TV Tuner with Dual Monitors

[mattrickulater]

Hello,

About 5 years ago I used to have a computer with a TV tuner and two monitors and I could only watch TV or play games (run 3D applications) on the primary monitor.

I was wondering if today's graphics cards work differently, i.e. if I was to buy two 20" LCDs and a TV tuner, could I watch TV on the second monitor while playing a game on the first?

Thanks in advance,

mattrickulater

 

[j511180]

I can offer my limited dualview experience...

Yes, you can do that. I have a 24" monitor and I use a 17" monitor as my tv. I'm using a 7800gt and an inexpensive Leadtek tv tuner card. It works fine as long as the game being played on the 24" is run at the monitor's native resolution (1920x1200). If I try to play something at, say, 1680x1050, and try to watch tv on the other monitor, weird things start to happen (e.g. the tv display will be in a small window with a blank screen or the pc will freeze up - like it did a few minutes ago ).

Also, you can't change the channel or volume on the tv display using the keyboard (up/down arrows) without first minimizing the game your playing on the other display. Works fine with a remote though. A dual core cpu really helps too.

Cod 2 and espn

 

[Peter]

Today's graphics cards still (mostly) have only one video overlay surface available, but they can move it to either head.