Multi Head Video

This is slightly late posting. I did this the fall of 2009.

It has been easy to create dual head video displays with dual output video cards. With Matrox multi-head products it is now easy to create triple and quad-head displays and have some really effective display stretching effects to increase efficiency for investment screening, CAD, even regular internet research.

This project was to create such a triple head mount for under $50. The monitors and head driver (Matrox DualHead2Go, digital edition) are costed separately.

I used two monitor wall mounts ($15 ea) welded to 3/4" metal pipe repair clamps ($1.50 ea). These were mounted on a vertical tower made up of 3/4" black pipe and fittings, screwed down to an old wooden shelf acting as my base.

For a triple head setup (done here), you need a dual drive video card. One output is used directly to drive your primary monitor. The second output is used to drive the Matrox unit which, in turn, drives your two other monitors. For a quad-head drive each video card output will drive a Matrox unit which will, in turn, drive two monitors. Note, that my setup has my two additional monitors mounted vertically. For use in gaming or video, it is better to have the extra monitors horizontally aligned. This would work best with a quad head. The reason is that the Matrox drivers will split the video that goes to the monitors. It will 'cohesively' split horizontally, but not vertically. Picture displaying your excel sheet on two horizontal monitors. Matrox will take care of this -- doesn't work for two monitors that are vertical.

The pictures show: the Matrox unit, the display mount, same welded onto the pipe clamps, the vertical tower, rear view of displays mounted to same, and the setup in action. Note the change to the PC.