2 video cards?

[Mobuj]

RadioActive
I see in your tagline the description of having an APG and a PCI video card in one computer (assuming I read that correctly). I was told by ATI that they do not support having 2 cards on one system. If you are able to do this then what's your secret! And, are both video cards All-In-Wonder?
Any info would be great.

note: i decided to create a new thread instead of asking this question in the original message

[Brett]

Here is what I posted in the other thread:
You read correctly AGP and PCI.

Below is some of my personal advise but you can find more information on the following forum:
http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimo...1&tmpl=UltraMon

They also have a program called UltraMon that helps manage multiple monitors so that programs open in the correct window, but its not neccessary to actually get the cards to work.

So...

If ATI told you they did not support this, its because they did not want to have to deal with people who have issues / conflicts. I have several systems setup in a similar fashion. The trick is that you need to log on the bios and set in the bios the primary card to be PCI not AGP. This will "turn on" the PCI card so that it works, otherwise it will fail to initilize.

You can have as many additional PCI cards as you want. I suggest though you stay with the same manufactor to avoid conflicts. (IE pair of ATIs, or pair of NVIDIAs)

Now if they were the AIW, two of these together may cause problems, as the tuner drivers on the AIW absolutely are terrible and may conflict. My old roomie though could get a single AIW to work with additional standard Radeon card without a hitch.

You can do some pretty creative stuff with the setup. For example I have a Radeon 9800 Pro that has triple outputs it has one DVI to a flat panel, a CRT to another flat panel, and the SVideo to the TVs. The cards however can not display more than two seperate outputs so the CRT on the flat panel clones the TV output. I then added a Radeon 9100 Pro which has a DVI output ot the second input on the flat panel. Now by simple pressing the monitors input selection I can go from an expanded desktop to a single desktop on the left, and BeyondTV on the right.

The setup sounds a lot more complicated than it really is...

If you have any problems I will be glad to help get you up and running, but please understand conflicts can still occur even though I myself have not experienced any, so it may ultimately be impratical for your system to support this, maybe due to bios issues or something...

-Brett

[hpmoon]

Great to see what is perhaps the one other person I've ever found who even tried multiple video output cards using Beyond TV. BUT, I'm skeptical of your success, at least assuming the best.

I started a thread a little earlier pointing out some serious problems with multiple video output cards:

Problem with two video cards, more than two displays

In your setup, let's say there are monitors 1 through 4. How are you able to view Beyond TV video on 2, 3 or 4? Simple question, I hope.

Given disparities in aspect ratio and resolution, cloning/mirroring won't be an acceptable solution in my case.

[myktek]

also look into Asrock motherboards, they have both slots and I believe both can be run at the same time.

[RiderFan]

hpmoon has a new snapstream record. Uncovering 3 dead threads that are 2 years old in a single day.

[mlomker]

Originally Posted by RiderFan

hpmoon has a new snapstream record. Uncovering 3 dead threads that are 2 years old in a single day.

That beats not using the search option. Not so likely to get a response from the original poster after so long, though.

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by RiderFan

hpmoon has a new snapstream record. Uncovering 3 dead threads that are 2 years old in a single day.

Originally Posted by mlomker

That beats not using the search option. Not so likely to get a response from the original poster after so long, though.

I think he's on a roll for quadruple cross posting too.

[Revenent]

Originally Posted by hpmoon

Great to see what is perhaps the one other person I've ever found who even tried multiple video output cards using Beyond TV. BUT, I'm skeptical of your success, at least assuming the best.

I started a thread a little earlier pointing out some serious problems with multiple video output cards:

Problem with two video cards, more than two displays

In your setup, let's say there are monitors 1 through 4. How are you able to view Beyond TV video on 2, 3 or 4? Simple question, I hope.

Given disparities in aspect ratio and resolution, cloning/mirroring won't be an acceptable solution in my case.

I've had a AIW 9700 Pro and a Radeon 9000 on my previous machine. While I didn't run BeyondTV, I was able to get ATI MMC working on it properly.

