Low quality playback on comp monitor using Matrox RT.X10 and Prem Pro

Hi,

When using Premiere Pro with the Matrox settings, I get poor quality
playback on my computer monitor, even though the video monitor output looks
fine. I suspect the output on my computer monitor is created using only half
the available vertical resolution, which produces some very ugly artifacts.

Things I've tried to correct this problem (but all have failed):
- dropping the colour depth to 16 bit
- dropping the resoltion on my monitors
- shooting in progressive-frame mode
- changing my Matrox P750 dual-head mode from independent mode to stretch
mode
- changing Premiere Pro playback to "highest quality"
- tinkering with just about every setting in the playback options box.

The video does play fine if I
- use Windows Media Player 9
- open a new Premiere project using Premiere's own PAL settings rather than
Matrox's settings. This isn't a realistic work-around though because
Premiere seems to use all my sytem resources just to play the video.

Please help - how can I get full-res video on my computer monitor when
playing back in Premiere?

My setup is:
Pentium 4 2.8Ghz (512k L2 cache, 800Mhz FSB, HT)
2Gbytes of dual channel DDR-400 SDRAM
Matrox RT.X10 (latest drivers)
Adobe Premiere Pro
Matrox P750 (latest drivers and BIOS)
2 analogue monitors set at 1280x1024
Windows XP Pro SP1
DirectX 9.0b

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 12:55:53 +0100, "Daniel Kelly \(AKA Jack\)"
wrote:

Hi,

When using Premiere Pro with the Matrox settings, I get poor quality
playback on my computer monitor, even though the video monitor output looks
fine. I suspect the output on my computer monitor is created using only half
the available vertical resolution, which produces some very ugly artifacts.

Things I've tried to correct this problem (but all have failed):
- dropping the colour depth to 16 bit
- dropping the resoltion on my monitors
- shooting in progressive-frame mode
- changing my Matrox P750 dual-head mode from independent mode to stretch
mode
- changing Premiere Pro playback to "highest quality"
- tinkering with just about every setting in the playback options box.

The video does play fine if I
- use Windows Media Player 9
- open a new Premiere project using Premiere's own PAL settings rather than
Matrox's settings. This isn't a realistic work-around though because
Premiere seems to use all my sytem resources just to play the video.

Please help - how can I get full-res video on my computer monitor when
playing back in Premiere?

My setup is:
Pentium 4 2.8Ghz (512k L2 cache, 800Mhz FSB, HT)
2Gbytes of dual channel DDR-400 SDRAM
Matrox RT.X10 (latest drivers)
Adobe Premiere Pro
Matrox P750 (latest drivers and BIOS)
2 analogue monitors set at 1280x1024
Windows XP Pro SP1
DirectX 9.0b

You've already discovered the key -- disable the Matrox settings,
which emphasize real time to the video output rather than the computer
display. It is a tradeoff -- do you want the full resolution video
preview, or a better computer monitor preview?

If you're goal is video output, I'd say stick with the video output.
That is why you have the .X10 after all.

Note, BTW, the same issue happens if you run DV preview in real time
(regardless of video board used).

Anyone know if there is a video display board which will make a
difference with this, deinterlacing the video overlay? I suspect not,
because of the CPU hit -- the actual display data going to two places
costs CPU time, and cutting the data for the computer display is the
simplest fix.

--
*-__Jeffery Jones__________| *Starfire* |____________________-*
** Muskego WI Access Channel 14/25 http://www.execpc.com/~jeffsj/mach7/
*Starfire Design Studio* http://www.starfiredesign.com/

Dear Jeffery,

Many thanks for your very quick reply... I had feared that it wasn't so much
a 'bug' as a limitation. It turns out my fear was right!

Jack



"Jeffery S. Jones" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 12:55:53 +0100, "Daniel Kelly \(AKA Jack\)"
wrote:

Hi,

When using Premiere Pro with the Matrox settings, I get poor quality
playback on my computer monitor, even though the video monitor output
looks
fine. I suspect the output on my computer monitor is created using only
half
the available vertical resolution, which produces some very ugly
artifacts.

Things I've tried to correct this problem (but all have failed):
- dropping the colour depth to 16 bit
- dropping the resoltion on my monitors
- shooting in progressive-frame mode
- changing my Matrox P750 dual-head mode from independent mode to stretch
mode
- changing Premiere Pro playback to "highest quality"
- tinkering with just about every setting in the playback options box.

The video does play fine if I
- use Windows Media Player 9
- open a new Premiere project using Premiere's own PAL settings rather
than
Matrox's settings. This isn't a realistic work-around though because
Premiere seems to use all my sytem resources just to play the video.

Please help - how can I get full-res video on my computer monitor when
playing back in Premiere?

My setup is:
Pentium 4 2.8Ghz (512k L2 cache, 800Mhz FSB, HT)
2Gbytes of dual channel DDR-400 SDRAM
Matrox RT.X10 (latest drivers)
Adobe Premiere Pro
Matrox P750 (latest drivers and BIOS)
2 analogue monitors set at 1280x1024
Windows XP Pro SP1
DirectX 9.0b

You've already discovered the key -- disable the Matrox settings,
which emphasize real time to the video output rather than the computer
display. It is a tradeoff -- do you want the full resolution video
preview, or a better computer monitor preview?

If you're goal is video output, I'd say stick with the video output.
That is why you have the .X10 after all.

Note, BTW, the same issue happens if you run DV preview in real time
(regardless of video board used).

Anyone know if there is a video display board which will make a
difference with this, deinterlacing the video overlay? I suspect not,
because of the CPU hit -- the actual display data going to two places
costs CPU time, and cutting the data for the computer display is the
simplest fix.

--
*-__Jeffery Jones__________| *Starfire* |____________________-*
** Muskego WI Access Channel 14/25 http://www.execpc.com/~jeffsj/mach7/
*Starfire Design Studio* http://www.starfiredesign.com/