Multi monitors?

# 1 06-11-2002 , 07:33 PM

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Just wandering if anyone here has had any experience using 2 monitors... I was thinking about getting a 15" LCD as a secondary, but then i realised I have no idea how the hell it would work.
Could you have say Maya open on one monitor and Photoshop or whatever open in the other? If so how do you switch between the two? Or are the two screens treated as one big "virtual" monitor ?
Thanks for any pointers..

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# 2 06-11-2002 , 07:46 PM

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I had a dual head monitor system back when I was using Win98se. I had two display adapters (one agp and one ancient pci card) in my PC and two monitors (19" + 14" lol) connected.

It worked otherwise nicely exept the pci card had no 3D acceleration thus rendering all 3D stuff slow. Now I can't use that system anymore since there is no driver for the pci adapter for windows 2000 user added image

.

Nowadays there are several cards which supports directly two monitors. I would love to get one of those some day.

The dual head system just enlarges the desktop area. Say if you have your second monitor in left side of your primary monitor, you could just drag the mouse cursor through the left edge of your prim monitor to the secondary monitor...

Kari
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# 3 06-11-2002 , 11:06 PM

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i see... thanks for the info user added image

sounds cool.

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# 4 07-11-2002 , 04:00 PM

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I have been using a dual monitor setup since I started using computers professionally way back when in 1991. On a Mac it was easy, you just plugged another card in connected your monitor and could choose which was going to be the startup screen and arrange them left and right by dragging and dropping in the monitors control panel. Couldn't do it on a PC until Windows 98SE.

I have two 17" monitors connected to my PC which are exactly the same tis wonderful and they are not too expensive. In fact I prefer to having to 17" monitors to one single 20" screen since I get more real-estate. The card I use is an ELSA Gladdiac Twin View 511 with two VGA ports so they are both driven by that card and I have had no problems with it under Windows 98SE. You don't have to have a dual headed card, but I wanted identical screen images. You can rearrange your monitors like you do for the Mac using Win98.

Then Animation Master done the dirty on me and my files kept corrupting - too many drivers or something more like a load of old B******S if you ask me so I rebuilt my sysyem with Win2K. ELSA have gone bust so no new drivers. The ones I had didn't work as well, you could either clone the screens or have one massive desktop and dialogue boxes kept popping up split between twon monitors. This is useable but I prefer the mac/Win98SE setup.
So I have loaded the nVidia nView drivers and it kind of gets around this problem - still quite useable but I am a fussy bastard!

I have my eyes on a new GeForce 4 Ti 220 graphics card which supports multiple monitors and goes like shit off a shovel!!! Now I have to persuade the missus to let me buy it. Hope this helps you monitor maniacs... secret is I actually have three monitors but one is shitty so I use that on my Mac...

Tickety boo and ta ta for a bit...
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# 5 10-11-2002 , 05:19 PM

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It's not all sweetness and light with Maya and Dual monitor set ups, to quote Alias:
Dual Monitor use is only supported on the specified systems. Be aware that with all dual monitors you may experience problems with windows always popping on or returning to the main screen instead of the alternate screen.
Best to check their "Qualified Hardware" list first.

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# 6 10-11-2002 , 05:34 PM

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eeek.. sounds nasty - thanks for the tip off user added image

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# 7 10-11-2002 , 06:26 PM

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Sadly, but at least there's a cure. user added image

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# 8 10-11-2002 , 06:35 PM

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By the way kal, you can have a different program on each monitor which ever one you are working in is active while the other is in the background. I often have photoshop running on one with Quark on the other. Most of the time though I like to spread whatever I'm working in over both screens. Maya though is on a single monitor system here. user added image

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# 9 11-11-2002 , 09:07 AM

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If you're looking for a specific dual-head card, the Matrox G550 is very nice - I've been using it for the past couple of years...

If you're up for spending a bit more, find a card with Matrox's Parhelia chip on it - that one can support up to 3 monitors, and has 3D capability close to the GF4

Hugh Macdonald

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# 10 11-11-2002 , 09:35 AM

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Well, my dual head card gives me no trouble with Maya and when I rig my Mac up with two monitors I have no problems. I have Win2K at work and a 21" and a 15" monitor, this is where I get problems... When I move Maya windows over to the 15" screen the picture gets all garbled up. Other programs work O.K. but not Maya.

Still it is handy since you can have tutorials on the small screen and work in Maya on the big screen.

Tickety boo and ta ta for a bit...
Gazzamataz
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# 11 12-11-2002 , 05:58 PM

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I have 2 19" monitors and an Ati Radeon 9700 card and I really love it. On the one monitor I have the whole Maya GUI and on the other one I just have the perspective view. I havent had any problems so far- I got my card only 2 weeks ago user added image

CU morpher

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# 12 12-11-2002 , 07:31 PM

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Originally posted by .:morpher:.
I have 2 19" monitors and an Ati Radeon 9700 card and I really love it. On the one monitor I have the whole Maya GUI and on the other one I just have the perspective view. I havent had any problems so far- I got my card only 2 weeks ago

Originally Posted by

now that does sound very sweet indeed... user added image

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# 13 24-11-2002 , 12:44 AM

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i was thikning about haveing my main monitor (19") for maya use, and have a second monitor (15") which is raised about a foot off the desk, does this mean that the taskbar which runs along the bottom would be split between the 2 monitors? user added image

what are the possible display options for 2monitors? like how can they be split?

- Simon

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# 14 24-11-2002 , 01:05 AM

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same as kbrown.. i used my agp card as the primary and an ATI 8 mb pci card as the secondary... since i have upgraded from 98se to XP... i have been having some troubles.... user added image

... so i removed it... i ran the primary on a Viewsonic 17" E70F monitor and an LG 17 f700b... well nem, i dont think you can split the taskbar user added image

,
the onlything u can do is run an indivisual program in each.

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# 15 24-11-2002 , 01:56 AM

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cant you specify a main monitor, and everything would be there, then specify a secondary monitor where you can just move things to? im sure theres a program which does this for you?

- Simon

My Website: www.Glass-Prison.com

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