Using composite monitor as extension of Windows desktop to preview video?

[miamicanes]

I know that you can't accurately judge captured video based on what you see played back in a window under Windows (because everything from the gamma curve to color balance and interlace artifacts screws it up), but how about if I were to dig my ancient Commodore 1702 monitor out of the closet and connect it to my motherboard's S-video out & configure Windows to treat it like an extension of the desktop, running at 720 x 480 60hz interlaced? Will Windows still mangle most of the parameters and display an incorrect rendition of the video?

Likewise, can Ulead Video Studio 11, Adobe Premiere Elements, or some other DV-compatible capture app take advantage of a multihead windows setup where the second display is a composite monitor and use THAT "window" in full-screen mode to display its previews of what's coming in via DV at that moment?

[JohnnyMalaria]

It depends on your graphics card. My nVidia GS7600 does exactly what you describe including maintaining interlacing and, critically for me, overscan.

Re your second part, our Enosoft DV Processor can do exactly that (previews full screen on a second monitor during capture. It will even autodetect it and use it by default).

Your processor must support SSE2, though. Your profile states AMD Athlon 1800XP which, AFAIK, doesn't.

Alternatively, you could use GraphEdit - but it's a somewhat manual affair.

[jagabo]

Don't extend your desktop (unless you have other reasons to do so) onto the TV. Use the graphics card's video Overlay feature and Theater Mode (that's what ATI calls it, I don't remember what nVidia calls Theater Mode). Whatever is played in a media player will appear full screen on the TV. Video Overlay should also have its own color/brightness controls so you can calibrate the TV output.

[redwudz]

I also have a C1702 monitor and I've used it for several years to monitor the video from my ADVC-100 DV converter. I have also used it for a CCTV monitor. It's still going strong. I got mine for free because a friend didn't know what to do with it.

[miamicanes]

Your processor must support SSE2, though. Your profile states AMD Athlon 1800XP which, AFAIK, doesn't.

Whoops... my profile was a wee bit out of date (I hadn't updated it since the last time I was in a VHS archiving mood sometime around 2002 or 2003). It's now accurate

It's kind of sad, really. I finally have a system that actually CAN do brute-force realtime captures and on the fly MPEG-2 compression with a BT878 card, and what do I do? I go out and buy a ADStech Pyro because I don't have any spare PCI slots. Sigh. (just got home from CompUSA with the new toy around 8:30pm) that makes the PC itself largely irrelevant

As far as the 1702 goes, it absolutely bankrupted me for months after Christmas back in 7th grade, but ironically it ended up having the longest useful life of any computer-related item I've ever owned (second only to the IBM buckling-spring keyboard I bought in 1992 and used daily until I splurged for a pair of brand new EnduraPro keyboards (same buckling-spring design) w/pointer sticks about a decade later... one for work, one for play). After I got my Amiga in high school, it ended up morphing into my bedroom (and later, my dorm room) TV (after it occurred to me that the VCR's tuner made one in the TV itself redundant).