Matrox Millenium P650

Does anyone have opinions of these?

I'm looking for a 2 head card with overlays on both heads, I want it to
be good playing DVDs that have subtitles and the like.

I also want, if possible, a card that will still enable the secondary
port even if it can't detect a display on the other end. Some cards are
better at this than others.

 

The hardware is nearly ok, but Matrox software can be crappy.

Like I had a G400 with Win98SE and by the time W2k came out
they didn't even develop a W2k driver - and the W98SE driver wouldn't let
you record your own analog video tapes (because they detected Macrovision
when there wasn't even Macrovision on the tapes). Also the hardware
would tie itself in a knot if the recording quality factor was set
at around 80% - and you wouldn't find that out until the end of
the recording session.

They are an ardent supporter of Macrovision.
And they do bad software and bad after sales support.
BTW they are a Canadian company.

 

They _used_ to make extremely good 2D graphics cards. I ran through a few
Matrox cards before I dumped them a year or so ago.

Shame really, they had a real shoe in in the market in the early days but
never grabbed the chance and ran with it, hence their cards are much harder to
find nowadays because they are not great value for money and consequently few
people have them.

Agree with the previous poster, I too had a G400 which is not a bad card even
by todays standards, but Matrox never came out with proper 2k/XP drivers.
Also crappy directx support, and once the card is about 2 years old you can
forget getting any driver updates. At least with the likes of nvidia and
other recent cards, driver development stays going for far longer..

I can't see myself ever buying Matrox again, but I wouldn't say I was upset
with them - just consider other options as, er, better value

reuben

 

Go for a Nvdia 6600GT as they do have Full support for DVD Playback.

You need the driver for that and its $19us but its free 30day demo, but MS
has now incorporated in its Media Player.

I do not think that Matrox support hardware accelerated DVD playback.


"PureVideo Technology

Adaptable programmable video processor
MPEG video encode and decode
High-definition MPEG-2 hardware acceleration
High-quality video scaling and filtering
DVD and HDTV-ready MPEG-2 decoding up to 1920x1080i resolutions
Dual integrated 400 MHz RAMDACs for display resolutions up to and including
2048 × 1536 at 85Hz
Display gamma correction
Microsoft® Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) supports multiple video windows with
full video quality and features in each window

Advanced Display Functionality

Dual integrated 400MHz RAMDACs for display resolutions up to and including
2048x1536 at 85hz
Dual DVO ports for interfacing to external TMDS transmitters and external TV
encoders
Full NVIDIA® nView™ multi-display technology capability"

 

Ever bothered to look here for drivers?

http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/certified/home.cfm

They update regularly.

 

You actually have to look on the Matrox site if you want updated
drivers. Just because you couldn't find it doesn't mean it's not
there.

http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/home.cfm

BTW, this driver update is not new -- been there since at least 2001.

This is not a driver issue. The video software that Matrox bundled
with the G400 (a 1998 or so card) was incompatible with Windows 2000.
Matrox never updated it because the G400 was replaced with the G450,
which did come bundled with Windows 2000 (and now XP) compatible
software. The G400 continues to be supported in terms of driver
updates on the Matrox site, but it is otherwise considered obsolete
now.

 

Sorry but that driver comes without the very important video tools.
A simple display driver is a no-brainer.

Yes it is because the Macrovision was built into the software.
Specifically rrapi.dll and vcap16.dll.
They have to be patched to disable macrovision.

Correct. That is what I meant when I said there was no driver for w2k!

Exactly my point.

 

Where are the video tools?

 

The G400 was long ago replaced by the G450. Matrox no longer supports
it beyond providing up-to-date drivers. Get over it..

 

NVIDIA has STUPID drivers that won't even initialise the secondary
display hardware unless there is a bog standard CRT/LCD screen on the end
of it. No projectors, splitter boxes, nothing.

I spent a whole week trying to get their NView working with a projector
once, it was a complete waste of time. The only way we can use the Nvidia
card was in single display mode, with another graphics card providing the
primary display.

 

How can it tell?

 

10 Jun 2005 23:06:33 +1200, Lawrence D¹Oliveiro <[email protected]
central.gen.new_zealand> says...

DDC

 

With the old Apple monitor identification system, it was possible to get
special adapters from third-party monitor vendors that would fake the ID
codes for specific monitor types. Is this sort of thing possible with
DDC?