Hoooaah! Triple-Head PCI-Express

[Sketcher]

Got me a Parhelia w/Triple LCD's at work.

http://www.pbase.com/sketcher/image/35679222

Now that Matrox has a PCI-Express version I'm thinkin' it's time to get to building the new Home workstation... The dilema; new SATA-150 RAID workstation w/Triple LCD's, or a make my 10D a backup camera...

http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/video/news/press_rel/2004/parhelia_apv_e.cfm

err, wait... the wife left me a voicemail this afternoon jubilant that she got all her Christmas shopping done. Looks like I'm getting neither...

[CyberDyneSystems]

That's awesome!

I have a question?
How do you get the desktop wallpaper to stretch across three (or even two) screens?

Is that a function of the Matrox driver? Or is it possible with any card in WinXP?

I've never been able to get the dual head Nvidia to do that partivcular trick.

[Sketcher]

Hmmm, good question CDS. Ashamedly, I don't know. I just found a triple-monitor sized landscape (from 9x media) and set it as the desktop background in XP Desktop settings. Matrox may have done some mojo for that to work but I dunno. My ATI workstations have dual-monitor cards and allow wallpaper to span both monitors through win XP settings. Here's a screen shot of my parhelia in XP settings. Note that it shows only one monitor, the Matrox app takes care of the rest.

http://www.pbase.com/sketcher/image/37542353/medium.jpg

Here's an app that I used to use on my dual monitor setups though; it allocates a separate taskbar to the additional monitors rather than just stretching the primary one. ~ speaking of stretching, if I recall; WinXP has an option to stretch the primary desktop across multiple screens. I don't know if that allows the use of dual/triple-mon wallpaper, but it's worth looking at.

http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

[ilya]

You have the coolest job in the world - foruming?

http://www.pbase.com/sketcher/image/35679238



Nice setup. Great monitors.

[Sketcher]

You have the coolest job in the world - foruming?

http://www.pbase.com/sketcher/image/35679238

Nice setup. Great monitors. Heh, I wish! I'd love to see the look on peoples faces...

them: Jeff, what do you do for a living?
me: I surf internet forums.
them: And you get paid to do that!?

Thanks, unfortunately it's my corp. office setup. YOU have one of these monitors in your home! And you have a pretty nice gpu pushin' it.

Hmm, now I'm scheming for a way to pay the bills AND allow me to spend my days 'foruming' ;).

[CyberDyneSystems]

What you ar able to do above in the image you posted,.. by telling the display to run at 3840 wide.. the total of all three monitors.. is NOT an option with the basic WinXP uutility and two different monitors.....

This is the reason I can't do it. I can stretch the desktop.. but it "tiles' the wallpaper.. (ie each monitor gets the same picture.. not two different halfs.. but the whole. )

I guess it's a Matrox thing?

[Sketcher]

CDS,

I know for a fact that this utility will allow you to do what you're asking (Dual monitor wallpaper). Though, I think there's a trial period requiring purchase after 30 days. I had bought it at one time but can't find it. It's a good prog.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

with good linkage here:

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/

-jeff

[CyberDyneSystems]

Thanks Jeff,...

It's been a looooong time since I made this set up.. so I have mostly forgotten the hooops I did jump through back then to try and set up a single large wallpaper...

But your link and the info has refreshed my memory.

there is a Span Mode that indeed the nvida cards can do as well...

However.. they require identical resolution and refresh settings for the two monitors.

In my case.. I can't use the same res settings (horizontal anyway) as the monitors are different widths.

They both have identical heights.. so the vertical res is indeed the same. But the 24" monitor is a wider aspect ratio.. and thus runs at a wider res....

.... thus I can not take advantage of "span mode" without forcing the wide aspect ratio monitor to run "narrow" ;)

I'll have to try the app linked above and see if it can overcome this hurdle :)

[CyberDyneSystems]

Doh!

Well,.. I'm an bit behind here... Since I first tried this (again.. aboiut two years ago) I've upgraded the "nview" drivers numerous times... it seems that the latest version (and who knows how far back) will allow different wall paper on each monitor. Thus.. my "problem" has been solved unbenownst to me.

I can make an image the full width of both monitorsa and split it inot two peices.. each the correct width for each different monitor...

Perfect!