dual monitor and DVI vs VGA question.

[dannieboiz]

I'm currently building an HTPC, I have dual HDMI and 1 VGA inputs on my 50" what I'd like for the computer to do is play a video in full screen on one input and still be able for me to browse my desktop at the same time in PIP (or a small 15" LCD that I will be placing nearby).

How would I go about setting this up? Can I just buy 2 VGA card (of any mix or have to be the same?) and hook them up or does it have to be with a specific card? This is not a gaming machine, I only want to use it to rip my DVD collection onto a 1tb USB/firewire storage and play only video. How fast of a card is minimal?

What connection would give me the best video quality? DVI or VGA??

 

[xtremezx2]

you very well could do it with one card. almost all of the newer cards have dual vga or dual dvi outputs on them. to go with your first idea, you could get a dvi-to-hdmi cable for one output and a dvi-to-vga(which comes with the card generally) and vga cable to go to the other. this leaves room if you have an hdmi capable dvd or such to put in the other hdmi slot.

your second question i'm not sure of. your going to need pretty good card to support the hd really well. i'm sure someone else on here can help with better info than i can guess at.

for your third question. dvi is the better vid quality. thats why i'd do it like i first said and use the vga input for your browsing. hopefully this helps and i didn't just ramble on since its late. good luck

Adam

 

[dannieboiz]

I have a Gforce4 and and a few other Video cards is there a way that I can hook them up if one is a PCI the other as an AGP and have them work as dual monitors?

 

[xtremezx2]

i'm not completely positive. i've never actually done it before, but i'm sure there is. if no one else on here knows check about on google and i'm sure you'll find something.

edit: according to this page i was reading you can do the agp and pci
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may02/articles/pcmusician0502.asp

this website made it sound like its as easy as putting the next one in and installing the drivers and going to properties and enabling the 2nd monitor, give it a look. http://www.ehow.com/how_13829_connect-two-monitors.html

hopefully that'll help you out bro.