Great news for everyone using a GeForce 8800 series video card with Cineform!

According to nVidia's Knowledgebase, as well as any and all websites I could find with information on this, the 8800 has no video overlay capabilities. However, I found these steps worked to enable monitoring on an external s-video monitor (these steps should work with a secondary DVI export as well, but untested) These instructions require the nView Desktop Manager, which should come with your drivers disk for the video card.

Enabling video overlay on GeForce 8800 series cards -

Go to Control Panel - NVIDIA - nView Desktop Manager
If the Desktop Manager is not enabled, click Enable
Click tab labeled 'Zoom'.
Click button labeled 'Full Screen Video Zoom'
Under Full Screen Device pulldown menu, click 'Auto-Select'
If needed, proper overlay color settings Cineform has come up with for GeForce cards can be changed here with the 'Color Correction' button next to this.
Hit OK, hit OK, enjoy!

That is excellent news. I switched out a brand new 8800 just because of the lack of full screen video overlay capability. Will this give you s-video output for all "direct show" applications??
Maybe I'll stick the 8800 back in and give it a try.
Do you have the link handy for the nVidea page that addresses this issue??
Thanks

One other question: When you use the nVidea software to set up the s-video output for the T.V. monitor I assume that you configure it to "mirror" the primary monitor. Is that correct.
Thanks

It seems to have given my full screen video on my s-video SD playback monitor in all applications which try to take advantage of it (media player classic * windows media player for a few).

I have it set to extend my desktop onto the monitor, which it does when overlay is not in use. I've just gotten used to seeing my blue desktop background color over there whilst not editing. :) If I remember right (my computer is acting up at the moment as I try to double-check), the setting is called something like Dualview or somesuch.

The nVidia page I referenced was :
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2011&p_created=1169076830&p_sid=NqjEImNi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=28&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTUmcF9wcm9kcz0yJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9MS4 yJnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD04ODAw&p_li=&p_topview=1

This is the closest thing I could find on nVidia's webpage to discussing video overlay on the 8800, I don't *think* I misread the terminology before, as they call it 'full screen video mirror' on here. Ironically enough, one of the selectable options in the nView area I've referred to. :)

Carl

Hi guys
Finding this thread helped me realize why my new NLE with a new 8800GT wasn't working well with Aspect.
Questions:
Would a second (non 8 series) PCI video card serve to give me my monitor (overlay)?
Anyone using the BlackMagic Intensity Pro with an 8800gt?
Any luck? Results?

Thanks in advance!
Kirk

So whats up with the 8800GT?
I'm interested in getting one.
I have a 2 x 19" monitor setup and all I want to do is run Premiere with Cineform.

Does it work or does it not?

If you drag you Premiere workspace over two monitors it works fine. It just doesn't support Overlay, which didn't work on NVidia card correctly anyway. The 8800 cards will not clone the "overlay" video surface to a secondary monitor.

I guess I don't know what "overlay" means. I googled it and still have a understanding of what these guys are doing. Can you elaborate?
Will I be able to view footage, full screen on my monitor?

Thanks,

Not with a 8800 and CineForm, but if you don't mind the Premiere border around the image, that is nearly full screen (and works much better.) Remember full screen using the overlay is most a hack for graphics cards. Often there are color calibration issues, 8-bit banding issues, is not totally surprizing NVidia disabled the feature. If you want tightly integrated full screen monitoring with 10-bit color accuracy, get an AJA Xena card and just use your 8800 for graphic work (as it was designed.)

Are there any comparible ATI cards that can do that?

ATI cards have always work better with the overlay, yet I still believe AJA Xena is the real way to go. Using and general purpose graphics cards for professional video work is a compromise.

P.S. AJA Xena requires at least Prospect HD, so if you are looking at Aspect HD, look into an ATI graphics card.

I'd also like to know what "overlay" is.

I've been using Premiere for about a year and still don't have a clue what this is. I do very elementry HD video capture, and edit, and that's about it.

What is an "overlay" ? I also like Scott, Googled it, and can't find anything that tells me what it is, there are many links with people talking about it, but nothing that explains exactly what "overlay" is.

