Dual monitors

How many people are using them?

[korkus2000]

This weekend I decided to throw an old pci graphics card in my box and hook up an old monitor. A few years ago I used dual monitors on my mac and loved it and forgotten that I had the ability to do it agian with my windows machine. I really just had the parts laying around. It is so nice to throw those pallets and floating toolbars off to another small monitor so you have more room for coding and graphics.

My problem is my wife thinks I am an ultra geek now that I have two monitors going. I was curious to see if I really need to get out more, or if others are also doing it.

[bcolflesh]

2 is passe - 3 is the place to be these days - irradiate me!

[ritch_b]

2 is passe - 3 is the place to be these days - irradiate me!

...now there's a man with a healthy green glow!...not to mention a king sized desk!

R.

[bcolflesh]

I know Win98 and ME can run up to 9 monitors simultaneously - not sure about 2000 & XP - I believe they can drive more - anyone have more than 4 going?

[Brett_Tabke]

Running two on the laptop, but still only one on the desktops.

[Drastic]

3 here as well. No going back after having all that space.

My downside, funny I was just talking about this to the guy I lease from, add'l heat buildup.

3 19" monitors on main machine and another 17" monitor on second machine raises the temp in my office quite a bit. I have a fan in the doorway to bring more cool air in from the lobby.

[killroy]

I used to have the third one above the others in an L formation. Was usefull for keeping percantage gauges open for various operations.

I'm down to two in the moment as I don't have a decent third one lying around. But I'd NEVER touch a single monitor system again. AGGGHHH.

SN

[too much information]

I'm trying to talk my wife into 2 monitors. She spends her days on Photoshop with a 17" flatscreen. She says she wants the new Apple Studio display, thing costs more than her computer! but it is very nice, lots of real estate.

As a side note: anyone think of using a projector instead? I'm looking into wiring one through my ceiling fan! ;) Can't beat an 8 foot screen!

[moltar]

I was thinking of getting a projector, but not for designing. Watching movies, gaming... It won't really give you much more space. It just blows up the picture.

[bcolflesh]

Yeah - it would be useless for text or precision graphic work at that size.

[korkus2000]

>>I'm looking into wiring one through my ceiling fan!

I will have to put that by my wife and see the expression on here face. :) Your going to need a good graphics card to pump up the resolution to increase the real estate on the projector.

3 19s. Do you have them positioned around you or straight across the front?

[Drastic]

Center one straight in front, with wings on each side. Almost parallel to the leading edge of my corner desk. Probably about 35 degrees towards me on both sides.

[bcolflesh]

What brand/model of monitors?

[Drastic]

These are Samtrons (samsung econo version), 2 96bdf and 1 98bdf. I went cheap on these (less than 200 bucks each at Sam's) around first of the year, figuring I'd get flat panels by this time next year. They're flat screen and look great at 1280x1024.

[netcommr]

1 19" on the desk with additional card using s-video to a 31" tv. I then use a test page to adjust the color/contrast/etc... on the tv and lets me see variations of my page for diff monitors.

[trillianjedi]

Guys, you really need to get out more.

;)

TJ

[topr8]

i have matrox dual head grafics card, with a standard 17inch gateway and a 15 inch HP TFT, was a 19inch but the tube recently burnt out.i also have another win box running and networked to the first set up, so 3 screens really... laptop also but that is seperate.

now that i've got the tft screen i can't wait to change all the others too, prob when i move at the end of the month.

.. . whatever, i would never go just single creen again! when the original 19" burnt out, i was completely lost for a day, i even plugged in an old 13" which was seriously bad but still better than just the one.

[mack]

I was recenty messing about and tried various combinations including as someone else mentioned connecting using s-video to a large screen tv. The tv was great for game play but useless for reading or writting text. Is ths due to less hertz or something else I have over looked?

Mack.

[bcolflesh]

groups.google.com/groups?q=difference+monitor+television&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=3e4e6c5f.594638775%40news.jersey.net&rnum=1

[Drastic]

>less hertz or something else

Mainly resolution, but also because TVs don't draw a full frame on every scan, only half. All odd lines are drawn, then even. That's the difference between traditional TV picture and progressive scan.

[drbrain]

I started out with a Elsa Gloria 8 (or some such) and an ATI 8MB card on a 17" Relisys and a 21" Trinitron. I have the same monitors, but have since upgraded the cards two a single Matrox G550.

I'm looking to pick up a pair of wide aspect ratio 21" Trinitrons, if I can talk OMNI group into it. They're moving to Apple LCDs. I tried to get them to give me one if I could carry it home (about 5 miles, and 3-400 vertical feet).

[lorax]

>> Dual monitors

I wish...

[bcolflesh]

I'm looking to pick up a pair of wide aspect ratio 21" Trinitrons, if I can talk OMNI group into it. They're moving to Apple LCDs.

I love when this happens - you can get the superior Trinitrons cheap because the folks don't realize the LCDs have poorer image quality!

[RoadRash]

I have dual 19" flat screen CRT's. I will NEVER go back to a single monitor. Coolmon to manage them, great app for win users.

I just wish there was more cool dual monitore wall paper, i am getting sick of digitalblasphamy's selection ;)

[killroy]

I started with a G400 matrox millennium. I simply didn'T remove my old PCI and thus found the wonderfull world of triple screens.

Now I simply leave in whatever PCI there is ahen I plug in an AGP card.

You can add plenty more with cheap pci cards, no need for dual head or such fancy stuffs ;)

Frankly, was quite impressed that it worked so smoothly under windows. Seemed liek a "fancy" feature to be supported so well out of the box. And I mean the mutliple cards bit, not the multiple monitorsoff a single card.

SN

[drbrain]

I love when this happens - you can get the superior Trinitrons cheap because the folks don't realize the LCDs have poorer image quality!

Than an Apple LCD? I'd say they're very close to the Trinitrons in quality, if not on par. Of course, that's why the cost so much.

Frankly, was quite impressed that it worked so smoothly under windows.

I have frequent problems under win98, but no problems under X. Win98 is always running out of resources (not so bad with the G550, but still happens occasionally), but at least I can keep track of IRC while playing games.