Dual monitor support

reidwriter wrote on 5/12/2004, 12:44 PM
What exactly do I need to support dual monitors.
Okay, I realize I need two monitors.

I currently have an Nvidia Gforce3 card.
Can I add an additional card or do I have to get one card with two ports.
And if so, is the Nvidia Quadra card the way to go?

I primarily want to use the second monitor for the preview window.

Comments

skibumm101 wrote on 5/12/2004, 12:52 PM
check this out if you have an extra laptop around
www.maxivista.com
rmack350 wrote on 5/12/2004, 1:00 PM
Well, for two computer screens you need a card with two connectors that specifically supports dual monitors with your OS. You could also use one AGP card and one PCI card but the last I checked PCI graphics cards were getting rare. All in all, a dual headed card is nicer. Matrox sells a good line but I'm using an nvidia card at the momemt and it's never given me a problem.

For your preview window, if you are editing for final viewing on TV then you ought to get a good studio monitor (NTSC or PAL) or at least a suitable TV. This is better than viewing on a computer CRT because it will get as close as possible to the final product.

You can feed a video-only signal out from Vegas though a camera, deck, or converter to your monitor or TV.

Rob Mack
Mandk wrote on 5/12/2004, 1:05 PM
I am using a Radeon 64MB card (7000 series?).

When it works well it is great, however the software seems a bit instable. I have had it for three weeks and have had to reinstall drivers 4 times.

Instability not Vegas' fault.
John_Cline wrote on 5/12/2004, 1:13 PM
ATI makes some great video cards, but their drivers seem to always have issues. All my machines are running either NVidia or Matrox cards. The Matrox cards produce a noticably better looking image and their drivers are extremely stable. I recommend the P650, P750 or even the Parhelia if video quality and stability is important to you.

John
BobMoyer wrote on 5/12/2004, 1:57 PM
I don't mean to hi-jack this thread, but I just got a new system with an ATI dual head card. One port is VGA and the other is DVI. The monitors I bought have both connections also. One I hooked up using the DVI port and I am waiting for a VGA-DVI converter plug before I hook up the other monitor.

Is this the correct way to go with this or should I just go ahead and use one of the monitors via the VGA port?

Bob
reidwriter wrote on 5/12/2004, 6:00 PM
Wow! thanks for the replies.
I may try the tv option till I scrape together the money for a new card.
I do try to budget my "passion" purchases and damn is it tough...
Redio wrote on 5/12/2004, 6:07 PM
Hi

I have a Geforce4 TI 4200 with dualhead output. Can I use an old laptop as a second screen for the prewiev window?

and if so, how do I connect it?

Rune
Stonefield wrote on 5/12/2004, 6:22 PM
I bought a Geforce 440 MX dual head card about two years ago. It cost me about 75 bucks Canadian. It works great.

One thing to keep in mind with video editing is you don't NEED to have the latest greatest video card. It's the Gaming industry that drives the production of the expensive cards because of all the 3D rendering. So I'd suggest finding out what was the hot dual head card ONE YEAR AGO and see if you can find it. Chances are you'll get it cheap and it'll work great.
skibumm101 wrote on 5/12/2004, 7:35 PM
Check out this site
www.maxivista.com
Install the demo and use your laptop as a second monitor over your network.
I installed and love it, great use for my laptop i have sitting around all the time.
logiquem wrote on 5/13/2004, 6:31 AM
My advice : definitely Matrox. You'l get better quality display, absolutly stable drivers (under W2k, i did'nt experimented with XP) and very good dual display software.

You also have the added bonus of NTSC output BTW, wich can be a problem solver. Even an old cheap G550 dual could be perfect.