How can I have 2 monitors on my PC

[mat205125]

Doing quite a bit of home video editing and would like to consider upgrading to having 2 monitors.

Anyone done this? Can you drag across both monitors and drop.

What kit do I need (other than another monitor)

[lunarscope]

Try the "Computing" forum.

[JonRB]

You either need two graphics cards* or a "dual head" graphics card (ie. one with two or more outputs)

Windows 2k onwards has full support for multiple monitors and it's very easy to set up.

* - on some machines with both on-board graphics and an add-on card, such as the Dell Optiplex GX620 I use at work, you can drive one monitor off the built-in 15-pin D-sub VGA port and the other monitor off the add-in DVI port.

Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 27th March 16:34

[tim2100]

Yes can easily be done, you just set-up you desktop across the two screens

All you will need is a half decent graphics card with two outputs
Tim

[im]

Windows XP comes with built in Software to allow you to do this.

Click the [Start] button, then select [Windows Help & Support] then type in "2 Monitors" (without the quote marks).

Up will come instructions on how to do it.

I have done it and had the 2nd monitor as both an extension of the 1st monitor and displaying the same as the 1st monitor.

[tonyvid]

My work editing PC is like this and it is essentially one big screen, just twice as wide - there is no way I could video edit on one for very long after this set-up, spoilt I guess

[JonRB]

tonyvid said:

My work editing PC is like this and it is essentially one big screen, just twice as wide

I prefer the setup where you have a main screen which has the Windows start bar and a secondary screen which does not. Also has the added advantage that when you maximise a window it only maximises to the physical screen you are on and not the virtual screen of the two monitors.

nVidia ship an add-on that lets you control all of this behaviour and more (ie. choose whether to have one big virtual screen or two separate, have dialog boxes snap to the monitor that their parent is located on, disallow pop-up dialogs boxes from spanning physical monitors, etc.)
I found it regularly got confused and changed the settings, much to my annoyance and I prefer the vanilla offering of Windows XP.

Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 27th March 16:45

[Philbes]

All our Pcs at work have at least 2 monitors. 2 PCs have 3 monitors and one PC has 4 monitors (driven from 2 double-headed Matrox graphics cards). Doesn't need any special software as WinXp will handle multiple monitors. I have seen a 12 monitor set-up and believe the maximum is 64?
Multiple monitors are grat for large spread sheets.

[paul99]

I use 2x 19" widescreen LCD's on my PC at home, its great for working on, so much space. LCD monitors are cheap now and most half decent GFX cards have dual outputs so it makes sense to use them.

Shame i have to work on a 14" laptop screen all day at work though..

[jamieboy]

It's great - I use 3 17" monitors (2 on a dual-head PNY/nvidia card and the other on the on-board) and it's a real struggle going back to just one. Although I think after 2 screens you get diminishing returns - 2 is miles better than 1, 3 is a bit better than 2, etc.

Edited by jamieboy on Tuesday 27th March 16:54

[tinman0]

JonRB said:

tonyvid said:

My work editing PC is like this and it is essentially one big screen, just twice as wide

I prefer the setup where you have a main screen which has the Windows start bar and a secondary screen which does not.

iirc "in the olden days" when publishing houses were Mac based and large monitors cost alot of cash, to save money, you would have your main DTP screen as a 19-20" greyscale monitor and your colour pallet on an Apple 13" colour screen to one side. so you never actually saw the finished article on screen in colour.

[ChristianZS]

You dont really need a graphics card with two outputs.

Just a card with a DVI output will do the job aslong as it says it will support dual monitors

C.

[dern]

I had 2 17" tfts until recently and then replaced one with a 20" widescreen and have the 20" and the 17" side by side... very very useful indeed.

[JonRB]

ChristianZS said:

You dont really need a graphics card with two outputs.

Just a card with a DVI output will do the job aslong as it says it will support dual monitors

Um, that IS a graphics card with two outputs - it's just that the DVI standard supports two outputs ("DVI dual-link") and some dual-head cards choose to support two outputs that way.
Others choose to use two DVI single-link connectors, whilst yet others use a DVI single-link and a 15 pin VGA D-sub.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvi for more info.

Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 27th March 18:36

[ThePassenger]

But to sum up everyones posts:

Do you have two outputs on the arse end of your machine (look at where the graphics cable for your monitor connects). If yes... WOOHOO, go buy a monitor! If no... WOOHOOO! Go but a PCI graphics card AND a monitor

For Mac's you might need the Apple -> VGA/DVI convertor but other than that yep, it'll work just fine. Even my poverty spec G5 imac can do dual head

[JonRB]

ThePassenger said:

If no... WOOHOOO! Go buy a PCI graphics card AND a monitor

Damn, you can have a PCI graphics card if you want - I have several in a box that I don't want. Yours for the price of the postage via PayPal.

Edit: Just for clarification - I'm talking about boggo standard 1990's PCI graphics cards like the S3 Virge or Matrox Millennium and not the new PCI-Express.

Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 27th March 19:22

[ThePassenger]

JonRB said:

ThePassenger said:

If no... WOOHOOO! Go buy a PCI graphics card AND a monitor

Damn, you can have a PCI graphics card if you want - I have several in a box that I don't want. Yours for the price of the postage via PayPal.

Edit: Just for clarification - I'm talking about boggo standard 1990's PCI graphics cards like the S3 Virge or Matrox Millennium and not the new PCI-Express.

Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 27th March 19:22

An S3 or Matrox will happily be a second display if the OP doesn't have a card with twin outputs.
Personally my laptop has it's 17" panel and a choice of D-sub or DVI on it's arse for a secondary.

[sadako]

Heh I used to do this on the overclocked p120 I was using in uni, got the output from my winTV card to go to one monitor and has command and conquer on the other. Good times.