Three Monitor Setup?
 

I have MC 3.1.1, 32bit XP Pro and an nVIDIA Quadro FX 1100 dual head video card.

I'm wondering if can run a third monitor by adding a PCI vidoeo card. I found a GeForce 6200 made by EVG that has DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2.0, with is the same as the FX 1100.

Anyone have experience running three monitors with MC? I can't afford mojo, so that's not an option.

Thanks much for any advice.

yes, I do exactly that with an nVidia Quadro FX1700 and a Geforce 7800 card

Bill,

Are you setting one of the monitors as a client monitor?

No. Avid will stretch the workspace across all the active monitors. I resize th workspace for two monitors and select the third for full screen preview.

Bill, I believe there might be a way to set the thrid monitor as a client monitor.

It seems that with a two monitor display, one can be designated as a clinet monitor by using a monitor clone command. It's "explained" in MC's Help, but I've never setup or used a client monitor, so I find it a little unclear. I've copied and pasted the instructions below:

"Configuring a Dual-Port Video Display Port to Use a System Monitor as the Client Monitor

To configure a dual-port video display board and use the second port as a Client monitor, do one of the following depending on your operating system:

(Windows XP) In the Windows Display Properties dialog box, select the Setting tab and click the Advanced button to look for the clone setting.

(Windows Vista) Right-click the desktop, select NVIDIA Control Panel, and select the Clone option.

The location of these settings varies depending on the video display board you have installed in your Avid editing system. You cannot have the extended desktop mode selected in the Windows Display Properties dialog box; you must select the clone setting.

(Macintosh) In the monitor you want to use as a Client monitor, click System Preferences > Display and select a video resolution of 800 x 600 or lower.


That monitor becomes the Client monitor. (If you select a resolution greater than 800 x 600, the monitor becomes an extended desktop.)"

I'm not sure if that means a resolution greater that 800 X 600 makes the monitor not a client monitor and only an extended desktop or both a client monitor and an extended desktop.

Yes, this is quite true, however, consider the following:
In order for "clone monitor" to work, the configuration requires the primary monitor to be on port 1 of the Quadro, the "client monitor" to be on port 2 of the quadro, and the secondary LCD monitor to be on the second video card, in my case the Geforce 7800. nVidia will not allow monitor clones to extend across two video cards.

What this means, to me, is that when I don't need the client monitor, I have to run my second LCD screen at the lower performance of the Geforce card. I choose, rather to keep the following configuration:
Quadro port 1: primary LCD
Quadro port 2: secondary LCD
Geforce 7800 port 1: HDTV(client monitor)

I guess neither configuration is ideal.

Old Matrox Parhelia does this well...
 

I have a system I setup a couple of years ago for a cineform/premiere solution, and got a Matrox Parhelia because it supported two monitors plus an analog HD client monitor. To my most pleasant surprise, this works very well with MC. Quite a presentable picture to the client monitor.

Tip,

I've read about the Parhelia, I've had pretty goood luck with nVIDIA and am trying to stick with their chipsets. But I may well go down the Matrox route.


Bill,

I'm still a little unclear with your setup:

Quadro port 1: primary LCD
Quadro port 2: secondary LCD
Geforce 7800 port 1: HDTV(client monitor)

What connector is on the 7800's port 1, DVI, S-Video, etc.? When you say you run the monitor connected to it as a "client monitor," you mean as Full Screen Playback monitor (as you described above) not a "real" client monitor, correct?

Do you believe this setup would work (albeit running a secondary monitor off what is probably a lower power video card)?:

FX 1100's DVI port 1 as primary monitor
FX 1100's DVI port 2 as a clone of the 1100's primary monitor (this will be the client monitor)
GeForce 6200 DVI port 1 as a extension of FX100's primary monitor by using nVIDIA DualView command. This would allow me to span MC across the FX 1100's primary monitor and the GeForce 6200's monitor.

And lastly, what's are difference between using Full Screen Playback versus a client monitor?

Sorry for all the ?'s, but I've used a real client monitor or a three monitor setup.

THANKS MUCH guys for all the help!

All the ports are DVI ports. I use the terms "full screen monitor" and "client monitor" interchangeably.
This will work. There is a possibility the resolution of your primary monitor will be controlled by the maximum resolution allowed by your clone (client) monitor. So, if your client monitor is a 720 monitor, your primary display will also be limited to 720.
none, that I can think of

Thanks Bill. I think I'm going to go the Full Screen Playback route with the setup that I currently have. I didn't realize that clicking any of three color correction windows sends it to the designated full screen monitor. For right now, that'll work well enough for what I'm doing.

Thanks again!

Well Bill, I took the plunge and got a second videocard (GeForce 6200) and... I've got three monitors working!

Thanks for your help :)!