JDoran

Brian, Just returned from an overnight business trip and read your replies #18 and #20. Please be aware that your post #18 crossed over with my post #19 and despite the timings quoted on the posts I was not aware of the content of #18 when replying to your questions posed in post #17. At no time have I tried to use the forum to "fix" my PC. I suggest that you re-examine the sequence of posts and ask yourself who took the topic outside the "terms of reference" of the forum board if indeed it has gone outside - I can see no details of such terms of reference and previous discussions on the board appear to have gone in much greater depth to other topics. FYI - The XP2 Pro disc and graphics card CD were supplied to me by the dealer and are in my possession - at no time did I state otherwise. I have installed the hansol and nvidea drivers (in that order) as per my previous posts using the installation executables downloaded and both installations reported the drivers had been successfully installed. The nv4_disp.dll and nv4_mini.sys that you refer to in post #18 are part of the nvidea driver download. It appears to me therefore that the nvidea driver installation substitutes their drivers for the hansol drivers. I am very surprised at the tone of your last post. A colleague who has perhaps more experience of forum boards advises me to terminate the discussion and I therefore will join you in doing so at this point. Any other member of the forum who has experience of this graphics card and is willing to share that experience please contact me by e-mail. This is my last post.

Hi Brian, 1. I downloaded the most recent drivers from the hansol website and loaded them after your first post. 2. The nvidia drivers were installed for me by the dealer I assume from the CD that came with the card. At Igor's suggestion I downloaded the latest drivers from the nvidia site and have loaded them according to their instructions on the site. 3. Sorry, do not understand what you mean by the "old" VGA card. 4. The hansol driver download contained an executable installer. I followed the on-screen instructions to load the drivers. The nvidia driver download is a pack also with an installer. nvidia recommend uninstalling first before updating which I did and then I followed the on-screen instructions from the installer. I do not understand how the hansol drivers interact with the nvidia drivers or for that matter how both then interact with the icc profile. Hope that helps with the diagnosis. I found the discussions on the nvidia forums (and the lack of replies from the nvidia staff) less than encouraging for anyone using colour management profiles. Jane

Hi nobeefstu, XP Pro SP2 DirectX 9.0c 9 or higher (I think) I have attached dxdiag to clarify last point as I am not really sure. Jane DxDiag20071101.txt

Brian, Perhaps I have confused our discussion by trying out a second flat screen monitor (hanspree) to resolve the problem. It is this second monitor that I only have a generic driver for. I have abandoned that approach because of the driver issue. After your first post I downloaded the most recent hansol 920P drivers from their site. So AFAIK my own PC/monitor set-up is configured as best it can be. This monitor is profiled with a spyder2 and the icc profile is reported as being successfully installed in the video card at boot-up. The screen visibly changes as the profile is loaded. Spyder2 also has a "profile chooser" which allows me to load other icc profiles eg a generic sRGB profile and again the screen display changes. All this convinces me that the correct monitor profile is loaded in the video card. The problem is that this profile is discarded on preview. NoBeefstu, Fairly convinced (see my reply above to Brian) that the monitor profile is loaded up until the slide-show is previewed. I have though had a look at the graphics card manager and imported the monitor profile manually. This however results in bizarre colours (perhaps double profiling as can occur when PS profiles and printer settings conflict?). This inability to import icc profiles is reported on the nvidia forum frequently so far with no replies from nvidia staff so it does not look like a promising option for me to pursue. I had hoped that others on the forum might be using the nvidia 8600GT card and would be able to confirm that their colour profile was retained on preview or not. In lieu of that could someone explain the significance of full screen mode wrt DirectX. It appears to me that the colour shift only occurs on full screen mode when hardware acceleration is set on. Thanks Jane

Hi Ken, Thanks for that. I have not bought a new monitor yet as I want to establish that it is the monitor that is causing the problem first. On the basis of my investigation so far it seems to me (non-tech aware) that it is the video card or video card set-up that is causing the problem. The problem does not occur on another PC with nvidia 5200 card with my hansol 920p monitor connected and the same slide-show. The effect looks very similar to the reported ATI radeon problem as it is only seen in full screen mode - I am assuming some sort of DirectX issue. I am hoping to get another monitor with drivers from a friend soon. Plan also to try and wade through the nvidia manual to get some idea what the frighteningly large number of settings on the video card manager actually do. Thanks anyway Jane

