wanting to use two monitors with pt le 002

[jayson t.]

hey guys...

i have a question regarding the use of 2 monitors with ptle. i am running 6.4cs9 ( i know... time to upgrage). anyway, my system is rock solid and runs perfectly with no interupts. i am using a 19 inch monitor but was thinking about purchasing a second monitor to use with my system. can anyone shed some light on what is needed? i know i will need a dual video card, but what else is needed? like i mentioned before my system is solid right now and i don't want to add anything that would ruin that. can anyone help?

thanks in advance.

[spkguitar]

You don't need anything else. Just a dual head video card.

[JFreak]

For any monitor, you need a monitor and a video card. I'm coming from Mac side where you just install as many video cards as you need, but I'm sure you can install multiple video cards for a Windows system as well. Some video cards offer dual-display functionality, so many times it is wiser to replace the old single-display video card with a dual-display video card, which makes it easier to run two displays.

[jayson t.]

so add a dual video card and 2nd monitor and that is it? how do i seperate the mix screen from the edit window once completed?

[spkguitar]

You set windows to use both monitors for the entire desktop.
You stretch the main Pro Tools window across both monitors.
You stretch the mix and edit windows so that they fit on each monitor.

[jayson t.]

set windows to use both monitors? so, i would go into the monitor setup window in Windows and change the setting? then "drag" the windows over to each monitor? will the setup remain after i turn the pc off? i won't have to adjust the screens everytime, will i?

[spkguitar]

set windows to use both monitors?

Yes.

so, i would go into the monitor setup window in Windows and change the setting?

Yes

then "drag" the windows over to each monitor?

No. That's not what I said. I said "stretch" the main Pro Tools window. While that technically involves dragging, it is not the same as just dragging the mix window to the second monitor. Once the main Pro Tools window is stretched across both monitors, you can then drag the mix and edit window to the monitor where you want it, and then manually size the window to fit that monitor inside of the main Pro Tools window.

will the setup remain after i turn the pc off?

Yes.

i won't have to adjust the screens everytime, will i?

Actually, with 6.4 I'm not sure. I remember having to use a third party utility with Pro Tools for window placement with an older version of Pro Tools, but it's been so long that I don't remember if it was 5.3.1, 6.1.1, or 6.4 (or all of them). If you we're using the latest version of Pro Tools (7.3) I could give you the definitive answer, but it's been so long since I used 6.4 that I honestly don't remember.

[superpenguin79]

i won't have to adjust the screens everytime, will i?

one trick on this in windows is you could simply try maximizing the PT window if it did not retain your settings which should in theory stretch across the two screens. F11 does the job as well usually. The other trick is being LCD monitors are coming down dramatically in price... just upgrade to the 32 inch LCD flat panel and there will be no need for a 2nd vid card and all this stretching..