Dual Monitors — How?

patrick wrote:

To achieve a dual-monitor capability, can I mix an lcd monitor with a crt monitor?
What do I need besides the two monitors and what special needs are there for the monitors (aside from the normal quality ones for any PS work)?
Am I headed in the wrong direction with the presumption that I would keep primarily palettes open on the one and the image open on the other? If that is the normal practice, it would seem that a dirt-cheap 15" CRT would suffice for the palettes.
Comments?
Thanks! . . . patrick

You can mix and match, but you dont say if you are on a Windows machine or a Mac, or what video card you have. With a modern video card (that has two video connections on the back) this is very easy under Windows. Just plug two screens in and Windows will detect the extra screen. You can then choose what you want to do with the second screen, and which one you want as your primary.

On my own setup, I have a 21" TFT as my primary screen, connected via a digital connection to the video card. I have a second 15" TFT that I have rotated 90 degrees to the right connected as well (via a regular monitor connection). This gives me a second display that is in portrate mode rather than landscape (taller rather than wider) which is great for the PhotoShop tools and reading web pages. Windows handles rotating the image on the physically roted screen by -90 degrees so that my desktop stretches perfectly across both screens.

—

x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

# lead designer @ http://www.dhnewmedia.com #
# remove NO SPAM to email, or use form on website #

"SpaceGirl" wrote in message

patrick wrote:

To achieve a dual-monitor capability, can I mix an lcd monitor with a crt monitor?
What do I need besides the two monitors and what special needs are there for the monitors (aside from the normal quality ones for any PS work)?
Am I headed in the wrong direction with the presumption that I would keep primarily palettes open on the one and the image open on the other? If that is the normal practice, it would seem that a dirt-cheap 15" CRT would suffice for the palettes.
Comments?
Thanks! . . . patrick

You can mix and match, but you dont say if you are on a Windows machine or a Mac, or what video card you have. With a modern video card (that has two video connections on the back) this is very easy under Windows. Just plug two screens in and Windows will detect the extra screen. You can then choose what you want to do with the second screen, and which one you want as your primary.

On my own setup, I have a 21" TFT as my primary screen, connected via a digital connection to the video card. I have a second 15" TFT that I have rotated 90 degrees to the right connected as well (via a regular monitor connection). This gives me a second display that is in portrate mode rather than landscape (taller rather than wider) which is great for the PhotoShop tools and reading web pages. Windows handles rotating the image on the physically roted screen by -90 degrees so that my desktop stretches perfectly across both screens.

—

x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

# lead designer @ http://www.dhnewmedia.com #
# remove NO SPAM to email, or use form on website #

Thanks for the ideas. My Dell Dimension 8400 video card does, indeed, support two monitors.
However, it has only one 9-pin connector. The other two connectors I do not recognize and can get no info on them after twi days with Dell Tech Support and Chat.
I’ll contact Dell Sales Chat when they open at 11:00am, my time. Your idea of a portrait orientation on the second display is great an I’ll check that I will be able to do that on whatever I finally purchase. I’ve about decided that it is not a good idea to skimp even on the second display as it limits later options.
I think I’ll have what I need to go it from here, Miranda. Thanks very much for your considered and informative reply! .. . . . patrick

On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 15:07:44 GMT, "patrick"
wrote:

"SpaceGirl" wrote in message

patrick wrote:

To achieve a dual-monitor capability, can I mix an lcd monitor with a crt monitor?
What do I need besides the two monitors and what special needs are there for the monitors (aside from the normal quality ones for any PS work)?
Am I headed in the wrong direction with the presumption that I would keep primarily palettes open on the one and the image open on the other? If that is the normal practice, it would seem that a dirt-cheap 15" CRT would suffice for the palettes.
Comments?
Thanks! . . . patrick

You can mix and match, but you dont say if you are on a Windows machine or a Mac, or what video card you have. With a modern video card (that has two video connections on the back) this is very easy under Windows. Just plug two screens in and Windows will detect the extra screen. You can then choose what you want to do with the second screen, and which one you want as your primary.

On my own setup, I have a 21" TFT as my primary screen, connected via a digital connection to the video card. I have a second 15" TFT that I have rotated 90 degrees to the right connected as well (via a regular monitor connection). This gives me a second display that is in portrate mode rather than landscape (taller rather than wider) which is great for the PhotoShop tools and reading web pages. Windows handles rotating the image on the physically roted screen by -90 degrees so that my desktop stretches perfectly across both screens.

—

x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

# lead designer @ http://www.dhnewmedia.com #
# remove NO SPAM to email, or use form on website #

Thanks for the ideas. My Dell Dimension 8400 video card does, indeed, support two monitors.
However, it has only one 9-pin connector. The other two connectors I do not recognize and can get no info on them after twi days with Dell Tech Support and Chat.
I’ll contact Dell Sales Chat when they open at 11:00am, my time. Your idea of a portrait orientation on the second display is great an I’ll check that I will be able to do that on whatever I finally purchase. I’ve about decided that it is not a good idea to skimp even on the second display as it limits later options.
I think I’ll have what I need to go it from here, Miranda. Thanks very much for your considered and informative reply! . . . . patrick

My Dell 8400 has an Nvidia PCI Express 6800 with two digital (white) DVI out connections. Nvidia has Nview software with many options for the dual monitors. I’m running two Samsung 19" flat panels side by side. I should have done this years ago!

http://www.nvidia.com/object/feature_nview.html
http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6800.html

">>> patrick wrote:

To achieve a dual-monitor capability, can I mix an lcd monitor with a crt
monitor?

