Overlay/frame buffer with Nvidia QuadroFX 5500 SDI

[Fredrik Harreschou]

Hi!

I have a workstation with a QuadroFX 5500 SDI. I am getting preview on my SDI in several editing modes in PPro CS3, but nothing when working in a Cineform project.

I have (of course) checked the "Overlay" button in the Cineform prefs.

Anyone?

Cheers,
Fredrik
Paper Bag AS

[Fredrik Harreschou]

In NVIDIA Control Panel, under Video & Television - "When watching video content..." Select "Also show it full screen on my..."

But I am getting blanking on both monitors when I go in and out of "play mode". Scrubbing is fine and it plays fine too, but with terrible blanking, unfortunately...

[William Middleton]

I have the same problem. I am using a Quadro FX 1500 to output to a second monitor. Whenever play or stop is pressed, the screen goes garbled for a second or two.

I've contacted cineform about this and they have acknowledged that it is an issue on their end. Unfortunately, a solution is not likely; they said that AspectHD simply doesn't handle dual-monitor output very effectively (or at least with these cards). They did mention that ProspectHD wouldn't have this problem, but I am hesitant to fork out an additional 500$ just to get a minor glitch fixed.

[Graham Hickling]

The glitch occurs because the output resolution changes between timeline playback vs. scubbing. (I know this because my monitor reports what resolution it is being sent). So I'm surprised to hear Cineform was accepting the blame - as I've always considered it due to the interaction between Premiere and the videocard driver. It is quite annoying.

[David Newman]

Hmm.. Excepting all the blame, no quite, NVidia can take a big piece of that. Prospect HD with an AJA card is seamless, Prospect/Aspect HD with a Maxtrox card next best, then ATI and then way down this list is NVidia. The further the card manufacturer is from the professional video market the worse their products are for profession video (pretty logical.) We have to work around NVidia issues all the time, it is a waste of engineering. We are trying to move to other monitoring sources like Blackmagic Intensity and Decklink cards, leaving the computer graphics card for what is was designed for -- desktop acceleration and games.

[Robert Young]

David- for those of us who do not need expensive capture cards, HDSDI I/O, etc., can we add a Blackmagic Intensity card to the exisiting graphics card (nVidea, whatever) setup, and monitor HD overlay via Intensity's HDMI out to a HDTV monitor?? Is the old graphics card still going to be a limiting factor?
I've managed O.K. with the nVidea Quadro 1500, but I would like to improve the monitoring end of my system- as simply as possible though.
What's your advice?

[David Taylor]

Robert, in fact we're working on monitoring using Blackmagic Intensity. Unfortunately Blackmagic has some problems with their drivers that they haven't helped us with. This has slowed down our effort. But monitoring with Intensity - is something we intend to support. As it is an inexpensive card it will be a good solution for all.

[Manuel Lopez]

[QUOTE=... leaving the computer graphics card for what is was designed for -- desktop acceleration and games.[/QUOTE]

Hello. The nVidia QuadroFX SDI is a professional card used to monitoring high-quality video. It is used by companies such as Assimilated, Autodesk, DaVinci, Iridas, Nucoda, etc. for conform and color grading.
Why can not be used by Cineform?

[David Newman]

Because most of video is YUV, and NVidia gets YUV wrong. We have added an option to drive the overlay in RGB, then NVidia get the correct color, still has the annoying flash.

[Robert Young]

Re monitoring with Blackmagic Intensity: Is there any hint that BM is actually working on upgrading their driver to be compatable with ProspectHD??
Or, is this too "back burner" to be expecting anything in the near future?

[David Newman]

We would like a BM driver fix, but we are going try for a solution that doesn't require their input.

[Robert Young]

Terrific!! That means it will happen.

[Manuel Lopez]

Originally Posted by David Newman

Because most of video is YUV, and NVidia gets YUV wrong. We have added an option to drive the overlay in RGB, then NVidia get the correct color, still has the annoying flash.

Sorry, Mr. Newman, but I was referring to the output of high-quality SDI video card QuadroFX SDI (which is 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 YCrCb, 8 or 10 bit).

[William Middleton]

Originally Posted by David Newman

Because most of video is YUV, and NVidia gets YUV wrong. We have added an option to drive the overlay in RGB, then NVidia get the correct color, still has the annoying flash.

The only thing I would say to that is this--when I'm in a non-Cineform project, Adobe handles scrubbing and output just fine. No glitch. What is happening that's making Nvidia unhappy with Cineform and not with Adobe?

[David Newman]

Our pipeline is designed for editing performance and uses the standard overlay surface, which has got less support with NVidia cards in the last year or so. Adobe is not likely using the overlay surface. My new NVidia card (came with my new PC -- I wouldn't have choosen it) will sometimes play black with MediaPlayer, that is an NVidia bug with overlay. One day we will code around it, but we have to do it without loosing performance --more difficult than what Adobe did