3 monitors

[gerry hotson]

I would like to watch what's on my desk top, on my living room TV. My video card has VGA, DVI, and S video out.
Only 2 out's can be used at the same time though. It's a PCI-E card and
I am running a monitor off the DVI out and one off the VGA out using the
extended desktop set up. I want to mirror my main monitor to my 42" LCD
TV in my living room. For my first attempt, I got a 50' VGA cable and a
VGA splitter. I had to set the resolution really low to acomodate the TV
or I got an "INVALIDE FORMAT" message on the screen. That worked ok but
the desktop monitor looked like crap with the lower resolution. For my
next attempt I bought a PCI VGA card thinking I would use the two cards
together, one for the desktop displays and the other for the TV. When I
restarted, my computer disabled the PCI-E card saying that there was a
VGA driver conflict. I was left with one VGA out, no good. I'm not sure
what to do next. The two video cards are by the same manufacturer so I'm
thinking that I should try a different VGA PCI card from a different
manufacturer with different drivers. What do you think? Does Vista have
the ability to do what I want? Should I try a card with only S video and
use that input on my TV. Any help would be great.

[rallynavvie]

It should be possible but the simplest way is going to be running it right off your video card without the need for splitters. There are some "triple head" cards that will run outputs to all three channels if you use hacked drivers or certain other programs.

There are a few other video signal "splitters" that may work in these specialized circumstances.

What we need is the model of video card you're using, what resolution your two existing monitors are (as well as if they're CRT/LCD) and what sort of TV you're using.

[Bjs]

Get a pc to tv converter , but dont grab a dodgy cheap one from ebay as it affects the main screen quality .

[jstewart]

It should be possible but the simplest way is going to be running it right off your video card without the need for splitters. There are some "triple head" cards that will run outputs to all three channels if you use hacked drivers or certain other programs.

There are a few other video signal "splitters" that may work in these specialized circumstances.

What we need is the model of video card you're using, what resolution your two existing monitors are (as well as if they're CRT/LCD) and what sort of TV you're using.

I have a 6150 nvidia board, The drivers allow you to set a tv at 720p which I believe that is what your tv is. You can then set it up both devices to act as a clone. Unfortunately, your pc monitor will still not look as good. Your tv will look very good however. There is not a win-win situation that I know of or have experienced. I think the only thing that maybe make this more convenient would be to setup seperate profiles in nvidias properties.

This is just a suggestion. Personally, I like nvidia's products. If you would like further assistance, please list the maker of your card and the model.

[gerry hotson]

I'm using a Radeon X1650 card, HP w2207 22" LCD display set to 1680 x 1050, and a Benq 17" LCD set to 1280 x 1024.
Thanks for your input so far. I'm still looking for fixes.

[rallynavvie]

Not to sure with the ATi drivers. Have you checked around Guru3D for alternative drivers or software? UltraMon comes to mind but if yours is a hardware limitation then it may not be able to overcome it.