Dual screen help?

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franz

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Hi everyone,

Can someone give me some advice?
I have a computer in living room that connect to LCD monitor and TV
and I am looking for a solution that I can watch videos from the computer on TV (full screen)
while someone can surf the net on that computer in the same time
Is there any video cards or any alternative methods that I can work this out?
thanks in advance
 
You're going to have to give more details, because I have no idea what kind of system you are running. I would also inquire about what kind of TV and monitor you're using as well.
 
That computer is running with Windows XP (AMD 2500+, 512MB ram, and Asus motherboard)
The TV is a flat screen 25inch Toshiba with both S-video and Component input (no progressive scan)
The monitior is a Samsung 17 inch LCD screen (model 712N)
hope this helps :)
 
It is a Radeon 9200SE which has S-video output
The card itself is capable to show the whole desktop on both monitor and TV in the same time
however this is not what I am looking for

I have seen people have two monitors display for a single computer
what I want to do is to have my monitor showing one side of the desktop screen
and the TV displays the other side of the desktop screen
so the monitor displays the left side and the TV displays the right side
... or vice versa

I had experience that if I wanted to play movies on TV screen
I had to set the graphic card output signal straight to the TV
if the graphic card output signal went to both monitor and TV together
the movie would not display on TV screen (black screen on the player)
so this is my another concern

I wouldn't mind to get a new graphic card or an adapter
just would like to know how to make this setup to work
thanks in advance :D
 
I have a 9600XT, and I all I have to do is plug my S-Video cable into the card, then into the TV. Then, I go to the software bit.

I start by doing this (providing you have a similar driver and software for the card):

nothinghereyet6rh.jpg

This box is empty now. That is because I have no TV plugged into the S-Video Out, or because I haven't clicked "Detect displays". When you click "Detect displays", a small picture of a TV should appear.

This is good. Click on that little image of a TV, and drag it into the second square beside the one featuring a computer monitor. When this happens, a little menu *may* appear, once again, providing that you're running similar software. It *may* look as follows:

menuclickthis5xt.jpg


After it has applied the settings (should take 5-10 seconds with minor screen flickering), it will ask if you want to continue with this setting. With your TV on, and the S-Video cable plugged into the video input jack (or S-Video jack, I use a video one because I have an adapter plug), your TV should now be displaying the contents of your desktop and whatever else appears on your monitor. Essentially, it should be a clone. Anyway, click "Yes" or "No", whichever you prefer. You have 15 seconds to chose, or it reverts back to default settings.

When you've clicked yes, it should look as follows:

done4gu.jpg


Now, after all this is done, you'll want to configure your video settings. To do this, click the "Video" extension, and select theatre. Default settings should look as follows:
yourdefaultsettingvideotheatre.jpg


Note that it is in "standard" mode. For what it appears you want to do (watch computer movies on TV in fullscreen), you'll want to click "Theatre Mode".

After that has been selected, the theatre mode settings become accessible. Depending on your preference, you can chose either "match the source video" (keep the same aspect ratio of the screen sizes) or "scale to full screen", or stretch the computer-video image to fit the whole TV-video image.

And now you should be able to watch computer videos on TV. :)
 
that was an awesome explanation, i have the ati 9600 with s video and i just configure it through windows.

go to display in control panel and then settings and both monitors should show up if you have both connected. i switch between my 17inch crt monitor and my 27inch hdtv so i am an expert on this topic.
 
wow ... that's a really good illustration
thankyou so much for your effort

so any ATI cards above 9600 should have the same/similar features right?
 
Thanks for the tips guys
I found out my Radeon 9200 already had the clone mode with theatre option
now it works like a charm 👍

however, I tried to update a new driver
the installation is already problematic ... and I really don't like .NET for the catalyst
glad I figured out the old control centre had the same feature
 
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