How good are Dual Monitors ?

I was thinking of getting dual 20" TFT monitors, Anyone have anything similar? Any good?

Comments

[UziMonkey]

I used dual monitors for a number of years. It's not useless, nor is it life changing. The time it takes to move your eyes and re-focus with whatever is on the other screen can be spent hitting alt-tab. Might be useful for TV or movies on one screen, stuff on the other one.

[=SMART=]

Hmmm yea you're right. I was thinking of having the movie/tv one side and blogs the other

[Derin]

Just a tip:If you plan to play Flight Simulator,have the gauges on one and the cockpit view on the other.Makes stuff easier.

[Derin]

Or keep the gauges and put charts on another.

[SFHandyman]

I have had dual monitors for years. When I moved into a small apartment, I got rid of my big TV to save floor space, and replaced one of my 19" 4:3 monitors with a 21" 16:9 LCD monitor, and I bought a video projector for when I have guests over. Both of my monitors have video (component, RCA and S-Video) inputs, and one of them has speakers also. Neither of them have a TV tuner though. I put my Tivo in a closet and ran cables to my computer desk. When I want to watch TV, I flip one of the monitors over to TV (usually the wide screen), and play the Tivo through it, while leaving the computer displayed on the other monitor. I seldom watch live TV but if I wanted to, and didn't want to stop a Tivo recording, I use an old VCR. The TV tuner cards for PC's have always been buggy and used way too many resources when I've tried them. I bought expensive video cards with tuners twice, and ended up hating them. An old VCR works great and leaves all of your computer power for computing. I bought a good used (low hours on the bulb is most important) video projector on eBay and when friends come over to watch TV or a movie, I route the Tivo up through the projector, and project it on a white wall. If I want to watch a DVD through the projector, I play it from my computer. The projector has RCA, S-Video and serial inputs. I can display the Wii, VCR tuner, Tivo, or Computer on either monitor in any combination, and also add the projector if I want to do some quick plug switching. I'm not insane enough to want three different things displaying at the same time though. Getting the sound where I want it, is the most irritating part. Most sound/video selector boxes think there are several inputs, and only one output. I have 4 inputs (Tivo, VCR, Wii, Computer), 3 video outputs (Monitors 1, 2 and projector) and 3 sound outputs (computer speakers, monitor speakers, or headphones). I have separate cables for everything I use normally that stay in place, so I only have to switch the plugs, not reroute a cable. If I'm sending the Tivo to my computer speakers (I only do that when I have a guest over, otherwise I wear headphones), I just pull the L/R channel plug out of the back of my computer, and plug it into an extension cord for the Tivo sound cable that lives behind my computer. I should just wire up my own box, but I've got a workable configuration. Using the computer DVD drive, lets me use the 5.1 computer speakers for DVDs. I just use stereo for the Tivo. I let the Wii play through the monitor speakers. I play music from the computer. I ripped all my music cd's then donated them to the library. I haven't owned a regular TV for many years. I also haven't plugged my stereo receiver or DVD player in for 5 years. I need to just sell them. The dual monitor is also fantastic for programs like Photoshop. You can have the image you are working on, displayed on one monitor, and drag all the tools over to the other monitor. You can leave the web, and/or email open on one monitor while you work on the other one. You can open two browsers at once. Notepad is often open on one monitor so I can just cut and paste stuff from the browser into it. If I was a good boy, I'd cut all of this text and drop it into Notepad to edit and get all spiffy then drop it back into this box. It's going to be complex however I write it though. If I lived with someone else, I'd probably have to simplify these connections, but I'm the only one who needs to know how to change it around and it's easy for me.

[Chicken2209]

do you know if your video card is compatible with it? some video cards can tolerate a span mode, where your screen is stretched across both monitors I think ones that are designed for a multiple monitors are marked differently

[=SMART=]

Yea i asked in the apple store :D