Finaly SCART RGB TV-out with Matrox P750/Parhelia works !!!

[greinedo]

If the G400 knows there is a TV connected, it should not allow to change the frequencies because of the risk of explosion of some older TV (wich have no scan protection). The G400 must believe it's a monitor.

For your question, it's a really good question and I will try as soon as possible (my HTPC has now a P750). I have to do some work to test. It's driver related and I don't know how interlaced video is handled on interlaced monitor (not managed with the TV chip).

[greinedo]

Just tried with my P750 (must find the time to rebuild the setup with the G400) and it's not good. The interlaced contents are not well rendered on TV. The frames are not correctly synchronised with the TV sync. But it's in VMR9 mode not in overlay mode (the overlay mode is buggy with interlaced output on my P750).

The P750 is bad with interlaced streams. The G400 is certainly better, but I doubt that Matrox put into the G400 drivers a correct sync. of interlaced video streams with interlaced monitors (not TV-out managed with a special chip) (but this has to be tested).

In fact I have not a lot of interlaced files to test. I only watch progressive PAL DVDs with my setup, and for this application, th P750 is OK.

[PAugustin]

Very nice thread, very interesting !

Thanks a lot for working this out.

Bravo.

[Goc]

Yay! Great job greinedo... I bet a lot of people owe you a beer now.

[areia]

Thank you greinedo for your great job that makes murc that special spot for us, matrox owners; it's due to guys like you that many new improvements have been made, even on matrox drivers. I hope that those from us that have more experience on this matters can contributte on a constrictive way to keep this place as good as it have been the last years, and a reference site in the web on this area

[greinedo]

Thanks a lot

Hope there will be some interesting hardware this year to speak and tweak about in this great virtual place with so many interresting people and minds.

Regards

A64 3500+ NewCastle @2550 MHz
Abit AV8
2X256 MB Crucial Ballisticks
Matrox P750
SB Audigy 2
Onkyo TX-SV525 AV amp.
Mulidyne R+L, Yamaha F+RL+RR speakers
DIY 60 kg 125 L subwoofer...

[PAugustin]

Maybe you'll have some work to do whith the HDTV output of the PCI express Parhelia

check your PM

[greinedo]

Yes, interresting card, but I have to change then my motherboard also, and I just bought it a few days ago ...

[PAugustin]

Anyway buyign this card just for the HDTV output would be way too much. It's still the "old" Parhelia design

[jackelectronics]

I have posted the following on the official Matrox Technical Forums under P-Series and SCART RGB of Industry Chat. http://forum.matrox.com/mga/viewtopi...r=asc&start=15

"My post is just information for enthusiasts. I can do what kine has did. The television acts as a fixed frequency RGB computer monitor. It is 15.6KHz horizontal and 50Hz (PAL) or 60Hz (NTSC) vertical.

However, because PowerDesk assumes your television is a computer monitor, you can only use a DVDMax resolution of 640 x 480 but not 720 x 480 or 720 x 576. This is because you cannot force DVDMax to use other resolutions for computer monitors as explained in many of the forums where people try to change the DVDMax resolution.

I normally use S-Video as it's much easier and is great for movies. However, when it comes to sharp text or graphics such as colored subtitles and desktop display, the color tends to bleed as the color signal is compressed. This is explained at http://tvtool.info/english/rgb_chrontel3_e.htm (The site is about TV-Out on NVIDIA based cards.)

In addition to what henk53 had said, you may wish to know that the European Gamecube does NOT have S-video output! You can only use composite RCA or RGB SCART! The US version is opposite having s-video instead of RGB. I've heard this from many sources such as GameFAQs. (They don't like hotlinking to files so I can't provide it.)

I use RGB SCART for my DVD player, digital boxes and my Super Nintendo. I use S-video for my Matrox P650 and composite for the "out-dated" video cassette recorders."

I have tried Zoom Player and cannot get it to display the video on my TV. I want some software which could replace DVDMax and I want to to be effortless since I want my PC to be operable by non-technical users too. Sorry but I'm only a begginner.

[greinedo]

Hi jackelectronics !

To answer your question (at Matrox official forum), my username is greinedo here at murc, and kine there at Matrox. I'm the beginner of this topic speaking about connecting a Matrox P750 to TV via SCART RGB.

As I said there, because of the not adjustable resolution of DVDMax, and the need to drive the TV as a fixed monitor in 720x576, I gave up using DVDMax and even Overlay features.

Moreover, I found that with some Powerdesk-hf drivers, overlay video playback is corrupted on interlaced monitor surfaces. So overlay was an issue (it seems that it's better now with the latest drivers 1.8.0.133).

For those reasons you need to find a DVD player that can play fullscreen on the second head, without touching the resolution, and in VMR mode.

Zoom Player is such a player, but I agree it's not easy to make him work at first. But after configuration he can detect a DVD insert and start the video on the second head fullscreen, without any trouble.

What is your Matrox card connected with SCART RGB to the TV ?
If you still want to try Zoom Player with your setup, I could start such a topic "Making Zoom Player to work..." on the Home Theater and HIFI Forum here at MURC.

[jackelectronics]

Hi,

I have a Matrox P650 connected to my TV via a S-video connection. As I am used to single display computers, I only use my 19" CRT monitor at 1600 x 1200 @ 85Hz. Therefore, my TV remains off when I am not playing video. Oh, why not start a topic about Zoom Player and HTPC.

Jackelectronics

[greinedo]

Hi jackelectronics !

I made a small explanation in the Hifi and HTPC forum.

Rendez-vous ici: http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?s=&postid=526505