TripleHead2Go

[BertW 0]

Having read about Matrox TripleHead2Go digital version I have the following questions.- Can I test this unit with my existing two monitors?- With a 3-monitor setup will the horizon line up properly (a straight line) when you bank the aircraft? - I understand you need to be in VC panel mode when using TripleHead2Go. All 2D panels will stretch horizontally and therefore cannot be used. Is there a fix for that? Perhaps someone familiar with this unit can give me an answer.Cheers,Bert

[january 19]

Having read about Matrox TripleHead2Go digital version I have the following questions.- Can I test this unit with my existing two monitors?- With a 3-monitor setup will the horizon line up properly (a straight line) when you bank the aircraft? - I understand you need to be in VC panel mode when using TripleHead2Go. All 2D panels will stretch horizontally and therefore cannot be used. Is there a fix for that? Perhaps someone familiar with this unit can give me an answer.Cheers,Bert

------------------------Bert- as I understand TH2Go, it takes the virtual single View Fwd and stretches it across three monitors. So yes, the horizon remains as a straight line- but the Field of View also remains as 45

[jbinner 15]

lets see....1. yes, you can use it with 2 monitors, just plug into plugs 1 and 3, per the instructions.2. yes, the 2 or 3 monitors are just treated as ONE giant desktop, so it will line up. there is even a "bezel tool" in the software to remove the bezels in between, making the "gaps" appear seamless.3. The way around this is to put the view back into windowed mode for 2D. open / close / resize as needed! Also, the included SGU utility will help a little bit with forward views, making it "stretch" better. Also, some add-ons are coming configured for wide aspect ratio as well.Good Luck, I've been using a triple wide for a while now and I love it! But, I will admit VC mode is MUCH better! :)

Having read about Matrox TripleHead2Go digital version I have the following questions.- Can I test this unit with my existing two monitors? - With a 3-monitor setup will the horizon line up properly (a straight line) when you bank the aircraft? - I understand you need to be in VC panel mode when using TripleHead2Go. All 2D panels will stretch horizontally and therefore cannot be used. Is there a fix for that? Perhaps someone familiar with this unit can give me an answer.Cheers,Bert

[january 19]

Bert- In my prior reply, I failed to add this note re multi monitors and horizon alignment in roll mode. Outer monitors should be angled toward the pilot so that they are square (at right angles) to the pilot's eyes/line of vision.Depending on width of the monitors and eye to screen distance, the outer monitors will typically be at 30-45

[BertW 0]

Thank you for all the information.John- I also prefer to use VC mode in FS9 but occasionally during a flight you need to switch to 2D because all switches in the aircraft may not work in VC mode.My graphic card is an 8800GTX, which means that I will have one free output port if one is connected to TH2G. Can I use that port to get a 2D view on a separate display and have the VC view on the TH2G?Alex- Thanks for the detailed explanation. I wish I could find some screenshots somewhere that illustrates all your points. I have seen some videos on different setups from some cockpit builders site, but of course the resolution on those videos are not good enough to see horizon alignment in roll mode. As to your comment that outer monitors should be angled toward the pilot. I take it that this is for cockpit builders monitors with an outside view only. With the cockpit panel and in VC view the cockpit must look a bit strange with outer monitors 45 degrees to the main monitor. //Bert

[jbinner 15]

Ahhh but there is a way around this. :) Instead of flying in VC mode, at FULL SCREEN, fly with VC in WINDOWED mode, and drag the "window" to fill the screen. Then you are still 3-wide, but you can now open 2-D windows, for the buttons you may need to turn, and "undock" them and resize. ;) I use it like this ALL the time with the MD-11 in FSX, but it's same idea for FS9.

Thank you for all the information.John- I also prefer to use VC mode in FS9 but occasionally during a flight you need to switch to 2D because all switches in the aircraft may not work in VC mode.My graphic card is an 8800GTX, which means that I will have one free output port if one is connected to TH2G. Can I use that port to get a 2D view on a separate display and have the VC view on the TH2G?Alex- Thanks for the detailed explanation. I wish I could find some screenshots somewhere that illustrates all your points. I have seen some videos on different setups from some cockpit builders site, but of course the resolution on those videos are not good enough to see horizon alignment in roll mode. As to your comment that outer monitors should be angled toward the pilot. I take it that this is for cockpit builders monitors with an outside view only. With the cockpit panel and in VC view the cockpit must look a bit strange with outer monitors 45 degrees to the main monitor. //Bert

[january 19]

Thank you for all the information.John- I also prefer to use VC mode in FS9 but occasionally during a flight you need to switch to 2D because all switches in the aircraft may not work in VC mode.My graphic card is an 8800GTX, which means that I will have one free output port if one is connected to TH2G. Can I use that port to get a 2D view on a separate display and have the VC view on the TH2G?Alex- Thanks for the detailed explanation. I wish I could find some screenshots somewhere that illustrates all your points. I have seen some videos on different setups from some cockpit builders site, but of course the resolution on those videos are not good enough to see horizon alignment in roll mode. As to your comment that outer monitors should be angled toward the pilot. I take it that this is for cockpit builders monitors with an outside view only. With the cockpit panel and in VC view the cockpit must look a bit strange with outer monitors 45 degrees to the main monitor. //Bert

-----------------------Bert- have a look at the FSX forum for a thread started yesterday entitled "Using Two Monitors". Here I posted a pic showing triple monitors in roll mode and which illustrates nicely why monitors need to be square to the pilot's line of vision.Any monitor should be at 90

[BertW 0]

John- If you can undock and resize PMDG MD-11 in FSX without significant impact on the fps I think it should be ok for FS9. Thanks for the tip.Alex- Thanks for the screenshots. I will do some test with different settings, but first I need to consider what LCDs to buy.Came across this software http://www.kegetys.net/forum/index.php?topic=795.0Maybe something to try if one doesn

[jlohrenz 133]

Thanks for these tips. My TH2GO is supposed to show up sometime this week and then I'll have 3 19" 1440x900's all tied together. I'm very excited to see how well this works and depending on how my 8800GTS 640MB handles it, hooking up a small 15" LCD to throw my misc gauges on.

