up vote 1 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I have a NVidia GE Force 8500 GT video card in a HP Media Center m8010y computer with a S video, HDMI and a DVI output slot. I have an HD TV attached to the HDMI slot and a monitor to the DVI slot. I have a second monitor which has a DVI cable. Is there any way to split or convert output so I can use both monitors as well as the HDTV? Thank you for any advice you can give me.

link|improve this question
feedback

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

Do you want all three screens to show something different (like extended desktops) or have 2 be different and one be a copy?

If you want all three to be different, it is not possible with your video card. It only supports 2 different streams.

However, if you want 2 to be different and a third to be a copy of one of them, you should be able to get a DVI splitter and have 2 of them receive the same signal. alt text

Be warned, your DVI port needs to be Dual Link for the signal to be strong enough to support this. Single Link DVI ports will most likely not work. Check the specs of your card first.

link|improve this answer
Is it possible for the two monitors to be different and the TV to be a clone of one of the monitors? Thank you for answering. – Leann Jan 21 '11 at 14:52
1  
It's possible. You would need to hook up one monitor to the video card's HDMI port (either directly if it can support it or with a HDMI/DVI adapter) and then use a splitter like above to go from the video card's DVI port to both the other monitor and the TV. Then you need to worry about what type of hookup your TV has and you will likely need another DVI/HDMI adapter or a DVI/VGA adapter. It's quite a mess to get that set up the way you describe :) – th3dude Jan 21 '11 at 15:02
Could I leave the one monitor hooked to the DVI port, and use an HDMI splitter for the TV and the other monitor (with a DVI/HDMI adapter)? Thank you. – Leann Jan 21 '11 at 15:14
I agree with "quite a mess". Probably easier to replace the video card with one that supports three outputs. (Albeit probably more expensive, but eh, time is money!) – Shinrai Jan 21 '11 at 15:14
Yea, three monitors is always a tough setup. If you want true 3 monitor support, check out ATI's EyeFinity line. Jeff Atwood has a great blog post about it (and about multiple monitors in general) at codinghorror.com/blog/2010/04/… – th3dude Jan 21 '11 at 15:22
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.