Dual Monitor - Preview performance degregation

Chanimal wrote on 12/17/2003, 7:05 AM

I currently have an ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro AGP 128 mb running at 4x. I purchased an ATI 9200 64mb PCI card (it was the most powerfull PCI card I could find at the time--and it supports most of the same features as the 9700) to support a second monitor.

I notice that the video preview rate drops about 40% when I tear off the preview window and move it to the second monitor. The rate jumps right back up when I pull the preview back to the original monitor. Both of my video cards should have sufficient power to run the video. By the way, I saw a similar reduction in preview frame rate when I used an external TV hooked via a camcorder and firewire--so I stopped using it.

I have a 18" LCD (1280 x 1024) and a 15" LCD (1024 x 768). The 18" has a 25ms response time, while the 15" has a 50ms response time--this is the only thing I can think of that may be causing reduced frame rates.

Has anyone else experienced a reduced frame rate with dual monitors.

Relavant System Specs:
Version 3.6 of the Catalyst drivers and version "d" of Vegas 4.0.
AMD 2100
1 Gig of Ram
6 Harddrives (120 - 200 gig) - 2 are removable
8 Fans
Creative Audigy
Sony DVD burner
Firewire (separate, not the Audigy non-compatable one), USB 2.0
Enermax 460 watts power
ATI 9700 pro
ATI 9200 PCI
Windows XP

Comments?

Comments

BrianStanding wrote on 12/17/2003, 7:33 AM

What happens if you swap the monitors (i.e., plug each into the other graphics card?) See if you get the same results.

Maybe this will help you figure out if it's the monitor or the card that's to blame.

RafalK wrote on 12/17/2003, 7:34 AM

What happenes if you tear of your preview window, leave it on the monitor that it's on, and move your Vegas to the second monitor?
Also, try moving you preview window to the second monitor, save the setting, and reopen Vegas, this time your preview window should automatically open on the second monitor. Does the problem still persists?

EventHorizonStud wrote on 12/28/2003, 1:22 PM

On 12/17/2003 Chanimal wrote:
>By the way, I saw a similar reduction in preview frame rate when I used
>an external TV hooked via a camcorder and firewire--so I stopped using it.

Sorry I don't have any answers to your 2nd monitor preview slowdown problem, but I am very interested in hearing how you configured Vegas to send the video preview through firewire?

I was about to break down and purchase a 2nd video card for a dual monitor setup, but if I can get by using the firewire port and my DVcam for preview output, that'd be great...even with jerky playback. :)

Is there a panel somewhere in Vegas to activate the firewire port for preview or should it work automatically? I've never tried this but will later today.

Thanks.

JL wrote on 12/28/2003, 3:38 PM

Yes it is easy to get external preview if you have the following:

OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 (Firewire) card
D/A converter (DV camcorder with pass-through works fine for this)
Television set or production monitor

Connect as follows:

OHCI Firewire port to D/A converter via firewire cable
D/A converter to TV via S-video (if available) or composite
[Note that the audio will play through the computer’s sound card]

Once the physical connections are made, toggle the external preview icon (looks like a small TV) in the Vegas Preview window toolbar to get the external preview.

Using external preview is not the same as having dual monitors. Dual monitors allow the Vegas desktop to be expanded across two computer screens, whereas external preview provides a video feed directly from the Vegas timeline to a NTSC or PAL television, which has some advantages for making certain editing decisions.

JL

J_Mac wrote on 12/28/2003, 5:42 PM

I'm wondering if you have two copies of the drivers loaded? 1 for each card. Also Ati told me not to use 2 Ati cards in the same machine, and is the 3.6 Catalyst support both AGP and PCI cards? I use a dual 7500 and an old NVidia with no problems. Good Luck

farss wrote on 12/29/2003, 3:00 AM

Doesn't the original AGP card support dual monitors?
That's the way I run and not a single hint of a problem.

PAW wrote on 12/29/2003, 4:03 AM

Chanimal,

Do you have the exact same preview window settings on the two monitors i.e. when you move between the two is the preview (auto) selected in both cases and are the display dimensions the same (detailed at the bottom of the preview window).

If you change the dimensions between the two you will see a slower frame rate at some point (depending on the preview quality setting draft/preview/good/best).

Regards, Chester

tbethel wrote on 12/29/2003, 2:40 PM

I suggest that you use something like a MATROX card and don't use two seperate video cards. I think you maybe having a conflict with the PCI buss. We are using the Matrox G450 card with no problems and we are driving two LCD monitors.

Hope this helps

-TOM-

KJerome wrote on 12/29/2003, 9:55 PM

I just purchased a Video card to run two monitors and am having trouble getting the preview to fill the second monitor. The only way to accomplish this is run the size at 800 x 600. The picture is a bit fuzzy. When I increase the size of the second monitor to something like 1024 x 768 the picture is much better however the picture is small and won't fill the screen. How do I stretch the picture to fill the screen on the better quality setting? When I stretch the window the video stays the same and the border fill takes up the additional space. any ideas?

Korey