Video Card

[dochielomn]

Ok, maybe, that's the best plan. If you have a spare video card of some sorts to test with first and if that works, then probably be buying that newegg recommended one, should work.

[kevm14]

Or you could still enjoy a decent video card upgrade for only $42 if it didn't work.

[dochielomn]

So, for testing purposes, I think I might have an older video card that I'm not using. Is it possible to plug that one in (which probably only has a VGA port) and connect it to my old CRT monitor (not yet thrown away) and see if that will work? Thus, I would have the inboard video card with HMDI and VGA ports and then this video card with a VGA port. Is that a possible configuration or will the comp get confused with me trying to use 2 different VGA ports for video out?

[Adam]

The computer won't care about how many VGA ports it has. The only question is if the motherboard will allow an external video card to work at the same time as the onboard video card. Windows supports having multiple video cards as long as the correct drivers are installed.

If your old card is a PCI-express card, you can try it.

[dochielomn]

Ok, so time to bring this back to the surface. So, to recap what I'm trying to do- I like having a dual screen at home. I also enjoy having my desktop computer hooked up to my TV via HDMI and thus being able to play video on my desktop and play the video (full screen) on the tv and allow me to do other things on the desktop. So, I bought an HDMI splitter and originally had it hooked up my primary monitor and my TV (with the source feed coming from the desktop). However, as I quickly learned, all this does is clone the desktop feed to my primary monitor and my TV (thus defeating some of the purpose of watching a video on the tv and doing other things on the desktop). So, eventually I was given another flat screen monitor which has a VGA port and an HDMI port. Originally I had this secondary monitor hooked up via VGA. However, it finally struck me today, why not hook up the secondary monitor via the HDMI and hook up my primary monitor via the VGA port. This way, in theory, the secondary monitor and the TV are both connected to the splitter and should thus clone each other. But, now I'm running into a problem. The source feed is via HDMI (coming from the desktop computer) and should be outputting to both the secondary monitor (via HDMI port) and to the TV (via an HDMI port). But, thus far, the tv refuses to play nice. If I disconnect the feed into the splitter for the secondary monitor, the TV responds and displays (thus proving that the splitter is working). But when I plug the secondary monitor back into the splitter (and the splitter still lights up both set of lights indicating that it's working), the TV goes back to refusing a signal. So, just wondering if you guys have any thoughts about what is happening here and if there is a fixable solution. I do have an HDMI switch which has ports free so I guess I could use that but then it makes the splitter worthless. Any suggestions?

[kevm14]

I think the splitter is worthless. You just need a video card with HDMI and VGA.

What are all the input choices again? HDMI for the TV. Monitor?

Also you could use media center so you can do stuff from a remote, which is sweet.

[dochielomn]

The splitter does work though. When I had my primary monitor connected to the desktop via the HDMI and then had the desktop going to the splitter with the splitter going to the primary monitor and the tv, it worked perfectly as it should. The 2 HDMI signals went to the primary monitor and the TV and the TV just cloned what was displaying on the primary monitor (or you can say that the primary monitor was cloning the tv). But now, the secondary monitor is connected to the splitter with the TV but they don't work at the same time (mainly, the TV is not working when both are connected). So, I don't understand why it doesn't work now when it was working before. The splitter is definitely still passing the signal because when I remove the connection to the secondary monitor, the TV then works.

Here are the specs and components:

TV- Toshiba HL167- http://www.engadget.com/products/toshib ... 167/specs/
3 HDMI, 2 Composite, 2 Component, 1 VGA

Desktop- Dell Inspiron 570 MiniTower
External Connectors (Video) 15 pin VGA, 19 pin HDMI

Primary Monitor- ASUS PB238Q
VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI

Secondary Monitor- Samsung SyncMaster S20B350
HDMI, VGA

I have an HDMI splitter as well as an HDMI switch. I'd rather use the splitter if I can.

[Adam]

When you have the TV and the secondary monitor attached to the splitter, what resolution does Windows think it is outputting (even though the TV is not displaying anything)? How about when you unplug the secondary monitor (and the TV is displaying something)? How about when the secondary monitor is attached to the splitter but the TV is not?

My guess is the TV and the secondary monitor do not support all the same resolutions (unlike the TV and the primary monitor). When the secondary monitor and the TV are both attached, Windows is outputting some resolution that is not compatible with the TV, but when you unplug the secondary monitor, the resolution changes to something the TV does support. This is all just a guess until I know what the answers to the above questions are.

[Adam]

I think my guess is right. The primary monitor and TV both support 1920x1080 (and some other resolutions). The secondary monitor only supports 1600x900 which the TV does not support. The PC is probably outputting 1600x900 when both devices are hooked up to the splitter, so the TV does not display anything (since it doesn't support that resolution). You could manually set the resolution to something that is supported, like 720p/1280x720 or something, but that might end up looking terrible on the secondary display. Try it out and see how it looks.

If it is too terrible, you can make the attach the TV and the primary display to the splitter so you can at least use all the display surfaces. Or buy a new secondary display that supports 1920x1080/1080i/1080p. Or buy a video card that can output to 3x displays at the same time. Or buy a less fancy secondary video card and utilize it and the on board video card to drive 3x displays.

[dochielomn]

And you are correct Adam. The secondary monitor was set to 1600x900 and I guess that was not compatible with the TV. When I set the resolution to 1280x720 on the secondary monitor, the TV then clones the secondary monitor and displays what is showing there. I thought it might be a resolution problem but I didn't try each one and I guess should have done a little research to see what the tv supports. But that's where you guys come into play and are helpful, . So big thanks to you!

As far as your questions, the secondary monitor was displaying 1600x900. When I unplug the secondary monitor, the TV would work so I'd assume it would display 1920x1080. I didn't try unplugging the tv from the splitter because that was defeating the purpose but then it would just be the secondary monitor and that would be at 1600x900. Once I set the resolution on the secondary monitor to 1280x720 everything works. However, 1280x720 is a little too big for my liking so if I'm really just wanting to use the tv, I'll make sure to set the resolution to 1280x720, otherwise, I'll set it back to 1600x900 for regular stuff.

On a side note, I tried fitting my old video card into this desktop but it didn't appear that the old video card wanted to fit in the slot. It seemed like it was slightly too big for it. Maybe I didn't align it right and I'll try again but my 1st attempt, I couldn't check to see if this desktop would accept an external video card as oppose to the integrated one that it already has.