View Full Version : What does it take to get full-screen playback?


Adam Gold
February 18th, 2009, 06:01 PM
So I dumped my Quadro FX 1500 because NVidia stopped supporting full screen playback (overlay) on a second monitor, and got an ATI Radeon 4830 because the Cineform guys said that card still supported it. And it does, as long as you don't use Cineform. Using a Native CS3 project the full screen output to the second monitor works fine.

But no combination of the checkboxes in playback settings in a Cineform project can get the output to the second screen.

Is anyone using one of these (or similar) cards? What the heck am I missing? Is there a secret handshake somewhere?

Using latest updates of CS3 and Prospect HD, with Vista 64.

Robert Young
February 19th, 2009, 12:45 AM
I'm using the ATI 4870/WinXP/Prospect/CS3.
I've not had any problems getting full screen overlay with CF projects.
I'm using one of the card's digital video outputs to HDMI input to an HDTV.
In the CF project playback settings I need to check the box for "force yuv" for it to work.
But it does work really well.
Good luck.

William Middleton
February 19th, 2009, 12:32 PM
Did you completely remove the Quadro card? I don't have my settings in front of me (I've got the same card), but I do get full-screen (HD component) video playback on an HD TV monitor. Other than a minor video glitch upon starting playback, the video looks good (the glitch is a result of the infamous 'enable overlay' feature disabled). Can't scrub very well, either (well--I can scrub, I just can't watch it on my tv monitor--however I can see it on the computer monitor). Having said that, it's still a good way to watch full screen video. Just a thought.

Adam Gold
February 19th, 2009, 12:48 PM
Yeah, neither of those settings work for me. "Enable Overlay" is checked, as is "Force YUV." Nothing. But works fine in native Premiere -- just a simple drop-down. But have tried every combination of both settings and no luck with CF.

This is unbelievably frustrating. Trouble ticket filed; maybe support will have some ideas to try.

David Newman
February 19th, 2009, 12:53 PM
Support will tell you, if you can get Media Player Classic to do it, it will work fine in Aspect/Prospect. The issue in like Vista Aero, which shuts-down the overlay, so you won't pirate the videos you are creating. :) This mess is all due to Vista's piracy controls.

Adam Gold
February 19th, 2009, 12:55 PM
I've got all the Aero stuff shut off, and as I said it's fine in native Premiere, so it sure seems to me to be a Cineform issue.

But thanks for the response. Any other ideas?

David Newman
February 19th, 2009, 12:58 PM
If you can get it working in Media Player Classic, then I would agree, by it is more likely a ATI setup issue as it works all other ATI cards. Try MPC.

Adam Gold
February 19th, 2009, 01:31 PM
Success! I tried in MPC and it didn't work, and then I remembered something from when I had an older ATI card in my old PC -- the displays need to be set in Clone rather than extended Desktop mode. Unfortunately, the way to set it to this mode isn't apparent in the advanced view for the ATI Catalyst Control Center, so I switched to basic view, selected clone mode and then the full screen display worked with MPC.

It does not work with native Premiere projects this way, but does with Cineform. And I later figured out how to select Clone in the Advanced view for CCC -- just right-click on the second monitor in Displays Properties. Or go to Windows Display Properties, select the second monitor and make sure "Extend my desktop..." is UNchecked. I knew this, and I remembered I knew this, but somehow didn't do it right the first time.

Not intuitive but it works, so thanks to all who had suggestions. What was screwing me up was that it DOES have to be in Extended Desktop mode for the Native Premiere to work (as it did with the CF projects using my nVidia cards, when they worked). But this is a workaround I can gladly live with.

Thanks all. Maybe someone else will read this who has the same problem.

Sorry for the panicked finger-pointing and forgetting the obvious.

Now about that m2t export....

Graham Hickling
February 19th, 2009, 11:43 PM
Good to hear! Any remaining issues - color-shift, short pause on start of playback, or whatever?

Adam Gold
February 21st, 2009, 11:35 AM
Not that I can see so far. Will report back if I find aything. I'm just glad to have it working. Was depressed at the thought of having to choose between this and Cineform. Luckily I was just being a doofus.

Robert Young
February 21st, 2009, 12:43 PM
Don't feel like the lone ranger.
I recall having to stumble around the interface doing trial & error for a while before I accidently hit the right buttons.
I think it is an industry requirement for graphic card interfaces to maintain a certain level of obscurity, propriatary terminology, and random "mystique".
Otherwise, just about anyone could make them work. What fun is that?

Marty Hudzik
February 26th, 2009, 11:34 PM
Okay. I took the plunge and upgraded to a hot new ATI 4850 card with latest drivers. It is running great for everything....except Cineform Prospect in Premiere Cs3. To be clear, I can play any video I want in media player or VLC player and it plays full screen on my HDTV. So full screen overlay is setup right.

When in Premiere Prospect project, I can get playback to the external monitor, but not scrubbing or tweaking with effects! What is up with this? when I hit the spacebar the video plays to external monitor, but as soon as I hit the spacebar to stop, it goes completely black. This does not seem right, since it worked fine with an Nvidia card. The issue here, is that I needed to update my Nvidia drivers to work with CS4 and the latest drivers (and cards) do not support full screen overlay anymore.

What can I do to get it to scrub to the overlay and allow me to color correct to the overlay? Am I missing something? I definitely have the overlay option enable in premiere.

Thanks.....this is getting really old! Cineform is recommending ATI because better support for overlay, but it doesn't work right either?

Sorry. It's late. I am tired and nothing ever just works the way it's supposed to.