[THE_COW_IS_OK]

the new Matrox Parhelia-512 should soon be released. 3D outperform latest NVidia/ATI cards and the best is that it support "10 bit GigaColor Technology" thats 4 times more shade per color compoennt then our regular 8bit Nvidia/Ati.


What this means:


Much better DVD playback cause more colors means better dithering, scaling, filtering and less banding.


______________________

THE_COW


In theory, Reality is close to theory, In reality, its not

 

[Namlemez]

This was posted about half a dozen times on the day they actualled announced the card...sorry

 

[JeffY]

but Radeons already have 10bit overlays and dacs.

 

[xcel]

Hi The_Cow_Is_Ok:


___Even the rumors of a rumor about this card were discussed in this forum almost 2 weeks prior to the actual release of the preview information about this yet to be released card. Say that sentence back real fast 3 times in a row


___Good Luck


___Wayne R. Gerdes

___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.

___ [email protected]

 

[THE_COW_IS_OK]

Wow


Its not bad to keep talking about good things.

ITs like judging some1 who keep saying " O what a beautifull morning"


huh

never mind.


anyways, if each topic was tackled only once in this forum, then number of post would have decreased marginably.


O

Never mind again.

 

[keithmcelhinney]

I just read a review of this and it looks amazing! Here is the link:

Tom's Hardware


-keith

 

[Namlemez]

If the repeated posts decreased "marginably" then I think a lot of people would be happy!


To use your analogy, its one thing to say "Wow this HTPC is cool!" over and over. I don't think anyone would mind that.


On the other hand, if we were a forum discussing sunrises and someone who didn't both to look posted about a new pair of glasses that had been announced with limited information and already discussed to death...maybe you'd find it kind of redundant?

 

[Alan Gouger]

I have spent half the day trying to get through to someone regarding the split screen feature of this card.


This company has a lot to be desired regarding my experience today. Very snobbish and rude. Ive been pawned from division to division and given numerous numbers with no answers to my questions.


I would not support this company based on my experience today. If anyone has a contact number or knows anyone in this company that can answer a simple question please let me know.


I dont like dealing with companies that purposely make it difficult for the consumer to get an answer.

 

[xcel]

Hi Alan:


___I know you have been searching for the split screen capability for quite some time but this is not really a split screen but appears to be an expanded screen format from just one card while playing a game that supports it or multiple DT’s while 2D apps are being displayed. Is this the feature you have been looking for?


___As far as being passed from person to person inside of Matrox, you should call up ATI or Nvidia sometime. If you are lucky enough to speak with someone at all is a godsend Most of us are in the same boat. We simply wait for the HW release, complain like hell to get some feature promised in the HW fixed with a driver update, and when the feature is fixed we find something else we want and scream to the masses all over again. This is how the game has been played in various forums around the net for years. Most of these companies will watch the larger sites forums and fix what they see as the largest offenders. In our case, AVScience is a great resource for the HT crowd but in terms of video card sales, we are just a blip on the radar screen compared to the gaming community unfortunately. Someday this may change but that is the way it appears today.


___If you happen to get a hold of a Matrox employee to answer your questions directly, let us know what he or she said since many of us are still awaiting word on new features of this card not yet fully disclosed like HWMC/iDCT/Component output resolutions …


___Good Luck


___Wayne R. Gerdes

___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.

___ [email protected]

 

[xortam]

Alan ... post your question in the Matrox Tech Support GH forum . Haig, the Tech Support manager is very good about answering Parhelia questions that aren't still under NDA.

 

[Alan Gouger]

xortam

Thanks for the link to the forum. It proved to be very responsive:

I wonder if this is currently availible on any of their current cards.

I do not need tripple support anyway.




My question to Haig:

I am using a sofware dvd player on my PC and Im looking to split the image accross 2 monitors or 3 monitors. In my case I will be using 2 projectors creating a panarama view.

Is this possible with this card or any other card in your products list?





