dual monitors on a laptop?

T

thefewtheproud

Gawd
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
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Is it possible to have dual monitors on a laptop? Could I connect a vga cord that is double headed on one end and single on the other, then have the two heads go to the two monitors and the one head to the laptop?
 
You'll need one of the Matrox dualhead products. I've got a review sample on the way and once I get that I'll let you know what I think.
 
I have a matrox dualhead2go digital edition. I originally was using it with dual 22" monitors, and am currently in the process of upgrading to dual 27" monitors. There are two versions of the Matrox products. There is a dualhead and a triplehead. The dual head supports 2 monitors and the triplehead supports 3.

However, the triplehead only supports up to 3 monitors at 1280x1024, I believe, or 3 nonwidescreen 19" monitors. Matrox recently updated the drivers for the triplehead so it runs better when only 2 monitors are connected (dual head mode)

The dual head only supports two monitors. However, it supports up to 2 monitors at 1920x1200.

Now, if you got all that, there are 2 versions of each head, dual and triple.

There is a analog edition, and a digital edition.

The digital edition allows for higher resolutions, i.e. 1920x1200.

So, their full product line up looks like this:

Dualhead2go Analog edition

Dualhead2go Digital Edition

Triplehead2go Analog Edition

Triplehead2go Digital Edition

They are all USB Powered, and come with the USB Cable, and an D-SUB extension cable to connect to the computer.

Heres the homepage for those products

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/



Now, for how well it works.
I am running a dualhead2go digital edition off of an intel core2duo at 2.33 Ghz, with an ATIX1600 with 256MB of video memory.

I am able to play most games easily with this setup, as the game would fill one monitor, and leave the other blank.

In Supreme Commander, the multiscreen support worked excellently.

In normal usage, it worked well, with only the occasional hiccup.

For example. some windows when opened, will open to the center of the 2 monitors, and would need to be dragged over in order to see all their contents.

Also, when playing DVD's full screen with WMP, it will fill both of the screens, leaving the big blank spot in the middle of the FOV, caused by the bezels between the two monitors.

This was solved temporarily by manually scaling the movie, and eventually permanently, by downloading VLC.

Graphics are not affected much since the matrox feeds off of the internal graphics card. Since most games scale to one screen, it is really no different than using one screen.

Another thing to note, is the matrox makes your computer see the two screens as a combined giant one.
2 1680x1050 screens show up as a giant screen at a res. of 3360x1050.
The start menu stretches all the way across both screens, and they are not independent.
You can't have one screen in landscape mode and the other turned in portrait mode.
Also, the two screens need to be the same resolution to work properly.

There are also a few other options for getting more than one screen on a laptop.

If your computer has a PCMIA card slot, there is a PCMIA Graphics card, called the VTBook.

I have one, but it does't work with my computer, so I will let you read more about it here.

http://www.villagetronic.com/vtbook/index.html

They are also developing a Expresscard version, but the release timeframe and price are unknown.

http://www.villagetronic.com/vidock/index.html

Hope this helps.

I struggled through this same process a little while ago.

Cost me a lot of money.

But it's so worth it.

Imagine running 2 24" or 27" screens, plus still being able to use the built in screen of your laptop. It's like running a desktop setup.

And, by simply unplugging a couple of cables, you will still have the portability of your laptop.

It's an amazing amount of freedom. It feels great. The only problem is when you are on another computer, that doesn't have multiple screens.
You'll look over, to the right or left, where you have your second monitor, and there will be nothing there. Or you'll try to drag a window from one screen to another, and it won't work. Still, it's only a minor inconvenience.

Hope this helps.

Feel free to ask more questions, or for clarification, and I'll see what I can do.

-ST-
 
Thanks alot for the info! That seems like it would work. Right now I use a 2007wfp so I guess I would have to get another one of those. Dual Westys would be pretty sweet too.
 
You may also want to look into docking stations as an option.

I have a Dell Latitude dock that has both DVI and VGA out. I'm able to simultaneously drive three screens from my laptop: 24" on the DVI, 20" on the VGA, and the native screen on the open laptop.
 
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