I just discovered this website, and I have to say I'm very impressed, and at least slightly overwhelmed. Anyway, my question relates to my video card: an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200. I just picked up a long S-Video cable tonight and tried hooking it up to my television, and I was very pleased with the way everything worked, except for the fact that you have to reboot and then swap the monitor and S-Video cables each time you want to switch between the monitor and the s-video output. Is there any way to run both outputs at the same time? I'm basically just using the s-video out for some gaming from the comfort of my couch, but it'd be nice to not have to constantly change wires and reboot everytime I want to sit down at the desk and use my monitor. I'm planning on upgrading my video card sometime within the next few months, so if this is an option on a better video card (I'm looking at an ATI card, hopefully under $200) that's something I'll keep in mind. Any help anyone can offer will be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot!

-Phil

You should be able to plug in the S-video and then plug in the monitor afterwards.
That'll leave the TV as primary monitor, and the monitor as secondary.

To switch, enter the display and monitor properties, click on the 1st monitor and click "select as primary display". You can then turn off the TV. Easy peasy, though, my communication skills are lacking right now

You should be able to find an option in there to 'Clone" your desktop in the NVIDIA Control Panel, so you can use both at the same time.

If you have trouble finding it, let me know I can take a snapshot of a friends desktop and post it.

What they said...... and welcome to PimpRig.

hey blackholebrew what brand 5200 do u have? I got a el cheapo evga one thats OC'ed to hell. Have you ever tryed overclocking it? You can get pretty far with em. oh yeah and welcome to PR.

Thanks a lot for all the help guys. The Nview Desktop Manager wasn't installed on my PC (thanks a lot Dell), but once I downloaded it and fired it up I got the TV working just fine. I'm using it right now as a matter of fact. Thanks again!


-Phil

Thanks again for all the help with my original question; I'm really impressed with how quickly you guys figured that out. Now, though, I'm having a new problem which may be a software issue.

Now I have my TV and my monitor working, but when I play movies in Windows Media Player or Realplayer, it will only show the video on one of the displays. Whichever of the two I choose to be the dominant display under the clone settings in the Nview Desktop Manager will show the video, but the other display just shows a black screen within the video window. Is it possible to run video to both of them simultaneously? Again, any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!

-Phil

Quote: Originally Posted by blackholebrew Thanks again for all the help with my original question; I'm really impressed with how quickly you guys figured that out. Now, though, I'm having a new problem which may be a software issue. Now I have my TV and my monitor working, but when I play movies in Windows Media Player or Realplayer, it will only show the video on one of the displays. Whichever of the two I choose to be the dominant display under the clone settings in the Nview Desktop Manager will show the video, but the other display just shows a black screen within the video window. Is it possible to run video to both of them simultaneously? Again, any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks again! -Phil

What? you want you want cake and then ask us to hand feed it to you?

J/K...LOL

Sorry Bro, Im outta answers on that one, Cloning pretty much worked with no problems, maybe go into the individual properties through NVIEW for both TV and Monitor, maybe there is something that needs to be tweeked or turned on.

I had problems with my TV only showing black and white till I changed resolutions (Higher)

I may have tried that once and had the same thing, it was a long time ago, I don't know if I ever got it working.

You have to download NView desktop manager, I know your troubles and I absolutely couldn't HATE much more than your videocard because I have one too and seriously am broke in need of a steal-deal like a Rad9700Pro

To both of you:

You can get the Sapphire 9800SE on the cheap and using the drivers from Omega Corner you can soft mod it to a 9800Pro.

The card is available for $187.00 Canadian, so it should be close to US$100.00.

Quote: Originally Posted by blackholebrew when I play movies in Windows Media Player or Realplayer, it will only show the video on one of the displays. Whichever of the two I choose to be the dominant display under the clone settings in the Nview Desktop Manager will show the video, but the other display just shows a black screen within the video window.

I know what you're talking about; I had the same problem when I had 2 monitors. In fact, I could position the video window halfway between both monitors and have it show up fine on one and be black on the other. I can't recall, but I think upgrading to Windows Media Player 9 fixed it for me (what version are you using?).

Also, there's a lot more info here:
http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/faq.asp

Quote: Originally Posted by pimp_joose To both of you: You can get the Sapphire 9800SE on the cheap and using the drivers from Omega Corner you can soft mod it to a 9800XT. The card is available for $187.00 Canadian, so it should be close to US$100.00.

To Pro, not XT. Read my post here.

Quote: Originally Posted by pimp_joose To both of you: You can get the Sapphire 9800SE on the cheap and using the drivers from Omega Corner you can soft mod it to a 9800Pro. The card is available for $187.00 Canadian, so it should be close to US$100.00.

$119US at Newegg, $159 at Directron for the Powercolor model (only one available), $159 at ZipZoomFly

The Powercolor I got from Directron was $159 here. It's $144 for the retail and only $119 for the OEM at the Egg.