Hi Brian, As you predicted the flat screen monitor is using a generic windows driver. I have logged onto Drivers.Com (wow! the hardest sell I have ever encountered when registering on-line) but they do not have a suitable driver listed for my "alternative" monitor so that line of enquiry is out. Will continue to investigate as I am hopeful I can find a colleague with a decent monitor and driver disc. However have to say that while I appreciate the driver may not be optimal for my monitor I cannot see why this would cause the effect I am seeing. I have installed the latest nvidia drivers for the card, the monitor is profiled, and the profile is successfully loaded into the video card. The images in the file list and slide list are being properly displayed in P2Exe (and all other software). It is only when previewed in v5 of P2Exe that the colour shift occurs. Setting hardware acceleration off also stops the colour shift from occurring. I have also read that a member of this forum discovered a "work around" for the ATI card problem - by setting the project options to "windowed" mode rather than "full screen" mode. Changing this setting also stops the colour shift on preview in my set-up. I would still be keen to hear from anyone who has this card installed, their experiences, and details of their monitor. TIA Jane

Hi Brian, Many thanks for your advice. It will be no problem if it is the monitor as I was thinking about replacing it anyway. That seems a simple solution and one I can do myself rather than a workshop job. Have to say I have not had this kind of problem before with custom built PC's. I have access to a work colleagues set up. His monitor is a Hanspree 19" flat screen. I am thinking about switching monitors with him to see whether that works. By my reckoning the problem should then transfer to his PC/monitor and hopefully resolve on mine. Is my logic sound? Jane

Hi, Monitor is profiled using spider2. The monitor profile is reported as loaded into the graphics card on boot-up. Images in file list and slide-show list appear correctly colour managed. When slide-show is previewed the icc profile appears to be discarded and a visible colour shift in the images is observed. This has been reported elsewhere for some ATI Radeon cards and is confirmed as a bug however I understood this was not supposed to happen with NVIDIA cards. The PC was built by local dealer to specification based on discussions on this forum. The monitor is a Hansol 920 used for last few years without problem. Settings on the graphics card can be adjusted via a software manager. I have not altered these settings as I have not previously had to do this with other NVIDIA cards. If anyone has this card installed I would be grateful if they could share their experiences. Thanks Jane

Got a colleague to help with this and now have downloaded drivers from NVIDIA site but still unable to resolve this problem. The monitor profile appears to be lost when previewing slide-show or executable resulting in color shift. On investigation: Setting hardware acceleration off restores correct color management Using my colleagues PC (NVIDIA 5200) on same slideshow restores correct color management There are a number of settings that I can access via the graphics card manager that I have not touched. Anyone else use this graphics card successfully? If so can they advise on their settings? Or can anyone suggest what I might be doing wrong. Thanks Jane

Hi, Just got new PC with NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT fitted. Monitor profile is being discarded on preview as previously discussed for some ATI cards. I understood this nVidia card would retain profile - do I have to change settings on the graphic card manager to stop this happening. Thanks Jane

I agree that off the peg is not a good option. Your comments on pcspecialist are encouraging. They are the internet supplier I felt happiest with. If I cannot get a local dealer then I think that is the route I will go. Thanks for your comments. It is always reassuring to find satisfied customers. Jane

It is often difficult to establish hardware components to this level of detail when purchasing an off the shelf PC. Previously I have purchased from local dealers that built the PC on site to an agreed specification and it was therefore possible to get to this level of detail. However lately it appears that all my local dealers have stopped building PC's in this way (at least in my part of UK) preferring to purchase in ready built units then "tweaking" them where necessary. This is driving me towards purchasing on the internet (eg from www.pcspecialist.co.uk) but I am reluctant to go down this route as it is easier to resolve problems with a local retail outlet. Anyone have experience of purchasing a PC in the UK lately to an agreed specification or can recommend best way to proceed? Thanks Jane

Thanks Ken, Tom for your help. Tending towards MF5 Plus in view of your comments. Thanks again. Jane

Hi, Our camera club is purchasing software primarily to burn image/data files to CD/DVD. Some members plan to use P2Exe to create slideshows and I think they may want to create DVD's as well. On the basis of comments on this forum I am selecting between Ulead Movie Factory 5 plus, Roxio Easy Media Creator 9, and Nero 7 Premium. Other forums dedicated to burning software are not very encorouging with several posts highlighting problems with Ulead, Roxio, and Nero previous products. There does not seem to be a "best buy" or even clear critria that could be used to choose between them. Anyone on this forum got any advice before I buy? TIA

Thanks Ken but I cannot try before I buy. It is the ATI spec for the card that I find confusing - the 1150 spec mentions the Radeon X300 as though it is derived from it. I'm afraid I find all graphics card specs pretty obscure.

