[Sussex] 2 monitors, one machine

[Rob Malpass]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Harrison (Groups)" <mph at ascentium.co.uk>
To: "LUG email list for the Sussex Counties" <sussex at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 10:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Sussex] 2 monitors, one machine


> On Wed, 2005-10-05 at 20:57 +0100, Rob Malpass wrote:
>>
>> So assuming whatever driver supports simultaneous monitors (Dualview
>> for
>> example on XP, Xinerama (I believe) on Linux) I need a cable / adaptor
>> to
>> connect an S video to a standard VGA (because the only spare 19"
>> monitor I
>> have only supports 15 pin VGA).
>
> Rob,
>
> Rather depends on the card. Most of the "S-Video out" cards only support
> TV resolution - 625 vertical lines of which 576 are visible and the rest
> reserved for data - teletext.
>
> The bad news is that this interpolation is likely to be done BEFORE you
> feed to the S-Video hardware, so you'll have the bizarre situation of a
> VGA re-sampled to PAL for the output, then fed to VGA for the display.
> I'd be VERY surprised if it looks any better on a VGA monitor as it did
> on a telly, and possibly worse!
>
> The other thing to be wary of is that the card may only support the SAME
> picture on both outputs, rather than different areas of screen.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark
>
>
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>
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>

OK - looks like a two VGA connection card is the way to go.   I've hunted 
around on Novatech and Maplin for cards with two connections, but some are 
suggesting that one VGA and one DVI will support two monitors.   As I say, 
my monitors are standard VGA so the safest, but by no means the cheapest 
from my research, solution is to get one with 2 VGAs.

However can anyone enlighten me as to whether one with a DVI can be 
connected easily to a standard monitor?

Sorry for all these questions, it seems VGA is VGA, S-Video is also S-VHS 
and unsuitable for monitors, but what is DVI, is this the new HDTV 
connection?

Cheers
Rob 



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