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Can I run two monitors to display 2 different things!??

E

Eddie33081

Senior member
I am looking into buying an lcd monitor and already have a 19" trinitron. I dont currently have a tv in my room and wanted to makes use of a tv tuner card. Now is there a way to display my regular desktop on my new lcd and have the second monitor run Tv? I was thinking of getting a winfast deluxe card and have a gf4 ti 4200 with dvi on it? OR would they both have to have show the same things? Please let me know as it would be awesome to be able to run something different on the second monitor so I could watch tv while gaming, surfing etc without having it showing up on my lcd at the same time.


LMK

-eddie
 
One way you can setup a dual display system is to have the desktop extended. eg 1600x1200 -> 3200x1200. If you drag a window past an edge, it'll show up on the other screen. So you can have half the window on one monitor, another on the other monitor.
So what you want to do is just to put the tv software window on one of your monitors and run normal stuff on the other.
 
One of the best reasons to use a dual monitor setup IMHO. My dad (I have no cable currently, until I move) uses his second monitor to have a small TV window running, along with other things (network monitoring software, etc). I don't know about gaming and TV watching, as games sometimes alter the resolution on the primary monitor and that moves things around on the secondary one. Plus, depending on the type of game I find outside noise distracting while I am fragging (or getting fragged as the case may be...) 😉

In short, you can do this with little or no trouble.

\Dan
 
Doesn't stretching the window only apply if you've got a video card with dual output? If you've got just a regular single-vga card and put a TV tuner in there, you've still only got the connection for one monitor, yes?

Would you need to play the game windowed, or does it fullscreen on the primary monitor? Windowing a game tends to dramatically reduce it's performance ...

This is an interesting question!

EDIT: Me stupid ... it fixed now
 
Hmm. thanks for your replies. So would strecthing the desktop as said above cause any program that runs in full window mode to strectch accross both monitors therefore blocking the tv tuner window I dragged onto the second monitor, correct?(hope i said that right, lol) . Is there any software out there that allows them to work seperately so that no matter what I did on my lcd window I could run the tv tuner window on the other monitor witout any conflicts? Watching tv while dead in counter-strike without alt tab out would be an example. Is stectching the best way/only way to go? If so, what is a good setup for that. I have a 18" dell lcd and 19" dell crt trinitron. So 1600x1200 is optimal?

Sorry for all the questions just trying to find out a for sure answer. Thanks 🙂
 
Use dual monitor make the tv monitor your secondary one and the gaming on your primary. The games will only run on the primary while you watch TV on the secondary.
Start the TV program and drag it over to the second monitor.
 
Windows' method of handling full screen apps: you designate which screen as the primary one. When an app goes full screen, it fills up the primary screen.

I'm pretty sure there are 3rd party software that lets you have more control. I mean, I've seen games where you can attach 3 moniters and you can have like a 180 degree view of the game.
 
Yes you can do it, and it's pretty simple. Hook up both monitors, and right click on the desktop, go to Properties, then Settings. Click on the 2nd "monitor" in the box, and then check the "Extend Windows desktop onto this monitor". Click Apply. Then, you can increase the resolution on the 2nd monitor until it's how you want it.

Then, open up the TV app, and drag it across to the 2nd monitor. You might not be able to use the "full screen" option in the program (i know i can't with my WinTV) but I use the "No Title" option, and then just drag it out to just bigger than the size of the screen. Then, I move it a little until the grey bars from the edge of the application are just outside the screen 🙂 There i have a full-screen TV 😀

If when you move it from one monitor to the next, the sound disappears (like mine does), just change channel and it will come back 🙂


Confused
 
To elaborate on something I saw someone touch on above (maybe someone else already has but I missed it! 😉 ) ...

You either...

1) Need a graphics card with 2 VGA Outs. Most newer cards seem to give this as a feature, so your Ti4200 probably has it (but make sure first! 😉 ).

or...

2) Need 2 graphics cards in your system! One can be AGP, and the other can be PCI.

Then you connect your primary display to Display 1 (either #1 of the dual-head card, or your main graphic card), and your secondary display to Display 2 (again, can be #2 of your dual card, or your secondary (pci, most likely) graphics card).

From there it's just messing with the settings a little, and for games, depending on what the game does when it turns you to fullscreen, you may have to do a little tinkering around to get it to work exactly how you like! It shouldn't be too much trouble, though. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: joshg
To elaborate on something I saw someone touch on above (maybe someone else already has but I missed it! 😉 ) ...

You either...

1) Need a graphics card with 2 VGA Outs. Most newer cards seem to give this as a feature, so your Ti4200 probably has it (but make sure first! 😉 ).

or...

2) Need 2 graphics cards in your system! One can be AGP, and the other can be PCI.

Then you connect your primary display to Display 1 (either #1 of the dual-head card, or your main graphic card), and your secondary display to Display 2 (again, can be #2 of your dual card, or your secondary (pci, most likely) graphics card).

From there it's just messing with the settings a little, and for games, depending on what the game does when it turns you to fullscreen, you may have to do a little tinkering around to get it to work exactly how you like! It shouldn't be too much trouble, though. 🙂
Click to expand...


How do I know whether it supports this? I have one of those pny verto ti4200's that everyone jumped on when they were on sale at bestbuy. Can anyone confirm if this supports dual monitors? It has 1 Vga Out, 1 TV/S Video Out, and DVI out. I will be using a regular crt monitor and a lcd that uses dvi. Anyone know?

thanks

 
How do I know whether it supports this? I have one of those pny verto ti4200's that everyone jumped on when they were on sale at bestbuy. Can anyone confirm if this supports dual monitors? It has 1 Vga Out, 1 TV/S Video Out, and DVI out. I will be using a regular crt monitor and a lcd that uses dvi. Anyone know?
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like all that you need to do is plug your LCD into the DVI, plug your monitor into the "VGA", and you should be all set hardware-wise.

🙂
 
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