Anyone set up Dual Monitors on Win2k?

[Pakaderm]

Hi,

I'd like advice in setting up a multi-monitor system. Here's my current hardware:

1200 Athlon
GeForce2 Pro (AGP)
512 MB RAM
Windows 2000
17" monitor (main monitor)
17" monitor (extra, not being used)
Old Diamond Video 2 MB graphics card (extra, not being used)
Cable modem/tv
SB Live value (main system)
SB 16 (extra, not in use)

I would really like to watch TV and be on the computer at the same time. Originally, i was just going to buy another TV for that room, but I have this extra 17" monitor so I thought I might hook up a dual monitor setup. I think I'll I would need is to buy a video capture card (thinking ATI Wonder VE) to grab the tv signal and pipe it to the diamond video card on the second monitor. If I was not watching TV, I could have an extended desktop across both monitors. Does this sound like a good solution to this?

If yes, the questions I still have are:
Could I play games on the main monitor (counter-strike) and still have the tv playing on the second monitor?
I assume the sound for both CS and TV would be coming through the speakers at the same time. Could I add another sound card so the game sound would come through one set of speakers and the tv sound from another set?

Any tips from those with experience would be great, or other ideas for me.

-Pakaderm

 

[Pakaderm]

bump, someone must know if this will work...

-Pak

 

That 2mb card is going to pose a serious bottle-neck.

 

[Jzero]

Provided you have enough processing power and RAM (I think you do), the SBLive should be able to support enough voices to playback the TV and CS simultaneously. WHile it is possible (but challenging) to have 2 sound cards, I dunno if you can elect which card outputs which sound.
I find that playing games with multimonitors does very strange things, though. The extraneous monitor somtimes shows blank images or just plain weird stuff....

 

[EagleKeeper]

You should not be able to have multiple sound cards active. Besides, how can you pay full attention to a game and watch TV.

Having multiple monitors on W2K is no problem. The potential problem would be will the video cards have a conflict with each other. If you are going to by a video cardfor video input, try to get one that has dual heads or confirm that it will work with the existing video setup. I used a built-in AGPs (Micron) did not like other video cards.

 

[minendo]

the matrox g450 with dual head works really nice

 

[Eug]

I have G450 running dual head and it works fine, although Windows 2000 just sees it either as two identical screens or else one big one.

 

[GrumpyMan]

I have a Hauppauge Win TV card that runs on a VT G3 and a Voodoo Banshee 16 mg. Now when I try to move the TV to the Banshee screen it slows way down and does not play well and also slows down my system in general. Maybe because I only have a 1 gig Athy in there but I do have 512 mgs of pc133. Doesn't make a difference. I don't think the Vodoo has enough umfff to play TV and is too CPU dependant.

 

[BChild]

When you start playing Counter Strike, the other monitor with the TV output will get all messed up. Games and dual monitors have never mixed well for me, I just disable the second monitor when I want to play CS or something. I have a GeForce 2 as my primary and a Voodoo3 2000 PCI for my secondary. I cant play movies/DVD's full screen on my second monitor for some reason. I dont really know why but it doesnt really bother me that much.

In the meantime, here's a pretty good site about multimonitor stuff: Real Time Soft

 

[Pakaderm]

So if I got one of those Hauppage tv-tuners and *probably* a new video card (instead of that 2mb diamond stealth), I could watch TV on the second monitor and websurf, photoshop, ... except video intensive games on the primary monitor without any picture getting messed up?

Then for games, just disable the second monitor/video card and play the game?

Sounds like I might do that.

Ok, next question: which tv-tuner cards do you guys have? Do you like it? If you could get a different one, what would it be?

-Pak