TV video problem with Chaintech Volari V3

[SteveP]

I am experimenting with a Chaintech Volari V3 card in my existing Sage computer. Everything worked fine for the last year with the Radeon 7000 based card I had. The Volari V3 will show the on screen display but no video on the TV through the S-video output (the monitor shows everything ok). Any ideas of how to get the video to show up?

I'm using Sage 2.2.3 beta with Cayars 16. I went through all the settings I could find both in the Volari driver and Sage but couldn't find anyting to change the output.

Thanks in advance,
Steve

[PGPfan]

FWIW, I tried (then removed) the V3XT card from my system. It 'was' going to replace a Radeon 7500 but it sucked too badly.

-PGPfan

[SteveP]

Yea, the card may suck rocks, but I should still be able to get video out. I think I had the same problem with my Radeon 7000 when I first started using Sage a year ago. I just can't remember what needs to be done to get video. Last year it seems like I could get video without OSD, then OSD without video. I finally found the combination where I could get both. Any suggestions anyone?

[Opus4]

Do you have video + UI on the monitor, while at the same time only the UI shows on the TV? it sounds like the video card is set to use some sort of clone mode while SageTV is set to overlay. VMR9 or 'Default' should be able to be cloned to both.

Alternately, instead of cloning the monitor on the TV, go into Display Properties and extend the desktop onto the 2nd monitor (the TV) and drag the SageTV window to it. You may have to set the TV to be the 'primary monitor' in Display Properties for 3D Acceleration to work properly, if you want 3D Accel enabled.

- Andy

[SteveP]

Thanks for the feedback. Last night, I tried switching the TV to be the primary unit, but without positive results. Tonight, setting the TV to primary allowed the tv to show video and OSD. Umm, the card must have aged overnight Now, the monitor won't show the video. The driver settings don't have a clone mode like the Radeon-based drivers do. I played with the overlay, vmr9 and default settings also to see if anything changed, it didn't. I could not find a way to extend the desktop to the second device as a separate function. The setup seemed to be trying to do that anyway.

One thing I did try, that I regretted, is on Display Settings I right clicked on the second display icon and selected Attached. The monitor was the secondary display and immediately lost the desktop. Just the desktop background color was left. This became kind of a Laurel and Hardy routine. The monitor (with no desktop) is now in one room with the computer and the TV (with the desktop) is in another room. Kinda makes it hard to select things when you can't see them. Two-way radio communications with the wife in one room and me in the other does not inspire confidence and improve the WAF.

Well, it was an interesting experiment. I was hoping to use this relatively inexpensive card ($15 after rebate) for analog and digital output, but this issue, the fact that CPU usage went from 12/25% with the Radeon to 40/60% with the Volari, and the problems PGPfan referred to probably indicate I should just return the card and wait to get a better card later. Back to the Radeon.

Thanks again,
Steve

BTW, why would CPU usage increase? I would have expected a newer card to have potentially reduced CPU usage, not increase it.