Multiple Monitors??

J

JimmySoundz

New member
Hey guys,
I currently have in my setup just a laptop, and I recently decided to upgrade, pending some assurance when it comes to monitors (screens, not speakers).
I need more desktop space than my little laptop, lol. So how bout some advice?
Is there a way to connect 2 external monitors to my laptop and screen drag items from that laptop to the screens? The guys at radio shack mentioned a splitter or something but I wanted to get some insight from you guys. Does it require an external driver or something? Let me know ASAP.
 
You might need an external video card since a lot of laptops don't have multiple outputs. You might get lucky that yours has an HDMI out and a VGA out in which case you might be able to use both. A splitter will not work - that will only duplicate the screens.
 
If you really don't want to buy a desktop or another laptop and don't have a way for multiple monitors, get yourself one big monitor, that'll do the trick as well. Make sure your laptop's graphic card can handle high enough resolution or it's gonna look like crap.
I got a desktop with two 24 inch monitors next to each other at home. A 15 inch laptop for production on the road. It's a bit small, but easy to take with and does the trick.
 
GIK Acoustics said:
You might need an external video card since a lot of laptops don't have multiple outputs.
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Yes, unfortunately this is the only way short of buying a desktop computer. What you need to look for in video cards is the number of VGA slots they have. I think most have 2 (for 2 monitors) but others only have 1. If you're looking to use 3 or more monitors you're going to need multiple video cards with SLI capabilities.

You should probably just get one big screen and use an hdmi cable.
 
CurryBeats said:
You should probably just get one big screen and use an hdmi cable.
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Currently, I'm running two 21.5" screens. I do my production work and my acoustics work primarily here. Having two screens is definitely useful, but has some drawbacks as well. One screen pretty much ends up being the "main" monitor anyways with the other as a bonus thats sometimes quite useful, other times (like right now) useless. I really dislike looking towards the 'left' all the time like I'm doing now, and so I'm eventually looking into one larger monitor. I really do like a lot of information presented though, so I think if I do change, it won't be until I get a 27" monitor with a 2560x1440 resolution or go with a 32" TV if 4k televisions ever make it to the consumer market at a reasonable price.
 
Wouldn't running one big screen make things bigger in some cases. For example Ableton on my laptop will show 16 or 17 tracks at once in session view on my laptop which is 17.3 inches. If I hook it up on my tv via hdmi it would show like around 25...but stuff like plugins are just enlarged. I haven't tried using the zoom options in preferences yet. I use a flatscreen via VGA sometimes, but its not even bigger than my laptop display. Its 1024x768 and the laptop is 1600x900...I only use the other screen for visual monitoring whats on the master bus.
 
THA_REAPER said:
Wouldn't running one big screen make things bigger in some cases. For example Ableton on my laptop will show 16 or 17 tracks at once in session view on my laptop which is 17.3 inches. If I hook it up on my tv via hdmi it would show like around 25...but stuff like plugins are just enlarged. I haven't tried using the zoom options in preferences yet. I use a flatscreen via VGA sometimes, but its not even bigger than my laptop display. Its 1024x768 and the laptop is 1600x900...I only use the other screen for visual monitoring whats on the master bus.
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This strictly depends on your resolution, of course. Resolution is the amount of pixels on the screens, so the higher resolution you have, the more stuff you can fit on screen. Nothing just gets stretched if the resolution goes up while the monitor size goes up. It only gets stretched if the monitor size goes up and the resolution stays the same. For example, my computer monitors are both 1080p (1920x1080 resolution). The exact same amount of pixels/information is shown on my 1080p television if I hook it up. I have the same amount of tracks showing in Ableton, etc. Everything is just obviously bigger since my television is much larger than 21.5"
 
You can get the vga splitter which will let you connect multiple monitors.
 
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