Need info on dual monitors setup on Windows XP

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 4:50 am

Tony wrote:Are you running both monitors from the same video card?

yes

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:06 am

Az wrote:Do DVDs support the new HD format?

If you are running these on your computer, I would guess it is up to the media player you are using to play your DVDs, plus your computer's DVD player. There is a war going on in Japan between the blu-ray group of manufacturers and another technology whose name escapes me at the moment. HI-Def DVDs will be coming out in one format or the other over the next year or so, until one becomes the leader through market forces.

Computer monitors of any ilk can display at far greater resolution than any TV, LO or HI-def, so you are opening a window in your media player with a different resolution than your desk top. Its going to take a while for the HI-Def format wars to settle out. Consumers will end up taking the hit to ensure they have the hardware and software appropriate to whatever comes out as standard.

djm

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 7:43 am

Wanderer wrote:
Tony wrote:Are you running both monitors from the same video card?
yes

Now I have to drag it out of you...

Please tell me more.
Are you running both monitors in Digital mode?
Special card?
Perhaps the card has 1 DVI and 1 analog?

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:14 am

Tony wrote:
Wanderer wrote:
Tony wrote:Are you running both monitors from the same video card?
yes
Now I have to drag it out of you...

Please tell me more.
Are you running both monitors in Digital mode?
Special card?
Perhaps the card has 1 DVI and 1 analog?

Lol, sorry I was so cryptic...I posted the information about my setup on the first page of the thread

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=557056#557056

I'm using an $80 dual-out video card..

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:25 am

OK, AGP with dual VGA (analog) output. Thanks!

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:37 am

Mine has a VGA and DVI output, so I'll need a darn DVI cable (at least 40$) to go dual. Nothing is easy and cheap in this world! I heard the display is amazing with DVI, though, I can't wait to try it myself. It won't make much difference for me anyway because I'm using the computer mostly for programming, I'm not playing games that much, my video card is too old for that.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 12:12 pm

My monitor comes with VGA and DVI cables.

mukade · Post by **mukade** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 6:08 am

For anyone who wants two monitors and has a laptop or an older graphics card, Matrox makes a little black box called DualHead2Go.

http://www.matrox.com/mga/offhome/dh2go/home.cfm

Mukade

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 7:46 am

The DualHead2Go has a list price of $169US
I think that's pretty good for a multi-monitor laptop upgrade!

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 7:51 am

Awhile back, I found Viewport. It's a USB connected add-on monitor:
http://www.piengineering.com/viewport.php

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:29 pm

Wow, nice technologies. I'm still trying to figure out how can these work with any video card software. I assume the Matrox system "fools" the operating system into thinking both monitors are actually one monitor with a huge resolution.

One important thing when I work dual screen is for the "full screen" icon of a window to make the window full screen on the actual monitor, not spread full screen on both. I wonder if both these above technologies do that, I suspect it doesnt.

By the way I received and installed my 20.1" widescreen monitor. It's funny to be browsing the Chiff in 1600x1050 mode. Once I buy a DVI cable and have a second monitor plugged in, I'll post a nice screenshot

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 6:23 pm

So "au diable les dépenses" as we say in french and I went ahead and purchased two LCD monitors. One is a widescreen 20.1" running at 1600x1050, and the other a 19" running at 1280x1024. Both are LG monitors, respectively 5ms and 2ms response time. Anyway, it was very easy to setup. my videocard did recognize two separate monitors, one using a DVI cable and the other a VGA cable. I'm quite happy with using two monitors, allows me not to alt-tab all the time between two applications.

Here's a screenshot:

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 7:02 pm

Its a good thing you are running two different background images, else you'd never know which monitor you were loooking at.

djm

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 7:53 pm

Hehe actually both have the same background image, but the right one on the image has an application running. I bought a 19" instead of another 20" in case I need to use an application better viewed in 1280x1024 than 1650x1024. Now, will all of this really make me more productive? I doubt it.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:48 pm

This past weekend I hooked an old monitor to my system. It's highest resolution was 1024x768. The dual output video card I have was driving my Viewsonic 20" diagonal with a DVI signal and the generic monitor in VGA analog.

Windows recognized the dual monitors and the setup was a breeze! I had no idea it would be so easy.

djm, Windows electronically 'stitches' both monitors together so you can drag applications across each other or straddle both if you need to. It's not like assigning different tasks to different monitors that require switching modes or soecial screen assignments. However, If you maximixe an application that is on one screen it will fill just that screen. Very basic understanding. I'm sorry I didn't do this sooner.

I opened Photoshop and captured a print screen. It takes a picture of both screens as one wide image. There was a black box in the area where the resolution of the second monitor was smaller than the main one. Sort of like this:

1111111111111111111111111122222222222222
1111111111111111111111111122222222222222
1111111111111111111111111122222222222222
1111111111111111111111111122222222222222
1111111111111111111111111122222222222222
1111111111111111111111111122222222222222
11111111111111111111111111bbbbbbbbbbbbbb
11111111111111111111111111bbbbbbbbbbbbbb
11111111111111111111111111bbbbbbbbbbbbbb

1=high resolution widescreen monitor
2=VGA monitor
b=blacked out portion of the print screen

I'm going to experiment with a older computer to see if I can plug in 2 different video cards... instead of running both monitors from the same card.