Is this something that comes in Premiere ? an effect perhaps that is put over your main video ?

Thanks,

Dave.

Looking up "video overlay" in Wikipedia will get you a page of basic info ....

overlay is a technology that allow to send a picture to the video card, bypassing the regular path for pixel processing. It is a kind of "keying" the picture into a dedicated color. That is why when you "print screen" a video rendered with mediaplayer or a DVD player software you usually end up with a blank window.

The main drawback with this, is since you bypass usual pixel processing (including color control and color profiles set bythe OS), you can get a totally different rendering of you image. It is particularly noticeable in video editing, when you switch from normal scrubbing/pause mode to play/preview mode (in Adobe premiere for example)
For this, , cards usually offer a control panel for overlay, allowing to match Desktop and video color. an easy way to do it is to export a frame from the video as picture and display it side by side with a video made from the same picture. then you set the parameters until both picture looks identical.

Having beat this overlay horse to death over the years, is there any chance that the Cineform team can take advantage of the Adobe full screen option? I have gotten to the point that I edit in Adobe HDV preset to preview on an external monitor. I then export using Cineform to retain the quality. Surprisingly Premiere has a pretty smooth playback.

When I do use the Cineform Presets, I get a bit frustrated as the external monitor screen just keeps flickering on and off as I move from timeline to monitor window. Ultimately I can make it work but it does not seem as polished as Adobe's implementation of 2nd monitor.

Is there a reason that Cineform can't tap into adobe's engine for this?

Thanks

Any word on this? LIke I stated above, 6 months ago, is there a reason that Cineform "has to" use overlay? Again, I am working in Premiere using desktop setup with CIneform so that I can get full screen video on the 2nd screen. I simply lose all realtime accelleration of Cineform during this process. Since I start with Cineform files and render to cineform I assume that the realtime engine is all I am missing.

Thanks.

Adobe's engine is slower and not available for us to tap into. Most Nvidia users just stretch their desktop and fill the second monitor with the program window, that removes most of the issues. Overlay is not used this way.

I have 3 monitors. 2 DVI LCDs as my workstation desktop and a HDTV as my preview monitor. The HDTV is set off to the left side of my main screens, by itself, not really part of my desktop.
Currently that is where the full screen overlay goes. When editing in Adobe Native modes, that is the screen I assign to be the full screen output. It works great. As a plus, most media clips in media player and other apps get displayed full screen here also.

If I go with the Geforce 8800 I lose that overlay so how do I go about stretching premiere to the left side, away from my desktop onto this screen without completely and utterly messing up the layout of Premiere itself and causing hardships to the workflow? Add to this, the television is a 1280x720 display, and my primary desktop is 1920x1200 so when I stretch Premiere, it get's even more discombobulated (sp?)as the layou doesn't match both resolutions at once. Am I missing something? Is there a function of premiere that would let me move a duplicate of the output monitor to this other screen by itself , allowing me to work in the layout that is most natural?

Thanks

Sorry, have no solution for that setup.

Sorry, have no solution for that setup.

Thanks. As we all know with film cameras, physical ergonomics play a big role in our decsions, not just technical specs. If I was just editing straight up on 2 monitors stretching would probably work. But as of now, the 8800 still eludes me. I'd switch outright to ATI but I have 2 NVidia cards in my system to handle 3 screens. If I go to ATI I need to invest in 2 new cards.

Out!

Thanks. As we all know with film cameras, physical ergonomics play a big role in our decsions, not just technical specs. If I was just editing straight up on 2 monitors stretching would probably work. But as of now, the 8800 still eludes me. I'd switch outright to ATI but I have 2 NVidia cards in my system to handle 3 screens. If I go to ATI I need to invest in 2 new cards.

Getting one good ATi card (4850w/hdmi-out) and one cheaper ATi card(looking at a Radeon HD2400 XT at $23 at my local PC shop) , would be a minor expense considering what you have spent on the setup, and have it work the way you designed. Consider also how much you could regain from the sale of your two Nvidia cards.