Response:


Hi Alan,

since the drivers aren't finalized, I can't comment on any dvd/overlay issues in triplehead since the pitch for triplehead is mainly for surround gaming.


If you are asking to span the dvd player accross 2 outs in DH mode, yes you can since the chip has hardware overlay on both outs in DH mode.


------------------

Haig

Matrox Graphics

Technical Support Manager

 

[Man E]

That's fantastic news! I hope it works.

 

[Gary McCoy]

Alan, I don't think the display feature you are asking for is available in the current series of 400/450/550 DualHead cards. While Matrox has superior dual display capability compared to other current vendors, the existing boards only support overlay on a single VGA port. I've had a couple of DualHead boards and I've tried several times to simply get the same overlay output on both ports, to get the capability to use either a CRT monitor or the projector or both at once. I have updated my Matrox drivers several times, but I've never been able to get this to work. It almost does - overlay can be had on either port but not both at once, and switching from primary to secondary is complicated - I've always found the external switchbox easier.


The new triplehead apparently offers overlay on two of the three video outputs. Whether the feature you desire will ever be a part of the released drivers and utilities is the real question. I would have suggested that you submit a request for such a feature in the appropriate Matrox Support Forum, but that "Feature Request" forum has dissappeared just in the past week and the other Support Forums have disclaimers to contact that same rude Sales staff.


I don't want to suggest any cultural bias or gender bias on their part, but a female colleague of mine gets quite polite responses from Matrox Marketing when she calls, as long as she speaks French.


Gary

 

[xortam]

Alan ... you're welcome. Glad to be of assistance.

 

[xcel]

Hi Xortam:


___I had a chance to peruse some of the Matrox forums and found quite a bit of very useful information in them. All the good stuff however is still buried behind HAIG’s NDA or “Can’t comment†however. Darn, how I would love to be that fly on the wall in the Matrox Lab’s


___Thanks again for the MURC links and discussion.


As an edit, I see Tom Strade and a few other HTPC movers and shakers commenting in the Matrox forums as well … This must have come about from your links directly!


___Wayne R. Gerdes

___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.

___ [email protected]

 

[xortam]

No problem xcel. Matrox has got a lot of us pretty excited. The MURC has a number of driver beta testers who are long time members so they've been teasing us about Parhelia forever. I wish they would let us know more about the DVD/HDTV features but at the very least, the fidelity should be top notch. I saw a post that Matrox would be at E3 "demoing Surround Gaming on Parhelia on massive triple projection screens on the inside of a 44' dome, hosted by SubstanceTV." I saw a google hit on this but couldn't find anything on the SubstanceTV site. Its been public for awhile that Matrox has a booth at E3 and we're hoping that the public will get to see the Parhelia in action then. E3 is next week so we'll know soon enough.


[edit]

Glad to see the HT folks pestering Matrox for info. I'm not sure if I'm a facilitator or a trouble maker. I'll go check out what they've got to say ...

[/edit]

 

[xortam]

I see some demo info in the Matrox forum thread that Tom Strade posted in. The links are:

Best Buy Co., Inc. and GameSpy Industries present "Soldier of Fortune 2 Duel in the Dome" at SubstanceTV Promised Lot in Los Angeles

Matrox to showcase Parhelia™-512 and Unreal® Tournament 2003 in Surround Gaming at E3

 

[Burned&Warped]

Quote:

Originally posted by Alan Gouger I have spent half the day trying to get through to someone regarding the split screen feature of this card. This company has a lot to be desired regarding my experience today. Very snobbish and rude. Ive been pawned from division to division and given numerous numbers with no answers to my questions. I would not support this company based on my experience today. If anyone has a contact number or knows anyone in this company that can answer a simple question please let me know. I dont like dealing with companies that purposely make it difficult for the consumer to get an answer.

Alan,


maybe there's no monitoring on the (telephone) customer service dept.

or, referring to Gary's post, maybe you just have to know how to say "Customers are the kings" in French?


Have a nice day!