Help with External Monitor

GarySoCal wrote on 2/29/2008, 3:54 PM

I'm trying to set up an external monitor (Sony PVM-8040) to work with Vegas 8.0b. I recently got a new HP Media Center system (Vista, Q6600 processor, 3gb ram) which has an s-video out. One of the Vegas external options is to use the Windows Secondary monitor. I have set that up, and when I press "identify monitors" from the vegas setup window I see a large "1" on the primary and "2" on the secondary. I can also see the desktop wallpaper on the external monitor just fine. But when I switch to it from the Vegas preview screen nothing shows except the wallpaper. Any thoughts on how to get my video to show on the external?

By the way, the new Q6600 is simply awesome. My old system was a P4-2.4gh with 1gb ram. This new one renders light-years faster. I just finished a 10 minute piece for a corporate client, with lots of transitions, graphics, multiple tracks, HDV footage. On the old system it took almost 4 hours to render "good" quality SD mpeg2. The new system rendered the same piece in "best" quality in 45 minutes!

Thanks,
Gary

Comments

GlennChan wrote on 2/29/2008, 9:35 PM

I'd recommend that you use your DV camera to pass-through the signal. This will let you have three monitors (your video card can only drive 2 at once), among other benefits.

Computer - firewire - analog (e.g. svideo) - monitor

Check that the camera is going DV->A/V on (or the equivalent setting... controls which way the signal flows because some cameras can convert from analog to digital)

Tutorial on doing this:
http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?id=341f43a3-f228-4bd8-a67c-7d5f37e4297e

GarySoCal wrote on 3/1/2008, 1:43 AM

Glenn, thanks for the response. I've been using my cam via firewire for quite awhile. I was hoping to get away from having the camera on for hours at at time just to pass a signal.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the PVM-8040 to work as a secondary monitor in Windows via the s-video output?

Thanks,
Gary

megabit wrote on 3/1/2008, 1:55 AM

You seem to have a similar problem that Michael had with his laptop - trying to make Vegas properly use a second monitor, connected using what basically is a TV-out port (S-Video in you case, HDMI in Mike's). I am afraid it's not gonna work; Vegas needs to see the secondary Windows display being fed the "overlay" video. This can be done using another DVI / VGA (computer, anyway)output of your graphic card.

farss wrote on 3/1/2008, 2:08 AM

My advice would be to stick with Glenn's advice. I can understand the desire not to leave the camera powered up all the time and they're always awkward to run cables in and out of. I'd suggest investing in say an ADVC 110, the ADVC 300 is much better if you ever need to capture from analogue tape due to its inbuilt TBC but is more expensive than the 110 and if you're sure you'll never need to capture from VHS then go with the 110.

The advantage of using the firewire converter is you're feeding a known, standard signal to the device, the same as what is going to end up on tape. Even if the S-Video thing does work there's always the question of just what is being sent to the monitor.

Bob.

GarySoCal wrote on 3/1/2008, 2:07 PM

Thanks for the advice, guys. I appreciate it. I didn't know about the Canapus converters. It looks like one of them would do just what I need.

Gary