Need new video card

[dfisher052]

I need suggestions for a new video card. I have been using an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS so I could use a second CRT monitor to view my edits. The purpose is so I can judge what the video will look like when broadcast on regular TV's. When I upgraded to Windows 7 that feature no longer works, besides one of the capacitors is going bad on the card & needs replacing. Also, when I tried to upgrade quite awhile back to an 8000 series card that feature was no longer available. So now I'm looking for a card that will have a dual monitor feature, but must let me see my desktop with my editor on my main screen (LCD) & my video out (full screen) on the second monitor (CRT). I don't want to just see a duplication of of the main screen on the second screen. The 7600 GS would let me see 2 different screens. I have seen cards advertised that say Dual Monitor but I don't know if they will just duplicate the same screen or spread the desktop over 2 screens. I don't want either. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[usually_quiet]

If you are open to using an ATI card, many support a feature under Windows 7 which they call "Theater Mode". It allows a full-screen display on a second monitor that is different from the desktop.

[dfisher052]

ATI card is fine...in fact I was leaning toward one... But what I forgot to mention was... it must have an S-video out & must go in a PCI express slot. I looked at some (there are few available with S-Video anymore), but it seems that most models that had S-Video are now upgrading to HDMI.

[usually_quiet]

ATI card is fine...in fact I was leaning toward one... But what I forgot to mention was... it must have an S-video out & must go in a PCI express slot. I looked at some (there are few available with S-Video anymore), but it seems that most models that had S-Video are now upgrading to HDMI.

It looks like ATI's Theater Mode isn't quite what you are looking for after all when using Windows 7. It appears there is only a choice between extended desktop and duplicate desktop for the secondary monitor when using Windows 7. Theater Mode is a setting under Catlayst Control Center's Advanced Mode Graphics Video settings that is supposed to make video play at full screen in the secondary monitor.

I tried Theater Mode with my integrated 4200 HD graphics to see what I could do using my new LCD monitor (DVI) as the primary, and an old CRT (VGA) monitor as the secondary, but I couldn't get it to work properly in either extended mode or duplicate mode. Between that and all your other needs, I don't have a solution.

[usually_quiet]

I played around a bit more and got pretty close to what I think you want. I set up the secondary monitor (CRT using VGA port) in Catalyst Media Center to use extended desktop, plus the Theater Mode setting for Video. I dragged Media Player Classic Home Cinema over to the secondary monitor and configured MPCHC to use its Full Screen setting and set Video Frame to "Touch Window from Inside".

Both monitors use the same color setting (32-bit or 16-bit), but resolution, refresh rate, and rotation (portrait, landscape, portrait (flipped), landscape (flipped)) can be set independently. No way for me to test what happens when an ATI VGA card with an S-Video port is connected to an SD monitor.

Assuming you have a PCIe x16 slot, I found out PCIe 2.0 cards are generally backward compatible with PCIe 1.x motherboards, using the available bandwidth of PCI Express 1.1 Unfortunately, I don't know how to determine if a particular card is not backwards compatible

If you can't find something that is known to work, a card like this might be worth a try.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150484
http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/graphiccards/hd%204000series/4550.aspx#4

[dfisher052]

Thanks Usually, good info. I will look into this card. Just might be what I'm looking for. Reviews looked kinda mixed, but then aren't they always.