Hi.
I've been using two monitors on my computer for a long time, working on the primary monitor and watching video on the other.
The problem is that when I switch out of Aero mode on Vista the video start to tear. Not noticably if it's the only thing running but If I try to run a game or any other resource eating monster I'm sometimes seeing several tears at any given time.
I've been reading arround and I've discovered that Vista uses a entirly new system for drawing applications, called Desktop Window Manager (dmw), which collects drawings from applications and then, using DirectX, draws the new tear free Aero desktop look, with it's new features.
What I don't understand is what happens then when you turn Aero of?
Is the DMW still drawing the desktop but not bothering to buffer the output, making it responsible for the tearing.
Or is the DMW turned of alltogether, making the applications write directly to the screen, making them responsible.
I should also note that if I go another step back and switch to Windows Classic mode, the tearing is much more visible.
O yea... I'm using Windows Vista Ultimate on an Acer Aspire laptop. 1.7ghz Intel Core Duo with 1.5GB ram and an ATI X1600 mobile.