RE: filmscanners: Puzzled about display resolution

[Eli Bowen <elbow@microsoft.com>]

        I use twin 21" monitors at work under Win2K. Once you have tried
twin monitors you will be spoiled forever.
        It is not necessary to have two identical video cards, but some
cards are not compatible with others. Try before you buy, or get a return
guarantee. Matrox cards have had more than average compatibility problems in
my experience.
        One way to do the twin monitor setup that need not be horribly
expensive is to get one good quality 17" monitor and a video card that will
allow you to go up to your desired resolution (I think 1280x1024 is about
the max you would want to run on most 17" monitors) and color depth (usually
24 bit) at a refresh rate above 60Hz (in my experience, any refresh rate
higher than 75Hz is just overkill and gives no additional image quality --
usually the opposite).
        Then get any old cheapo video card and monitor for the second
screen. You can run this one at a much lower color depth (16 bit, 8 bit or
even 4 bit), so it doesn't need as much video card power. Be sure you can
get the refresh rate over 60 Hz, or it will be hard to look at for long, due
to the flicker.
        You can put your image on the good monitor and put all the other
stuff (taskbar, toolboxes, desktop icons, etc) on the cheapo screen. 
        This gives you a nice large image and plenty of extra real estate
for everything outside the image area.

-----Original Message-----
From: Edwin Eleazer [mailto:ee907@earthlink.net]
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 6:36 PM
To: filmscanners@halftone.co.uk
Subject: RE: filmscanners: Puzzled about display resolution


Heck, some of us are still using a 15" LCD display at 1024X768 32 bit, but
saving for a 21" trinitron and another video card. The dual display is
really the way to go, after trying it on a friends system. The LCD on a
moveable arm, and the desk real estate occupied by the 21" is a very usable
setup, great for photo editing. Does anyone use this type of setup, and what
type of video cards? I have seen where the same make of card was a good
idea, and my friends setup uses a NVIDIA Twinview card feeding both
monitors.
Edwin