Beware! Nvidia 8000 series Video Cards

[stogie5150]

I just bought a super duper Gateway AMD 6000+ computer, slapped my Twinhan in there worked fine. I was worried about Vista, but no issues so far with DVB Dream.

BUT

Nvidia, in its infinite wisdom, has REMOVED dual display mode from all its 8000 series cards! I have an 8500GT in this PC which is fine for DVB, but you CANNOT stream DVBDream to your TV independently from what's on your desktop. It seems that ATI has no problem leaving that feature in its cards...so I guess I'll be buying ATI from now on...

So now I have a brand new media PC that I am going to have to buy a new video card for...

 

[digiblur]

I just bought a super duper Gateway AMD 6000+ computer, slapped my Twinhan in there worked fine. I was worried about Vista, but no issues so far with DVB Dream.

BUT

Nvidia, in its infinite wisdom, has REMOVED dual display mode from all its 8000 series cards! I have an 8500GT in this PC which is fine for DVB, but you CANNOT stream DVBDream to your TV independently from what's on your desktop. It seems that ATI has no problem leaving that feature in its cards...so I guess I'll be buying ATI from now on...

So now I have a brand new media PC that I am going to have to buy a new video card for...

Are you serious? I find that odd as that is the way things are going. I run dual desktops at work, duals at home, etc. I saw a guy running quad screens the other day while working with a customer.

 

[stogie5150]

At first I thought it was a DRM issue with Vista, but I got to looking at AVSForum and someone said that Nvidia disabled it, and that they don't seem too enthused to reenable it.

Also interesting the new ATI cards have enabled audio to be carried on the hdmi connection for the first time. I am looking at the Radeon HD 2600 XT series.

Check it out, tell me what ya think!

ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 2600 - Specifications

For around 100 bucks, I am THERE!

 

[digiblur]

I'm believe what you are saying but I just can't believe Nvidia would cut their throats like this. Just about every extreme gamer out there I know runs dual LCDs. That's big business they are closing the door on!

 

[digiblur]

At first I thought it was a DRM issue with Vista, but I got to looking at AVSForum and someone said that Nvidia disabled it, and that they don't seem too enthused to reenable it.

Also interesting the new ATI cards have enabled audio to be carried on the hdmi connection for the first time. I am looking at the Radeon HD 2600 XT series.

Check it out, tell me what ya think!

ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 2600 - Specifications

For around 100 bucks, I am THERE!

The page won't load.. How does that work? Your video card is sound card too?

I run a 7.1 audio card w/ optical out. I was an onboard audio guy until a friend of mine showed me the "light".

 

[stogie5150]

Page loads fine for me...but anyway the card bridges the audio to the HDMI output somehow, I am NOT a techhead remember...

Newegg has the speedier one for 139.00...its doesn't look like a gamer card but more a HD video card, which is fine with me.

 

[stogie5150]

Here are some of the specs we're interested in from that link..
ATI Avivo™ HD Video and Display Platform

• Dedicated unified video decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC and VC-1 video formats
  • High definition (HD) playback of both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats
• Hardware MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/DivX video decode acceleration
  • Motion compensation and iDCT (inverse discrete cosine transform)
• Avivo Video Post Processor
  • <LI type=disc>Color space conversion <LI type=disc>Chroma subsampling format conversion <LI type=disc>Horizontal and vertical scaling <LI type=disc>Gamma correction <LI type=disc>Advanced vector adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing <LI type=disc>De-blocking and noise reduction filtering <LI type=disc>Detail enhancement <LI type=disc>Inverse telecine (2:2 and 3:2 pull-down correction)
  • Bad edit correction
• Two independent display controllers
  • <LI type=disc>Drive two displays simultaneously with independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls and video overlays for each display <LI type=disc>Full 30-bit display processing <LI type=disc>Programmable piecewise linear gamma correction, color correction, and color space conversion <LI type=disc>Spatial/temporal dithering provides 30-bit color quality on 24-bit and 18-bit displays <LI type=disc>High quality pre- and post-scaling engines, with underscan support for all display outputs <LI type=disc>Content-adaptive de-flicker filtering for interlaced displays <LI type=disc>Fast, glitch-free mode switching <LI type=disc>Hardware cursor
  • Integrated dual-link DVI display output
  • Supports 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI) or 2560x1600 (dual-link DVI)
• Integrated 400 MHz 30-bit RAMDAC
  • Supports analog displays connected by VGA at all resolutions up to 2048x1536
• HDMI output support
  • <LI type=disc>Supports display resolutions up to 1920x1080 <LI type=disc>Integrated HD audio controller with multi-channel (5.1) AC3 support, enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution
  • HDCP encoder with on-chip key storage for high resolution playback of protected content1
• Integrated AMD Xilleon™ HDTV encoder
  • <LI type=disc>Provides high quality analog TV output (component/S-video/composite) <LI type=disc>Supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions
  • Underscan and overscan compensation
• MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264/AVC encoding and transcoding
• Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
• VGA mode support on all display outputs

 

[Pepper]

I'm running dual monitors at 1600x1200 on an 8600GTS right now so you must be talking about something else entirely.

 

[stogie5150]

Well I can tell you, on this 8500GT there is NO option to have independent content on a second monitor. ANY video program that's running will NOT mirror to the second monitor. NVIDIA removed this feature from the card.

 

[stogie5150]

Tried it tonight with a feed, No go. I put the card in dualview mode, opened DvbDream, all I saw on the plasma is my desktop picture. Set it to clone mode and set the resolution to 720p on both displays, had a pic on my monitor but just a black screen on my Plasma TV.

I finally had to set up the Plasma as the primary and ONLY display, and I was able to get it to work. my wife had to 'talk' me around the desktop to change the setting back, but I watched the program.

So, its new graphics card time.

 

[stogie5150]

Anyone know where I can find a legal, cheap copy of XP? I am done with Vista.

I can get a much cheaper HD videocard if I go back to XP.

I like Vista for ease of use, but I'll be damned if MS is gonna control what I watch on TV. I'll learn Linux first.

 

[grusome]

Check out Pricewatch.com for some good deals on XP.
grusome

 

[Poke]

Should not have a issue have you updated the driver??? If you have try one of the beta drivers sometimes those address certain issues.

 

[GweeDo767]

I have three dual headed Nvidia based Vista machines here at work, I think you have something setup wrong (most likely you have old drivers or something).

 

[stogie5150]

I have the latest drivers for the 8500GT according to nvidia website...BUT



I found out it is only an issue with the 8500GT and 8600GT. AVS Forums members confirm it, and Nvidia itself too. ...

Answer


It says:

Are there Control Panel features that were available under Windows XP that are no longer available on Windows Vista?

Answer There are some Windows XP features that will no longer be available on Windows
Vista due to changes in the core operating system. These features are:
- Horizontal and Vertical desktop span multi-monitor modes (note: Dual View and
Clone mode display options are still available)
- NVKeystone display correction
- Full screen video mirror
- Video zoom


So...instead of buying ANOTHER videocard and OS, I am just going to get a wireless keyboard and mouse so I can sit in my easy chair and set the display mode on my TV. I did it tonight with my wired keyboard and it worked flawlessly, so a wireless keyboard should make it cake. I just set it up to use the TV as the ONLY display. PIA, but it worked.

 

[digiblur]

By far the best wireless keyboad and mouse I have used on my HTPC from the couch is the Gyration air mouse combo. Best mouse I have used since it doesnt require a surface.