Using two monitors is addictive!

[seanc]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

Yep, 2 screens are great, I run them at work and home.
When you're doing remote support for a customer, it's useful to have remote support sessions on one screen and notes, mail and stuff on the other.
I wish aero peek would get its thumbnails to follow the windows to screens, or identify the screen by number. I run 2 Firefox windows with multiple tabs, one on each screen. Aero peek will show the window on the right as being on the left and vice-versa.

I was the first to run dual screens at work, gradually everybody followed. Only 2 people left with 1 screen - they seem happy so I'll leave them to it.

[momaka]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

Back when i was still using my 2 Eizo FlexScan F520 17" CRTs, i used the 4:3 resolution in between those two... 1152x864 (@85Hz)

Yeah, sometimes I use that resolution as well as when I need something slightly larger than 1024x768 - only on my 19" SyncMaster, of course. No way I'd go that high with 17" monitors, though (both CRT and LCD). Even when I had nearly-perfect vision 5 years ago, I still never used anything higher than 1024x768. I really hate small text.

Now I remember back in high school, there was this goofy kid sitting next to me in computer graphics class. He'd always turn up the resolution to the max - 1280x1024. Given that we were on pathetic 17" Viewsonic CRT monitors, you can imagine how small everything would become (I swear they looked like 15"). Even worse, those CRT monitors wouldn't do anything higher than 60HZ at that resolution. Just sitting next to him and watching his screen flicker with my peripheral vision would drive me crazy sometimes. I always used 800x600 @72 Hz on mine - it was the only resolution/refresh rate that would center and converge properly.

[Scenic]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

heh..
when i played with different resolutions on those Eizos back then, i was kinda curious as to what the max. resolution would be which it could display properly..

i was quite amazed it managed to squeeze 1600x1200 into that small 17" tube lol
only 70Hz max. .. but hey..

even with my (back then) good eyes that was a PITA to look at though
just before i replaced them with 17" LCDs (1280x1024 5:4), i ran 1280x960 @ 85Hz on them (with upsized windows fonts).

1024x768 just isn't enough space for a multitasking-pack-rat like me..

as i said somewhere else before..
others move and delete unnecesary icons on their desktop once it becomes too cluttered. i just buy bigger monitors
(or add another one)

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

Even worse, those CRT monitors wouldn't do anything higher than 60HZ at that resolution.

I guess one of the main reasons why CRTs got phased out is because Microsoft never bothered to support DDC properly, and defaulted to 60Hz everytime. Worse, some applications actually enforced 60Hz. Professional graphics are still done on huge ass CRTs.

i was quite amazed it managed to squeeze 1600x1200 into that small 17" tube lol

Possible to squeeze, of course. It's an analog device, it has no "native resolution". However that resolution was probably higher than the tube itself can handle thus anything you do it'll be blurry. If you crank up the res on a Trinitron monitor you'll see that it starts to behave like a LCD - the horizontal strips become clearly visible especially on small colored text. A standard shadow mask tube doesn't display this effect (it just blurs) because the phosphors are set up in a triangle shape.

even with my (back then) good eyes that was a PITA to look at though
just before i replaced them with 17" LCDs (1280x1024 5:4), i ran 1280x960 @ 85Hz on them (with upsized windows fonts).

Upsized fonts never worked properly. I hate them.

[Scenic]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

Upsized fonts never worked properly. I hate them.

i know.. looks fugly..
well.. i had the choice between 2x 21" CRTs or 2x 17" LCDs after that. i think you can guess what i chose

one of those old 17" Eizo CRTs is still in my basement.. just can't part with it.. bought it used from a friend of mine who died a while later in an accident.. plus it still works fine after all these years.. too many emotions in this thing.. sort of like scrapping a car you had for years and years.. or something like that...

[patriciopat]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!



This one is my office, I wait you like it. This one is my addiction. I cannot resist have two screens ... I wait you like it

[momaka]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

Possible to squeeze, of course. It's an analog device, it has no "native resolution". However that resolution was probably higher than the tube itself can handle thus anything you do it'll be blurry.

Exactly. My 17" KFC Smile (shadow mask NEC tube) "supports" 1600x1200. Yeah, like that's possible with a 0.25mm dot pitch .
Speaking of dot pitch, if you look on the right side of the page of this article, it explains the basics about dot pitch pretty well:
http://www.dansdata.com/sg400.htm

I wait you like it.

Apples are not my taste (pun intended?) .
Nice setup, though.

