Resolution and overlay? need help

[Von_Acid]

I have a G400MAX and using latest win2k drivers. But when i use resolution 1600x1200/70hz i cant get a dvdmax overlay on my second head (TV).. why is that and can i somehow fix it/bypass it??

[xortam]

Is this a DivX file? There are some issues with non-multiples of 32 resolutions. See the FAQ.

[Von_Acid]

Nope... its both DVD and DivX/other videos... i dont get any kinda signal when i'm using the said resolution.. :-(

[WayneHu]

It seems to be the bandwidth limit...

How about 1600x1200x24bpp?

Currently I am running the setting of 1440x1080x32bpp, and the hardware DirectDraw Overlay still works on the first head. But I am not sure if it applies to the second head.

[Von_Acid]

Yep.. it worked when i reduced to 24bpp =)

[Indiana]

Yes, but it's not a bandwidth issue, it simply depends on the amount of RAM you have on your card. Since you are able to have the overlays working in 1600x1200x24, I guess you must have the 32MB model.
With the 16MB G400 you sometimes cannot go higher than 1024x768x32 - those overlays need a lot of gfx-card RAM

[This message has been edited by Indiana (edited 20 May 2001).]

[Rags]

Indiana is correct, it's a hardware limitation.

Rags

[WayneHu]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Indiana:
Yes, but it's not a bandwidth issue, it simply depends on the amount of RAM you have on your card. Since you are able to have the overlays working in 1600x1200x24, I guess you must have the 32MB model.
With the 16MB G400 you sometimes cannot go higher than 1024x768x32 - those overlays need a lot of gfx-card RAM

[This message has been edited by Indiana (edited 20 May 2001).]</font>

well, I don't think it is memory amount issue. Even with my Millennium G200 (8MB), it can reach up to 1152x864x32bpp.

After I have the additional 8MB RAM, there is no difference... The maximum hardware DDraw Overlay resolution is still the same ...

If the resolution of the DDraw overlay source is different, the limitation is not the same, either.

[dZeus]

not to mention the amount of overlay layers (I've read that some software DVD players use up to 7 layers), etc. etc.

Actually I've also heard that the overlay limitation is caused by a combination of bandwith and memory. Sometimes lowering the refresh rate can enable the use of overlay (increasing bandwidth), sometimes only lowering the resolution (increasing free video memory)

[rylan]

Well, overlay is _extremely_ memory intensive. Lets say you have your desktop at 1600x1200x32bit, you're using 7.68MB of the frame buffer just for the desktop. Add your icons and crap, and its about 8MB. Have any of the eyecandy turned on (animated windows, font smoothing, show window contents while dragging)? Most stuff like that usually utilizes a double buffering. Now, it doesn't require full screen double buffer, so lets say that bring you up to around 12MB used. 24MB memory remaining. Now turn on the dvd, which is full screen overlay.. 8MB more. But wait, most DVD players use triple buffering to help smooth playback. Thats 24MB, but you only had 24MB left, so you're probably exceeding the necesasry memory by just a little bit, which you demonstrated by having it work after dropping to 24bbp.

[Indiana]

And don't forget that in DualHead mode you'll only have 16MB per head - or even only 8MB on the 16MB models... The only thing that helped here was lowering resolution and/or colour-depth, the refresh-rate had absolutely no influence on it.

[Maggi]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Indiana:
And don't forget that in DualHead mode you'll only have 16MB per head - or even only 8MB on the 16MB models... </font>

you can adjust that with the recent W98 drivers ...

[xortam]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Maggi:
you can adjust that with the recent W98 drivers ... </font>

I was going to suggest that earlier when I was reading this thread and then I noticed that they didn't include that feature in the W2K drivers.

[Von_Acid]

Thanx for all the replies, guys! =)

[SockBoy]

Hey, I've got a really weird DVDMax problem!

Okay... I've got a DiVX movie with a resolution of 640x480. When watching it in Windows 98, it outputs to my TV just fine. But, in Windows 2000, it won't out put if I have my colour depth set to either 24-bit or 32-bit. When I set it to 16-bit, it DOES output to television, but all of the colours are psycadelic! Setting it to 256 colours also outputs to TV, but all the dithering and things makes it look bad. Does anyone know why this is happening? Thanks!