Posted: July 8th, 2001
Written by: Tuan "GTk2" Huynh

Dual Display

Unlike Matrox which includes two VGA out connectors, ATI has decided to include both VGA and DVI connectors for connecting two monitors. If you don’t have a LCD Flat Panel, ATI has included a DVI to VGA connector so you can install a regular analog monitor to the DVI connector. There are many combinations of ways you can install monitors, here are the combinations that are supported that ATI lists.

CRT (analog) monitor: 15-pin VGA connector OR 24-pin DVI-I connector (with DVI-I-to-VGA adapter)

Digital Flat Panel Monitor (DFP): 24-pin DVI-I connector

TV: S-video connector (adapter for composite)

CRT + TV: 15-pin VGA connector + s-video connector (adapter for composite) -- Unsupported if CRT is attached to DVI-I connector via DVI-I-to-VGA adapter.

DFP + TV: 24-pin DVI-I connector + s-video connector (adapter for composite)

CRT + DFP: 15-pin VGA connector + 24-pin DVI-I connector

CRT + CRT: 15-pin VGA connector + 24-pin DVI-I connector (with DVI-I-to-VGA adapter)

CRT + DFP + TV: 15-pin VGA connector + 24-pin DVI-I connector + s-video connector (adapter for composite) -- Please note that this will result in two independent displays with the third display “cloning” the image of one of the other two monitors.

Matrox has DualHead and NVIDIA has TwinView for dual displays. ATI sought help from Appian Graphics, a company who has many years of experience with multiple displays to assist them in making the Radeon VE dual display capable. Powering ATI’s Radeon VE is Appian’s Hydravision for Windows 98SE, ME, and 2000. Unless you’ve used Appian products in the past, you probably don’t know what Hydravision is.

Hydravision is a software solution that gives you control of your desktop. Some of the features in Hydravision include: reposition dialog boxes and control windows, maximize windows to the current screen or full desktop, assign hot keys to Hydravision functions, vary settings from one program to the next, set independent refresh rates and resolutions on each monitor (independent resolution only available in Win98SE currently), and set your applications to open in your preferred desktop position.

Below is an example of Hydravision in action:

With Hydravision

Without Hydravision
As you can see, Hydravision allows a program to be maximized to one monitor. Without Hydravision the program will maximize to the total desktop space, in my case its 2048x768.

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