Dual Monitor Set-up (two different sized monitors)

[wolfhound89]

I am having trouble setting up my dual monitors. Monitor # 1 is a 17"
CRT driven by an nVidea PCI card. Monitor # 2 is a Sony 65" rear
projection TV driven by an ATI 9800 pro.

I have been trying to use UltraMon but it does not seem to work for
what I am trying to do.
Here is what I am trying to do.

Play games (i.e. Madden, Tiger Woods Golf, and MAME) on the big screen.
No matter which monitor I make the primary they always come up on
Monitor # 1.

I would like to watch my ripped DVDs on Monitor # 2 but WinDVD only
shows up on 1/3 of the screen.

Thanks.

 

[Dave]

I am having trouble setting up my dual monitors. Monitor # 1 is a 17"
CRT driven by an nVidea PCI card. Monitor # 2 is a Sony 65" rear
projection TV driven by an ATI 9800 pro.

I have been trying to use UltraMon but it does not seem to work for
what I am trying to do.
Here is what I am trying to do.

Play games (i.e. Madden, Tiger Woods Golf, and MAME) on the big screen.
No matter which monitor I make the primary they always come up on
Monitor # 1.

I would like to watch my ripped DVDs on Monitor # 2 but WinDVD only
shows up on 1/3 of the screen.

Thanks.

OK, this is going to be tough to follow, but . . . your primary video card
will be the PCI card, assuming that the other video card is AGP. Thus, the
PCI video card is the one that the games will use. You are focusing on the
monitors, but the games are looking for the video card. If you go into the
motherboard BIOS, there will be an option to initialize (agp or pci) video
first. You can try setting that so that agp video card is initialized
first. But I'm not sure that will work. I think the only thing that MIGHT
work would be to find a PCI card that can drive the 65" Sony.

But then you've got another problem. If the TV is not high-def, then it is
extremely low resolution. Thus, if you just drag a window onto it from the
17" CRT, that window will likely be too large (resolution wise) to fit on
the TV. You could try setting the 17" CRT to 640X480, but that would look
like crap. So even if you get this working the way you think you want
it to, you might not be happy with the results. -Dave

 

[wolfhound89]

Dave - First, thanks for the input.

I recently changed the BIOS that it would set the PCI (17") video card
first. If I change it back to initializing the AGP (65") first will
this cause me to have to have the TV on when the computer is booted up?
The TV is high def and I have the video card connected via componant
cables. (DVI adaptor)

 

[John Doe]

I am having trouble setting up my dual monitors. Monitor # 1 is a
17" CRT driven by an nVidea PCI card. Monitor # 2 is a Sony 65"
rear projection TV driven by an ATI 9800 pro.

AGP?

For what it's worth, I always use the AGP as primary.

I have been trying to use UltraMon

Why not use Windows display properties?

but it does not seem to work for
what I am trying to do.
Here is what I am trying to do.

Play games (i.e. Madden, Tiger Woods Golf, and MAME) on the big
screen.
No matter which monitor I make the primary they always come up on
Monitor # 1.

Where do you mean by "make the primary"?

In Windows display properties, there is a setting for that, but
there is also a BIOS setting that determines if AGP/PCI initializes
first. Doing dual monitors is still a bit tricky, you need to know
some technical stuff especially if you want to finesse it.

Good luck.

 

[Mike T.]

Dave - First, thanks for the input.

I recently changed the BIOS that it would set the PCI (17") video card
first. If I change it back to initializing the AGP (65") first will
this cause me to have to have the TV on when the computer is booted up?
The TV is high def and I have the video card connected via componant
cables. (DVI adaptor)

I honestly don't know. The only way to find out is to try it. -Dave