----

Oh by the way, I just got two HUGE CRTs yesterday (and I really mean HUGE). They don't work, though, but hopefully I'll be able to fix them when I have time. Can't wait to see them on my desk, provided it can stand their weight - a whopping 40 Kg each. Pictures later during the week (hopefully) - school's going to keep me busy this week.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

Oh by the way, I just got two HUGE CRTs yesterday (and I really mean HUGE). They don't work, though, but hopefully I'll be able to fix them when I have time. Can't wait to see them on my desk, provided it can stand their weight - a whopping 40 Kg each. Pictures later during the week (hopefully) - school's going to keep me busy this week.

Good for you. I've finally decided to deem my 21" iiyama unfixable and toss it, although i feel really bad doing so. But it's gonna be fun - the SMPS transformer core is HUGE (although the monitor is only rated for 150W, the core looks like it'd do 700) and the flyback can be used for entertaining things too.

[Behemot]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

I mean, even the big CRT monitors were 5:4 not 4:3! I never understood what was up with that.

WTF?

Anyway, I enjoyed having two CRT's…when you are talking about it, gonna reconnect the second one :-D So now what, 1920x1440 and 1600x1200?

[cookieCAM]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

I Like 2 Computers Not 1 With 2 Monitors...... My Main 2 Computers:

1.Compaq Prolaint ML---__________________________2.HP Pavilon ----
XP Pro XP Home
P4 @ 1.8 GHz P4 2 CPU (1.-1.8)-(2.-1.00)
4 HDD's 160 GB Hdd
1 NEC LCD Monitor 1024x768 1 Dell LCD 1024x768
640 Ram (I Have 2 More Gigs To Put In) 512 MB Ram


I Just LOVE When I Buy A DOA Computer And I Can Keep It And The Replacement,
Then Fix It And Have More.......

[Uranium-235]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

pop a 2nd card (preferably low-end) in.. viola.. 1 or 2 more monitor ports
i did that a while back.
Geforce 8800GTS -> 2 monitors
passive FX5200 PCI -> 2 more monitor ports

if your board has another PCIe slot it's even easier. even if it's just a PCIe x1.
you could either remove the notch in the slot so the longer card will hang over the end like so:


http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/249291-12-card

or as some guys on the techpowerup forum did, use a saw or dremel and cut down your 5$ Geforce 7300GT's PCIe interface to fit the PCIe x1 slot lol! (yes.. this does actually work if you don't mess up the number of contacts that you have to keep on the card)

2 examples:
ATI HD4350
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=88791

Geforce 210
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=110528


i know that just too well..
"getting kinda crammed on here.. let me just put that window on the other... crap -.-"

I had ran into the same thing trying to get a decent video card into my poweredge 1800 and run win7. I didn't want to mess the slot up cause I might resale it one day, so I was given a cheap nvidia 8400 and took my dremil to the slot and cut it down to 8x. fit perfectly and booted, but 7 would refuse to install. but xp did. hmm

[momaka]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

There we go, I finally took a picture of one of the huge monitors I got a couple of weeks ago.
I put the black LCD monitor on the left just for reference. No, it's not 15" and it's not a 17" either - it's a 19" - hopefully that will give you an idea about the size. Anyone care to guess what it is?
...
So, I actually got one of them fixed (the Sony in the pic). The other monitor is the exact same one, but it's just white and rebranded as HP. All I did was I took the power supply board from the HP and put it in the Sony, so now the Sony is working. Originally, the Sony would just sit in standby mode and not power up, whereas the HP would try to power up, but then fail due to a fault in the deflection board (more on that below).
What's weird is that after I switched the power supplies, the Sony worked, but the HP still has the same problem, so the power supply in the Sony must have been working fine (perhaps there was a bad connection somewhere???).

Anyways, I'm wondering where to start with the HP. At this point, all I know about the HP is that one of the spark gaps on the deflection board is going off (i.e. there's overvoltage somewhere). Should I open a new thread and post a schematic? Or should I post pictures? I was trying to get it apart yesterday (to take pictures), but couldn't get the anode cap off of the CRT tube so I put it back together again. Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Good for you. I've finally decided to deem my 21" iiyama unfixable and toss it, although i feel really bad doing so. But it's gonna be fun - the SMPS transformer core is HUGE (although the monitor is only rated for 150W, the core looks like it'd do 700) and the flyback can be used for entertaining things too.

Yeah, that's a shame it didn't work.
Definitely keep the flyback, though - maybe it might come useful for another CRT repair. Who knows. If it was me, I'd keep the whole CRT (big CRTs just give me a warm fuzzy for some reason) even if it's broken and I have no use for it .

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

If it was me, I'd keep the whole CRT (big CRTs just give me a warm fuzzy for some reason) even if it's broken and I have no use for it .

Well, i'd keep it till i find a board that would work with the CRT (the tube is GREAT), but my folks keep telling me to toss it... Living in an apartment means not a lot of space for stuff.