My Dell 8400 has an Nvidia PCI Express 6800 with two digital (white) DVI out connections. Nvidia has Nview software with many options for the dual monitors. I’m running two Samsung 19" flat panels side by side. I should have done this years ago!

http://www.nvidia.com/object/feature_nview.html
http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6800.html

Terrific! The only info I can get on my graphics card is as listed in the system specs:
RADEON P5288 CARD (CIRCUIT), GRAPHICS, 128, X300, SERVER ENHANCED, MRMGA8, 2 That’s an ATI Technologies product with a PCI Express X16 interface. It supports DVI, VGA, TV Out, S-Video .
It sports an aspect ratio of 16:9 at 16 or 32 bit color depths.

It has 3 outputs: the old 9-pin (to which I have my present 19" CRT connected)
A small, round output that looks similar the S-Video jacks on my old VCR editing machines.
A white, multi-pin femail connector that looks like a HDTV input connector is probably the DVI output.

I’ll make sure any monitor I purchase will accept that input.

Do you use the second monitor primarily for palettes and a notepad? How would a 19" flat panel DVI compatible monitor compare with my 19" Dell CRT for PS CS editing?
That is, would I be well advised to make the new flat panel my image monitor and use anything at all for the palette monitor?
(The Dell monitor could then replace the ViewSonic G90 19" display that I have on another system.)

Thanks for the encouraging reply! . . . . patrick

Do a web search for an ‘all the words’ match for the string

ATI Radeon P5288

This should lead you to the web page from ATI that has the specification(s) for this card, and possibly also tech notes or other on-line instructions.

"patrick" wrote in message

http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6800.html

Terrific! The only info I can get on my graphics card is as listed in the system specs:
RADEON P5288 CARD (CIRCUIT), GRAPHICS, 128, X300, SERVER ENHANCED,

MRMGA8, 2

That’s an ATI Technologies product with a PCI Express X16 interface. It supports DVI, VGA, TV Out, S-Video .
It sports an aspect ratio of 16:9 at 16 or 32 bit color depths.
It has 3 outputs: the old 9-pin (to which I have my present 19" CRT connected)
A small, round output that looks similar the S-Video jacks on my old VCR editing machines.
A white, multi-pin femail connector that looks like a HDTV input

connector

is probably the DVI output.

I’ll make sure any monitor I purchase will accept that input.
Do you use the second monitor primarily for palettes and a notepad? How would a 19" flat panel DVI compatible monitor compare with my 19"

Dell

CRT for PS CS editing?
That is, would I be well advised to make the new flat panel my image

monitor

and use anything at all for the palette monitor?
(The Dell monitor could then replace the ViewSonic G90 19" display that I have on another system.)

Thanks for the encouraging reply! . . . . patrick

On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 20:00:46 GMT, "patrick"
wrote:

">>> patrick wrote:

To achieve a dual-monitor capability, can I mix an lcd monitor with a crt
monitor?

My Dell 8400 has an Nvidia PCI Express 6800 with two digital (white) DVI out connections. Nvidia has Nview software with many options for the dual monitors. I’m running two Samsung 19" flat panels side by side. I should have done this years ago!

http://www.nvidia.com/object/feature_nview.html
http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6800.html

Terrific! The only info I can get on my graphics card is as listed in the system specs:
RADEON P5288 CARD (CIRCUIT), GRAPHICS, 128, X300, SERVER ENHANCED, MRMGA8, 2 That’s an ATI Technologies product with a PCI Express X16 interface. It supports DVI, VGA, TV Out, S-Video .
It sports an aspect ratio of 16:9 at 16 or 32 bit color depths.
It has 3 outputs: the old 9-pin (to which I have my present 19" CRT connected)
A small, round output that looks similar the S-Video jacks on my old VCR editing machines.
A white, multi-pin femail connector that looks like a HDTV input connector is probably the DVI output.

I have no earthly idea what that is? ;o)

I’ll make sure any monitor I purchase will accept that input.
Do you use the second monitor primarily for palettes and a notepad?

Yes and I have Bridge running there too.

I can run AutoCAD in one and Chief Architect in the other or Word and Excel at the same time. Or span Excel across both…and do about 10 other cool things.

How would a 19" flat panel DVI compatible monitor compare with my 19" Dell CRT for PS CS editing?

That would be a personal preference. I prefer matching flat panels with thin frames.

That is, would I be well advised to make the new flat panel my image monitor and use anything at all for the palette monitor?
(The Dell monitor could then replace the ViewSonic G90 19" display that I have on another system.)

See above.

Thanks for the encouraging reply! . . . . patrick

I’m not sure you are going to be happy with what windows is going to offer for dual monitor support. It’s very limited. Nview is the way to go in my opinion.

I did see ATI FireMV or FireGL for multi-view.
http://www.ati.com/products/firegl.html
http://www.ati.com/products/fireglv5000/ATI_FireGL_V5000_Dat asheet.pdf