Query on Dual Monitor

[Paparazzi]

Could someone please explain to me what this whole thing is about Dual Monitors? I mean,
1) How is this done? where do I connect the two monitors on the PC?
2) Would I need two graphics card to achieve this?
3) Assuming two cards are indeed required, woul the output to the two monitors be the same or could I have different outputs to the two monitors?
4) Over and above all this, what purpose does it serve by having outputs on different monitors? I mean, would it be possible for someone to look at 2 monitors at the same time and if so, what kind of purpose would they be for?

I certainly do understand the saying "If you don't use it, you don't need bother with it", but its all out of curiosity. I did a search for dual monitors and came up with couple of posts which did make me understand that 2 cards are required, but thats about all I got to understand!

Sorry if all this sounds igrnorant, but I was just wondering... with all the talk on dual monitors.

Cheerios

 

[GoNz0]

1, you can get duel header cards almost in any PC shop now. (cheep as well)
2, no
3, Both depending, mirror, spanned etc.
4, you name it anything is possible

top gaming rigs can come with 3 monitors now surround screen

 

[Paparazzi]

1 ....
2 ....
3 Would some kind of software be required to have it mirrored or spanned?
4 I'm not much of a gamer (at 37, one tends to have sobered down ) However, would it be possible for eg. to have for eg. have a monitor display a screensaver with family pictures while I work with the other monitor?

With respect to all this, would it be possible to have a monitor that is not directly connected to my PC (Don't if its there, but I'm wondering something in the lines of RF or infra or some thing of that sort) do this as well?

Thanks for that quick response earlier!

Cheerios

 

[GoNz0]

theres a few 3rd party app's to customise the way it works the 2 screens, but default options allow mirror or screen spanning.

im not sure if TvTool does the custom screensavers option, but i know something does do it, 1 of the other members should have some feedback on that

don't know about wireless TV. must be possible though.

 

[JJB6486]

I run dual monitors off my GF4 Ti4200. One monitor plugs into the VGA port, and the other into the DVI port with a converter. Then nView is enabled in the nVidia Detonator Driver and away you go. I also use a program called UltraMon to add additional functionailty to the dual mon setup.

 

[Sazar]

win xp natively supports dual monitor displays... naturally you may want to use another application that allows more functionality..

dual monitors can be setup as clones (both show same display) or individually...

I had to get a 2nd card since my AIW 9700pro only has a single display output even though it has dual ramdacs... my other card is also dual head so I can effectively setup 3 monitors... 4 if you include a television... though for tv you have to clone

dual monitor == more desktop space so if you multitask a lot and need to use lots of windows (ir programming or photoediitng or whatever else) which I do... or if you want to watch tv on one monitor and work on the other (which I also do) it is quite kewl

 

[Paparazzi]

Hey thanks for those usefull replies! I guess, I've started to understand something of what cna be done with dual monitors and how its suppossed to happen.

Now, I'll try to rack my brains and the market on the wireless output thing

Thanks a lot for your inputs!

Cheerios

 

[Mainframeguy]

Another thought...

Something you said in your reply post -

eg. have a monitor display a screensaver with family pictures while I work with the other monitor

made me wonder...

Do you need a second monitor for this? You can get "electronic frames" that you can wall mount and run to display family pictures (not sure about screen savers as such) and these are priced around the same as TFT monitors, maybe cheaper, and remove need for any wireless considerations - although they are effectively mainly decorative rather than functional.

 

[Paparazzi]

True... True .... but a decent frame that has a decent set of features costs about USD.3,000/-. I'm talking of the 17" Digi Frame which allows one to use most kinds of memory media.

Another problem is that the cheaper ones normally are either very small or they expect pictures to be updated from the net! In Kuwait, where I live, the dsl and cables are not too popular as yet and hence expensive in itself! I really do wonder if there would be some place where I could get a used digi frame!

Cheerios