OT: matching dual LCD monitors

Thu Sep 4 23:46:42 PDT 2008

Dave,,,

There are numerous "dual-head" video cards with two DVI (digital) 
outputs. By all means, insist that your IT folks provide you with 
one. If you can't get them to provide you with what you need, I'd buy 
it out of my own pocket if I were you. Life is too short to deal with 
the problems of mixed format video formats and drivers. The right 
card can be had dirt cheap.

You can get what you need for under $50 on eBay or at any good 
discount outlet. For an example of the video card I use, go to 
eBay.com and search on this item number: 320295526356. Of course, you 
are own your own (with your IT department's help) to ensure that a 
card like this is compatible with your computer.

LCD monitors will always look and perform better when driven by the 
DVI digital interface, especially if the graphics card resolution is 
set to match the native resolution of the LCD display. In your case, 
that's 1280 x 1024. For a 19" monitor, that should be just about right.

I can't speak for any other graphics cards other than my own, but my 
NVIDIA graphics card drivers support both landscape and portrait-mode 
displays. Hopefully you can get a graphics card like that. Just as 
important, I hope your LCD display(s) can be rotated physically on 
their stands to allow you to display pages in portrait mode, as 
opposed to the normal landscape mode. It's much better when working 
on documents typically formatted on letter-size pages in portrait 
orientation, and it's simple to switch back and forth.

Dennis Brunnenmeyer
************************************************
At 06:51 PM 9/4/2008, Dave Reynolds wrote:
>Hi
>
>Not exactly Frame related, but I'm after some advice about LCD
>monitors.  After being the only tech writer in our team with a single
>monitor, I finally got given another monitor a couple of weeks ago.
>Hurray!!  It's been a long wait.  So now I have matching Viewsonic VA912
>19" monitors.  The second one is not new, but reassigned to me from
>someone else.  Judging from the numbers, it is about the same age as my
>first monitor.
>
>Apparently my PC has an on-board video card, so they connected the
>second monitor via an adaptor card (budget constraints!).  This meant I
>had the first monitor on an analog feed, and the second monitor on a
>digital feed.
>
>The display on the second monitor is quite different from the first
>monitor in terms of colour, brightness and contrast.  I have tried to
>adjust the second monitor to match the display of the first monitor, but
>I've been unsuccessful.  I've tried the adjustments on the monitor and
>in the driver, but the display on the second monitor is still inferior
>to that on the first monitor.  After complaining to our IST people, they
>fitted a new video card that they happened to have in stock (still
>budget constraints), but I notice that the first monitor is still on
>analog, and the second is still on digital, and I still can't get the
>displays to match.
>
>For many applications this is only a nuisance.  However, for editing
>photographs it is a major problem.  I take quite a few photos for my
>manuals and it is important that the edited versions of the photos I
>take are consistent for colour, brightness and contrast.  This means
>that I cannot currently use the second monitor for editing photos, as
>the same photo looks so different on each monitor.
>
>Is there a way to get the second monitor to match the first one, or am I
>fighting a losing battle trying to get the digital input display to
>match the analog input display?
>
>Any help appreciated.
>
>Thanks
>
>Dave
>
>--
>/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
>
>Dave Reynolds                         Phone: (64) (3) 358 1029
>Senior Technical Author               Fax: (64) (3) 359 4632
>Tait Electronics Ltd                  Email: dave.reynolds at tait.co.nz
>PO Box 1645
>Christchurch
>New Zealand
>
>
>=======================================================================
>This email, including any attachments, is only for the intended
>addressee.  It is subject to copyright, is confidential and may be
>the subject of legal or other privilege, none of which is waived or
>lost by reason of this transmission.
>If the receiver is not the intended addressee, please accept our
>apologies, notify us by return, delete all copies and perform no
>other act on the email.
>Unfortunately, we cannot warrant that the email has not been
>  altered or corrupted during transmission.
>=======================================================================
>
>_______________________________________________
>
>
>You are currently subscribed to Framers as dennisb at chronometrics.com.
>
>Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
>
>To unsubscribe send a blank email to
>framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
>or visit 
>http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/dennisb%40chronometrics.com
>
>Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
>http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.

Dennis Brunnenmeyer
Director of Engineering
CEDAR RIDGE SYSTEMS
15019 Rattlesnake Road
Grass Valley, CA 95945-8710
Office: (530) 477-9015
Fax:  (530) 477-9085
Mobile: (530) 320-9025
eMail:  dennisb /at/ chronometrics /dot/ com