PC & TV Simultaneous playback

[eastcote]

Help!

I'm trying to find a video card that will play back DVD/MPEG movies out to a TV (full screen) AND to windows media player (not full screen!) at the same time. I've found some that do one or the other but not both at the same time.

Does anyone know of a product that will do this?

Thanks,

Eastcote.

[techno]

yup

crappy sh***y ATI all in wonders do it.

TV output quality is good, but on the monitor is baaaaaaaaaad. but don't capture using the card!

[Apnoea]

I've got an ATI Radeon (oldish 64mb DDR VIVO)- plays back to TV & monitor very well (industry best hardware DVD playback-far better than software). It uses composite in/out so make sure your TV/video will like it.

Strangely enough, I don't seem to be able to capture video with it... it just doesn't seem to be able to recognise a signal!

Techno- How did yours not play well to the monitor?

Apnoea

[techno]

contact me on icq (PM me for the number) and i will send u a clip of the quality i got!

[eastcote]

"plays back to TV & monitor very well..."

I take it you mean the same image on both? If so, that's not what I'm looking for.

I think I'm looking for either:

A dual head vga card that can play full screen DVD/MPEG on one (with video/tv out) AND a normal pc screen on the other.

or, and preferred

An additional video card alongside the vga that outputs to, say, media player (ie back to the vga) AND a video/tv out connection at the back of the card.

Do you or anyone know of a product that will do this?

Thanks,

[techno]

ok, you are saying u want to play a video, and it displays the output to a TV and monitor at the same time?

If so, go for that card I said.


But why would u wanna show 2 outputs at the same time?? I mean, are you trying to view a sorta like, a tv output in ur living room, so u can watch ur movie alone, and a monitor output somewhere else for maybe the guets or kids to watch? that sorta thing?

There is a new device I saw where u can watch the DIVX (I know u want MPEG/DVD) ovies/vids straight to your TV using a wireless frequency from ur PC. and u can watch that vid at the PC at the same time.


hmmm....i will do more research for ur requirements, but certainly, the card I said go for it


Techno

[Apnoea]

You could be able to use a PCI card as your secondary video and be able to use it as though the second monitor were an extension of your desktop within windows (not sure which versions of windows support this)...
I don;t know how WMP would behave here though. It might try to play a film in both monitor fields- kind of a split-screen effect.

This might give you what you want- or you _might_ be able to use a dedicated MPEG decoder card with a TV output................. I'm really not sure about this 'cos I've never looked into them much... but I suppose you may be able to set it to not play back to the desktop (and so not on the monitor) and only to the TV...
This wouldn't accelerate DivX though (unless it's DivX specific) and would hopefully allow you to use some processor power if you work using the monitor......

Can anybody agree/debunk this? I'm not very sure on this one...

Alternatively, ATI do a twin-head vid card. Not sure what it is though. Well, they certainly did- I can't find it anymore on www.ati.com. I'm sure other people do better cards now though.

Apnoea