Video Cards

[logicprobe]

Can anyone recommend a good 8x AGP video card that's not super expensive for a new HD Accel system I'm putting together? I'm thinking about a P4C800-E Deluxe mobo, Thanks!



-lp

[gerax]

If you want to be able to do A/V post work without having to get additional hardware and software expansions you could get the Matrox Parhelia or P750 and have a dual video out + TV out for Quicktime preview at full resolution, I have the P750 and after some trial and error with the settings it's working fine, definitely great quality and sync is spot on, check it out.

L.G.

[Brandonx1]

gerax,
What are you doing that I'm not. I can get the quicktime movie to play out the tv out of my matrox but it looks really bad. Pixals are really big. If I play the same movie out with a directx app like windows media player, the tv output is crystle clear and amazing looking. Do you have any idea what your woing different than me. This is just about my only problem with this solution. Thanks for your time,
Peace,
Brandon

[gerax]

Try posting your settings here (Power desk, QT version and settings, PT version...) and I'll match those to mine and see if something different comes up. Only thing I know, after several days of head banging against the wall this setup is working great for me (also thanx to some other fellas here on the DUC like Karel Bata and Froyo).

Hope this helps

L.G.

[JCBigler]

If you get an ATI All-in-Wonder 9600XT, you can have all kinds of VIVO options, a free version of Pinnacle, as well as a TV and FM tuner and dual monitor support. Check Newegg, they can be had for about $190 (it's not that much really, when you compare it to the price you paid for your HD Accel system.

[Brandonx1]

Try posting your settings here (Power desk, QT version and settings, PT version...) and I'll match those to mine and see if something different comes up. Only thing I know, after several days of head banging against the wall this setup is working great for me (also thanx to some other fellas here on the DUC like Karel Bata and Froyo).

Hope this helps

L.G.

Here they are,

DVDMax settings
Use DVDMax is checked
Under Aspect Ratio Preserve Aspect Ratio is checked
Under TV Aspect Ration 4:3 is checked
Under Aspect Ratio Detection Method Detect Based on Video Source Size is checked
Under Advanced Use Field Based Scaling is checked

Quicktime version is 6.3
Quicktime settings
Video Settings
Options is checked
Under options the first three options are checked which are
Enable DCI, Enable DirectDraw, Enable DiractDraw Acceleration

And Enable DirctDraw on Secondary Monitors is not checked


I use PT LE 6.1.1

Thanks for all the help.
Peace,
Brandon

[gerax]

Here's mine:

DirectX 8.1 as standard in WinXPSP1, don't upgrade.
QT6.3: Do the "full or recomended" installation not minimal.
QT settings, Video: safe option won't do, check everything else exept DirectDraw on secondary monitor. Also under connection, check "allow multiple streams".
Matrox Powerdesk:
Multi-Display setup: 2displays, streched mode+ 1 feature display
Video Playback settings: Use video overlay-checked
Use PureVideo/DVDMax-checked
Assist video motion compensation-unchecked
PureVideo/DVDMax settings: Preserve aspect ratio, video window, 4:3
Uncheck all advanced settings (preserve source cropping etc.)
Help> Troubleshooting Settings: check the first two.

Not all of these make a difference, just try them.

VERY IMPORTANT is the VIDEO CODEC you use: Try QT DV first. NOT all codecs work for full screen TVout, .AVI with Sorensen and Cinepak compression codecs works well too.


There are a few things that are set different, so you may as well want to try changing those, but I cannot guarantee they will work.
Having the system set this way I'm capable of full resolution (and of good quality) video from the two outs (video and S-video) to whatever device I want, for the moment it's a TV set, I'll expand that in the future to a plasma screen or LCD projector, but the image quality is gerat and dead on sync.

Hope this helps.

L.G.

[N-G-NEER]

Hi Gerax,

Ok I got this to work fairly well, but here is what I found. When you have a Protools file up you can not change the video file. in fact I found you need to close Protools open the Matrox control Panel and change a setting. Only then will it release the video card and allow youto open a new file. Is this correct or did I do something wrong?

PT 6.4
XP
ASUS board
40 Gig system drive
200 Gig File drive
1 Gig RAM
Matrox Parhelia
two 21" Dell VGA and a Sony PVM

[Brandonx1]

Gerax,
Thanks for the help. I'm still getting about the same results (I can get the video to play out the TV out but it just looks bad). Are you telling me that if you play the same DV video in a DirectDraw application it doesn't look cleaner??
Peace,
Brandon

[gerax]

Guys

I'm not sure, all I can say is that the setup works fine, even though I didn't understand this issue about changing the video file: do you mean that if you want to import another video clip in the open PT session the Powerdesk is not going to let you do it?

I'll try it asap and post back.

Bandon

Not sure about that, but it look the same to me, both in direct draw (like Media Player) and from within PT, there may be a very slight difference in quality (if any), but I haven't noticed it, and it would be nothing that could prevent me from doing sync work. Plus the director of the last feature I worked on complimented me for the quality of the picture, rather good, he said, for a non video workstation...good enough for him...

Hope this helps guys, I'm sorry I cannot get more in depth but I'm by no means a video expert, I just spent some time teweaking it (with some help from Karel and Froyo) untill it worked, and to justify the expense for a triple head card.

l.g.