Preview on External Monitor - Help Required

organism_seven wrote on 2/11/2002, 11:40 AM
Hi,

I have downloaded the demo of VV3 and I am still getting
to grips with all its features, which on first impressions
look very good, but there is one thing I cannot seem to
figure out.

I am trying to use the Preview to External Monitor
function but it does not output to my TV Monitor.

I have a Matrox G400 MAX Dualhead graphics card,
One VGA port is connected to my computer monitor
and the other to my TV.

When playing back video files, avi, mpg, mov etc
using Adobe Premiere or even Windows Media Player
they all playback perfectly full screen on the TV.

But in VV3 the preview screen just goes black with the
words "Playing on external monitor" displayed.
But no video signal is displayed.
The audio comes through, however.

Looking at the knowledge support files it says to check
the video device settings.

The three options I have are:

None
OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394/DV
Video for Windows Standard

I have tried all three, and still no luck.

If I render a file out in VV3 (in different formats) and then play
it back in Windows Media Player the video displays perfectly.
I just can't get this signal to output to the TV display from within
VV3 so I can see whats happening during the editing process.

Any ideas?

Regards

organism7@cableinet.co.uk


Comments

Wayne wrote on 2/11/2002, 8:52 PM
External monitor will not work with your Matrox dual head card. I had the same setup and had to get a Canopus ADVC-100 firewire (IEEE-1394) to video converter.

I am able to preview straight AVI video at full frame rate. When effects are added, cross fade, c0lor correct etc, the frame rate drops.

I have checked CPU usage for the preview function.

Straight AVI - On computer screen 60% +
On external monitor 2%

Video with effects can take CPU usage up to 99% for computer or external monitor preview. Frame rate also degrades, the more effects of course the more degragation. Easy to get it down to less than 10 FPS.

P4 1.9 G 512 MB mem with 350MB configured for preview.
organism_seven wrote on 2/17/2002, 6:26 AM
Hi,

I have aslo purchased the ADVC-100 to
import VHS tapes to the DV format.

How have you connected up your cables to
output to your TV screen?

Regards

organism7@cableinet.co.uk

fongaboo wrote on 2/17/2002, 9:07 AM
I beleive it may be possible to get the Matrix G400 card to do external preview. But I cannot guarantee. But try this and report back..

I am making an assumption that you have the card in DVDMax mode. This means that when you play a DVD or a video file in Windows Media Player or Quicktime, it shows in the window on the deskotp of the first output, but simultaneously plays full-screen on the second output. The second output will be VGA or NTSC depending on whether you have the adapter attached. Under this configuration, one might expect that Vegas might act similarly.

But in actuality, the way that programs like WMP and Quicktime are making system calls to draw the output is different. Since I don't 100% know what the case is, I offer this only as a hunch.

- Go into Display Properties in Windows
- Click the Settings tab
- Click the Advanced button
- Click the DualHead tab
- Switch the setting from DVDMax to DualHead Multi-Display
- Click OK all the way out

You will have to reboot at this point.

When you reboot, you should have dual-desktops, such that half the desktop is coming out of your secondary (presumably NTSC if I am to guess that you have the adapter plugged in) output.

Then open Vegas and go into Options->Preferences->Video Device

See if there is now a new Device in the drop-down selection.

Basically my supposition is based on how some VJ software I use has behaved. Most VJ software relies on the fact that there be a control interface screen on the main VGA display and then a full-screen output simultaneously on a secondary output. A few of these apps have relied that the Matrox card is in the Multi-Display (dual desktop) mode. This basically makes the card behave such that Windows sees two separate devices just as if you had two literal video cards. The VJ apps send a full-screen output to the second virtual device.

When you have it in DVDMax mode, the second output is not a virtual device (second video card), but rather it is assigned to a piece of hardware on the board whose only job is to take what is thrown at it through a DirectX API nad decode it full-screen. My understanding is that WMP and QuickTime draw their output through this API and the Matrox driver intercepts anything sent through that API. It would be nice if SonicFoundry could add support for the DVDMax hardware on the Matrox cards. I could understand if they say it is not possible, because in talking to the authors of afforementioned VJ apps, it is difficult to get material that is created on the fly (like the VV preview, as opposed to a statically rendered single AVI you'd play in WMP or Quicktime) to pipe to that hardware in a useable form.

So tell me what you find. Try fiddling around. I would think there's got to be some way to coax the card into full-screen with Vegas.
baatsaam wrote on 2/17/2002, 11:09 AM
I'm also having the same problem. I have the ATI All-in-wonder 128 and it won't output to my TV (does anyone know how/if it's possible?).

To output video (for now), I have to set down my resolution to 800x600, then using ATI's monitor options, I output my whole computer screen to the TV. I then have to play the video in full screen... But it would be nice if the External Monitor thing would work.
Chienworks wrote on 2/17/2002, 7:13 PM
Baatsaam, same thing as mentioned before ... the external preview only works through a 1394 firewire port.
wvg wrote on 2/17/2002, 8:30 PM
There is a "cheat" way to do it if you have two graphic cards and two monitors and a operating system that supports dual monitors like XP. Do NOT use the preview on external monitor option. I've tried the following, but didn't think the results were that great.

Just messing around I discovered that you first undock the preview screen in monitor one. Next drag a corner of the preview window until the actual video within the preview window also expands outwards. It won't until you drag it a good distance on the diagonal. Once you get the preview to nearly fill your screen or the size you want it, drag the preview window to the second monitor. You then have monitor one for the timeline and other stuff with your preview near full screen on the 2nd monitor.

Of course you need two graphic cards and two monitors and install same first.
Lindsay wrote on 2/18/2002, 1:00 PM
I am having a similar problem with the Matrox G400 Max Card - the strange thing is that when you are in capture mode there is an output to a Tv monitor connected to the second output on the card. When the clip is on the timeline though there is no output
Wayne wrote on 2/18/2002, 8:23 PM
Yes, the only way to do true external monitor is through the firewire IEEE1394 port. If you have a dual monitor or two graphics cards, you can drag the monitor window in VV3 to the second display and size it up. I used this method before I got my Canopus converter.
Using the external monitor greatly offloads the CPU for straight video (no effects). When you get to a video section with any effects, the frame rate quickly drops, though. Using the VV3 pre-render function, you can view it almost as the final product will look.

To use the Canopus ADVC-100 for the external monitor function on a NTSC(PAL)monitor or TV, you must select the external monitor icon in the monitor window within VV3. The first time it is selected, the Video Device configuration window should pop up. If not, you can select Options>Preferences>Video Device. In the top box, select "OHCI Compliant IEEE1397/DV". In the second box, select NTSC DV or PAL DV, depending on which standard you are using; and in the third section, select "Recompress edited frames". If this is not selected, when you get to an area in the video which contains any type of effect, the external monitor will freeze and the video will be displayed in the monitor window for the duration of the effect.

Set the Canopus box input selection to "Digital". Connect your NTSC(PAL) monitor or TV to either the composite or S-video output of the converter. I have both an old NTSC monitor which is connected to the composite output and a flat screen 20" Toshiba TV connected to the S-video output.
The NTSC monitor is old and doesn't have the best picture. I use it for composing my videos. I use the Toshiba for viewing for picture quality, color, contrast, brightness and sharpness. I have aligned the Toshiba using the Video Essentials DVD. The DVD covers step by step proper method and test pattern to align a NTSC monitor or TV. It also contains many test patterns to check brightness, contrast, color intensity, color balance and sharpness. Pricey, but well worth the cost.
VV3 does include a color test pattern, but it isn't very useful without a special blue filter with which it must be used to properly adjust hue/tint.