What is DX9 Full screen exclusive mode?

[Snuffy2]

What is it? How is it different than the v2 full screen mode? Should it make the video better than the v2 full screen? Better than the 350 hardware out?

Thanx

[mlbdude]

It won't make the video better. It will help those with nVidia cards (or others) that do 1080i output via HDTV connections get smooth playback though. It basiacally forces Sage to work like a video game.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mlbdude

It won't make the video better. It will help those with nVidia cards (or others) that do 1080i output via HDTV connections get smooth playback though.

IMO it is slightly better than "normal" even if you aren't having the 1080i issues.

Personally, if you don't want to do any multitasking I'd enable it. That's really the only reason not to use it.

Are you on an SDTV? If so, it won't magically make video better than the 350.

[Wheemer]

It is supposed to be slightly better than the way v2 displays... It certainly looks great on my FX5500... especially the left and right fullscreen panning shots. They used to be choppy and now they are smooth as silk.

I also find that I can still multitask perfectly fine. I can be using my tv out and browsing the net on my monitor.

[wexsmith]

So FSE VMR9 only works with 1080i displays?

My HDTV is fairly old and only supports 720p. My computer is connected through a normal computer monitor type VGA plug in the back of the TV. It's running 800x600 progressive @ 60Mhz refresh. I'd like to use the exclusive full screen mode to hopefully relieve any panning issues I still have. Is this an option to me?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by wexsmith

So FSE VMR9 only works with 1080i displays?

No for some (specifically those with Geforce 6 series cards running DVI or Component) FSE is required to get good VMR9 performance at 1080i. AFIAK though there are no restrictions on what resolutions it works with.

My HDTV is fairly old and only supports 720p.

It's rather hard to get one that supports anything higher (1080i vs 720p is sort of a tossup as to which is "higher").

I'm running my FSE on my PJ @ 720p.

[flavius]

My ATI 9550 is connected via DVI to my plasma. The HTPC screen is set to 720x480 and on the TV it's scaled to 1080i (no choice here). I quite ok with my PQ (using VMR9) - I'm recording in DVD quality. Would the exclusive mode give me anything?

[stanger89]

The biggest difference you might get is that the picture would be smoother, I mean that in a temporal way. A more fluid image.

[nielm]

One other difference is that in FSE mode, Sage is the only window displayed (hence the "exclusive") -- no other windows can appear on top, and if you task switch Sage will be minimised (just like DirectX games). This allows it to take full control of the graphics card, and may help stuttering.

[Rogue9]

I'm getting some "jittery" playback with Sage. I can usually go into setup and "reload media player" and sometimes it will fix it. and its not always a problem either. It just gets jumpy at times, usually with motion scenes. But reloading the player and rewinding usually fixes that scene. And this is only with Sage. DVD playback with ZoomPlayer and FSE is flawless.

Just wondering if FSE and Sage v3 would fix this or not. Do you lose your OSD while in FSE mode?

[Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by nielm

One other difference is that in FSE mode, Sage is the only window displayed (hence the "exclusive") -- no other windows can appear on top, and if you task switch Sage will be minimised (just like DirectX games). This allows it to take full control of the graphics card, and may help stuttering.

What happens if you put in a DVD that has extra material for PC's and runs an application when the disc is inserted?

[mikejaner]

Overlay has a far crisper and better picture than any other mode IMHO. I hope they never stop support for it in the near future. Exclusive mode still has the disadvantage that VMR9 has, which is a picture that is less colorfull and a little more blurry. I was stunned after watching HDTV for so long with MCE 2005, then switching to HD with Sage in Overlay mode. It looks much better.

[mkanet]

mikejaner, its funny that you mentioned that. I also noticed the same differences between overlay and VMR9/VMR9(FSE). With Nvidia's overlay, the driver's saturation default is to 114% which explains why overlay looks more colorful. Also, VMR9 does have a slightly softter picture too.

However, I still ended up choosing VMR9...

I went to my Nvidia detonator color correction and increased the contrast to 102% and increased Image Sharpening to approximately 30-40%. Then, applied my color changes to "ALL"; which affects VMR9 as well.

The end result is sharpness and more "depth" to the picture which is comparable to overlay on my 22" CRT at 1920x1440. Plus, the video is smooth as silk during vertical/horzontal panning scenes in HD.

[mikejaner]

I also like overlay cause it's rock solid and smooth during playback.

[mkanet]

Mike, I just thought I'd let you know you were right along.

I re-tried standard Overlay and took the time to calibrate the colors. Now, the video looks sharper, more accurate, more contrast (without crushing the whites and killing the blacks), and faster screen fill rate at 1920x1440@72Hz.

Also, now all the weird instability problems went away (such as, switching to and from window mode).

[aperry]

Hmmm... I may need to re-investigate Overlay mode. I too liked it when I used it before, but went with VMR9 for some reason (I guess the thought was that VMR9 must be better than VMR7, right?)

[Wheemer]

This thread sparked me to go through the trouble of rolling back my nvidia drivers to 53.04 to re-try overlay. My experiences were not very good however, as I was getting micro pauses often, although my cpu was only at ~30%. I gave it a full 24hrs of tweaking like crazy, even went so far as to reinstall Nvidia purevideo and Sage. Nothing solve these little pauses and jerky pans with Overlay. It's probably due to having to use ancient driver just to avoid the OSD resizing issue.

Anyways, that's the last time I'm going to ever bother with overlay. For me, when using VMR9, aside from the FF/RW bug, the picture is really crisp and fluid. So I guess I'll have to put up with that damned FF/RW jitters until Sage can properly invoke YUV display mode.

[mkanet]

I'm the kind of guy that likes to have the latest technologies of everything. In fact, I was so stubborn, I refused for the longest time to even try overlay; thinking I already had the best/latest of everything configured and set up perfectly.

However, no matter how I look at it, overlay looks significantly sharper, more colorful, deeper blacks, less softness, etc; even when I had VMR9 set as best as it could possibly get.

The funny thing is that I was seriously considering to get MCE 2005. However, what's the point if I KNOW if wont look as good no matter what I do.

Plus, no more FF/RW bug... which I was willing to put up with for the longest time because I was so stubborn

I've never had such good sucess with Overlay before; so my guess is because I have the latest display drivers.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mkanet

However, no matter how I look at it, overlay looks significantly sharper, more colorful, deeper blacks, less softness, etc; even when I had VMR9 set as best as it could possibly get.

FWIW, black level and white leve are 100% calibration affected, so you can't attribute a difference in them to one or the other. Now the default settings OOTB for Overlay seem to be "optomized" for PC displays so the black level (by default) is dropped and the contrast (white level) is boosted (again by default).

Color is similar, but not as simple because they could be using different colorspace conversions. As for sharpness, I'll give you that one, as it seems overlay, in general, has some sharpenning applied, lots of people like it that way.

[blade]

Overlay was too dark for my TV, no matter how much I tweaked I could never get the picture to look like I wanted. The colors were very rich, they were just too dark. The default settings with VMR9 looked brighter and more realistic. The colors were a little more washed out, but on my display it looked better that way. I think it just depends on personal preference and your particular display.