Hi, Having difficulty deciding if this video card is suitable for new version. Was not in the list that appeared some time ago as a poll. Can anyone clarify where it lies in the ATI Radeon series and whether it is suitable. I find the Redeon numbering rather confusing - does a higher number indicate a better graphics capability? Thanks Jane

Hi Andrew, I will post once we finally get the equipment and let you know how we get on. At the moment I am tring to avoid a wide screen laptop for the reasons you mention. Problem is that so many of the laptops that meet our other requirements are both wide screen and high resolution and we keep getting pushed in that direction. Doubt the budget will stretch to a projector to match that type of laptop. Very hopeful that we can come up with a competition process but until we get the kit it is very difficult to establish what will work. Will let you know if we come up with something feasible. Jane

Hi Andrew Ok, I got the "digital" link on your website this time. Some really detailed and valuable info so thanks very much for pointing me there. I am in a very similar situation in that our camera club has successfully applied for lottery grant so I guess you are familiar with my dilemma. On the basis of your and other replies on this thread I am fairly confident now that we can output P2Exe to the projector while running word processor or speadsheet on laptop. I have got hold of a fairly standard laptop and will be trying it out this weekend using an additional monitor instead of a projector. Fingers crossed. Main problem now is that I am having difficulty matching laptop with projector so your comments on this problem on the website were particularly helpful. As you probably know general advice is to match native resolution of laptop with that of projector but some on this forum have suggested that any loss of quality due to a resolution "mis-match" is in practice negligible. Have you noticed any loss of quality? - it appears that you have a fairly large mismatch between native resolution on laptop and projector. Also if you have any comments on whether DVI output/input is required I would be interested. Again the general advice is that it will give the highest quality image but in practice some have suggested any improvement is negligible. Interested to see your comments on the website about other software but our view at the club is that P2Exe is a must. The equipment/methodology simply has to fit round it. Thanks again for your input Jane

Thanks Andrew for your reply. As you say dual output from suitable laptop is possible either via on-board graphics card or via a PCMCIA card. I continue to try to identify a suitable laptop/projector combination that will satisfy all club members requirements and within budget - not proving easy! Consensus opinion on this thread appears to be that a P2Exe show can be directed to primary output (projector) while another application is output to secondary output (laptop screen). Can you clarify if you have done that at your club? I have read the info that you have posted on your club website but it related to powerpoint running as the sole application. Thanks Jane

Thanks Brian for your response. Since posting I am now a little clearer about this subject - thanks to all who helped. I have not yet purchased the equipment (on behalf of local club) so I am able to select a laptop with a suitable graphics card. I feel that the extra cost is justified because it will then be possible for the speaker to read from their notes on the laptop while the images are being displayed on-screen. It also opens up other possibilities such as recording audience votes in real time. It has been interesting to read some of the other posts on this thread as clearly dual output may open up other possibilities that we can investigate once we have the equipment. Main problem now (which I have posted on a separate thread) is that many of the laptops that have the capabilities that you refer to (RAM etc) are wide screen (16:9 or 16:10) and higher resolution (1280x720). This poses a problem as our budget is unlikely to run to anything more than an XGA projector. I have been advised that the projector resolution and native laptop resolution should be the same however from the responses on this forum there seems room for debate on this point. I would be interested in your comments on that. Jane

Hi, Thanks to all for passing on their experiences. It becomes very theoretical when you are forced to investigate something like this "up front" so any practical experiences are very welcome. fxdesigner - While I suspect that you are correct that this is a perceived rather than real problem could you describe in more detail the visual impact you mention when moving the projector from native to the other resolutions? Jane

Hi All, Still researching purchase of laptop/projector combination for club. Thanks to all for help in previous posts - it is getting (slightly) clearer. Main issue at the moment is the choice of laptop. We have already settled on XGA (1024x768) resolution for projector and I have been advised to match native resolution of laptop to projector. However most of the laptops I have had recommended are widescreen either 1280x800 or 1440x900 resolution. Would this resolution mismatch be significant when projecting slideshows? TIA Jane

Hi, Posted this on the av projector thread but it got "lost" so am trying again. A friend suggested that it should be possible to display two different programs by linking a single PC/Laptop to two separate monitors. Can anyone advise if this is possible and if so how to do it. I believe it may require a special graphics card but not sure. I am thinking that it would be useful to be able to display a slideshow on an av projector while displaying speakers notes on the laptop monitor. Jane

Hi Ted, On the subject of choosing a suitable laptop for displaying av on projector - I was recently advised to get a laptop that enabled a dual display on the monitor. It was suggested that this would enable the slideshow to be displayed on one half of the monitor screen while the other half of the monitor displayed, for example, a document with speakers notes. (The projector would only display the av) Do you/anyone have experience of such a facility and what to look for in the laptop spec - is it a function of the video card? Jane

Al, Obvious solution - when you think about it!! That opens up the choice of projector again. Thanks Jane