full dual screen video playback...?

[keikei]

I've been trying to view one full screen video on both my monitors (kinda like widescreen...).. but without success. I've read numerous articles/postings about it but none seem to point to a specific driver/software that is capable of doing so. Please help!

My specs:
P4 2.4c
2x512 PC3500
>> Radeon 9500 softmodded to 9700 <<
>> 2x dell 2001fp, connected to 1 vga and 1 dvi port <<

Does anyone point me in the right direction as to what i need to do to get one video to play across both monitors in full screen mode...

Thanks very much!

 

[SGtheArtist]

nVidia calls the feature "spanning" which treats the two displays as one (ex. 1024x768 on each monitor becomes 2048x768 that spans across both monitors).

I heard ATI could do this (HydraVision?) but I never used it, because I though having the monitor border in the middle of a video was kind of pointless.

You could also simply resize the player window across both displays.

This site might help you.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/

 

[keikei]

Thanks! I was already using multi-mon to have the spanned wallpaper and extended task bar, which is a really nice feature. But i will go and try hydravision. I didn't know that it had this feature, but i will try.

Originally posted by: SGtheArtist
nVidia calls the feature "spanning" which treats the two displays as one (ex. 1024x768 on each monitor becomes 2048x768 that spans across both monitors).

I heard ATI could do this (HydraVision?) but I never used it, because I though having the monitor border in the middle of a video was kind of pointless.

You could also simply resize the player window across both displays.

This site might help you.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/

 

[Peter]

Neither NVidia nor ATi can span a video window across the two heads of the same graphics chip. The reason is that all of these graphics chips have only one set of so-called "video overlay" hardware.

 

[SGtheArtist]

Yes Peter is correct,

I forgot about this. Overlay (anything to do with video) only works on the primary display of any multi display card.

For you to do this you have to have multiple cards (each will have their own overlay) which would then allow you to stretch the window across all the displays, however I don't think you can span in this configuration.

You might also try VideoSaver. It is a screen saver that plays videos in stretched or tiled across the displays no matter the overlay.

I did this with a Matrox G450 & ATI AIW 9600XT (on all four displays) & it rocked.

 

[Peter]

Well, at least on ATi cards, the video can be on the 1st or the 2nd display, but not spanning both. (TV as secondary is special, there's an extra "theater mode" that copies the overlay from the main screen as fullscreen onto the TV.)

 

[keikei]

I heard about the single overlays of a videocard.. but i also heard something about being able to software rendering the movie over onto the 2nd monitor. I'll hafta investigate some more.

Also, when i get home, ill try VideoSaver, sounds interesting ehehe

Thanks guys!

 

[Juice Box]

Originally posted by: keikei
I heard about the single overlays of a videocard.. but i also heard something about being able to software rendering the movie over onto the 2nd monitor. I'll hafta investigate some more.

Also, when i get home, ill try VideoSaver, sounds interesting ehehe

Thanks guys!

yeah I was told that too...and the other day i GOT IT TO WORk with VLC media player....i have no idea what I did...and im willing to bet I could never do it again if I tried... (sucks)

 

[Peter]

Yes sure, if you find an application that renders the video onto the primary display surface not into a video overlay, then of course that software can do as it pleases. You won't be using the graphics card's video filters nor acceleration then, so CPU load will be drastically higher.

 

[Juice Box]

Originally posted by: Peter
Yes sure, if you find an application that renders the video onto the primary display surface not into a video overlay, then of course that software can do as it pleases. You won't be using the graphics card's video filters nor acceleration then, so CPU load will be drastically higher.

any examples of said programs?

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Juice Box

Originally posted by: keikei
I heard about the single overlays of a videocard.. but i also heard something about being able to software rendering the movie over onto the 2nd monitor. I'll hafta investigate some more.

Also, when i get home, ill try VideoSaver, sounds interesting ehehe

Thanks guys!

yeah I was told that too...and the other day i GOT IT TO WORk with VLC media player....i have no idea what I did...and im willing to bet I could never do it again if I tried... (sucks)

Probably changed your renderer to "video mixing renderer", instead of "overlay mixer". Or, "high quality mode" instead of "overlay". Just out of curiosity where are you playing? Just a normal file or are you talking about TV tuner playback or something? If it's a regular saved video file, this is a piece of cake to set up (except if you want to span it). Almost any media player (including Windows, Media Player Classic, Zoom Player) have options to set the renderer off of overlay and on to the surface renderer. Then set your dual-display mode to span and lastly, pray. Another option is maximizing the player instead of putting it in full-screen mode, which you will indefinitely have better success with than full-screening it.

Originally posted by: Peter
Yes sure, if you find an application that renders the video onto the primary display surface not into a video overlay, then of course that software can do as it pleases. You won't be using the graphics card's video filters nor acceleration then, so CPU load will be drastically higher.

Hmm, well it won't be slower if the card has DXVA, because that's actually a VMR9-exclusive feature, correct?

 

[keikei]

yea i haven't been able to find any players that can allow this to work... for the most part, i can't even get zoom player, winamp, windows media player to even play in non-full screen mode with half of the video on each screen...

 

[Juice Box]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: Juice Box

Originally posted by: keikei
I heard about the single overlays of a videocard.. but i also heard something about being able to software rendering the movie over onto the 2nd monitor. I'll hafta investigate some more.

Also, when i get home, ill try VideoSaver, sounds interesting ehehe

Thanks guys!

yeah I was told that too...and the other day i GOT IT TO WORk with VLC media player....i have no idea what I did...and im willing to bet I could never do it again if I tried... (sucks)

Probably changed your renderer to "video mixing renderer", instead of "overlay mixer". Or, "high quality mode" instead of "overlay". Just out of curiosity where are you playing? Just a normal file or are you talking about TV tuner playback or something? If it's a regular saved video file, this is a piece of cake to set up (except if you want to span it). Almost any media player (including Windows, Media Player Classic, Zoom Player) have options to set the renderer off of overlay and on to the surface renderer. Then set your dual-display mode to span and lastly, pray. Another option is maximizing the player instead of putting it in full-screen mode, which you will indefinitely have better success with than full-screening it.

Originally posted by: Peter
Yes sure, if you find an application that renders the video onto the primary display surface not into a video overlay, then of course that software can do as it pleases. You won't be using the graphics card's video filters nor acceleration then, so CPU load will be drastically higher.

Hmm, well it won't be slower if the card has DXVA, because that's actually a VMR9-exclusive feature, correct?

yeah....the only thing Ive gotten to work are Family Guy AVI MPEG4 files.....I cant get DVDs to span...even with the same player Oh well....guess I gotta rip my widescreen DVDs if I want to span them across the 2 screens :-/

 

[rbV5]

I fairly certain that video spanning works with Catalyst drivers, horizontally or vertically. I don't have my dual monitor setup currently, but I recall testing this several times. Seems even in Linux, mplayer will span with Radeon cards.

Hydravison isn't required, but I believe you'll need CCC installed to enable horizontal or vertical span. I believe any player using VMR9 will display the video spanned accross both monitors.

 

[Peter]

Software that renders to the primary display surface will span, software that renders to the hardware video overlay will not. When we're talking Linux, then e.g. mplayer does span, while for example xawtv or tvtime do not. You can drag a tvtime window from one screen to the other, but while it's split in the middle, video replay is disrupted.