HD out for previews

[tomk358]

I'm slowly trying to improve my system and workflow, today I installed a Matrox Parhellia APVe video card in hopes that I would be able to use 2 VGA monitors for my computer, and then send video output to an external video monitor (currently a Sony SD production monitor, but soon an HD monitor of some sort).

Turns out Matrox's drivers only support this when Premiere is set to DV mode, which to me seems pretty pointless- if I'm working in DV, I'd just use my DV camera to view a preview out firewire.

When I edit HD, I'm using Raylight, which means you must run premiere in 'Desktop' edit mode.

The only way I got it to work was to enable the video overlay and the 'DVMAX' in the Matrox drivers, and then set Premiere to output the video to a second monitor. This sent fullscreen HD to my second VGA monitor while at the same time sending to my SD video monitor. .. so it worked, but now I'm only using 1 VGA monitor. This was what I already could do with my nVidia Quadro FX1500.

Are there any other affoardable methods of viewing full-screen HD on external displays? Mac people have the Matrox MXO, which seems like a good way to go, but what do we have?

Will CS3's new support of MXF/DVCProHD change this situation? Would a Decklink card solve my problem?

I don't want to save up for an Axio, as I'm already not happy with Matrox, and haven't read too many good things about their service or support. Speaking of which, this card I put in- the first was DOA, and it only took them 3 months and 2 angry phone calls to send me a replacement.

Computers make me grumpy some times.

-Tom

 

[heimpel]

Im using the same card and its working fine. I set it up a long time ago so dont completely remember but the time I got full video preview on second VGA, I remember it being because the cables were plugged in all wrong. Theres a specific order to get two VGA's to display desktop and the TV to be your feature display.

That card can do it, I used it for full HD previews. Just fiddle with it a little. Its mainly all through Powerdesk. I dont recall changing anything in Premiere from default settings.

 

[Unique]

Check your DVI output if you have one, i had problems outputting video to a monitor when i was not using the DVI slot. .

 

[Neil Rowe]

I have the same card as well, and im running 2 widescreen monitors and one HD video monitor a the same time via component HD output. the HD monitor will fullscreen whatever video you play on the PC whether its from windows media player, quicktime player, some DVD program , your NLE, AE, encore, soundbooth, or whatever. You can set the card up to run 3 desktop displays if you want, and have the third one be the full screen video out when video is being played, but i choose to use component HD output because its going to represent what most people will see on a HD set better. you have to turn video overylay on, and then just follow the instructions for changing the display setup within the matrox control panel. it will restart your machine, and you should have all 3 displays up and running when your playing any video or still images using a video overlay - 2 displays for desktop, and one for HD/SD output monitoring. you dont have to change anything in your programs or NLE, and you dont need to do anything to montor SD when your outputting in HD (480p, 720p, 1080i or 1080p are all output otions for the component HD video monitoring output) but if your in say 1080p, it will play back any other format as well up to 1080p. so you should just set it to the highest res accepted by your HD monitor. if you have a 720p monitor that accepts 1080i signals, just stick with 720p. your not gaining anything by going to 1080i, and you may introduce unwanted artifacts on your display from interlacing issues. anyway. the card does what your looking for, you just need to set up the multi displays again through the matrox control panel, and it should be peachy.