Prospect question regarding monitoring from PPro
 

I'm still a bit confused about HD monitoring with Prospect HD and Premiere Pro.

I've now determined that I can NOT use my Xena LHe on my current new computer due to chipset incompatibility (a real shame, but not anything I can do about it). The Xean LHe is for sale over in the classified section at a very good price! If you're looking for one, PLEASE let me know.

If I get a Quadro FX card with video overlay, can I still run my two LCD DVI monitors and then use the overlay function to output the Premiere HD timeline to an HD monitor (with component HD inputs)? In other words, 3 monitors, 2 for the NLE and one to monitor the NLE output?

I think the answer is "no", but can someone finally end my confusion. My only other option (if I get the Xena card sold) is to buy a 30" monitor for the NLE and use my 24" LCD for HD timeline monitoring. A 30" setup should give me enough screen real estate to make up for the loss of two 21" monitors.

Thanks.

Stuart

Stuart, maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I believe you can run two cards together (if your mb supports them) and use one for the HD monitor.

Supposedly you can run 3 monitors with the Parhelia APVe and we actually got it to work, but performance just doesn't cut it. Very poor indeed. The Parhelia does fine with just two DVI monitors, but adding a third for HD, forces you to use only one with DVI, and the other two as analog and THAT is the pits!

If we had it to do over again, we'd go the dual card route and just use one of the cards to power the HD monitor. I'm sure the performance would easily justify the additional card.

I'll have to see if my motherboard supports it. It's got 2 PCI-E 16x slots, but one of them is running as 4X (can't be changed in this motherboard). I don't know if that would be a problem. The second PCI-E slot SHOULD have run my Xena LHe card, but the machine just freezes and refuses to boot when I tried it.

I think there's a version of the Quadro 4500 that will link to a second card and support a total of 4 dual link DVI monitors. I think they use a direct cable to the other card so are not dependent on the MB supporting it.

That sounds expensive! Then again, so was the Xena!

I use a PNY QuadroFX 1500 card. I can only use two monitors, either two computer monitors or one computer monitor plus TV out. I currently send the component out to a Toshiba LCD TV. I works OK. There is a short delay when playing the timeline while the TV switches to the overlay. Using the overlay, I can also send a signal from Media Player, Quicktime, WinDVD to it. I can also put a full screen window from AE, Combustion and Photoshop to it. It did take me awhile to get it all figured out and does take some extra steps to use in AE/Photoshop, but it is doable for full screen preview when you can't use or afford the Xena card.

You will be limited to two total displays unless you use:
The Xena (Didn't work)
Matrox Parelia (Heard mixed results, no DX9 or OGL2)
Two graphics cards (Should work with your MB)

I would not recommend the Quadro dual card solution mentioned above, it is not suited to your task. ATI also makes 4 display 2D cards (FireMV), but I don't know if they will work well for video editing.

If you only use two monitors, the Parhelia works fine. So would any number of other cards.

Mike, I'm curious as to why you don't think the dual card solution would be appropriate for his solution? You off-load the CPU, you ease the load on the dual DVI card and the other card is just loafing along to do the component out to HD monitor. What's the prob with that setup?

I didn't say the dual card solution would be bad, that is my actual reccommendation. The Quadro solution mentioned above is a single card solution, and is like $5K for the QuadroFX 4500 X2 which is more expensive than buying a whole new computer. Getting two cheaper regular graphics cards is a much simpler way of achieving the same thing. Many motherboards support a second graphics card in their x4 slot, so that is what i would be looking into.

I think right now I'm leaning towards the 30" single monitor for PPro, After Effects, etc... and the 24" as an HD monitor (or Photoshop monitor etc...). It all depends on whether or not the Xena card sells and I have the money to buy the 30" monitor.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to look into them as well - especially if I can't afford the 30" setup.

Stuart

I think lately the motherboards support SLI, but when the 4500 4 monitor card came out they didn't so nVidia had their own solution - I can't really remember if the 4500 is a single card or a dual card with a cable linking the cards. I knew all that stuff ages ago, but have been pretty happy with the 1500 driving the 30" Apple monitor (from a PC, not a Mac)

Thinking about it though you would definitely need a second pair of DVI connectors on the back of the machine so one way or another two card slots would be effectively used, even if only by a daughter card with the additional pair of connectors

I'm definitely getting a second 30" monitor in the next couple of months - it's the nicest monitor I've ever had, but Adobe and Vegas and 3D packages like Cinema 4D can get so may menus open at once that even the 30" monitor gets full before you know it. At this rate maybe I should start wall mounting them so I can be ready for four of them.

I agree, I love my Dell 3007FPW-HC. Best monitor ever for content creation. Doesn't do my gaming framerates any good though, even with an 8800GTX.

The Quadro X2 was a single PCIe card, double wide, but only required one MB slot. I have never seen or heard of any in use, PNY probably only ever made about 100, to demo the technology. You need 8 independent 30" LCDs to really utilize the technology.

Parhelia APVe will only drive 2 monitors + 1 HDTV if the 2 monitors are setup analog, the card will not drive 2 DVI monitors plus TV.