Some Parhelia-questions...

[a_h]

Hi!

Currently I'm considering to buy a Parhelia (2nd hand, hey I'm not rich!), but since this is not that a simple decision, I've got some questions...hope you guys help me!

1. TV-out: I really want a nice tv-out. Not only a nice picture, I don't like the vertical black bars produced by the Nvidia/Ati-boards (Trauerrand it's called in german, and yes I know TVTool, but it costs money and consistently crashes my system) - but as far as I know the Parhelia has more sophisticated controlls. Is that true? Is overscan possible? Can I zoom the tv-picture (to reduce the normal horizontal bars)?

2. Is it possible to prevent the interpolation of my tft? The tft has a 5:4 ratio, but most games offer only 4:3 resolutions...the tft itself only interpolates fullscreen. The nvidia-detonator has such a feature I've heard (nview ->centered output).

3. some games: Neverwinter Nights runs AFAIK - but does the shiny water work? How good runs Morrowind? Ok doomIII won't work that great, but any hopes that you can play it?

4. how good are their drivers? My millennium didn't make any problems at all, but in these times the games supported specially the millennium...

Personally I'm a matrox-fan, so I'm considering the banding enhanced Parhelia (I've a tft, so this is no problem); but I want too some features other firms do not provide, especially when I get "only" 3/4 of the speed of a GF4Ti4200...

Sorry for posting such a bunch of questions, but the matrox-forum/FAQs didn't help me that much, besides that I really like murc.

Thanks to all,

with kind regards from Graz/.at,

Hannes

PS: the 3D speed of the nvidia/ati-chips is constantly growing, but the implementation of features like a decent tv-out are even today just a joke...

[GNEP]

1) Yes to all your questions, AFAIK. TV-out is adjustable and works just fine for me (excellent quality).

2) Not too sure on this one - perhaps someone else with TFT's and a Parhelia can help?

3) Don't know about NWN and shiny water, but Morrowind runs smoothly and well, pixel shaded water and allm, and can now run in Surround mode which is quite simply wonderful. Doom3? Nobody knows yet. It won't be as fast as it will be on cheaper cards like the Radeon 9600Pro, but only time will tell for sure. Half Life 2 on the other hand should run just fine, if all that I read pans out how I hope...

4) The drivers have been, in my experience, very stable indeed and easy to use.

[a_h]

Thanks for your reply.

Great that the P has a decent tv-out! Just like I thought.

The last really important feature I need is the "Anti-Interpolation" feature preventing the interpolation of my tft. The nvidias can do that and AFAIK the atis too, so what about Matrox? I hope Matrox is no exception...at least not a negative one!

Hannes

[XHotKolaX]

Originally posted by a_h

The last really important feature I need is the "Anti-Interpolation" feature preventing the interpolation of my tft. The nvidias can do that and AFAIK the atis too, so what about Matrox? I hope Matrox is no exception...at least not a negative one!

Hannes

The Parhelia doesn't automatically resize your desktop to fullscreen if you're using a resolution less than the native resolution.

[a_h]

Hey! An Eizo owner! You can help me.

My Eizo L565 always interpolates, so when you say the P doesn't automatically resize, I get e.g. just a 800x600 window with black bars (if I change the res to that)?

And is it possible to rescale with identical ratio? Means 800x600 is 4:3, so I can rescale it too nearly fullscreen with the same ratio & just small horizontal bars?

Thanks, Hannes

[XHotKolaX]

My Eizo has the option to keep it as is, resize with the proper aspect(you get tiny bars), or resize to fullscreen. I use the monitor's functions for resizing.

The P doesn't do anything nor does it have the option to resize the image.

[a_h]

Oh no. No way? Do I have to live with ATI/Nvidia? Oh nooo!

How can it be?

But thanks for your reply though...

Hannes

[XHotKolaX]

You could to go technical support and ask for that feature. They're usually pretty good about that.

[K6-III]

Actually, you need to ask Sales for feature requests...

[UtwigMU]

a_h, as far as I know there's Parhelia to be tested in Graz.

Check out www.matrox.de

http://www.pro-media.at/

http://www.matrox.com/mga/deutsch/archive_story/oct2002/parhelia_dealers.cfm

[az]

a_h, it is common nowadays that the interpolation is done inside the panel, not on the graphics card. Better LCDs have options to disable interpolation, as hotkola said. Unfortunately, even a manufacturer like EIZO doesn't seem to deem it necessary to include such a feature into their smaller screens.

Are you sure that nVidia and ATI cards can disable the interpolation that happens inside your screen?

AZ

[GNEP]

I think that they "pretend" to send you 1280x1024 when actually they are sending 1024x768 with black borders around it - therefore the screen thinks it is receiving 1280x1024 and doesn't interpolate...

[a_h]

Yes I'm sure that Nvidia/Ati are offering these features, I'm going to search for some screenshots of the options I mean.

AFAIK it's really this way that the driver sends the native resolution containing e.g. 800x600 with surrounding black borders.

I'm going to search for those pics.

Besides: matrox has answered to my email from yesterday: I should send it again to the devrel-people, which I've done some minutes ago. I'm curious what they're going to say...

Hannes

[a_h]

@UtwigMU: Thanks for your hint; maybe if I've too much spare time, I will check Promedia out!

[a_h]

I've found them; at least for Atis catalyst (sorry pics are only in german):

hack with Rage3DTweak:



further to display properties:



et voíla:



For NVidia-people, I can only cite a user from www.prad.de:

"Doch genau das geht, einfach in den nVidia-Treibereinstellungen unter nView -> Geräteinstellungen -> Bildschirmanpassung auf Zentrierte Ausgabe verwenden umstellen.

Ich hatte das mit meiner Ti4200 mit nVidia-Treiber v43.45 und meinem 1760NX ohne Problem laufen, hat gut gefunkt."

In english: "This exactly is possible, simply go to Nvida->display properties->adjust screen->adjust screen to centered output.

I used the Nvidia-driver v43.45 with my Ti4200 and a Nec 1760NX and it worked pretty well."

For all sceptics: the Nec 1760NX always interpolates, only the 1860NX has the option to turn it off.

Sorry for the german only images, but it's better than nothing, right?

Hannes