hd/sd monitoring from powermac g5 dual core... with a catch.

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dosborn

Active member
okay... so the head honcho at my company is monitor CRAZY. he wants a editing/motion graphics work station, and we just so happen to have a powermac g5 2ghz dual core that is going unused. he wants to have dual desktop monitors, an HD output for client viewing (46" consumer LCD), an SD CRT output AND a wacom cintiq 12". the HD output would also need to act as a mirror for the secondary monitor.

that's five, count 'em--5 monitors on this machine. the tower currently has one DVI port and one ADC port (which is a re-dressed DVI port?).

i'm looking at an ATI radeon 9200, which would give me an extra DVI and VGA port. i have two PCI-X slots available, so if i add two of the cards, i would have a total of 4 DVI ports. DVI and ADC for the two monitors... extra DVI for HD monitor... extra DVI for wacom cintiq.... firewire for SD monitor. with the extra DVI port for the HD output monitor, can i mirror the secondary desktop for a desktop preview in final cut and motion?

I would rather just throw in a Kona card for HD/SD monitoring, but needing the HD output monitor to also mirror the secondary desktop monitor throws a kink in my plans.

would any of you fine, fellow DVXusers have any advice? ANY help would be greatly appreciated. :thumbup:
 
Matrox MXO and Matrox TripleHead2Go....and an ACD to DVi converter, or a replacement AGP graphics card with two DVI ports.

Now...TripleHead2Go connected to one DVI port to increase the DVI signal and spread it two TWO of the computer monitors. It spans one desktop to both monitors. Then the other DVI port can be used for the MXO. The MXO can connect DVI to an Apple Cinema Display or Dell 24" display...or other 24" computer display...via DVI. And that can mirror the desktop.

The MXO also has Component outs, S-Video outs and Composite outs. So you can use those to connect to your SD display. BUT....this cannot display an HD and SD image simultaneously. One or the other. Decklink or AJA cards can, but they only offer HD SDI, Component and composite...and no mirroring of the desktop to one of the monitors. Well, the Decklink does, I think.

That gets you close. But you cannot display the image on both SD and HD monitor at the same time, and you only have 4 monitors.

The MXO 2 offers more outputs, but that only works in PCI-e macs...and not PCI-X.
 
thanks for the reply, shane!

we actually have an MXO that i hooked up and tried, but it doesn't work with the HD plasma that we have. MXO outputs 1920x1200, and our plamsa is 1920x1080.

the triplehead2go sounds interesting... i'll definitely check it out.

would this config work in FCP?....
-triplehead2go on one DVI port for the 2 desktop monitors
-ADC->DVI ->HDMI for plasma (mirrored to second desktop-FCP set to full screen desktop preview)
-additional PCI-X card--new DVI port for wacom cintiq
-firewire for SD out
 
ADC>DVI>HDMI...I don't think that will work. As you said, the MXO outputs a 1920x1200 signal. BUT, the MXO has Component outputs, and your plasma should have component inputs.

FCP doesn't work with two graphics cards...so that option is out. 5 monitors from one machine in the configuration you want is simply not possible.
 
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