How do you manage multiple displays?

R

redman223

Gawd
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
1,013
I have looked all through the nView and the desktop settings and tried everything in the nVidia control panel, but to no luck. What I want to do is simply clone my monitor, which would be simple, except that the other display is a hdtv, so when I clone, it tries to display 1920x1200 on the tv, which just cuts a bunch of stuff off.

I would be happy if I could just have my monitor cloned on the tv, but the tv would resize the desktop so everything would fit in 1920x1080.

Also, lets say I wanted to play a game on the TV, how can I set that up? (without the cloning option) I tried moving the shortcut to the tv, but the program still opened on the monitor.

Thanks in advance.
 
Well, if you want to clone they are both getting the same signal so set the monitor to 1920X1080 or you likely can't get things right on the TV.

Personally, I would do a Dualview setup and use the Monitor as primary and the HDTV as secondary. If you want something on the TV, move it over. This way you can have each display at its native resolution. I understand you can't see the same thing on both that way, but I wouldn't care. Evenually, I will use my DVI-D in on my LCD HDTV and my PC's DTS-Connect capability to play with the whole HTPC thing. So far, I don't have enough motivation for that.

For playing games, I would think you are stuck playing them on the Primary Display. Just make the HDTV the primary.

What card and what driver version are you using? If they are not current enough that might cause you excessive headaches.
 
Thanks for the reply, those were the options that I knew I had, but I was just hoping there was another way. I have an 8800GTX and my displays are a 24" BenQ monitor and a 70" Sony television. I have the tv hooked up via a dvi-hdmi cable, and the monitor is hooked up with a dvi cable.

I think I found a way around though. In nView, you can click on tools, and then from there you can transfer your desktop icons and windows taskbar to the other display, I haven't tried it yet though, as the tv is currently being used.

I wouldn't mind setting my desktop to 1920x1080, its just that nvidias drivers suck and they STILL do not scale things correctly. So it would just smush everything down.
 
redman223 said:
In nView, you can click on tools, and then from there you can transfer your desktop icons and windows taskbar to the other display, I haven't tried it yet though, as the tv is currently being used.
Click to expand...

Isn't that just switching which display is "Primary"? Which ever is "Primary" is always the one with the icons and Task Bar, right?
 
Pretty sure a program called ultramon allows you to mirror displays with different resolutions. The trial is free so you can check it out.
 
Thanks for the help guys, I will try those out, as what I said I was going to do in the above post did not work at all.

I
 
Hmm it seems that even with UltraMon it is not working. I dont know, maybe the tv is having issues, it has to be, because I have been reading around and everyone seems happy with UltraMon, saying it is awesome, but when I use it, nothing changes.

It is like my TV cannot actually display 1920x1080 correctly from my video card (8800gtx). I know it displays stuff right, because the PS3 and TV channels work great, but for some reason, when I set UltraMon to display 1920x1080 from the TV the edges are cut off, about a half an inch all around. I dont know whats going on....any ideas?

The TV is a Sony KDS-R70XBR2, and everything else works and looks great. But I REALLY want to play PC games on this thing, it seems doomed, as I am having problems with both this and getting sound from it (but thats in another thread).
 
I think I found the problem, it has to do with something called Overscanning, and it seems that nVidia's fix for it is to no use a digital connection to the tv. That is crap, but I am sure they will release a fix for it soon (haha yeah right). Turns out they have overscan compensation, but only with the RGB cables and not with DVI. Well at least now I know the answer.

Anyone else have any fixes for this?
 
redman223 said:
I think I found the problem, it has to do with something called Overscanning, and it seems that nVidia's fix for it is to no use a digital connection to the tv. That is crap, but I am sure they will release a fix for it soon (haha yeah right). Turns out they have overscan compensation, but only with the RGB cables and not with DVI. Well at least now I know the answer.

Anyone else have any fixes for this?
Click to expand...

Incorrecto... nVidia's overscan correction will work for digital connections as well. It's been a good long time since I've done it, but I believe it's under the 'Video & Television' button in the newer nVidia control panel. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I KNOW I've done it via my DVI output.
 
Overscanning is what a TV does, it should be "corrected" by turning it off on the TV.

There should be a "1 to 1 pixel mapping" or "computer display" mode in the video settings part of the TV's menu. It would likely only be available when being used with a digital source, however. Unfortunately there are quite a few sets that do not have any such settings, digital source or not.

If you knew you were planning to use your HDTV as a computer monitor on steroids, that would be one of the things you can research before the purchase. I understand it is not possible to research something before a purchase if you did not plan on doing it at the time.
 
I did some work on my setup recently, and what I did was run a VGA cable to my TV from the second DVI port on my video card. In nView, I set up the TV as a secondary display, and there was another option that I found to play video full screen on my secondary display. Now, when I play a video in Winamp or Windows Media Player, it always plays full screen on the secondary display, regardless of what the first is doing. This allows me to minimize the media player software, and use the computer as normal, while the TV continues to run full screen video. When not playing a video, the TV just acts as a cloned desktop.

The benefit that I am pointing out here is that I still get full use of my computer while viewing full screen video on my TV, without having to extend the desktop or anything else. It's a VERY nice feature.

Just a thought ;)
 
On the nVidia page, it says that overscan compensation is not supported with digital connections with the 8800 series, and that I have to use the special hd cable that they gave us with the cards. What sucks is that you will have to use a digital connection to get 1080p with blu-ray and hd-dvd, because of all that digital rights mumbo jumbo. Well for gaming it will work fine, just wished I would have done more research on this before I dropped $50 for a 35' dvi>hdmi cable. Oh well, its around $20 to get a component cable of similar length.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top