Dual-Headed DVI Flatpanels?

NP-Hard asks: "My organization has recently come into a Lot of Money for new hardware. We're a Linux shop, we code a lot, and we're drooling over the prospect of dual DVI-driven flatpanels. Believe it or not, Linux-friendly dual DVI solutions are thin on the ground. Anybody know of a good configuration for under $7k?" I'll be able to afford one of these, someday.

Re:dual PCI SGI flat panel displays

[vipw]

with XFree86-4 if it supports 1 of the #9 cards it should be able to use 2 of them just as easily. supporting dual head is only difficult if it has to support dual head output from 1 graphics chip. (like the Matrox G400/G450 and Geforce 2 MX.)

one thing to note about the the SGI displays, they aren't actually DVI, but instead are a format called OpenLDI, i don't know if they are compatable.

Re:why flatpanels?

[vipw]

LCDs have more disadvantages than you mention. It takes a while for the pixels to switch color, which can leave an unsightly bleed in high contrast animation. while the sharpness on a still picture is obviously sharper than a CRT at the same resolution a good CRT doesn't have as bad of motion blur, which i would classify as a sharpness problem.

so, in a way, the sharpness of an LCD is way better in some ways, and slightly worse in others.

so... i'm guessing i'm just saying you shouldn't come off so harsh on people criticizing the sharpness of LCDs, because they DO have a problem with sharpness.

Re:why flatpanels?

[The Mayor]

They're sharper? Are you kidding me? Maybe you're thinking about non-DVI LCD panels. An LCD panel is significantly sharper than *any* CRT. There's nothing to focus on an LCD panel. So, inherently, there's nothing to go out of focus (unless your monitor has to recombine analogue feeds to get a digital signal...yech!).

DVI LCD panels are far easier on the eyes. They take up less room on your desktop. These are both very good reasons to get DVI LCD panels. On the downside, they're expensive, they're often not as large as CRT counterparts, they don't do as well in direct sunlight, the color is not as "true" as with CRTs, and they don't run in multiple resolutions (analogue ones will, but this guy is asking about DVI LCDs). But, please, don't give me this "they're sharper" BS.

ANY card that is PCI and DVI out

[johnjones]

you can have any card that has DVI out and is PCI
(and is supported by XFree86 )
rackthem up each with an output screen
then run an X session on each one

personaly I am thinking RADEON because they rock and are doing DRI

but @ the moment MATROX G450 with the DVI add on card rule the shop they have the best support by a LONG way

plus I have seen 4 of them outputing to plasma screens running solaris 7 intel with Xfree86 already so it can be done !

regards

john jones

Re:why flatpanels?

[sumdumgai]

My compaq flat panel is great! Uses less power than a CRT also.

Samsung flat panel

[mrfiddlehead]

The Samsung flat panels are getting very high marks for the money. I was browsing through PC magazine (so shoot me) because they were comparing flat panels. The Samsung came out way on top when price was your first concern.

Check out the review at zdnet [zdnet.com] for the comparisons.

Re:why flatpanels?

[stilwebm]

Most newer desktop flat panels (i.e. NOT laptop) have realy low pixel refresh latency. I found that my DFP is great for playing Quake III, watching full motion video, etc. In fact, I notice more motion blur on my really old 15" CRT than on my LCD. Also, most manufacturers publsih the latency times, so it is easy to compare this when you're shopping.

Re:what?

[MrBogus]

Minor nitpick - DVI can also carry analog connections. I have a IBM P260 tube monitor that has two switchable inputs, one VGA and one DVI. I think the DVI is there for the RS6000 folks, but I'm using an $11 adapter to connect it to a PC VGA plug.

what?

[crazney]

just curious, whats a DVI Flat Panel? some kinda LCD monitor or something? why does it have to interface with the OS?

"Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk ?"

Re:dual PCI SGI flat panel displays

[false_sense_of_sec]

A quick search netted a combination of MetroX and multiple Matrox G200 cards. DVI is supported. Metrolink has been very responsive to customer service issues in my experience.

Re:dual PCI SGI flat panel displays

[false_sense_of_sec]

Xi graphics also has a similar setup.

Re:dual PCI SGI flat panel displays

[ansible]

DVI and OpenLDI are not directly compatable. You can get the multi-link adapter from SGI that will convert DVI to OpenLDI. However, you can't run the wide resolution (1600x1024) because of limitations with DVI. I believe the best you can get is 1280x1024, which loses the advantage of the SGI 1600SW in the first place.

There's been some previous discussion of the pros and cons of digital flat panels on Slashdot, try searching.

If you can live with a system that has a video card designed by a company that has gone bankrupt (so no manufacturer driver updates), then the SGI + RevIV is a good setup. I use it every day. Be warned that the RevIV is only good for 2D applications, 3D ain't so hot.

Re:dual PCI SGI flat panel displays

[false_sense_of_sec]

Does XFree86 support multiple #9 cards? Since #9 support is dwindling all over (I think they are out of business...), drivers would be a large issue. I think I would approach this from choosing an X server, and then purchasing supported DVI cards. The LCD panel is up to user taste from there.

The obvious solution for multi-DVI setups...

[WolfWings]

Matrox. Scroll down that link to the very last section titled MMS, short for Multi-Monitor Solutions. Price for a dual-G200 card with 8M per card is $500 US per card, quad-G200 is $700 per card, or quad-G200 w/ TV tuner is $800 per card. You'll need one split-DVI cable per pair of DVI monitors at $60 US per cable, so for a dual-DVI setup you'd be spending $560 US roughly before tax, for a quad-DVI setup you'd be spending $820 US roughly before tax. Assuming you could find decent LCD screens for $1500 each, you'd still be under your target price of $7k per full rig if you got quad-head per rig instead of the originally-mentioned dual-head.

Re:The obvious solution for multi-DVI setups...

[WolfWings]

Growl, Slashdot chopped the link. http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/pricing/home.cf m That's the link to the page listing all the pricing information in Canadian and US dollars. The cards aren't too hard to find on-line at stores and such, shop.matrox.com usually has them in stock.

dual PCI SGI flat panel displays

[vipw]

you might want to look in to the SGI flat panel displays, http://www.sgi.com/flatpanel/ [sgi.com]

You can buy them in a package with a PCI Number 9 revolution IV [nine.com] and the whole kit can be found for less than $1400(US).

Almost all computer have a couple PCI ports open, and unless you're doing fast texture writes it's really not much slower than AGP.

We're really thinking about rolling these out as the standard dual-head setup at my workplace to cut down on eye strain and electricity costs.

Re:what?

[The Mayor]

Digitial Video Interface. No analogue. Most flat panels are designed to use analog outputs from your video card. The resulting digital -> analogue -> digital conversion potentially introduces a lot of noise into the picture. It's better to get a special video card (a DVI card) that outputs a digital signal directly. SGI's wide aspect ratio LCD panel used a DVI video card from Number Nine, for instance.

why flatpanels?

[whydna]

Why do you want flat panels so badly? Is it because they're "cool", or because they don't require as much disk space. Personally, I think a nice high-end monitor is a better deal. They're cheaper, bigger, and sharper; you could very easily get 3 of them for less than the price of the 2 flat panels. Plus CRTs usually run at higher resolution, so you'll get more screen real-estate.