How to setup dual video overlay with Quadro NVS

[ashoyeh]

Hello

I have two Quadro NVS cards that bought from ELSA.

I bought them because the product spec showed that dual independent overlay support so that I can drag the video window anywhere between two monitors in "Linux". (It is supported in Windows XP)

My OS platform is Debian Testing with Xfree86 4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 and the NV driver code number is 5336.

My setup of dual head in XF86Config-4 is listed below:
Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia0"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:0:8:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia1"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:0:8:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor0"
HorizSync 30-92
VertRefresh 60-85
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor1"
HorizSync 30-92
VertRefresh 60-85
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen0"
Device "nvidia0"
Monitor "monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen1"
Device "nvidia1"
Monitor "monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x960"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
#Option "Xinerama"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "screen0"
Screen 1 "screen1" LeftOf "screen0"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

I can see the monitors came up the Xserver also I can't drag my app window from one to another.

I executed the mplayer with "-display :0.1" to watch videos. Somehow I can only set the XVideo overlay attribute with "gxvattr" when the movie window is located at the primary screen.

When I played the movie on the secondary monitor, the gxvattr can't set any XVideo overlay attribute because the video overlay is replaced with NV05 Video Blitter.
asho@SeXyDebian:~$ xvattr
Found Xv 2.2
Adaptor: 0
Name: NV05 Video Blitter
Port: 105
Port: 106
Port: 107
Port: 108
Port: 109
Port: 110
Port: 111
Port: 112
Port: 113
Port: 114
Port: 115
Port: 116
Port: 117
Port: 118
Port: 119
Port: 120
Port: 121
Port: 122
Port: 123
Port: 124
Port: 125
Port: 126
Port: 127
Port: 128
Port: 129
Port: 130
Port: 131
Port: 132
Port: 133
Port: 134
Port: 135
Port: 136

How can I setup the XFree86 with dual independent overlay just like the Windows XP does?

Is it the software,driver limitation? I can watch video with overlay and drag the window anywhere I want. So I think it's not a hardware limitation.

Thanks for reading such a long description about my poor experience. :-)

[Thunderbird]

The only special Quadro overlay feature I remember is RGB overlay and it is for some OpenGL stuff and it only works on Quadro4 (not NVS) and QuadroFX cards.
In the case of two videocards each card ofcourse has video overlay support. It might be some limitation of the Xv extension or else Nvidia's drivers to use overlay support on both cards in xinerama mode. I could imagine that a problem appears when you are moving a video window from screen 1 to screen 2. For reasons as this I think they are using blitting.

[ashoyeh]

Originally Posted by Thunderbird

The only special Quadro overlay feature I remember is RGB overlay and it is for some OpenGL stuff and it only works on Quadro4 (not NVS) and QuadroFX cards.
In the case of two videocards each card ofcourse has video overlay support. It might be some limitation of the Xv extension or else Nvidia's drivers to use overlay support on both cards in xinerama mode. I could imagine that a problem appears when you are moving a video window from screen 1 to screen 2. For reasons as this I think they are using blitting.

Thx for answering.

When I use the "Twinview", the XV is left video blitter only. :-(

Can I set the brightness,contrast,SATURATION,hue when I use video blitter?

BTW, what is the video blitter? I can't google for information. What I get is when I play the movie first time with mplayer, it is using video overlay. Then, I play second movie, it is using video blitter..

The gxvattr comes out nothing with NV05 video blitter. So I can't set any attribute at all.

Thx.
Asho

[Thunderbird]

Normally there's some special "surface" for video rendering called video overlay. It is a sort of layer above your normal 2d desktop. This is also the reason you don't see the movie when you make a screenshot of your desktop.

Blitting is the "normal" way for displaying 2d.

If I understand it correctly that when you first play a movie it has overlay and when you close the movie and start a new one it becomes blitting it must be a driver bug. Have you already tried the opensource "nv" driver to see if it has the problem too as Nvidia's drivers don't like Xinerama very much.

[Thunderbird]

Normally there's some special "surface" for video rendering called video overlay. It is a sort of layer above your normal 2d desktop. This is also the reason you don't see the movie when you make a screenshot of your desktop.

Blitting is the "normal" way for displaying 2d.

If I understand it correctly that when you first play a movie it has overlay and when you close the movie and start a new one it becomes blitting it must be a driver bug. Have you already tried the opensource "nv" driver to see if it has the problem too as Nvidia's drivers don't like Xinerama very much.

[ashoyeh]

hello Thunderbird.

Originally Posted by Thunderbird

Normally there's some special "surface" for video rendering called video overlay. It is a sort of layer above your normal 2d desktop. This is also the reason you don't see the movie when you make a screenshot of your desktop.

Blitting is the "normal" way for displaying 2d.

I see...
So I can't set any attribute such as SATURATION. hmm... The movie seems not so good at all...:-(

Originally Posted by Thunderbird

If I understand it correctly that when you first play a movie it has overlay and when you close the movie and start a new one it becomes blitting it must be a driver bug. Have you already tried the opensource "nv" driver to see if it has the problem too as Nvidia's drivers don't like Xinerama very much.

hmm...I think the "nv" doesn't support dual head at least my system doesn't.
When I use the "nv" driver to play the movie, the gxvattr is left over video overlay. And I can only play "one" movie with "nv" driver. Perhaps the nv doesn't contain the feature as the "nvidia" driver does.

Is there a method to solve the problem or I should buy another card e.g. Matrox, ATi?

I am wondering Ati is best recent card that support all feature in XFree86? The "man radeon" mentions that information such as below:
DESCRIPTION
radeon is a XFree86 driver for ATI RADEON based video cards. It con-
tains full support for 8, 15, 16 and 24 bit pixel depths, dual-head
setup, flat panel, hardware 2D acceleration, hardware 3D acceleration
(except R300 cards), hardware cursor, XV extension, Xinerama extension.


Thanks...
Asho :-)