2 Monitors, 1 TV. Best connection method

[mfrost]

Hi folks,

What an awesome forum, how come i've never stumbled across this place before?!

I have just bought myself a nice LCD TV which is VGA input compatible. It would be nice to connect my PC up to my TV to use as another monitor or play movies/games on from my PC. I'm just looking for the best/most efficient way with the best looking results really.

On my current PC setup I am already running 2 monitors (2x Dell 24" wfp) off my only two DVI outputs on my graphics card GTX280.

I've been doing some searching and I know that there are splitters available to convert 1xDVI into 1xDVI and 1xVGA, which sounds like exactly what i need (I could be wrong?). I would just plug the splitter into my main graphics card output and run the dvi to my Monitor and the VGA to my TV? This would then mirror my main monitor on the TV?

If what I said above is correct, will splitting my graphics card output into DVI and VGA effect the quality of the image on my main monitor (one of the Dell 24" wfp)? Also, as the splitters don't seem to have an on/off switch for each output that is split. Would my graphics card be outputting to the TV (via the VGA cable) all the time, even if my TV was off/in standby. If so, would this affect performace of my PC in any way?

I what i said was incorrect, could anyone give me an idea of what I would require to get this setup to work? I'm not too fussed about having 3 independant monitors, it's just i would like to keep both my current monitors connected and be able to display on the TV when I want to (without having to remove replace cables from my graphics card).

I hope this makes some sense, i'm confusing myself!

Thanks a lot for any help!

MFrost

[Gilly]

Hi folks,

What an awesome forum, how come i've never stumbled across this place before?!

I have just bought myself a nice LCD TV which is VGA input compatible. It would be nice to connect my PC up to my TV to use as another monitor or play movies/games on from my PC. I'm just looking for the best/most efficient way with the best looking results really.

On my current PC setup I am already running 2 monitors (2x Dell 24" wfp) off my only two DVI outputs on my graphics card GTX280.

I've been doing some searching and I know that there are splitters available to convert 1xDVI into 1xDVI and 1xVGA, which sounds like exactly what i need (I could be wrong?). I would just plug the splitter into my main graphics card output and run the dvi to my Monitor and the VGA to my TV? This would then mirror my main monitor on the TV?

Yes, AFAIK

If what I said above is correct, will splitting my graphics card output into DVI and VGA effect the quality of the image on my main monitor (one of the Dell 24" wfp)? Also, as the splitters don't seem to have an on/off switch for each output that is split. Would my graphics card be outputting to the TV (via the VGA cable) all the time, even if my TV was off/in standby. If so, would this affect performace of my PC in any way?

The way it works is to use the 4 pins needed for RGB + Sync to the VGA socket and the DVI socket remains active anyway, so the performance shouldn't be affected, just I am unsure how the graphics card will react, as they normally say VGA screen, DVI screen etc, based on what is connected, you would be running 2 from one port, so not sure how it will see that.

I what i said was incorrect, could anyone give me an idea of what I would require to get this setup to work? I'm not too fussed about having 3 independant monitors, it's just i would like to keep both my current monitors connected and be able to display on the TV when I want to (without having to remove replace cables from my graphics card).

I hope this makes some sense, i'm confusing myself!

Thanks a lot for any help!

MFrost

HTH, not sure what to suguest if this adaptor doesn't work!!!

[suiken_2mieu]

Eh.... I would just get a Triplehead2go (or Duelhead2go) and connect it up that way. It seems better than that mash up between DVI and VGA.