Disappointment! Bezel Management n00b question

Elettrone · Post by **Elettrone** » 07 Mar 2009, 13:23

I just got my TH2GO Digital and i have to say i'm quite disappointed because:

1)On the matrox website when they display the sample images about the games you can see the image spanning three monitors with the bezel management active and the image reaching the far sides of the monitors leaving no black gaps while i tried the bez. and there's no way to configure it not to leave black gaps to the far edges of the sides monitors...or am I dumb that i can't setup it properly?
I mean...SoftTH does a better job at it...i could play Dead SPace 1900x1200@60+120px of bez. wich makes for a huge resolution...

2)Ijust discovered that one of my monitors can't run the 3x1680x1050 res at tha standard refresh rate. I have 2x 2709WFP DELL and 1x 2707WFP DELL and the latter doesnt work with that refresh rate. Is there anyway i can change the refresh rate and have it working?

Last and maybe silly question...there's any chanche for Matrox releasing an update to support 3x1920x1200 wich is my monitor's native res? Or any workaround to obtain it? My windows desktop looks crap with that resolution... and switching everytime to dual to obtain native resolution when i'm not playing sucks...

mattsimis · Post by **mattsimis** » 07 Mar 2009, 15:15

I just got my TH2GO Digital and i have to say i'm quite disappointed because:

1)On the matrox website when they display the sample images about the games you can see the image spanning three monitors with the bezel management active and the image reaching the far sides of the monitors leaving no black gaps while i tried the bez. and there's no way to configure it not to leave black gaps to the far edges of the sides monitors...or am I dumb that i can't setup it properly?
I mean...SoftTH does a better job at it...i could play Dead SPace 1900x1200@60+120px of bez. wich makes for a huge resolution...

2)Ijust discovered that one of my monitors can't run the 3x1680x1050 res at tha standard refresh rate. I have 2x 2709WFP DELL and 1x 2707WFP DELL and the latter doesnt work with that refresh rate. Is there anyway i can change the refresh rate and have it working?

Last and maybe silly question...there's any chanche for Matrox releasing an update to support 3x1920x1200 wich is my monitor's native res? Or any workaround to obtain it? My windows desktop looks crap with that resolution... and switching everytime to dual to obtain native resolution when i'm not playing sucks...

Well:

1: The black part on the left/right may as well be the bezel when playing a game. You arent actively looking at the side screens regardless, they are there for immersion. I thought I might bother me, but it doesnt once you use it. I found SoftTHs approach different but not really better. Definately more messy. SoftTHs curvature correction was interesting though.

2: What do you mean? You first point implies you have it working. There is no way to specify per monitor refresh rates. Thats why there is the list of working monitors.

3: 1920x1200x Triple would require new hardware, its not going to happen. Either get used to the desktop (you can try switching between graphics card and monitor scaling to see if any quality difference) or accept the switching to dual. This is why I bought 3x22", apart from the fact 3x24 is just too big. My GFs setup is 3x 24" and she now just leaves it in Triple all the time, she did have the dual thing setup but wasnt pushed over it in practice.

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 07 Mar 2009, 21:24

3x1920x1200 is possible, just at a lower refresh rate.

In theory provided you could update the TH2G to manage it you could send out say, 3x1920x1200@30hz interlaced. And have the TH2G deinterlace it and output it as 1920x1200@60Hz per monitor.

It should fit within available bandwidth both on input and output. Question is, is the TH2G that flexible by update.

mattsimis · Post by **mattsimis** » 08 Mar 2009, 01:32

3x1920x1200 is possible, just at a lower refresh rate.

In theory provided you could update the TH2G to manage it you could send out say, 3x1920x1200@30hz interlaced. And have the TH2G deinterlace it and output it as 1920x1200@60Hz per monitor.

I think we should be setting realistic expectations. Wouldnt deinterlacing (which is a processor intensive task, doubt the TH2G has the facility to do this regardless) 30Hz then frame doubling to 60Hz generate all sorts of visual oddities, much like running a 24fps Movie at 60Hz?

Elettrone · Post by **Elettrone** » 08 Mar 2009, 04:02

1: The black part on the left/right may as well be the bezel when playing a game. You arent actively looking at the side screens regardless, they are there for immersion. I thought I might bother me, but it doesnt once you use it. I found SoftTHs approach different but not really better. Definately more messy. SoftTHs curvature correction was interesting though.

While this might be true i still like the SoftTH approach that actually renders a wider image depending on the border size you want to implement we paied high dollars for these monitor so let's use em to the last pixel!

1) Now i just noticed i have some weird refresh rate problem...when i set 3x1680x1050@57 it goes instead at 48hz rather than 57hz...that might be the reason why the oldest monitor doesnt accept that frequency, why is this happening???
2) Can 3x1920x1200 be achieved by combining 2x TH2GO? I mean does the driver support multiple TH2GO as one big screen?

mattsimis · Post by **mattsimis** » 08 Mar 2009, 22:40

1: The black part on the left/right may as well be the bezel when playing a game. You arent actively looking at the side screens regardless, they are there for immersion. I thought I might bother me, but it doesnt once you use it. I found SoftTHs approach different but not really better. Definately more messy. SoftTHs curvature correction was interesting though.

