2 things at once/2 monitors

[Willz]

is there any way to do 2 things at once using the vga and s-video out ports on the back of my graphics card, so using the tv i can play a game with a joypad, and using the monitor i can surf the net, can this easily be done?

 

[Matt555]

ahh yes i see what you mean, i was wondering this a while ago, like use the S-Video as a second monitor (to a tv though)

 

[Willz]

i know how to get a tv and monitor to display the same stuff, but all i want to be displayed on the tv is the game, and i want to desktop to be displayed on the monitor, so i can do 2 things at once, so i dont have ot keep exiting the game to do stuff.

 

[Matt555]

yeah i see what you mean, i would like to be able to do that, but i highly doubt my card will be able to...:(

 

[Willz]

well, if it has s-video, and if there is software thast can do it, then it will, i think my graphics card will do it (9600np), just need someone who knows how to do it to tell me how to do it.

 

[ThePenguinCometh]

It may well be theoretically possible but I wouldn't advise trying to run a game alongside other applications on a separate monitor. Fullscreen-type games tend to take over the systems resources, capture all the keypresses and mouse movements and generally expect to be the only application running in the foreground. I have a dual-monitor set-up with an AGP card and a PCI card and that works well for most applications but when I play Nexuiz, though I can have applications open on the secondary monitor, I can only use Nezuix on the primary monitor as it takes control of the mouse and keyboard.

If you still want to try, and I recommend having a dual-monitor set-up - it makes life so much easier so long as you remember its limitations, have a look at the Display applet from the Control Panel. For a normal twin-graphics-card set-up you only need to click on the check-box entitled "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" to get both monitors working though I don't know if this will work for your set-up.

 

[Willz]

oh, i dont have 2 graphics card, i will have in 4 weeks, but there both agp :(
is there anyway to do it using one graphics card, and a monitor and tv?

 

[Big B]

Should be there by native support for ATi or nVidia-based cards. Just hook both the TV and monitor up and go into your display properties. Go to the Advanced properties and you should see both displays detected.

I haven't really fiddled too much with dual-displays, so I can't say exactly what to expect. I never really found it all that useful for what I was doing.