Dual VGA Monitor G4

[ProductionEngelads]

Well got happily screwed by Apple... Ordered a new 733 G4 through Sweetwater... took Apple almost 3 weeks the reason Apple gave is our model was out of stock... so instead of telling us to wait another like week and get a New G4... we get our 733 like 3 days before the new Macs are shipping... thanks Apple

Plus for all the promises of speed the G4 doesn't really run Protools much better than the 500mhz Pentium PC it replaced.

Ok my question....we got a dual monitor card with the G4 but unlike promised the card has only one VGA output and one AVC(Apple Monitor Output) Well Sweetwater has been promising us a special cable that allows our 2nd VGA monitor to be plugged into the Apple Output...but I am doubting at this point if such a cable even exsists. I can't find such a caple from any Apple Computer souce. Are we going to need a second video card???

thanks guys

[Ultraslide]

I have seen such a cable adapter in use and it does exist. The name escapes me but check some of the Apple retailers online and Im sure you'll find it. (Or wait for SW). It basiclly converts the Apple display connector into a standard VGA + USB .

I'm very interested to hear a more thorough report on your Apple experience. I to run PT LE on a P3 700 / 512mb. I get plenty of tracks and lots o plugins. No complaints really. I've planned on moving to Apple for reasons not related to audio and I'm interested to see if the performance in PT LE really takes a hit.

Keep rockin !

[Shady Lane Studio]

What ever you do - do not get a PCI card for a second monitor. Your new problem will be a busy PCI bus error.

Sorry,
Shady

[Jahmontee]

Re: PCI video card.

Not true, I've been successfully running dual monitors & protool le with the first AGP based G4 400Mhz with (1) APG - ATI Rage and (1) PCI - ATI Rage, for 2 years with no problems what so ever!!

Specs:
Digi 001 - PT 5.1.1
G4 400Mhz
OS 9.1
ATI video cards (AGP & PCI)
1.5gigs ram
ATTO Dual SCSI

[DPM]

Hey ProductionEngelads,
When you get that adapter, please post what it's called so we all can get one.

I reseached the dual monitor thing to death!!! Here's my thread, check it out, should answer all your questions. http://duc.digidesign.com/cgi-bin/ub...&f=24&t=007361

Thanks,
Most Humble,
Dave

[ShyStylz]

they sell the adapter at almost any mac retail store. just a simple adapter, you can find them online and on ebay. Here are some sites that should sell the adapter. pccables.com (very nice company very fast shipping and cheap prices, I just got a S-video cable from them in 3 days from the end of an ebay auction) and also maccables.com

Check them out and they should be able to get you the adapter you need if sweetwater doesn't meet thier promises.

Also what made you want to get you G4 through sweetwater and not apple directly. Prices are the same everywhere(ok maybe a 2-5 buck difference, but whats a few bucks different if you can get direct service)

I don't own a mac, YET. But since i can get the 733 for 1,295 I think i may get one soon.

[Shady Lane Studio]

Jahmontee,

Where were you when I bought my $8,000.00 rig that everyone at digi and Sweetwater tells me can't run with the PCI Radeon Card on a system without the bus error - that I found to be fact. I new I should have bought an older-cheaper version. If you can get yours to go - God bless you. I just sent mine back for the Twin AGP card. Boy, that 22" Cinema Display sure works cool! I hope the 17" VGA will be soon too. Now, it stinks on the 32 "PCI" ATI Radeon Card.

Cheers,
Shady

[JROB6716]

The thing that your looking for is a DViator.
If it has a DVI connection on the Video card you will need it. If you need a VGA to ADC adapter , you will need to visit
www.gefen.com
They sell a VGA to ADC converter. It does have a hefty price tag on it though. $349.

Hope this helps

[Mr T]

I made some research about this before finally buying the Promax:
#1: on the adapter, I think (like said in the post above) that you need to go for: ADC->DVI (first adapter)+DVI->VGA(2nd...). I was told that such adapters were hard to find (it seems like it's not after all...dumb me), went to a few major shops in town (Paris, which is quite a big city )were they didn't have such adapters...
#2 on the Apple card: are you sure it does Twin View? The one I got with my G4/667 (kinda "old" I know) was supposed to be a "dual monitor" card...I came to understand that what they meant by this was that you could display the same desktop (image) on two different monitors (pretty useless). I'm just mentionning this to eventually spare you the cost (and search) of these adapters (maybe your card does real Twin View though).

[Shady Lane Studio]

Apple puts the NVIDIA GeForce AGP twin-view card in the 800 dual and the two new top of the line machines.

Shady