2 screens/1 PC

willd58

willd58

willd58

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Joined
25 May 2004
Posts
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Location
Bristol England
Right, iv noticed a lot of superb setups consisting of a PC connected to 2 monitors, and im guna try and achieve this. Atm i have a very nice 19" LCD that i do not wana loose, but i also want a bigger display unit to watch moves on, something like one of the 26/32" Samsung LCD's.

How does one go about achieving this? am i guna need to graphics cards or somthing, i really have no idea how this is done. The idea of having windows media playing a DVD on the big screen whilst still being able to browse the web on the LCD monitor seems amazing, how is this achieved with just one PC?

Atm i have a 9800pro, im guessing a lot of its due to the graphics card? What kind of graphics card am i looking at having to buy to achieve this?
 
Any graphics card with two outputs will be able to do it - use the VGA output for one screen and the other (usually DVI) for the second screen. A DVI->VGA thingy is usually in the box too in case you could only use VGA for the second :)
 
You just use 2 outputs from the same card usually. your 9800pro wil have 2 outputs, a DVI and a VGA - use both (you may need to use a DVI -> VGA converter). Windows does the rest and it's easy to set up, but you can get a utility called Ultramon which extends the possibities with long taskbars etc.
 
So you guys are telling me all i have to do is get a second monitor and i could do it now?! Wow, thats good news for sure. Will it just be a second display mimiking the first or can i get it to do different things whilst my monitor stays on the desktop?
 
Do different things, look at a piece of sftware called ultra mon!

That will let you mess around with the desktops for each monitor!

computer.jpg


Those 2 on the left are connected to the same computer :)

Andy
 
Is there a free equivelent to Ultramon???...

Here at work I've got a 21" CRT (for CAD, Graphics) and a 15" for (Word, Outlook... etc) and all works well and good, but My Boss is a tightwad and won't fork out the £40 for ultramon!... :mad:

I've tried Googling but can't find nuttin!?!... :(
 
duel.jpg


Right, theres me knocking together a quick diagram. If this duel monitor is possible to do with my current PC thatll mean i get my 32" LCD a lot sooner than i imagined!

Will my pc be able to cope? athlon 3200, 9800 pro, gig of ram.
 
middle connection = tv out :)

Oh and you should have got a DVI-->VGA converter in the box with your card - if you didnt you can get one for cheap no problems I would imagine.
 
Which is the best for image quality? Say i wanted to play stuff from my computer onto a decent sized screen?
 
Right, im guna go and try and source a cheap monitor from somewhere to test all this out. Thanks guys, ill be sure to come back with any questions!
 
Clerkin said:
would Ultra mon work if i was using a splitter or do you need the 2 outputs?
Click to expand...

Logic would lead me to believe that you would need 2 seperate monitors as the spliter would simply be sharing the same signal between 2 monitors. Where as 2 monitors pluged up to a GFX card would get their own seperate signal.
 
Simian said:
Is there a free equivelent to Ultramon???...

Here at work I've got a 21" CRT (for CAD, Graphics) and a 15" for (Word, Outlook... etc) and all works well and good, but My Boss is a tightwad and won't fork out the £40 for ultramon!... :mad:

I've tried Googling but can't find nuttin!?!... :(
Click to expand...

You don't need ultramon really. I cope with two screens just using windows. It allows me to run two different resolutions on my monitors without any problems. I can then run anything on either screen. VLC is great, one minute working on main screen, drag it over to the second and utilise it as a TV. The overlay switches just like that :)
 
Thing is my Screensaver (Matrix Code) only works on the main monitor!, and I ony get the centre portion of the wallpaper on the second monitor (Main 21" CRT @ 1600x1200-32bit, Second 15" LCD @ 1024x768-32bit... Both Dell)... :(

I want to be able to have different Wallpapers on each monitor (if thats possible) and have the Screensaver on both!... I'm using the standard Catalyst v06.3 with Hydravision v3.25.0006 on a Radion X550 (256Mb)
 
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