Widescreen Gaming Forum

I received my TripleHead2Go unit yesterday. WOW! - It takes gaming to a whole new level. Half-Life 2 - Episode 1 was incredible with triple screens. What a great product. Surround gaming - I'm hooked.

RUS007 - I asked about this in another thread, but since I still can't get this to work let me go into a little more detail - I am sure it's something I am doing wrong...

My 3 Dell screens all run 1600x1200 natively. When I am done gaming I want to "switch" the THTG unit to a single screen, and run a 2nd monitor via DVI so I can run both at 1600x1200. I have the hardware setup to do this as follows...

Left Dell 2007FP - VGA goes to THTG
Center Dell 2007FP - VGA goes to THTG, DVI goes to video card DVI
Right Cell 2007FP - VGA goes to THTG

NVidia Video Card - VGA goes to THTG, DVI goes Center Dell 2007FP

When I switch into my 1600x1200 two screen mode I want to run the Center Dell via DVI, and the Right Dell via VGA (from THTG). Can you go step-by-step through how to change this AND how do run just the Right Dell monitor from THTG?

Thank you in advance - Mark

Ok - I think I know what's wrong here. According to Matrox, when you lower the desktop resolution back to single screen resolutions (1280x1024 for example) the single-screen output always goes to the Center screen. So the center screen has to run VGA, then I'll move the DVI cable to the right screen and dual-switch it when I want to go to native resolutions.

Does this sound right? - Can anyone confirm this is the way THTG works in single-screen mode?

Thanks, Mark

Yep, that is correct.

Also confirm, that is correct.

Its pretty easy when you get the hang of it :)

Question about running your centre LCD on VGA. Some LCD's look absolutely terrible when running on VGA (text blurring ext) in 2D mode.

What kind of 2D quality do you get when running your Dell (at native) on the TH2G, even though it's on VGA.

I've heard that the TH2G is terrible for desktop performance. Have you had any issues with this?

Yes ... it currently has issues with manu LCDs

The only negative thing i see is more flickering than before and only with dark text on a white background usually. Other than that i see no difference at all on my samsung lcd monitors. Ive also used it with a dell 17" lcd as the center display and it didnt have any issues either other than the same bit of limited flicker.

Question about running your centre LCD on VGA. Some LCD's look absolutely terrible when running on VGA (text blurring ext) in 2D mode.

What kind of 2D quality do you get when running your Dell (at native) on the TH2G, even though it's on VGA.

I've heard that the TH2G is terrible for desktop performance. Have you had any issues with this?

I have a minor decrease in text sharpness and if your eyes can see 60hz flicker it might be a minor issue in 2D. By trade, I'm a production artist that lives in Photoshop and Illustrator. It's really not enough to turn me off of the product. The TH2G really is the only realistic 3-monitor solution atm for 3D. If you're 100% 2D desktop work though there is no need for it. Just plug in 3-4 monitors into 2 cards and get UltraMon. As for text looking bad in 2D, it mostly looks like antialiasing of the fonts is off in some cases depending on your settings. LCDs tend to only look good at their native resolutions, so if you have 1280x1024 x3 or 1024x768 x3 monitors use that resolution or you will not have a sharp desktop at all. This is NOT the fault of the TH2G, but merely a limitation on ALL LCDs. LCDs, as designed, do not scale well out of native resolution. There still are minor sharpness issues at native resolution, but it's the tradeoff you have with this solution. And ATM, it's the only consumer solution I'd use for surround gaming.

I've tried 3 types of Samsung 17" LCD monitors with mine so far (Rated good to bad: 740N, 172X, 712N). The 740N auto adjusts the best for me out of all 3. The 172X has issues with sharpness on 2D text, auto adjust and achieving full width on the screen. The 712N is too slow with 25ms refresh and not as bright or as high contrast as the newer Samsung 17". If you are going 3x Samsung 17" my preference would be the Samsung 740N over the other 2 for several reasons. I know Samsung has other newer faster ms timed 17" screens, but my goal is lowest price point 1280x1024 8ms or faster, VGA only (no DVI), and small benzel (740N benzel is comperable to the highly touted 172X benzel size). Hopefully someone will find this information useful if they want to go 17" Samsung monitor route. ATM, the 740N is around $200 at newegg.

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Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com