Vegas Video 3 - Matrox G450eTV - External Monitor

JimBlack wrote on 12/29/2001, 11:22 PM
Hi,
I've got a monitor hooked up to video out of the G450eTV. When I play a mpg or other movie with Media Player or Real Player, I get the images displayed on the external monitor. When I run VV3, I can't get the Video For Windows selection to work with the monitor. I can prerender/play segments in Media Player/External Monitor but I can't get the editing display off the primary display. Has anyone got around this? Windows 2K SP2, Dual PIII 933Mhz, 1G memory, 250G drives.
Thanks for any help!
Jim

Comments

BHP wrote on 12/30/2001, 4:53 PM
I have the same question.
deef wrote on 12/30/2001, 8:00 PM
When you play those files in Video Capture does it go out the hardware decoder properly?
BHP wrote on 1/1/2002, 2:55 PM
I was able to open an AVI file in the capture v2.0h utility and I was able to see it through the Matrox DVDMax Dual head output.

Thanks for trying to help with this issue. It would be very useful to be able to use the preview to monitor option. I could get rid of Adobe and my Pinnacle hardware solution.

Thanks again,

Brett
JimBlack wrote on 1/1/2002, 5:56 PM
Hi,
I went into Capture Video in VV3 and opened a 2G AVI file. I then clicked playback and it played on both the Windows Desktop and on the External Monitor. BTW: When I opened a 24G AVI, VV3 crashed the system and the PC rebooted.
Thanks for your help,
Jim
Wayne wrote on 1/2/2002, 9:07 PM
I am running with a Matrox G450 and ran into the same thing. Using the DVD MAX function I got a full screen video of half a dozen video programs including the VV2/3 capture programs but nothing with the VV2/3 external monitor function.
After searching on this forum and others I determined that the external monitor is only available through a firewire port or " Video for Windows Standard", what ever that my be.
Using my Sony DCR-TRV120 camcorder's digital to analog decoding capability, I am able to use the external function with either composite or S-video video. I could continue to use the camcorder to do this function but opted to get a standalone firewire to analog converter. Not cheap, $3000, but it also gives me a standalone analog conversion box for importing and exporting to/from my computer.
I am presently using my camcorder to do analog input/output.
HPV wrote on 1/3/2002, 9:01 AM
After searching on this forum and others I determined that the external monitor is only available through a firewire port or " Video for Windows Standard", what ever that my be.
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Not true. I've got my preview window at 640x480 out my Geforce MX2 card via an S-video cable to an NTSC analog monitor. It shows ALL of the action and title safe areas. It's only a frame based solution, but it lets me use draft mode for higher framerates which looks better than draft out OHCI. It also lets one use the safe area overlay and the new histogram feature. I use both outputs (graphics card & OHCI) and switch between them with an S-video switcher.

Craig H.
Wayne wrote on 1/3/2002, 10:03 PM
Craig,
Yes that will get an NTSC signal to an external monitor but it is not using the VV3 external monitor feature.
When I was running VV under W98 using my Matrox DH board, I was doing the same thing it sound like you are, setting the primary display up at high res and the secondary at display at 640X480 and either displaying it on a 17" monitor or out the NTSC output of my video board. When I upgraded to W2K, the only mode I have been able to set up is dual screen mode , ie 2048 x 768, 2 - 1024 x768 across two monitors.
I also have a GeForce2 MX DH Pro board which I installed in my old Athlon 800 Computer. I chose to use the Matrox DH in my new machine P4 1.9G which I am dedicating to video and audio editing. The reason that I decided to go with the Matrox in the video editing computer was that from a few benchtests I did on the two boards it looked like the Geforce is optimized for 3D and the Matorx for 2D. I assume that the 2D speed what I need for viewing video.
Also when I went from the old 800 M Athlon to the P4 1.9 I did not see any great increase in frame rate. I assume that the limiting factor is the graphics board and to see any real increase I would have to go to a RT 2500 type realtime board.
Running a single video in the small preview window, I am able to get a full 29.97 fps rateat preview quality. If I have two videos on the time line it goes down to 12- 18 fps and if I add an affect like sharpening, it can go down to 3 fps.
What kind of rates are you getting? If you are seeing better rates with the GeForce board, I may swap mine between computers.
Wayne
xgenei wrote on 1/7/2002, 1:34 PM
I'm curious about matrox DH versus Geforce.

I'm comfortable with the 400/450 dual head. People I know this: the 450eTV is NOT the same class board as the 400/450 dual head. If you want full dual monitor support, or to be more specific XGA / analog S-video or XGA /XGA (or better) from the video card, you have to run the 400/450 class board -- not the all-in-one 450eTV. If you also want the TV tuner and S-VHS capture function you THEN add the daughter card Rainbow Runner "G-series" at + $149 direct. This solution costs a bit more but it works. How well it works specifically with VV3 I don't know yet -- but here is an obvious (to me) error.

Another correction -- the Dazzle DVbridge is the best rated A/D converter and it's $300, not $3,000.
HPV wrote on 1/7/2002, 6:11 PM
Running a single video in the small preview window, I am able to get a full 29.97 fps rateat preview quality. If I have two videos on the time line it goes down to 12- 18 fps and if I add an affect like sharpening, it can go down to 3 fps.
What kind of rates are you getting?
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I'm not sure what you use for a "small" preview window? 360x240? With that size on my Creative Geforce MX2 second monitor output (Analog S-Video) I get about 26Fps at preview quality on two clips (two tracks with one 50% transperant or during a dissolve between clips on the same track). Throw a sharpen filter on each clip and it plays at about 10Fps.
With the preview window set for full frame (720x480 in a 640x480 window) I get full 29.97 on single stream.
Two streams (as above) runs at 10Fps. Add sharpen filter to clips and it runs at 3Fps.
What do you get with these settings?
When I need to check the timing at a higher framerate while editing, I disable the filters and/or reduce the preview window size. The quality of the preview window at preview quality is damn near the same as the DV signal coming out of my camera via S-Video. That's with stock color correction settings in the Geforce prefs. I'm very happy with this setup.
BTW, I'm running Vegas version 2 with MS DV codec. Results with the beta of version 3 and the SF DV codec were the same from what I remember.
Will be getting version 3 in a week or two. Yeah, I bought other people presents before myself and missed the $50.00 savings on upgrade price. And my birthday was Christmas also.
I really don't mind giving SF more money tho, they have earned it in my book.

Happy New Year Everyone,
Craig H.