dual monitors help

umm yeah, I bought a 2nd 19" lcd monitor and I dont really know how to hook it up, can I buy some sort of splitter or something. I shoulda looked into this before im sure. I have a media center pc and it doesnt look like theres a dual monitor card on it and theres no space at the back for new cards.. helpp...?

All I know is that youre gonna need to buy a proper card and plug it into your comp. They might have external cards, I'm not sure.

Some cards have a dvi output (think thats the right name that allows you to plug it in directly. Failing that, chuck in a pci graphics card and plug it into that.

Never understood the point of having 2 monitors

helps with editing

There's so much point. Most of the time I use mine to watch shows I've downloaded, sometimes to have my mp3 folder open on, helps with editing and many other things

agree

theres no kind of splitter or something that anyone knows of? theres not really extra spaces on the back of my comp for extra cards

Just replace your video card. It should come with the adapters and plug ins... without the card though, it more than likely won't support dual monitors.

I know it has a wicked card in it the one that came with it... ill try to dig up the specs

I got a Verto GeForce FX 5500+ 128MB DDR for like $60 after $20 rebate at CompUSA, it allows output to 2 monitors and Svideo for TV

ill get the specs from the one I got when I get home from work then maybe you guys can tell me what to do

Check out video splitters, but I think that might just make the same thing appear on the 2nd monitor, not sure if you can extend it. If it does have more than 1 then the 2nd port might look different to the 1st one, bigger in size and you can just get an adapter to fit that one. Take a photo of the back of your graphics card if you're still stuck.

If your graphics card looks anythin like the one below then its pretty simple.
External image not preserved — inspect source: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Jooster/graphics.jpg

Here is my computer:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product...n&lang=en&cc=ca

Here is the monitor I got with it:

http://www.samsung.com/ca/products/monitor...al/bi19bssb.asp

Here is the new monitor that I ordered:
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdet...ategory_id=4009

now im telling you that the back of my computer doesnt look like it has any slots open for a new card to go into, and it looks like only one monitor jack in the video card. I was using a tv as my 2nd monitor through the video out on the card. I might have to replace this card or what, check the specs on the comp for the specs on the card. or else tell me where I go to see them on my comp, thxxx

here's what you need. hope it helps.

Belkin monitor splitter

If I got one of those, would it work no matter what graphics card I use?

who is that question for?

You

oh snap. sorry man. naw your graphics card shouldn't matter, if you can hook a monitor up to your comp right now then this will work. it splits the connection that you already have into 2 monitors but you can get other splitters that can hook up 3-4 or so. you might have to read about it but I think I comes with some software that splits the two screens into to different projects instead of just one screen split into two screens making the picture bigger.

Sweet, I'll look into it, thanks man.

ya no problem. I'm kind of curious myself so let me know what you find out.

yeah does this thing pan across 2 monitors or its it just a duplicate of the original I need to know

edit: fuck it looks like its just a copy of the original screen... anything like this but to pan across both monitors??

he said it came with software to make it a seperate screen...go a page back

Post a picture of the setup you have over there.

I need to know for sure

anyone got any ideas looking at my specs?

hmm seems you have an ATI gfx card, you could get the splitter thing that was mentioned before and just use ATI's hydravision to split the screens, thats what I would do.

ya man, that is exactly what I was trying to talk about but I didn't know the name of the software.

thanks for the help guys.. got a couple concerns yet...so that x300 is the one I have? and if I buy one of those splitters and download that software I will be able to run both monitors as seperate? I think im getting it... im no good with hardware stuff. if so can you point me to some of these splitters on ebay that would be good to use, both monitors have digital or analog capabilities so I would want to be using the highest possbile quality I can, which would be (digital)? and what does vga stand for?

please?