playing a video across two screen with a radeon 9700pro?

[dgr]

hi

i;ve got a dual screen setup, !!!!!!!

currently a dvi (with vga in if necessary) and a crt, both 19'' running at 1280*1024.


if anyone hasn't tried this, its INCREDIBLE and i will be buying another 18'' lcd almost certainly!


but the problem i'm facing is how to stretch a video across both displays at once? this would be brilliant, watching a video on a double width monitor in full 16/9, no sidebars .

but the manual writes about a "theatre mode" option under video properties, settings, advanced, overlay. and neither myself or a friend with the same setup can find it.

1) is this a setting i am looking for?

2) the manual mentions that its only available in some conditions, now what can i do to my beast to make it available?

oh btw tried omegas and ati3.9s.


regards

dgr

[dgr]

oh btw the reference is page 16 of the manual if anyone has it (available from)

http://www.ati.com/support/manualpdf...4&submit=GO%21

[Austin]

To handle dual displays there is sw from M$ (built into WinXP) and sw from ATI (Hydravision IIRC). Either way you should be able to get the video stream across 2 monitors as I have done so in the past. Theatre Mode is found under Display Porp -> Settings -> Advanced -> Overlay -> Clone Mode Options. It is really designed to make the video stream automatically always full screen on the secondary display (great for TVout). In order to get a video stream to play across the 2 monitors I don't think you can use full screen which simply maximises 1 monitor, what you need to do is tell Windows to span the desktop horizontally (Windows will report a single extra wide display) and then stretch the player window across the two monitors. There may be some option in the drivers/Windows which prevent windows being 'split' across monitors so bear this in mind also. Finally and ideally you should check both your monitors are using the correct drivers in Windows. Good luck.

[dgr]

thanks. i think you are right, i beleive i have only been "extending" my desktop across the two monitors when in fact i need to stretch it.

[Bindibadgi]

Originally posted by dgr
1) is this a setting i am looking for?

2) the manual mentions that its only available in some conditions, now what can i do to my beast to make it available?

Theatre mode is for output onto TV. When you are in dual monitor setup (well, TV + monitor) if you enable a video to play on the TV it will automatically full screen, leaving you to fiddle with the settings on the monitor - ala theatre style, so your audience dont know you're playing on the same pc they are watching something on.
Afaik you can only extend the desktop, not stretch it. When i had my 8500 and 2 monitors (it was fantastic, so much space to work with) or monitor and TV it would only play video full screen on 1 and windowed on the other. Some people couldnt get the overlay to play on 2 monitors even.

However, there is only one video
overlay, which is only available on the Primary display.

Only 1 overlay - only 1 video sorry.

[dgr]

awh, shucks .

ahh well, the next door neighbour is getting a 5900 so may have to give nvida a try.

dgr

[Austin]

I wouldn't give up, I'm sure if you play around with the settings you'll get it working. Many 8500 lacked dual RAMDACs so that could easily be the problem for those, now-a-days almost every card has dual RAMDACs. Give it a play and I'm sure you'll get what you want. IIRC it was with my GF4TI4200 when I last toyed with dual display and it (video stretched across 2 screens) definitely worked there but it was annoying having the screen effectively split down the middle (where the monitors meet). Still nice for the experince though.

[dgr]

the monitors i'm usunig mean the split down the middle is around half an inch - not too bad .

i'll keep playing, maybe get lucky.

if anyone has any more input, lmk

dgr