However, due to the fact the tuner is integerated, I wasn't able to get the video to display on monitors driven by the second card. ATI MMC only used overlay mode, and didn't have the option of switching to a DirectX mode.

Oh, and in regards to Brett's post - it's more likely you needed to set the primary BIOS video to the card with the tuner. This is a quirk of AIW's - it has to be the primary card. On my system, AGP had to be primary or else the tuner wouldn't work (though the video card still would function).

A side effect of this requirement is the fact that you can't get two AIW's working in the same machine.

This was the main reason why I switched to a standalone tuner on this machine and a dedicated video card.

[hpmoon]

Originally Posted by cfaslave

I think he's on a roll for quadruple cross posting too.

Wow, cranky lurkers. In fact, the biggest weakness of these forums is that people irresponsibly post things without searching first for the answer.

In terms of cross-posting, it's true that the subject of my concern is singular, but responding to each thread's unique circumstance is justifiable.

What's more, I'm pretty surprised at how minimally sophisticated the configurations are among the users here. It won't be too long until the integrated home streams Beyond TV content to more than a single location. This requires either multiple video cards, or complex switching (along the lines of KVM) that currently doesn't exist.

[Bigbird999]

What's more, I'm pretty surprised at how minimally sophisticated the configurations are among the users here. It won't be too long until the integrated home streams Beyond TV content to more than a single location.

So, if those folks using a BTV server with multiple (ie 5 - 10) HD and SD tuners, with a terrabyte of video storage and multiple BTV Link machines or networked media players running on a gigabyte LAN, and displaying on big screen plasma TVs are "minimally sophisticated", I have to ask, how you define "sophisticated"?

BB

[merrypig]

Originally Posted by Bigbird999

how you define "sophisticated"?

BB

"From England"

[Bigbird999]

"From England"

Or at the very least Canada!!!

BB

[hpmoon]

Originally Posted by Bigbird999

So, if those folks using a BTV server with multiple (ie 5 - 10) HD and SD tuners, with a terrabyte of video storage and multiple BTV Link machines or networked media players running on a gigabyte LAN, and displaying on big screen plasma TVs are "minimally sophisticated", I have to ask, how you define "sophisticated"?

Haven't found a single post regarding three or more displays showing video content (other than reputed "trillion dollar" broadcast-standard Matrox cards and such). This inquiry is about consumer-grade video cards being used together (e.g., ATI, Geforce, etc.), but as for this thread, I'm sensing it's a nerd hangout and I'm better off taking my questions elsewhere.

[Revenent]

Originally Posted by hpmoon

Haven't found a single post regarding three or more displays showing video content (other than reputed "trillion dollar" broadcast-standard Matrox cards and such). This inquiry is about consumer-grade video cards being used together (e.g., ATI, Geforce, etc.), but as for this thread, I'm sensing it's a nerd hangout and I'm better off taking my questions elsewhere.

I think you're missing the point.

By the time your view of the modern home comes true, you'll have more integrated appliances (similar to the digital media players that Netgear is putting out). With those, you don't need a server that can handle multiple video outputs, just one with enough bandwidth to stream out to all the appliances that you'll have.

And you also have to realize, there aren't that many direct connection video standards that can cover the distance required to wire an entire house. The ones that can are usually based on something other than readily available copper cabling.

That's why most people are working on compression and network solutions for media, and not a direct raw broadcast system. High bandwidth, long distance transmission is expensive. Appliance hardware combined with low bandwidth is a lot cheaper.

[Bigbird999]

Originally Posted by Revenent

That's why most people are working on compression and network solutions for media, and not a direct raw broadcast system. High bandwidth, long distance transmission is expensive. Appliance hardware combined with low bandwidth is a lot cheaper.

Apparently only those that are "minimally sophisticated".

BTV Link on a PC is just one of many "appliances" that can pull content (SD or HD) from a server PC. Netgear, Zesonic, Linkplayer, MVP and a few others make networked media players that do a good job and are relatively cheap ($200ish). Pushing content to multiple remote monitors in HD or SD makes no sense (economically or technically).

Bigbird is all smiles, having finally achieved the exhaulted designation of nerd, from at least 1 person!

BB