ATI Multi-Monitor/Component adapter

[Jesse]

Hello,

For various reasons I have just done a clean install (OS and apps) on my sage machine. I took the opportunity to install a 400gb seagate drive for recordings and upgrade from a Radeon 7000 to a 9800pro. I have got a few questions which I could not find answers for on the ATI site.

From the catalyst manual:
You can choose to have your desktop set to one of four modes:
• Clone Mode: two displays show the identical desktop. Clone mode
only supports one color depth, resolution, and refresh rates for both
display devices.
• Stretch horizontally: the desktop is spread horizontally over two
displays. Stretch horizontally mode only supports one color depth,
resolution, and refresh rates for both display devices.
• Stretch vertically: the desktop is spread vertically over two
displays. Stretch vertically mode only supports one color depth,
resolution, and refresh rates for both display devices.
• Extended Mode: the desktop is spread over two displays that can
be arranged independently. Each display can have their own unique
resolution, color depth, and refresh rate.

I am trying to display sage on a secondary (36" SDTV) monitor, while still being able to use my standard computer monitor for other apps. I can get this to work in "clone mode", but this means that I can only set the resolution etc. to suit one of the two monitors. It looks like I need "extended mode" to get 1024x768 on the computer monitor and 640x480 on the SDTV. When I try extended mode I get nothing but a blue screen on the tv. How do I configure the vid card to put the sage ui and video playback on the tv? I did not find the catalyst help files very helpful. I am sure this must be some simple thing that I am just missing.

Next, I am wondering if the DVI/HDTV Component adapter http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2537967 will work with a standard def tv. With HD prices dropping I will probably upgrade in the next six months or so, but meanwhile my SDTV has component inputs that I would like to utilize. Anyone out there done this?

I have tried searching in a few places for this info but have come up pretty much empty. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Jesse

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Next, I am wondering if the DVI/HDTV Component adapter http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2537967 will work with a standard def tv. With HD prices dropping I will probably upgrade in the next six months or so, but meanwhile my SDTV has component inputs that I would like to utilize. Anyone out there done this?

Thanks in advance,
Jesse

Can't help with the ATI question I've never used my 9600 with more than one display but I have a SDTV that has component inputs in the bedroom and they work fine. I can't tell you how it compares to SVideo because the TV only has Component and Composite. Component looks much better then the Composite mode.

BobP.

[dvd_maniac]

I have the AIW 9800 pro and mine is hooked up to a 57" Hitatchi HDTV via S-video as secondary and a 17" LCD primary. I tried hooking it up through the adapter and liked the PQ however I ran into the same problem with resolution in Clone Mode. After much searching and phone conversations with ATI techs, I came to the conclusion that Component is too limited for this use. Being that the primary is an LCD I was stuck with the native resolution of either my HDTV or my LCD screen. Both displays could not use the same resolution without serious overscan issues. Now others will probably say I'm wrong (and if I am I would like to know) but I see little difference in video quality of recordings between s-vid and the component. I see HUGE difference in text, web surfing, DVD playback etc... but if you have a monitor hooked up than that stuff shouldn't matter.

[Jesse]

Hello,

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate the good news on the component adapter.

I finally turned up a pretty good solution to the extended desktop. This may interest you dvd_Maniac, as it allows the use of "extended desktop"

(• Extended Mode: the desktop is spread over two displays that can
be arranged independently. Each display can have their own unique
resolution, color depth, and refresh rate.)

rather than "cloned desktop." I "extended" my monitor's desktop onto my SDTV and set the resolution seperately for each monitor (ie CRT at 1024x768 and SDTV at 640x480). I then set up a hotkey (in Catalyst control panel) to swap displays. I just hit my hotkey and it moves whatever is on the desktop to the other display monitor. Because my Home Theater receiver will switch video, I just leave the desktop set to the tv. When I hit the sage button on my remote sage gets the wake command via girder and then the receiver switches the video input to HTPC and I am good. If I need to use the computer's crt display I can just hotkey the desktop back from the tv to the crt.

Obviously this does not allow for watching sage and using the computer for something else at the same time, but for my situation that is not a problem.

Thanks again for the replies.
Jesse

[sleonard]

Hmm, that might enable me to use the Uneed X15 case with my HDTV. The case has a built in touch screen that uses 1024x768 and my HDTV is 720p. I wonder if it would be possible to use Neilm's dynamic menu to put that hotkey item into the Sage menu.

Then, I could listen to music and do other non-video tasks on the touchscreen and not have to turn on the HDTV with an expensive bulb but when it's TV watching time, just press a menu item to activate the hot-key switch.

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

...Now others will probably say I'm wrong (and if I am I would like to know) but I see little difference in video quality of recordings between s-vid and the component. I see HUGE difference in text, web surfing, DVD playback etc...

I'm not going to say you're wrong -- I'm sure you saw what you saw. But in my experience, the difference between s-video and component was like night and day.

[dvd_maniac]

I'm not going to say you're wrong -- I'm sure you saw what you saw. But in my experience, the difference between s-video and component was like night and day.

I'm not saying I'm right either, so if I am wrong then feel free to tell me. I admit I am just frustrated that I can not have my cake and eat it too when it comes to my overscan issue, but I live with s-video because the only reason I have the tv hooked up is for watching my recordings and VOD files.
I record everything at Max Mpeg-2 quality and when I hooked up the component I saw only a small increase in quality watching Sage recorded files. But the reason I abandoned trying to get compnent to work is that I encode what I want to archive into xvid(AutoGK) and the resulting files look alot worse using component.

[salsbst]

If they look worse in component it's probably because they *are* worse.

Perhaps you could hide that fact by reducing sharpness?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

I admit I am just frustrated that I can not have my cake and eat it too when it comes to my overscan issue,

(Take this lightly ) Why do you care? Sage can compensate for overscan quite easilly.

but I live with s-video because the only reason I have the tv hooked up is for watching my recordings and VOD files.
I record everything at Max Mpeg-2 quality and when I hooked up the component I saw only a small increase in quality watching Sage recorded files.

There will only be a small increase for that probably, but for DVDs and other good sources it should be rather large.

But the reason I abandoned trying to get compnent to work is that I encode what I want to archive into xvid(AutoGK) and the resulting files look alot worse using component.

Then (IMO) you're either compressing them too much, on not well. You should (theoretically) be able to have better quality after recompressing since you can clean them up in the process. Worst case, it should only be slightly different.

[dvd_maniac]

Oh I know they are worse.
I encode from a mpeg-2 5GB/hr file to 350MB/hr Xvid file. I know I'm going to lose a lot from the compression but using s-video I do not see much difference. It is actually acceptable quality to me. This is why "I" decided to live with s-video.
But my point is that I really do not see much difference when viewing the Max Mpeg-2 quality in component versus S-video using my AIW 9800 Pro.
If you or others see a noticable quality difference then maybe I should reconsider and put more effort into setting it up again.

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by Jesse

It looks like I need "extended mode" to get 1024x768 on the computer monitor and 640x480 on the SDTV. When I try extended mode I get nothing but a blue screen on the tv. How do I configure the vid card to put the sage ui and video playback on the tv? I did not find the catalyst help files very helpful. I am sure this must be some simple thing that I am just missing.

Have you tried putting SageTv into Overlay mode? That might help get something onto the TV.