Two Monitors

[Abou27]

I have two monitors connected to my A1200: a 15" old Dell VGA and a good(?) old Commodore 1984.  They are connected by one of those dodgy AmigaVGA box thingies.  Don't use its software, just seemed like a good way of connecting both!
I was thinking about a couple of things the other day.  One, is it bad for the Amiga to have both monitors switched on at the same time (is there any power drawn from computer etc)?  Also, when software needs 15khz screen and I switch on 19834 monitor, the PC monitor displays the expected out of range message; is it bad for it to be continuously receiving a signal that it can't display.  I don't like to keep switching it on and off because I don't think this is too good for it either.

What do others think/do?

[iamaboringperson]

one of those dodgy AmigaVGA box thingies

Very descriptive, but does it scan-double?

[Abou27]

Yeah, not best descrption in world.  No! It doesn't scandouble.  £10 box for connecting VGA monitor that has a thorughport allowing connection of another monitor.  Very old with crap software to kind of mode promote(?)  As I say, only use because it allows me to use both monitors!

[Karlos]

I do the exact opposite, feeding two computers into one monitor...

[KennyR]

There's no danger with power, since monitors don't draw any real power from the computer itself.

It's this that's bad:

Also, when software needs 15khz screen and I switch on 19834 monitor, the PC monitor displays the expected out of range message; is it bad for it to be continuously receiving a signal that it can't display

Yes, it certainly is bad for it, as is switching it off constantly.

Not really an appealing suggestion, but you could get a scandoubler and monitor switcher and use just one monitor. This is how I handled this problem. Expensive though.

[Abou27]

I've seen external scandoublers/flickerfixers and they look pretty big.  Are internal ones much smaller and where do they go? Will they fit quite easily into an A1200 that has an internal hard-drive?
KennyR - you also mentioned a monitor switcher.  How do these work?  Are they electronic?  I am worried that when I load programs that won't display on PC monitor from workbench or am exiting from such programs back to workbench, I have to switch one monitor off and the other on! My concern is that this will cause a power surge/spike that may damage the computer?

I know lot of posts about scandoublers and flickerfixers, but do they work with nearly all software?



Those of you who have read this far probably deserve a medal... :-D

[KennyR]

Most monitor switchers are mechanical. It's just a big clunky rotating switch on a box. They degrade picture quality a little too, especially if you get long VGA cables.

Some monitor switchers are electronic. Eyetech's MON range are operated by a toggle that can be mounted on the front of your tower and is powered from a 3.5" powerfeed inside. This one is a lot better and won't lose much quality.

Finally there are monitors which have switchers built in, usually top-end ones like Ilyama.

But in all cases you'll have to do the switching manually.

[Abou27]

Thanks for info. :-)


Bye, bye Santa :cry: