**Zitch** · 30 July 2002, 13:11

And most importantly, I heard that you cannot view through the s-video unless it's in conjunction with a regular monitor. Is that true?! I hope not. I'll only want to use the card with the TV as the primary display. Can anyone confirm/deny that?

I have a G450 myself, and used it mainly for the TV out (Clone mode and DVDmax). As for quality of the Svideo AND the composite, let me give you a hint: It rocks on my 27" TV! The later drivers does provide overscan settings for clone mode (automatically overscans for DVDmax mode). It is designed to work with a TV and a monitor at the same time, but I'm sure that you could set the card into Dual-head Clone mode (What's on the Primary Monitor is duplicated on the TV) then disconnect the monitor before the next boot-up. The TV isn't initialized until the O.S. inits it though, so you would need a monitor handy for troubleshooting stuff. I run it with a monitor at 1024 x 768, and in clone mode it seems to do a good job of downsampling (??? isn't that an audio term???) to a TV's resolution. I also use DVD-max mode, where a video (from an AVI, MPG, DVD, Quicktime, etc) on my primary monitor will be shown fullscreen on the TV. Very useful and looks good too.

I'm sure others will say this, and you may have your reasons, but I *Highly* recommend you get a regular monitor (even a cheap 15" one, er, maybe not too cheap...) for "regular" PC work. Your eyes will thank you later.

Zitch

**Valnar** · 30 July 2002, 13:14

I will use a monitor when I need it as a PC, but I also want to be able to drag it into the bedroom and plug it in. Can the TV mode be used as the primary only?

Please look as this thread and let me know what you think. I'll want it in clone mode (I think) and have it use the overlay for videos. ie. I want the TV mode to work just like a monitor if possible, since I'll need to see Windows98 to start the DVD program, click icons, etc.

Best video card for S-video TV-out?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1238207

-Robert

**Zitch** · 30 July 2002, 19:04

Robert,

I did a quick test for ya.

I disabled DVDMax, and enabled Clone mode.

Shutdown my system and disconnected my monitor.

Booted back up with just the TV.

Some notes:

1) You won't see anything until the O.S. initializes the Desktop. You won't see the post, any Boot managers (in my case, I'm dual-booting Win2k and win98, and I can't see the selection on the TV), and the Windows loading screen. Only until the desktop or the login screen does the TV get anything.

2) The TV will be using the slower *secondary* ramdac. That means the refreshes are slower (not really noticable in 16-bit mode, but in 32-bit mode the updates are *much* slower. You can see the mouse lagging behind my movements), and no overlay mode. To see video from say, PowerDVD, you would have to use DVDMax mode, but then you won't see anything *but* the video! You can't see stuff like the control panel, the mouse cursor, and the right mouse button menu while the video is playing! (Gotta learn those keyboard shortcuts for PowerDVD...)

3) You can set the resolution anywhere from 640x480 @ 120Hz all the way to 1600x1200 @ 60 Hz (at least with my monitor as primary) and it will clone it on the TV. And it looks nice on the TV, other than the downsampled resolution and interlaced refresh rate.

If you want to do what you're describing, then you might be better off getting a VGA->TV converter, for example: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...1001&loc=15963

(BTW, this is the first such converter I've found in a quick search on buy.com. There might be some better or cheaper ones elsewhere.)

Or even another video card that can use the TV as a primary display such as from ATI.

Zitch

P.S. I did type this off of my TV at 640 x 480. I'll now go reconnect my monitor and stop the bleeding from my eyes...

**dZeus** · 31 July 2002, 01:13

Originally posted by Zitch
<cut>
1) You won't see anything until the O.S. initializes the Desktop. You won't see the post, any Boot managers (in my case, I'm dual-booting Win2k and win98, and I can't see the selection on the TV), and the Windows loading screen. Only until the desktop or the login screen does the TV get anything.

True, only the G400 can clone in DOS mode.

2) The TV will be using the slower *secondary* ramdac. That means the refreshes are slower (not really noticable in 16-bit mode, but in 32-bit mode the updates are *much* slower. You can see the mouse lagging behind my movements), and no overlay mode. To see video from say, PowerDVD, you would have to use DVDMax mode, but then you won't see anything *but* the video! You can't see stuff like the control panel, the mouse cursor, and the right mouse button menu while the video is playing! (Gotta learn those keyboard shortcuts for PowerDVD...)

Refresh rates are fixed because of the TV standards, not because of the slower ramdac. The screen updates slower on the TV when dragging windows around on the desktop, because the scaling of the desktop res. to the TV res. is done in software on the G450 & G550. Check out the CPU utilisation and you'll see that it'll top out at 100% usage when you drag windows around. On the G400 this is done in hardware, so the CPU utilisation won't increase when you enable clone mode to TV. Overlay is indeed another limitation on the G450 & G550, as the G400 can also clone that to the TV (though not in full overscan mode, which is where DVD-MAX shines at).

3) You can set the resolution anywhere from 640x480 @ 120Hz all the way to 1600x1200 @ 60 Hz (at least with my monitor as primary) and it will clone it on the TV. And it looks nice on the TV, other than the downsampled resolution and interlaced refresh rate.

If you want to do what you're describing, then you might be better off getting a VGA->TV converter, for example: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...1001&loc=15963

(BTW, this is the first such converter I've found in a quick search on buy.com. There might be some better or cheaper ones elsewhere.)

Or even another video card that can use the TV as a primary display such as from ATI.

or a G400.

**Valnar** · 31 July 2002, 03:53

Thanks guys. It seems I want a G400 just to be sure. dZeus, do you have a source for that info on the hardware clone mode?

'Off to eBay.

-Robert-

[Zitch, thanks for doing that test! I appreciate it.]

**Maggi** · 31 July 2002, 04:59

Originally posted by Valnar
Thanks guys. It seems I want a G400 just to be sure. dZeus, do you have a source for that info on the hardware clone mode?

'Off to eBay.

-Robert-

[Zitch, thanks for doing that test! I appreciate it.]

Hi Robert,

definately you should go with a G400 !

To enable DOS to TVout, you simply have to reconfigure G400s BIOS with Matrox BIOS package and set your DOS output to either NTSC or PAL.

For setup you should keep a VGA attached, until you enabled also Clone Mode for Windows, from that point of time, you could use your TV as only display.

Cheers,
Maggi

**Zitch** · 31 July 2002, 08:20

Robert:

Um, yah... what they said...

Get the G400.

dZeus:

I haven't realized that the G450 did TV-Clone scaling in software. That would explain quite a few things. Thanks, for the tip.

**Valnar** · 1 August 2002, 11:55

I bought a refurbed G400 just to be safe. As I discovered a couple hours ago, only the G400Max has a fan on the heatsink, while the regular G400 only needs a heatsink. That was the main reason I inquired about the G450 at all, was to eliminate the fan.

So I get the best of all worlds now. Thanks.

Robert

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Matrox G450 and s-video out question

Matrox G450 and s-video out question

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