I need to set-up a 3 or 4 monitor setup (with desktop extended across all monitors) and wondered which splitters or adapters are out there for accomplishing this with a laptop (as well as desktop). I know there is a Matrox product out there called triplehead2go, but I wanted to know what my other options are.

Thanks

For a desktop computer, you should just be able to get another graphics card, either in addition to your current one, or a new one with more outputs. For a laptop, you really only have the Matrox option. If you wanted just to mirror the image from your main screen onto other monitors, there are plenty of inexpensive distribution amps. http://sewelldirect.com/8port-vga-multiplier.asp

dwight,

go to matrox web sight. they have a graphics card to do what you need.

I use two networked computers. one has two 19 inch monitors for most of my editing needs. I use adobe suite 1.5
computer 2 is a 22 inch wide screen and i run a second crt that shows my edited footage. I use this for color correcting.

this covers pretty much all my bases. With the matrox card you can run three and use one for the color correcting and the other two for editing. If i recall the card is around 500 dollars.
An invidia 6600 will run two monitors just fine and it is about 100 dollars.

for laptop you can find usb2 and pcmcia devices that act like a display card.
it will not work for video, but it is probably ok to display powerpoint slides or a timeline.

I need to set-up a 3 or 4 monitor setup (with desktop extended across all monitors) and wondered which splitters or adapters are out there for accomplishing this with a laptop (as well as desktop). I know there is a Matrox product out there called triplehead2go, but I wanted to know what my other options are.

Thanks


You need to be clear about what you want to achieve. A splitter or something similar would put the same image on several monitors. To have a multiscreen setup so that the several monitors put together make up essentially one big monitor with the desktop extended across all of them must be done with multiple video cards or video cards with multiple video outputs.

ok so google " Port Authority2 Audio Video Splitter/Extender " they have a $99.99 vga in to 4 vga out. and to work with desktop or laptop get a PORT AUTHORITY2 USB 2.0 TO XGA ADAPTER.

i would provide links but none of the sites are DVinfo sponsors and don't want to post a 3rd party site.

what i provided will work for about 200 bucks but of course im sure you can find a number of solutions. if your laptop has vga out then you dont need to usb adapter same with your desktop. you just need the splitter.

~Mike

Thanks guys,

I'm essentially trying to extend my desktop over 3 or 4 screens and not sacrifice quality while I'm at it. I do not want copies of the same screen on each monitor. I will look into some of the options suggested.