People are definitely using Nvidia in the "professional video" world. We have Assimilate SCRATCH on the same system, and that is a lot more "professional" than Cineform, sorry for saying.

There is supposedly a bug with Blackmagic products (for what, two years now?!) and now there is a bug in the Nvidia drivers as well. I am a little dissappointed, to say the least.

I know that you try to cater the RED users with your solutions; I have a question:
What kind of (dual head) GPU do you think will be in most of the Windows RedCine-boxes out there? Don't you think it would be smart to have working solutions around these setups? I know alot of people who are definitely NOT getting Matrox cards...

EDIT: Seems like monitoring isn't Cineforms strongest side... http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=115382

And your point is? We know all of this. We don't have the resources to chase after card vendor peculiarities, when most of our customers are not impacted. We do plan to address monitor concerns under Premiere in various ways, some many even help NVidia. We currently support ATI, Matrox, NVidia (many cards), AJA (capture and monitoring) and BlackMagic (HDLink capture.) Adding more when we can.

Nearly all of the cards you mentioned that cineform works with are IO cards that are in the 1000$ + range. I don't need IO, I use firewire and just need good monitoring. And after hearing that Nvidia was the better route to go (on forums like these), I went with them. Is there a list of Non-IO cards (or maybe I should say 'O' cards) that Cineform supports dual-monitoring on the Cineform site?

Most sub-$200 cards work, ATI particularly, even most NVidia. The problem arrose with the newer high-end NVidia cards that removed overlay support, the mechanism we use for dual screen monitoring. There is always the compromise with your current card, simply have a desktop that is two monitors wide, and fill the program monitor on the second screen (that we did at NAB.)

David
I'm definitely thinking that your idea would be a terrific solution for us "non-I/O" users: to get the emphasis off of the graphics card for monitoring, and focused instead on an inexpensive solution like the BM Intensity HDMI output to monitor.

Robert, we totally agree.

Overlay
 

Like so many here, I've been through the ringer trying to figure out the monitoring issue. I recently put together a new system (went with ATI 3850) but spent a huge amount of time trying to figure it all out, reading this and other forums. Now, since this is the weak issue of Cineform (along with color correction, imho, as I find monitoring with both Cineform and Color Finesse to be difficult) wouldn't it be nice if there were a sticky or wiki or page on the Cineform website that spelled it all out? Start the thing out with the very important distinction between monitoring with a graphics card and with a 'video i/o' (?) card, like AJA etc. Then list what works and what doesn't, order of preference (aka David N's comments about AJA, Blackmagic, Matrox, ATI and then far down the list, Nvidia).

I often wonder, if a better format for these forums wouldn't include the permanence of a Wiki (or at least some very carefully worded, limited access sticky's) along with the jabberings of the rest of us.

Yes, it would be nice!

And meanwhile ... would you recommend the ATI3850?

Regarding the Gigabyte ATI 3850 (385512), so far, yes, I like it. After reading David N's comments regarding Nvidia, after my own experience with previous Nvidia cards and after coming to the realization that I detest the user interface of the Nvdia software, I choose to go ATI. I picked this model cause it's powerful enough and runs cool (unlike the 3870 or 4000 series). The overlay works all the time (unlike with the Nvidia card). And the software interface is simple, clean (unlike Nvidia's). So far, so good.

Thanks for that Stephen - with the ATI does the monitor still hiccup briefly going in and out of timeline playback?

Graham, I would suppose I get the same kinds of issues as others. There is a very quick hiccup with Cineform overlay, the aspect ratio changes (I'm using DV), I don't 'see' the color correction changes I've made (with Color Finesse) and there is no image with scrubbing (on the monitor). Without Cineform, overlay monitoring is excellent.