Question for DigiTechSuppt???

[GreyArea]

Alright, I know the the Appian Jeronimo is the only dual vid card you guys support, I've also read that the ATI Rage had the least amount of errors as a second Vid Card with PT. This is my question, I want to run a second video card just to mirror my original monitor (as a remote monitor, keyboard and mouse at my midi gear). Does ProTools handle the dual monitor issue anybetter if it's just mirroring, Rather than running as a traditional dual monitor setup??? As you can see $700 just so I can sequence from my synth gear without sliding my chair across the room to the computer is WAY out of the question. Dealing with PT errors due to the second monitor would be unacceptable aswell.

By the way, whats happening with the dual and triple monitor issue, is it being looked into any farther than just saying "Use the really expensive Appian card" or is that it for a solution?? (Jeese, you know... the Appian card costs about as much as I payed for my Digi001, or my MotorMix for that mater.)

[Armando]

This question was addressed on another forum by Roger Nichols( EQ mag/musicplayer.com) and as he put it, it's more of an issue for Apple than the Digi folks( design issue). I applaud your decision to not to go for a "Digi approved" card which costs about as much as 001. That's just plain crazy!

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[GreyArea]

I understand that it is an apple issue, I just want to know if the DAE errors are brought about by having a second video card period, or if they are related to actually running an extended desktop... i.e. will running the second card for mirroring eliminate the problem. I know the answer is most likely no, but it's just kinda frustrating, my 9500 had no problems with a second card.

Also, understanding that the video card issue is more of an apple problem, isn't there anything you guys can do to rewrite protools to accomadate more cards on the market. I'm a die-hard ProTools user so I'm not going anywhere, but in theory I could go to any mac based competitor of Digidesign and run three monitors with no problems. It's not a big deal right now, but when I can drop $10k for a MixPlus system, the limited monitor support may become an issue. Any word DigiTechSupt?

[Digital Sound Lab]

As far as I know the Jeronimo http://nacad.com/videocards/2000.html
is the ONLY duel APG graphics card on the market.

What makes me mad is that Apple should have put 2 APG slots or
kept all monitoring PCI with about 6 or 7 bays like my Power Tower Pro.

Somebody will come out with another duel APG card but until then
Appian has the market.

[Jeff D.]

Guys,

I took a risk and bought an ATI XClaim VR 128 PCI card to add an extra monitor to my system (to extend the desktop). My situation is a little different than yours, in that I have a Yikes (PCI graphics) G4 machine, so the XClaim is my second PCI card.

However, so far I have had no error messages, even when mixing big sessions. I haven't tried recording more than 2 tracks, however, so I'll test that perhaps tonight.

I also hope to be able to take advantage of the XClaim's video input (supposedly goes straight to the screen w/o using CPU power...) to display a camera input while tracking.

The card is on 30 day return, so if it doesn't work, I can always get my $ back.

Another note: it seems that the users that were having trouble with two monitor cards were the TDM guys running more than 24 tracks and UW SCSI drives. Does that mean that we can get away with two video cards with the 001?

I'll post the results of my tests here.

Jeff D.

[dcornutt]

Im not quite convinced that the PCI to busy errors are an "Apple problem".

If you check the new Windows 001 forum..you will see..now that users are getting and installing PT5le..some of them..are also getting the same DAE error..PCI bus to busy.

Id be willing to be its a Digi problem.

dcornutt

[DigiTechSupt]

When Apple switched to the AGP graphic architechture, many people thought that it would be the end of the dreaded DAE-6042 error due to the graphics being on a separate bus. "We'll now have plenty of PCI bandwidth" was the thought. However, Apple pulled a fast one and instead of leaving the PCI bus at the same specs, they actually toned it down with the introduction of the AGP bus. As a result, the PCI bus is much more tempermental than previous models. Using a second monitor card exclusively for mirroring purposes will still require PCI resources to run the graphics engine on the card. Therefore, I am afraid that this will still choke the PCI bus, increasing your chances of sessions interrupted with errors.
The clear answer is then to take advantage of the AGP bus by letting it perform all the graphics duties; however, there's only 1 AGP slot so a dual port AGP card is our only hope. This was very difficult to find since there was no manufacturer that supported the Mac OS until we found a solution with the Appian J2K.

To make a long story short, you are free to try whatever dual monitor configuration you would like with your AGP-equipped Mac. However, we have done exstensive testing with the Appian J2K to ensure that your work will not be interrupted with -6042 errors when running our software with a dual monitor configuration.

Brent

[shaggy]

What about matrox display/av cards?

[Jeff D.]

Some testing of my new dual monitor setup:

System:
G4 400 Yikes (PCI graphics)
192MB RAM
OS 8.6
System setings at factory recommended, except monitors which were both set to 1024 X 768, millions of colors

ATI Xclaim VR 128 in the 66mHz PCI slot
Adaptec 2930 Ultra narrow SCSI in slot 1
Digi 001 in slot 2
Apple-supplied ATI Rage 128 in slot 3

Playback of 24 track, 44.1khz, 24bit session, edit and mix windows on different monitors, lots of plug-ins - no problems

Recording (destructive mode) on 18 tracks, 44.1, 24bit w/same setup - no problems

Watching TV using the Xclaim VR's TV input while doing the above - no problems

Playing a quicktime movie while playing 24 tracks as above - no problems, but slow graphics

In 2 hours of recording and testing, I was unable to bring up the DAE -6042 error using this 2 monitor setup.

I'm NOT complaining!

Jeff D.