I'll prolly get rid of it and be on the lookout for another. For now, back to the good old 19" Nokia it is, and it is so crisp at 1440x1080 that i don't know why i even thought about replacing it. Sure it's got some tiny little convergence issues if i'm to be nitpicking... but it's a consumer class monitor AND with short CRT, and i've seen much, much worse. Actually, no one other than me notices the convergence problems.

The only thing that really bothers me about it is the ABL circuit that kicks in way too early. The brightness is always reduced when transitioning from a dark to a light scene. For example, bringing the OSD up dims the screen considerably. I would've fixed it but i couldn't find it...

[momaka]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

Living in an apartment means not a lot of space for stuff.

You don't have a basement? I know all of the old soviet-era concrete panel condos do (albeit a bit messy, if you can even get to them ). Some even have an attic.

The brightness is always reduced when transitioning from a dark to a light scene. For example, bringing the OSD up dims the screen considerably.

Yeah, that seems to be a common problem with a lot of the shadow mask CRTs, especially the cheap ones. I bet the screen size also changes a little bit when you do the same test.

[Scenic]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

I bet the screen size also changes a little bit when you do the same test.

the Philips 107S my brother used to have was REALLY bad..
i once tested it.. 1024x768 resolution, white rectangle on the outer edge of the image and the rest alternated between white and black. this POS CRT was SO bad the whole image shrunk and expanded almost 1 1/2 centimeters (about 0.6")
not to mention the degaussing when you turned it on again after a while sounded like it tried to bomb the cheap & thin casing apart..

oh and talking about casing... the part of the "design"-case (see link above) where the high-voltage lead goes into the CRT first turned gray-ish (on the outside of the case) and then got darker and darker. we tried cleaning it, but no matter what we did, it didn't help at all. various cloths with various cleaners. no go. even a relatively hard brush and (very) soapy water didn't do anything at all.
mind you.. this was after just 2 years of normal use.. not 10 years 24/7.. Oo

we ended up trashing it after just about 3 years because the image got extremely blurry and the OSD randomly popped up and messed with random settings without pushing any of the buttons.. wtf!

The replacement for that Philips piece of junk was a Eizo Flexscan F57. Still works fine to this day with a pretty good picture (considering its age). He still keeps it as a backup in case any of his LCDs go bad.. (he's not tech-savvy enough to fix them, and lives a couple hours away, so it could take a while for me to come over there and fix them if they went tits up)

[pentium]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

That 24" Sony is REALLY nice. I have an HP branded one I use and it's fantastic. I wish I had more but I'm not sure my desk could support another one.
I remember first going from a single 1024x768 monitor to two P201's, then suddenly I was driving two monitors ar 1600x1200. Now here I am with those two monitors still PLUS another two 1024x768 ELO touchscreens and a fifth monitor that is emulated on my PSP.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

You don't have a basement?

Not here unfortunately. I do at my grandparents' place. I think the building does have a basement as like you said, pretty much all of them do, but idk what's up with it.

Yeah, that seems to be a common problem with a lot of the shadow mask CRTs, especially the cheap ones. I bet the screen size also changes a little bit when you do the same test.

Nope. The screen size is extremely stable. It's just the brightness that changes.

not to mention the degaussing when you turned it on again after a while sounded like it tried to bomb the cheap & thin casing apart..

Had a 107E4, same crap. It also came with the screen voltage turned REALLY low... 100% brightness wasn't even barely enough, i would crank it up from the RGB drive settings, but then the ABL would kick in and also the picture would get blurry. Linearity also sucked, the picture was stretched horizontally on the left side of the screen. I fixed it up before i sold it, but it still looked bad.

[joshnz]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

I want matching dual monitors.
At the moment i'm running a hp LCD monitor f1903 (19 inch) at 1280 x 1024 @ 75Hz.
And a ViewSonic E71f CRT monitor running at 1024 x 768 @ 85Hz.
the mismatched res is a pain for dragging windows and files the bottom of the screens don't line up.

And another annoyance is the LCD's time to update pixels in games looks weird when moving.

[goodpsusearch]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

Abl = ?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Using two monitors is addictive!

Abl = ?

Automatic beam limiter. It uses feedback to limit the maximum anode voltage level, supposedly to reduce X-ray emission in event of failure, but it usually protects against a different type of failure - when the deflection fails, to avoid the bright line in the center of the screen and associated phosphor burn.

The direct effect of reducing HV is a decrease in brightness (and enlarging and defocusing of the picture, but this is countered by the other control circuits). Since it is a failure mechanism, it should not operate during normal conditions. But on many monitors it does.