1) Now i just noticed i have some weird refresh rate problem...when i set 3x1680x1050@57 it goes instead at 48hz rather than 57hz...that might be the reason why the oldest monitor doesnt accept that frequency, why is this happening???
2) Can 3x1920x1200 be achieved by combining 2x TH2GO? I mean does the driver support multiple TH2GO as one big screen?

On 1: How are you determining this frequency? Have you tried rotating monitors? Its quite possible the monitor misreports the 57Hz mode as it doesnt support it and its not at 48Hz at all.

For 2: What "driver"? TH2G appears as a single monitor to windows, software has little to do with it. 2x TH2G would be seen as two monitors.

Elettrone · Post by **Elettrone** » 08 Mar 2009, 23:34

How are you determining this frequency? Have you tried rotating monitors? Its quite possible the monitor misreports the 57Hz mode as it doesnt support it and its not at 48Hz at all

I'm positive it is 48hz cuz it works, if it wasnt supported there would be no image at all as on the 2707WFP.
I read about a thread where recent drivers would cause this erroneus 48hz issue [url]http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/10055] , the bad thing is that these drivers do not support my GTX260.

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 09 Mar 2009, 19:34

I think we should be setting realistic expectations. Wouldnt deinterlacing (which is a processor intensive task, doubt the TH2G has the facility to do this regardless) 30Hz then frame doubling to 60Hz generate all sorts of visual oddities, much like running a 24fps Movie at 60Hz?

You're confusing reverse 3:2 pulldown (24hz to 60hz) with deinterlacing.

30hz to 60hz is not very processor intensive, just output 2 for every 1.

3:2 pulldown is, and on top of that it's often poorly done and causes those "visual oddities".

I suppose same goes for deinterlacing, but heck, make it 30hz progressive if the bandwidth allows. A bit slower sure, but at least it'd be native res.

And about being 'unrealistic'. Matrox updated to use 1680x1050 at 57hz, what, they expected most monitors to work at that very non-standard hz? picking the easy path instead of allowing the th2g to input 57hz and output 60hz.

mattsimis · Post by **mattsimis** » 09 Mar 2009, 20:25

[quote]
I think we should be setting realistic expectations. Wouldnt deinterlacing (which is a processor intensive task, doubt the TH2G has the facility to do this regardless) 30Hz then frame doubling to 60Hz generate all sorts of visual oddities, much like running a 24fps Movie at 60Hz?

You're confusing reverse 3:2 pulldown (24hz to 60hz) with deinterlacing.

30hz to 60hz is not very processor intensive, just output 2 for every 1.

3:2 pulldown is, and on top of that it's often poorly done and causes those "visual oddities".

I suppose same goes for deinterlacing, but heck, make it 30hz progressive if the bandwidth allows. A bit slower sure, but at least it'd be native res.

And about being 'unrealistic'. Matrox updated to use 1680x1050 at 57hz, what, they expected most monitors to work at that very non-standard hz? picking the easy path instead of allowing the th2g to input 57hz and output 60hz.

True actually on the pulldown.

Regarding realistic expectations, Im not referring to "realistic" meaning technically possible, Im referring to the fact its unrealistic to expect Matrox to squeeze out any more out of these existing TH2G units. If it happens, thats a bonus. IMO if the unit could output at higher Hz then input then they would do it already on the 57Hz thing. To someone with a new unit and somewhat disenfranchised, they may well end up more disappointed when "what they read on a forum" doesnt pan out.

As a btw, I dont think more people realise the TH2G will take a 60Hz input and output at 57Hz. This is helpful for some apps that dont like non-standard resolutions.

Elettrone · Post by **Elettrone** » 10 Mar 2009, 01:09

Anyway after asking Matrox support they ammited the 48hz issue is caused by their drivers with nVidia serie 200, they sent me a special Powerdesk version and now all is ok...

mattsimis · Post by **mattsimis** » 10 Mar 2009, 14:31

Anyway after asking Matrox support they ammited the 48hz issue is caused by their drivers with nVidia serie 200, they sent me a special Powerdesk version and now all is ok...

We should prolly host that here too if we havent already..

Elettrone · Post by **Elettrone** » 11 Mar 2009, 00:58

It's a beta driver, they will post it as soon as they have a final version, at least so they told me.
and btw they also told me they dont have any plan to update the resolutions up to 3x1920x1200. :(

Post by **skipclarke** » 11 Mar 2009, 01:25

3x1920x1200 far exceeds the bandwidth of DL-DVI. 3x1680x1050@60Hz exceeds it. Will take new hardware based on DisplayPort.

Check out this White Paper:

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/media/pdf/products/gxm/Matrox_Monitor_Bezel_Management_White_Paper.pdf

All the comparison shots from page three on show black bars on the edges. It says, the "desktop will shift by the total width."

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