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ATI 9200 multi-view can't play full screen video on tv via S-vid.. why not?

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squale

Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2003
I just got my new Powercolor ATI Radeon 9200 card with S-video. Well I hooked it up to my TV and was fooling around with the N-view or whatever ATI calls their own. Well I was playing some MPEG's on my tv using the "CLONE" mode so I can see the same thing on both my monitor and tv. Well when I do this, I CAN'T see the MPEG video through Windows Media player on my TV. I can see the video on the monitor fine, but it is just a blank black screen on the tv. The status bar even still moves along in windows media player on the tv, but their is no video, just blackness. So then I tried just switching over to the Tv as my ONLY output device. Well when I do this, then I can see the video fine and I can see the video in full screen without problems. It is just in either the clone mode or in the extended desktop mode that I can't view the video on the tv and ONLY on the pc. Is there some sort of limitation here why this can't happen? Does the video card put out enough force to power streaming MPEG video on two output devices at once? It seems like it only wants to play the video on the computer monitor unless I switch over to the tv as the ONLY display device. This is very annyoing becuase there will be time when I am playing like a dvd and I might want to sit at my computer and watch it while I am browing the net, but at the same time, might glance up and watch it on the tv. So I was under the impression that EVERYTHING you saw on your monitor you would see on your tv in "clone" mode and that's the main reason I brought this card. Does anybody have the same issue? is there a way to fix this?
 
The reason for this is overlays. This is a technique many video applications use to reduce processor usage and make video smoother. Instead of having the video card mess with the data, it writes the video directly to the video memory that is going to be output. Unfortunatly, since this is immediatly output, it cannot be cloned to another display (or displayed on a 2nd monitor in extened desktop mode).

The solution is to disable overlays in the program. In WMP, go to Tools -> Options -> Performance -> Advanced (under video acceleration). Disable the overlays checkbox, and it should work then. Also disable "use primary surfaces" if disabling the overlays alone dosen't work. Last resort is to kill all the options, but I'm 99% sure the first two should make it work.

JigPu
 
by doing this, is this going to kill my video performance or make the image crappier?
 
Not unless you're machine is REALLY slow :) I usually leave it disabled on my system so I can capture screenshots, and I don't notice any performance hit at all. But your's is faster than mine, so I wouldn't worry about it at all.

JigPu
 
you know much about feedback that will cause a hum in your audio system? I posted another thread right behind this one today about this issue I have. I have a pro audio sound card, never had a problem with it, when I installed my Ati 9200 today and hooked up the s-video wire to my tv, I now get a constant hum feedback noise through my computers sound speakers. It's only when the s-video is hooked up to the tv and computer at the same time that this hum happens. When I disconnect either side of the s-video wire, the hum immediately stops.. do you know what may be wrong?
 
well I did it and I only needed to uncheck Overlay.

so in clone mode I have no problems, and can go Full Screen in WMP on both the monitor and tv at the same time. However, in extended desktop mode, when I put WMP on the tv and then have the regular windows desktop on my computer monitor, if I go to full screen mode in WMP on the tv, the video goes black and it will show full screen mode on the monitor. So I can't see to get full screen mode on JUST the tv in extended display mode. But I can get 1x and 2x sizes. Why can't I go full screen in the extended desktop portion?
 
I believe the problem is that WMP automatically full-screens to the primary display. You could make your TV the primary display, but that wouldn't be great since all your icons would be on the TV. I don't know if there's any solution to it besides using another media player, and even then I'm not sure if there are any that full screen to the second desktop....

JigPu
 
what is in your opinion the best and fastest media player for mpeg, avi, divx, etc?
 
Well, they're really all pretty much the same in terms of speed. I've used WMP, Real Player, Quicktime, and DivX Player, and they all seem to use about the same amount of CPU time (though the DivX player only has hardware acceleration on the Radeon 9500 and newer)

I can test out my media players and see if any of them will fullscreen right though (since I have a TV laying around) :)
JigPu
 
OK, I tested some out, and it turns out that DivX Player will actually do what you want. I can set my TV as the secondary display of my extended desktop, and if I move the player to the TV, it will full screen to it. I don't even have to turn off any acceleration (though I'm not sure if that will be the same for you since you don't have a 9500+)

JigPu
 
Yeah, it should play all those. I've gotten it to play MPEGs and AVIs (DivX, and XviD), with the program also saying it supports MOV, Quicktime, ect. Should play just about anything you want except for Real Media formats and other nonstandard stuff.

JigPu
 
cool I wil give it a shot..

do you know if DVD will play full screen in extended mode. Cause I might want to watch a dvd on the tv in full screenw hile surfing the net on the computer..

I have power dvd.. but haven't tried this yet
 
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