Which Parhelia or P750 should I get?

[dkazaz]

I'm thinking of dumping the buggy ATI's/nVidias that have been torturing me for years and going back to Matrox.
I used to have (still do) a G400 MAX and was always happy with it.

However when I recently tried using it, I noticed that video playback was not as smooth as with my ATI card (natural since ATI has hardware acceleration).

I was thinking of getting a p750 or a Parhelia. Video is all I do on my PC and if I got one of those I would want to know they are perfect. After all they for the same money as a high end ATI all-in-wonder.

Can someone please advise me:

a) Is there adifference between the p750 and Parhelia? Matrox's site states the Parhelia has an integrated TV encoder - is that unique to the Parhelia?
a) are these cards good for video playback?
c )Is the TV out picture good? what TV-out do they use: s-video? Scart? Composite?

Most importantly, are there any models to avoid? I may buy a used card off ebay and I remember reading that various types of Parhelias had strange problems and were to be avoided.

If anyone can help me, I'll be very grateful for your time.

[UtwigMU]

You want to avoid Parhelia AGP 4x, P-series and 8x Parhelias are OK (banding), although not all 4x exhibited this and it's present to a different degree. If buying used, avoid.

As per card - P750 and Parhelia 8x are ~same in terms of 2D, the only difference is faster 3D and Parhelia has some WYSWYG plugins P-series lacks.

[dkazaz]

Wow - I wouldn't have expected such an expnsive card to have banding!

On that basis I would go for the P750 (especially since I have no interest in 3D).

Does the P750 also have banding problems?

[SitFlyer]

Just to clarify UtwigMU's previous post -
Only the original, AGP 4x Parhelia's exhibited the banding problem.

[greinedo]

The P750 has also an built-in TV encoder (Composite, S-video, no scart !) (should be the same as Parhelia).

The S-video signal comming out from my P750 is really not as good as the S-video signal comming out from my G400.

If you want better quality with P750/Parhelia you must connect the TV with the SCART RGB tweak. http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?t=47349
we spoke about ...

If you plan HD video (720p-1080i/p) the P750 is not sufficient, the Parhelia seems not (see AVSForum) because of the lack of hardware VMR9 support (DirectX9 missing).
I tried everything but could'nt play HD material with satisfaction with the P750 (not smooth).

I finaly ended with an ASUS 6800GT modded to Quadro FX4000, overclocked at 425/900. The current Nvidia drivers are very good. I drive the TV in SCART RGB with the second head of the Nvidia, the picture is great, and the playback absolutely smooth. Beside the colors, wich are a little better with the P750, everything is better with the Quadro FX4000 including the prof. CAD drivers (I work also a lot with AutoCad).