Robin9876 said:
For a Windows XP pc that has a DVI graphics card with a DVI cable with
only one input but two outputs.
Does this provide two separate screens or two of the same screen?
There are a couple possibilities for the cable. On a Quadro card, with
DMS59 connector, the "one to two" cable carries two separate display
signals. The DMS59 connector has a lot more pins, which is why it has
room for two displays. The DMS59 connector is used to save space,
and might be used for a low profile video card with room for only
a single connector, or two DMS59 connectors might be used, if the
card can drive four displays. Those cards are pretty expensive,
mainly because not many companies make them and the market is
small.
DMS59 to two DVI
http://www.pccables.com/images/01735.jpg
If you have purchased a so-called "splitter", that goes from one
DVI connector, to two DVI connectors, if it works at all, it would
have the same image and resolution on both screens. I certainly
hope it is not one of those abominations. I expect the maximum
cable length would be limited, if you used this (they must be using
a trick, like using the + and - signals, single ended).
(You can also get amplifier boxes, and that would give an identical,
full level signals, to two displays.)
http://www.pacificgeek.com/productimages/xl/H9361.jpg
This may be closer to what you want, but this depends on the
source being able to work at double the normal resolution. The
computer thinks it has a double width single monitor, and the
signal shows up "spanned" on two monitors. The monitors should
have matching resolution and refresh for this to work. There
are now at least four versions of this, for VGA and DVI.
The triple head version drives three monitors from one
connector, taking for example, a 3840x1024 signal and spanning
it over (3) * 1280x1024.
DualHead2Go
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2621&p=2
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/press/guides/dh2go/
Compatibility tool - checks whether source system can drive
the needed resolution setting on its output connector.
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/support/drivers/download/gxm/tool/
And even when you own a desktop graphics card, and there is more than
one connector on the faceplate, they don't always offer two
display channels. Some of the cheapest (around $30 to maybe $50)
have cheated, and only have a single channel present. (I got a
FX5200 PCI card, to be used while flashing another video card,
and the display control panel offers no option for a second
monitor.) And the advertising material may not admit to the
crime. But most of the time, if you see two or more physical
connector on the card, you may be able to drive two independent
displays that way.
Paul
