Dual Monitors from 1 HDMI Port

[rajsharma714]

Hello,

I have a Sony Vaio laptop with AMD Radeon HD 6630M with 1 HDMI port. I want to connect 2 - 24" monitors to it. I want to be able to close my laptop and have one of the 24" monitors to be my main display where I can see the taskbar and everything, and I want the second 24" monitor to be an extended monitor. One of my monitors is going to have a resolution of 1920x1080 and the other is 1920x1200.

Is this possible with using 1 HDMI port? If so, what kind of hardware would I need to make this happen?

Thanks!

 

[danraies]

To my knowledge this is not possible. With one hdmi port you can only support one monitor that isn't the built in laptop monitor. However, there are two things that you can do.

First, there exist hdmi splitters. From the operating system's point of view there is only one display signal being outputted, but the splitter sends that signal to two places so the two displays are identical copies of one another.

The second is this unit:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/
You would have to set the monitors to the same resolution - for the sake of argument let's say they're both 1920x1080. The Matrox unit then tricks the computer into thinking that you're using one 3840x1080 monitor and then sends the right half of the picture to one monitor and the left half to the other. This is closer to what you want, but instead of having one "main" monitor and one "extension" both monitors would be the "main" monitor together and the taskbar would be split across both.

 

[rajsharma714]

To my knowledge this is not possible. With one hdmi port you can only support one monitor that isn't the built in laptop monitor. However, there are two things that you can do.

First, there exist hdmi splitters. From the operating system's point of view there is only one display signal being outputted, but the splitter sends that signal to two places so the two displays are identical copies of one another.

The second is this unit:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/
You would have to set the monitors to the same resolution - for the sake of argument let's say they're both 1920x1080. The Matrox unit then tricks the computer into thinking that you're using one 3840x1080 monitor and then sends the right half of the picture to one monitor and the left half to the other. This is closer to what you want, but instead of having one "main" monitor and one "extension" both monitors would be the "main" monitor together and the taskbar would be split across both.

What if I get a HDMI switch. Something like this.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011001&p_id=8147&seq=1&format=2

What this do the trick?

 

[Furieux]

no, read what he said... it will send the same signal to both monitor !

 

[nordlead]

What if I get a HDMI switch. Something like this.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011001&p_id=8147&seq=1&format=2

What this do the trick?

A switch won't help. It switches between the two devices so you will have a display on one monitor or the other, but not both.

Danraies solution is interesting, but you might want to confirm that the graphics card can support such a high resolution. I did a quick google search and didn't find anything, but then again it was quick.

Another solution is to use the HDMI port for the first display and a USB display adapter for the second. It'll put a load on the CPU, but it would be a fairly simple solution (assuming you aren't doing anything graphically intensive) and do exactly what you wanted with the exception of using more than one HDMI port.

 

[bucknutty]

They make USB video cards. Basicall a little box that has a VGA, DVI, or HDMI and plugs into a usb port. The speed is not great but they will drive extra monitors for web browsing, e-mail and such.

 

[bucknutty]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815343002

I think this will do the trick for you. This will drive the secondary monitor, check the max resolution.

 

[mavroxur]

They make USB video cards. Basicall a little box that has a VGA, DVI, or HDMI and plugs into a usb port. The speed is not great but they will drive extra monitors for web browsing, e-mail and such.

^ +1

Sewell makes a good product called the vDeck. They are available in USB to either VGA, DVI, or HDMI, and from what i've heard and read, they actually work really good.

http://sewelldirect.com/

 

[ampersand]

I've used DisplayLink USB to VGA adapters at my work place. They can be a bit finicky but work alright for productivity tasks.

 

[danraies]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815343002

I think this will do the trick for you. This will drive the secondary monitor, check the max resolution.

I've never seen those before, so +1 to bucknutty. That solution is better than the device I suggested from Matrox. With the USB video card you'll get the configuration that you want if you don't mind giving up some of your processor. Be aware, though, that the maximum resolution is only 1680x1050 or 1600x1200.

Also, Matrox doesn't sell a device that inputs an HDMI connection so you would have to get a display port adapter to use one of those solutions.

 

[rajsharma714]

Best answer selected by rajsharma714.

 

[rajsharma714]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I'll give the USB video card a shot and see how it works out for me.

Thanks again to everyone.