Multiple monitors help

[STDestiny]

I'm trying to get it so I can have BTV show on my TV and my desktop show on my monitor. I have an ATI AIW 128 Pro (AGP) for TV tuning (I would buy a PVR250, but i don't have the $$$) and an old S3 Trio64 (PCI) video card for output on my monitor.

The problem, i think, is that my bios has me choose between recognizing either the AGP slot or the PCI slot first. When I set it to recognize the PCI slot, the dual monitors function works, but BTV will not see the ATI card's TV tuner (neither will ATI's software.)

When I set it to recognize AGP first, BTV will work, but the picture will not show on my monitor.

I read somewhere in this forum that I need to have a monitor hooked up to the ATI card, but I tried that and it still didn't work.

Anyone have any ideas, or do I just need to save for a newer card?

-Andrew

PS, Hydravision isn't supported by my (older) ATI AIW, so that wouldn't work either.

[Brett]

You are correct that the PCI card needs to be set as the primary on the bios. You can set the AGP card as the primary on the Windows Box.

However, I am not sure what you are doing will work all that well. The card outputing BTV must support DirectX9 and have 32mb.

When you say BTV does not work, how far do you get? Will it start up at least (just not the fullscreen interface) if so it would be helpful to post the log. But I suspect the videocard is simple just to old.

You could use the AIW as a tv tuner, but you may need another videocard.

Multimonitors if you have proper working videocards, works great with BTV, you can have the TV going fullscreen, but it will not take over the mouse/keyboard, so you can surf the net at the same time.

-Brett

[STDestiny]

The card I'm trying to output BTV on is the All in wonder. I've done it before with a single monitor setup.

When I start up BTV, I select Live TV, and then get the attached error window, which is basically reiterated in the log below:

[1/18/2004 18:49:07] Requested dimensions: 640 x 480
[1/18/2004 18:49:07] MPEG-2 Video Recording bitrate: 7000000
[1/18/2004 18:49:07] MPEG-2 using 2 B-Frames and 4 P-Frames per group
[1/18/2004 18:49:07] MPEG-2 Noise Filter disabled
[1/18/2004 18:49:07] MPEG-2 Motion Precision set to 40%
[1/18/2004 18:49:07] MPEG-2 Audio Bitrate is set to 224000
[1/18/2004 18:49:07] MPEG-2 Audio Sampling Frequency is set to 48000
[1/18/2004 18:49:08] Default FileFormat is currently: MPEG-2
[1/18/2004 18:49:08] Failed to create video device - display name: @device:pnp:\\?\display#ntativbtxx#5&f49ba26&0&800 00004&01&00#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global

I tried to run the setup wizard again as the box suggests, but it tells me there is no tuner present.

-Andrew

[STDestiny]

Anyone have an idea?

-Andrew

[RobertH]

this is a problem with the ati all in wonders, they will not allow you to use the tv tuner if it is not the primary and if the tv is not being rendered on the ati card. if you want multi monitor you are going to have to shell for a better all in one solution or get a different tv tuner (that particular model isnt that great anyway)

[STDestiny]

Originally posted by RobertH
this is a problem with the ati all in wonders, they will not allow you to use the tv tuner if it is not the primary and if the tv is not being rendered on the ati card. if you want multi monitor you are going to have to shell for a better all in one solution or get a different tv tuner (that particular model isnt that great anyway)

I am setting it as the primary and i'm trying to render the TV on the ati card. I want my regular desktop (without BTV) on the other card. Shoudln't that work?

I know the ati card is kind of sucky (ok, really sucky) but i don't really have the money to shell out for a new card.

-Andrew

[RobertH]

no because you have to have both the primary in the cmos and the primary in windows set to the ati device. the ati will not work unless both are set primary wich then means the desktop will be on the ati card.

if you can you can pull it off with a cheapy pci card that will cost upwards of 40$ ish, but there is no way you are going to get the desktop on the s3 card and get tv to work because of the way the ati crap in wonders work.

[STDestiny]

Ah. Then is there a way I can get windows to recognize the S3 when the ATI is set as the default by CMOS? It seems to see the device, but says it cannot start.

-Andrew

[RobertH]

now that sounds like a hardware issue the s3 might not support being a non-primary monitor (just like the ati's tv capture hardware doesnt) most older cards dont play well in a multi display card environment

[STDestiny]

Ah, ok. Maybe I'll find a newer PCI card on ebay. That should be less expensive than getting a new TV card.

-Andrew

[Brett]

Mom and Pop computer shops that make repairs may have a spare lying around, I picked up a Voodoo 3 some time back for $10.00

Sorry I could not be more help, I have no experience with the TV Tuners by ATI, and they are full of problems, so I figured I would let Robert help you out...

I think Robert is right about the S3, that is quite possible, I have heard of some older cards that will not function if they are not primary.

-Brett