I just got a new Dell to do video editing. It is a 2.66, 512. And I am running Windows XP Professional. I have an intergrated graphics card. I want to be able to run two monitors off of one system. So that when I am eding in Premeire I can have some windows open on one monitor and the rest on the other monitor. To make my editing life a little easer. How do I do this? Thanks for the help.

Put quite simply you need a graphics card that supports two monitors. If you are thinking of upgrading then also think about getting a card with TV-Out on it as well. Then you can see the actual TV image of your work while editing. Matrox Parhelia is a name that comes to mind.

In fact I'm having some thoughts on this myself. I don't have any references but can anyone confirm or deny the idea that if you have two monitors together you are much better off having flat panels as CRTs can 'interfere' with each other.

This may be a stupid question but I have never worked on a system with two monitors.
How do you switch the mouse and keyboard from one monitor to the other?

And when I am in Premiere do I have to open two Premiere programs and then open the windows I want in each monitor or can I open just one program and pick and choose which window I want on what monitor?

BTW Right now I am using the Matrox RT.X10 Suite Capture card.

Thanks again for the help.

Well, with dual monitors, you'll have the option of:

a) cloning - this means what you see in one monitor is exactly whay you see on the other. Not ideal for video editing

b) spanning - your desktop is spread accross the two monitors.=

c) dual view - you can choose what you want to see on one monitor and what you want on the other. Just drag an item from one to another.

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What do you recomend for a video card that has two VGA Connectors? What is the cheapest? Thanks.

I knew I'm knew here but I do have quite an extensive knowledge and experience with video cards. If you already have an integrated video card (again, not ideal for video editing) you can buy a PCI or an AGP graphics card and run two monitors off that. (Just don't disable the integrated one.) Also, if you already have a decent AGP card, you can pick up a decent PCI video card for a fairly good price.

I'm going to be upgrading my station pretty soon and am probably just going to go the dual head card route. (Just to leave some PCI slots available.)

Also, I'll add a question in here: a lot of talk goes on about dual monitors and a TV monitor. I'm still wondering about this with Adobe Premiere. It would be ideal to have two monitors for display and then to have a monitor right there to see how it looks as you edit.

Any thoughts or ideas floating around?

- Dan

I want to go with the single card with two connectors. Does anyone know of a good card for a cheap price? Thanks.

As far as I know, any 3D gaming card is good for video editing. As such, the Radeon 9200 or GeForce 4 Titanium 4200 are good, cheap options. These are available for £40-50. Of course, neither of them have two VGA outputs. Rather, they have one VGA and one DVI. This is no problem, though, as you can get a DVI to VGA adapter for almost no cost. If you're lucky, one will be bundled with the card.