iampedro Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 I was thinking about getting the matrox Parhelia... But the price tag for that card is way expensive... Now my question is do any of these cards support overlay: Geforce2 MX-400 64MB PCI ? RADEON 7000 64MB PCI? Geforce4 MX-420 64MB SDRAM PCI ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedr0 Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 What do you mean by overlay? HSR (hidden surface removal)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iampedro Posted July 12, 2002 Author Share Posted July 12, 2002 What exactly is Overlay?: There are two different ways to display a video window on the computer screen: Overlay surface and Primary surface Both methods work by transferring the image directly from the TV Tuner to the memory of your PC's graphics board via the PCI or AGP bus With an overlay surface, the video signal is transferred into an invisible part of the graphics board memory. The graphics board will then take care of the image and make sure that it gets transferred to the right place in the visible part of the memory. Not all graphics boards have this feature and thus may not allow an overlay surface. Occasionally, we have seen cases where the graphics board "tells us" that it can do an overlay surface but then either does not do so or starts to draw incorrect buttons or destroy other desktop elements. In contrast to the overlay surface, the video signal is transferred directly into a visible part of the graphics board memory - right where you will see it. The drawback of a primary surface is that your graphics board has to be set to at least 16-bits per pixel color depth. Primary surface also requires more bandwidth on the PCI bus and we have occasionally seen some graphics boards showing distortions of the video display, especially when using 32 bits per pixel color depth. And finally, a menu or other window covering the primary surface video display may get overwritten under certain circumstances. To help you in troubleshooting and deciding which display mode to use, here are some of the limitations of primary and overlay surface. In general, we recommend to use the overlay surface - if your graphics board supports it. Primary Surface Primary surface requires that the graphics board is set to 16, 24 or 32 bits per pixel color depth. Covering the video display with another window may result in stray pixels and should be avoided. Primary surface requires a higher bandwidth on the PCI/AGP bus. This may result in flashing lines on the video image, especially at 24 or 32 bits per pixel color depth. Switch back to 16-bits per pixel. When using primary surface, both fields of the video will get displayed on the PC screen. This may show as "feathering" and is due to the interlaced nature of the signal. Overlay Surface Some graphics boards do not support overlay surface at all. The overlay option will then not be available. Some graphics boards report that they support overlay surface, but then do not. If you select overlay surface, you will not see any video display. Overlay surface mode uses a keying color to indicate where on the screen video is being displayed. Placing a window with this keying color above the video will result in the video showing through. With an overlay surface, the graphics board participates in manipulating the video before it gets displayed. This may change the brightness or colors of the image. Some graphics boards have tools ("gamma correction" etc.) that permit you to adjust this. The difference between Primary Surface and Overlay Surface is that Overlay Surface requires special hardware on the graphics card. You need a graphics card with one of these processors along with drivers that support DirectDraw and DirectX in order to take advantage of the Overlay Surface feature. Cards with Overlay Surface have an additional video buffer called an Overlay buffer in addition to the Primary video buffer. If you use a graphics card that does not have this support, you can use Primary Surface type of Overlay. Primary Surface still requires Direct Draw and Direct X support, but the overlay will be processed in the primary video buffer since the card does not have an Overlay buffer. The other issues are related to performance due to the fact that Overlay Surface has it's own Overlay buffer and Primary Surface does not. If you move a window while using Primary Surface the entire computer screen will refresh as the window is moved. This does not cause any functional problems but to some users the refreshing of the screen may be annoying. The other issue is that Primary Overlay may not work at the higher screen resolutions and color depths that your graphics card may allow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dessimat0r Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 Who cares if overlay is supported or not? Its not that important... And all these boards should support it, unless they are retarded. I know for a fact that the Geforce 4 and 2 does... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iampedro Posted July 12, 2002 Author Share Posted July 12, 2002 Here is what i decided... THe matrox Parhelia is better than two independt cards becuase it won't have go two places to display two different things... Other than that ... I am just going to wait because I just bought a kyro PCI... and it will be my second monitor... Final Answer: I am going to wait till X-mas.. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dessimat0r Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 What are you going on about? Have you even read up on the cards? PCI Kyro = second monitor? How does that work then? Oh, and Geforce 4 is twinview! Meaning that you can have up to 2 monitors upon it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 are you insane? thinking that you need two cards at same time. only a baboon with a hat would think this, j00 know? :hurt: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dessimat0r Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 Originally posted by iampedro Here is what i decided... THe matrox Parhelia is better than two independt cards becuase it won't have go two places to display two different things... Other than that ... I am just going to wait because I just bought a kyro PCI... and it will be my second monitor... Final Answer: I am going to wait till X-mas.. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dessimat0r Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 Originally posted by Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted July 13, 2002 Share Posted July 13, 2002 You are retarded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted July 13, 2002 Share Posted July 13, 2002 Originally posted by Vlad You are retarded. but i think you made dessimat0r cry. is there any need to be so rude? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dessimat0r Posted July 13, 2002 Share Posted July 13, 2002 Originally posted by Vlad You are retarded. Why... I am... offended ....beyond ...belief! Please, stop this evil man. :dead: Or are you talking about someone else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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