I've got an Nvidia 7900gtx and it's hooked up to two 19" LCD displays.

Now I've just bought a 17" broadcast monitor for color correction but the video says "only two at a time" so I have to shut down one display to output to monitor.

Even when I do that, the output looks like a windows desktop. I've heard of 'overlay' but how can I get both displays working and still use my broadcast monitor for accurate color correction and full display of video???

I got one of these and replaced my nVidia 7900...

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/crepro/products/parhelia/apve.php

I'm running 2 - Dell 24" monitors, 1 - 15" video monitor, AND a 26" HDTV off this card. Problem solved.

seems like aside from the multi-output aspect. It's a downgrade.

How do you feel the performance compares? NLE and Motion Graphics...?

Although the max resolution for my monitors are 1920 X 1200, this card max's out @ 1600 X 1200 when TV/HDTV is also connected, I don't consider it a downgrade. I can live with that, for my purposes. (I can get the full resolution if I connect the 2 monitors directly to the card,)

Also, the Matrox is 128 vs the nVidia 256, but that has not been a problem either.

With the nVidia, when I played back captured HDV (Cineform avi) video on one of the monitors it would stutter and skip. Plays smoothly to the monitor with the Matrox. Also, no problems with PPro 2.

sounds good, although my 7900gtx is 512mb. But either way...I need color correction.

With your knowledge of this board, could it show my 1920x1080 HD on my SD 750 lines monitor???

How would that work? I need it to be as accurate as possible regarding color and fields.

Does smaller video ram affect After Effects speed???

I may have to spring for the aja xena to accompany my current board?
but I'm not sure if that does S-video...

Sheesh, why is this so tough?

No...You can't put HD on an SD monitor.

I output my HD program monitor (from PPro 2) from this card via the component out. I am showing it on a 26" Sharp HDTV and it looks awesome.

I also have a JVC 15" SD 750 lines monitor and I get my SD projects and images from Photoshop via a firewire pass-thru (S-Video out) in a JVC DV cam that I used before I got my XH-A1.

The 128 in this board hasn't affected anything with PPro 2, but haven't tried it with AE. Can't imagine that it would though.

It's not only "tough" at times, but can get pricey too.

The amount of the RAM on the video card will likely have very little to do with the performance and playback of video. This is a much misunderstood aspect with RAM on video cards. Most of that RAM is intended to serve as a frame buffer for very complex geometry that is used in either video games, 3d Modeling, CAD design, etc. The video processing engine on the video card will likely make a MUCH bigger difference to guys like us.

Matrox has a good reputation for building good video cards and about 4-5 years ago they got out of the 3D war with ATI & NVidia and decided to target "our" market with multiple displays, quality, etc.

With that said, I'm still a little leary paying $300+ for one of their cards when you can get a NVidia 8600 GT with 256Mb of RAM for about $140 that will do everything just about as good except for maybe resolution on the 3rd display.

Jon

I output my HD program monitor (from PPro 2) from this card via the component out. I am showing it on a 26" Sharp HDTV and it looks awesome.

Curious as to how you do this, Dearl. I am doing a system evaluation that has PPro 2 and I can't figure out how to direct the program monitor out to a second monitor. Closest I got was extending the desktop onto second monitor in Windows, then dragging the program monitor onto that display. Problem is, with the parts of the window surrounding the video display area, I can't see the full 1920x1080. Although this system has the Nvidia 7600GT with dual output, I can't seem to dedicate an entire display as a program monitor.

Thanks,

-gb-

I now have the Matrox Parhelia APVe. See the PDFs here for how it's done with that card.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/corpo/support/manuals/apve/home.php

When I had the nVidia 7900, I went to the settings dialog (nVidia settings, NOT windows settings) and directed the "Video Overlay" (output from the program monitor) to my secondary monitor. Also, using Cineform Aspect HD and you have to direct that overlay to the other monitor as well.

I'm really liking the Matrox card, though. They have made it very easy and understandable in connecting, etc. Only downside, but I can live with it, is that I am not getting full 1920 X 1200 resolution on my Dell 24". (Only getting 1600 X 1200 on the monitors with the TV and HDTV connected.)

Another option is to add another video card like a quadro or another GT card and plugin the HDTV on that card. This way you don't replace you're existing Videocard and in turn it might save you money overall. I use a Quadro 560 card and a nvidia 7800gtoc AGP card on my Asrock setup.