Dual monitors?

[RobertBasil]

I'm sure someone here has used a dual monitor setup in Mame. But instaed of running Mame twice and having a different game on each monitor, I need it to show the same screen on both monitors and it needs to work with the windows version of Mame since I'll be using XP as my OS.

Has anyone done this? And if so, which dual monitor video card did you use?

Thanks for your help!

[SirPoonga]

I havne't done it with mame, but I have done this with two video cards.  In display props setup both monitors to display the same desktop, not one big desktop.

[RobertBasil]

I havne't done it with mame, but I have done this with two video cards.  In display props setup both monitors to display the same desktop, not one big desktop.

But since Mame changes the monitor refresh rate (I think?) I was wondering if it would cause any problems with a dual monitor card.

Does anyone have a dual monitor card on your computer? If so, can you see if mame will run the same screen on both monitors? (If it works for you, I would like to know what brand and name of dual monitor card you have in your computer so I can buy the same one)

Thanks!

[pointdablame]

I have a 9800Pro set up with dual monitors on my main rig. I'll try it out tomorrow with a clone instead of extended desktop and see what happens.

[RobertBasil]

I have a 9800Pro set up with dual monitors on my main rig. I'll try it out tomorrow with a clone instead of extended desktop and see what happens.

Thanks!!!

[crashwg]

If I understand correctly, you want to display the same image on two monitors right?

Why not just get a splitter/amplifier of some sort?  I'm almost positive something like that exists.

What's this for BTW?

[Jakobud]

Just buy any regular nVidia card with dual monitor output heads on it.  Use the nView software to do a Clone monitor setup and presto.  This is your easiest solution.

[RobertBasil]

Just buy any regular nVidia card with dual monitor output heads on it.  Use the nView software to do a Clone monitor setup and presto.  This is your easiest solution.

That's what I am planning on doing.

The problem is I have heard that some programs do not like the dual monitor cards and since Mame changes the screen resolution would it work correctly with a dual monitor card?

[shmokes]

I'm pretty sure that if you are cloning your desktop you will not run into any programs that have a problem with it.  When you extend your desktop onto a second monitor (with a dual head card rather than two separate cards) you run into things like video only playing on the primary monitor.  I believe that cloning the monitors will work fine for you regardless of what program you're doing.

That said, I may just be talking out ---my bottom---, since I've never tried it.

[RobertBasil]

What's this for BTW?

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=20329

[Lilwolf]

You might get lucky running advancedmame... but that will be your only choice for now.

why?

mame can ONLY run on your main display... Advanced I hear (haven't tried it) can run on a secondary display controller.

Someone on the main mame board said he had it working and was hoping to get it checked into the main distribution...   And if that happened, it SHOULD work...  You might have issues with inputs (both trying to grab them all)

[pointdablame]

Well I just mirrored my displays and it works... kind of.

I tried running PacMan through MAMEwah and the primary monitor runs fine while the secondary chugs along at an unplayable jittery pace.  I didn't try tweaking much, but I ran both monitors at 800x600 to reduce strain and still no luck.

This was with regular command line mame,  not advancemame.  Perhaps it just needs more system power to work, but my system is no slouch.  Athlon 3200+, 1gig PC3200 ram, Radeon 9800Pro.

Perhaps I'm just not setting something up correctly, but I'd classify this first attempt as a failure.  You definitely don't want to play any game on that secondary display, thats for sure.

[RobertBasil]

Damn.

I'll have to try and see if a simple splitter cable for the monitors will work then. Thanks for the help everyone!

[rsoandrew]

This post has a link to a vga splitter

[JustMichael]

I am running Mame on Win98SE with an AMD 2400 xp+ with a GeForce 4 4200 video card.  I was using older drivers until I saw this thread so I went and installed the current Nvidia drivers and Mame works just fine with the 2nd monitor "cloned".  I think this would be rather handy for a second monitor on top of the cab for everyone else to see.

[AlanS17]

Have you tried MAME32? Perhaps it's more Windows-friendly.

[StephenH]

Use one of those VGA Multipliers that are often used for presentation smart classrooms which have a monitor and a projector.

[etumor]

I've done dual monitors with MAME before, always as a test situation.  I've used both ATI and nVidia cards.  As long as I was using a Windows port of MAME, it worked perfectly.  I just set the properties to clone the output to both monitors.

The one problem I did run into was with Daphne.  The MPEG video would only output to my "primary" monitor.  I could switch it back and forth, but I couldn't have it on both monitors at once.  The monitor without the video would just be black.

-Jeff

[AlexSledge]

You guys are getting *way* too complicated on this. Go pick up a $9 VGA Y cable and you're done. I use them all the time here at work.. we split the video from an instructor machine between the instructor monitor and the projector, and similar things in conference rooms for customer demos and presentations. You do not need one of those expensive multi-monitor boxes or anything of the like for simply putting the output onto two monitors.

Here's a first hit on google... $15, http://www.touchscreens.com/vga-y.html but I'm sure you can find one under $10 if you look hard enough like I do