Linux-based OS and graphics card for temporally interleaved stereo

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My current lab setup includes a Mac Pro (running OSX 1.6.8 with a Radeon HD 5870 graphics card), connected to the CRT by way of a Datapixx. I use a pair of NVidia 3D glasses with a custom emitter to view my stimuli.

Despite the custom emitter, the glasses are buggy when using the Radeon card, and only appear to work properly with NVidia cards (working fine with my Mac Mini test system with integrated GeForce 9400M).

I'm planning to replace the card currently in the Mac Pro with a relatively high-end card - perhaps something from the NVidia Quadro range - and switch over to using Linux. I'm a relatively advanced user, having tinkered with Linux for a number of years, but I'm unsure of what flavour to use. The UI of vanilla Ubuntu seems like it could cause problems - is Kubuntu any better, or should I just stick to something like NeuroDebian?

Any graphics card recommendations are also welcome - I've already emailed VPixx to see if they have any, but it would be nice to hear from actual users of PTB.

Many thanks,
Danielle
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A schematic of my setup can be viewed here. The specific problem is that the glasses do not work, either with PsychImaging or with manual blue line, unless I manually update them (a) using the Datapixx to flip each eye separately or (b) just make the glasses constantly refresh, regardless of input. When troubleshooting this with VPixx, I made a video example (available here) - you can also get the files from the included Dropbox link.

Danielle 
--- In psychtoolbox@yahoogroups.com, "Mario" wrote:
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> --- In psychtoolbox@yahoogroups.com, "miss.dsmith" miss.dsmith@ wrote:
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> > My current lab setup includes a Mac Pro (running OSX 1.6.8 with a Radeon HD 5870 graphics card), connected to the CRT by way of a Datapixx. I use a pair of NVidia 3D glasses with a custom emitter to view my stimuli.
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> > Despite the custom emitter, the glasses are buggy when using the Radeon card, and only appear to work properly with NVidia cards (working fine with my Mac Mini test system with integrated GeForce 9400M).
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> Hi Danielle,
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> could you explain how the glasses are connected / how they are setup and what the specific problem is? I'd like to know if this is really a Radeon/OSX problem, or some other quirk.
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> > I'm planning to replace the card currently in the Mac Pro with a relatively high-end card - perhaps something from the NVidia Quadro range - and switch over to using Linux. I'm a relatively advanced user, having tinkered with Linux for a number of years, but I'm unsure of what flavour to use. The UI of vanilla Ubuntu seems like it could cause problems - is Kubuntu any better, or should I just stick to something like NeuroDebian?
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> Congratulations to your excellent technical taste in operating systems! KUbuntu should be fine. Most desktops except the Ubuntu Unity 2D or 3D desktop seem to work well, whereas the Unity 2D desktop is a no-go and the 3D one only seems to work ok on a single-display setup. I tested these successfully in single- and dual-display setups under Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: KDE(KWin), GNOME-3(Mutter), LXDE(OpenBox), GNOME-2(classic/no-effect), XFCE-4 (with/without compositor).
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> A Quadro series card with 3-Pin Mini-DIN stereo connector should be fine when used with PTB's stereomode 1, although the Datapixx itself also provides such a connector, so technically it should work with any card on any OS if set up properly in stereomode 1 or (2 or 3? - see ImagingStereoDemo with the usedatapixx flag set to 1).
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> -mario
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