[GeorgeT93 1]

Thanks for these tips. My TH2GO is supposed to show up sometime this week and then I'll have 3 19" 1440x900's all tied together. I'm very excited to see how well this works and depending on how my 8800GTS 640MB handles it, hooking up a small 15" LCD to throw my misc gauges on.

I've recently gotten a TH2G Digital, and currently have 2 1440x900 lcd's connected to it. To make use of the extended resolutions (ie 4320x900), you have to use both outputs from your video card to your TH2G, so you may want to keep that in mind if you were planning on buying a 15" monitor to connect to your 8800's 2nd port, as that port will be used with the resolution you'll be running. So if you will want an extra monitor connected (in addition to the 3 1440x900's), you will need another video connection on your machine. I'll be getting my 3rd monitor at the end of the month (stealing my wife's when we upgrade hers lol), so I'll be running the same resolution you will be, so I've spent some time looking into it. You may also need to flash the BIOS on your TH2G in order to access the additional extended widescreen modes that weren't supported in the original firmware (this includes the ability to display at 4320x900.)Sorry if you were already aware of what I wrote, but I was under the impression that you thought your second DVI port on your 8800 would remain available if using the TH2G at 4320x900, and I just wanted to be sure that you were aware that isn't the case.Good luck, I'm sure you'll enjoy yours as much as I've been enjoying mine (in fact, you'll probably enjoy it more, as I still have a couple more weeks to wait before I can get my hands on my third monitor. :(Hope this information has been at least somewhat helpful to you or anyone else reading.-George

[jlohrenz 133]

I wasn't aware of that. I'm waiting to get my TH2G from e-bay sometime this week and I just ordered my triple monitor stand and a 3rd 19" from Amazon yesterday. I also grabbed a cheap Nvidia 7200GS as I figured my 8800 may be taxed enough with the three monitors that if I wanted to run a 4th for gauges it would be too much. Considering the 7200 was only $35, its a small investment to get it to work correctly.I wasn't aware that the TH2G would need both DVI outputs from the 8800 to run at that resolution.Where do you get BIOS updates for the TH2G anyway? I was at the Matrox website and didn't see them anywhere...only the drivers.

[jbinner 15]

I am not sure that is exactly accurate. I am running 3 X 17" monitors, from the triple head, connected to ONE port on my video card. I am running at 3072 Wide by 768 tall, and I still have the second video port available if I wanted to run a 4th monitor. In fact, in windows, the triple head shows up as screen "1" and I have a screen "2" showing for the 2nd video card port.There is NOT a need to connect both ports of the video card to your triple head. Actually not sure HOW you are doing that? The triple head only has one digital input and one analog input, meant to be used for either or, not both at the same time.

I wasn't aware of that. I'm waiting to get my TH2G from e-bay sometime this week and I just ordered my triple monitor stand and a 3rd 19" from Amazon yesterday. I also grabbed a cheap Nvidia 7200GS as I figured my 8800 may be taxed enough with the three monitors that if I wanted to run a 4th for gauges it would be too much. Considering the 7200 was only $35, its a small investment to get it to work correctly.I wasn't aware that the TH2G would need both DVI outputs from the 8800 to run at that resolution.Where do you get BIOS updates for the TH2G anyway? I was at the Matrox website and didn't see them anywhere...only the drivers.

[BartEnder 2]

There is one and only one way to connect TH2Go to Your Video Cart - DVI-D or DVI-Dual Link. One connector (diffrent DVI has other pin layouts, but vast majority of the decent Vcards has a DVI-Dual Link).Always the second one is free. As far as I remember Matrox do not reccomend plugging anything into spare DVI port, but not sure about that

[Alan_A 1,650]

There is NOT a need to connect both ports of the video card to your triple head.

I concur. I'm running 4320x900 (1440x900x3) off ONE DVI port on my GTX 280.Alan

[GeorgeT93 1]

I concur. I'm running 4320x900 (1440x900x3) off ONE DVI port on my GTX 280.Alan

This is good to know, as that's the resolution I'll be running at the end of the month. My question then, is this: what does Matrox mean when they say that the TH2G requires dual-link DVI for the extended resolutions if the second DVI port isn't needed anyway? As I stated previously, I'm only running two monitors on it until I can hijack my wife's at the end of the month, but why does Matrox care if the card has 2 DVI ports on it if you only need to connect to one of them? Is there some performance benefit to cards that have 2 ports on them (even when only using one of the connectors) versus a card that only has 1 DVI port? Everything I've read when I first started researching the TH2G led me to believe that both ports needed to be used for the extended widescreen modes, but if the second port isn't used, why is that a requirement? Obviously I'm missing something here with their references to dual-link DVI cards being a requirement if only 1 port actually needs to be used. Anyone who's running 3 monitors at 1440x900 using a single DVI port from their video card, have you been able to plug in a fourth monitor directly to your video card's second port and have it work, or is the Matrox software disabling that port for bandwidth on the port that is connected to the TH2G? I'm no expert in this area by any stretch of the imagination, and it seems obvious that I must have misunderstood the dual-link DVI requirement that Matrox claims is needed for the extended widescreen modes, so I'm just trying to understand what the requirement is there for, if the second DVI port doesn't need to be used.Thanks for any information on this, as it seems obvious that I misunderstood Matrox's Dual-Link DVI requirement. :)-George