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Persnickety Tim 2003-07-31 12:46
I have a Matrox Millenium P750 installed and running two CRTs as one integrated desktop. I will be upgrading to three monitors very soon, and just learned that although video overlay [TV] is available on both displays of a DualHead setup, with TripleHead overlay is only available on the primary. Are there any other surprises in TripleHead mode? Do dialog boxes etc. behave the same in TripleHead and DualHead, or does the whole setup behave more like a multi-card setup with one primary monitor and two secondaries? I'm worried that I might be returning to some old primary/secondary problems like tooltips on the other monitor, Word 'save as' boxes refusing to work on the secondary, and so on. W2K, if it matters. Appreciate any PowerDesk or Ultramon configuration tips if you got a similar setup working the way you like it.
Thanks. Tim
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Christian Studer 2003-07-31 23:46
Triplehead always uses stretched mode, with Dualhead you can choose between independent and stretched mode.
See my Parhelia review for more on this.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Persnickety Tim 2003-08-01 12:50
Thanks for responding Christian; actually, I read the review a few weeks ago when I was contemplating the Parhelia, but I understand it better now.
I actually prefer the single desktop method. I have several quirky older applications that behave oddly with multiple card setups. The only thing that discouraged me from stretched DualHead on my old G400 was the message boxes split across the middle. I'm looking forward to seeing them centered in the middle display when I go triple. I hope Windows doesn't make them wider than the monitor, and split them across all three!
I'll admit, the current versions of UltraMon take care of most of my beefs with conventional Primary/Secondary setups. I wish Matrox PowerDesk was half as good. But a decent AGP card to replace my obsolete G400, plus at least one PCI card would be about the same money as the P750. Add the price of UltraMon to that, and the decisions get tough.
As of yesterday, I couldn't find any P750 TripleHead systems in the database, so I'll post the full details next week, and I'll try to include give a feel for the foibles.
Thanks. Tim
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Persnickety Tim 2003-08-04 15:18
Put the third monitor in today, no trouble. Updated to the latest drivers while I was at it. Even my taskbar and toolbars, which live at the left and right edges, made the move automatically.
Good:
Runs one screensaver across all three monitors, even OpenGL ones. Ditto wallpaper, and Matrox provides some nice ones at their website.
Uses only one AGP slot. Could be used in a micro-case.
One big stretched desktop means icons stay where you put them.
Tooltips and subwindows show up where they should, instead of jumping to the primary monitor, a problem I had with Agent & Word 97 when I ran one primary monitor and one secondary from a Matrox G400 DualHead.
Windows remember their size and position from last time, and can be set to maximize on the display they're on using Matrox PowerDesk.
Not so good:
The only way to run three monitors is in TripleHead mode, which requires all three monitors to have the same resolution, colour depth and refresh rate. This is okay if you have matching monitors.
With TripleHead mode, video overlay [such as my ATI TV tuner], can only be used on one monitor.
However, you could run two monitors from the P750, and a third from another card, and that would give you two displays with video overlay. A P650 could do this, too.
If you have the taskbar at the top or bottom of the screen, it stretches all the way across. Maybe that's a good thing; it's certainly roomy.
My image viewer, ACDSee Classic, insists on going 'full screen' only on the left display, and doesn't correctly shrink large images to fit the single screen. There are newer versions of this program that might do it better. Space Cadet Pinball goes full screen across all three displays, leaving the outer ones black, which is more like what I expected. Both programs work okay when maximized instead.
It appears that Matrox PowerDesk is integrated with the display drivers, and can't be uninstalled. Earlier versions of PowerDesk interfered with my mouse software, but since I loaded the latest drivers, it's been okay.
Overall, I like this card. It's an easier way to set up two or three monitors than using two or three cards, and the stretched desktop concept does take care of some of those old glitches like icons that won't stay put.
Tim
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ecarlson 2003-08-06 13:56
Thanks for the info. I've never had a problem with icons not staying where you put them when using dual monitors (except when changing settings). Though I have had some of the other issues you mentioned. In what situations did the icons not stay put?
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
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