Best card for dual monitor PLUS a TV out

[noiseboyuk]

Hi all newbie here - as with many newbies I arrive frustrated and desperate!

I need a simple card with a dual monitor setup at 1680x1050 resolution (to work either 2xVGA or 1xVGA and 1xDVI). The trick is I also need TV out simultaneously, either S-video or composite (not hi def in any way shape or form!). Not interested in games at all.

I bought a GeForce 7200 GS which claims to be able to do this using nView Video Mirror, but nothing I do makes the card recognise the TV while in dual monitor mode.

So I'm ready to sell this card and get another which actually does what is says on the tin. If at all possible I'd like nVidia - I have an old Avid XPressDV, and Avid generally only works with nVidia, but I use it rarely now and if needs be I'll change cards back when I need to use it.

Very very very grateful for any advice, thanks....

 

[outlw6669]

If you want to keep the price reasonable, you are going to need two cards to output to three sources.
Unfortunately, even though most consumer cards have more than 2 outputs, they are only capable of feeding two of them at a time.

If necessary, you can locate an inexpensive PCI Card that you can use in nearly any system to supplement your primary GPU.

 

[noiseboyuk]

Thanks, that's great, I didn't realise I could do that, but it sounds like a tricky business. How would that work with sending a video overlay generated by one card out of the other PCI one? Just to be clear, all I need out of the video out is the overlay video, and nothing else.

 

[noiseboyuk]

Just after a bit more info on this as I'm not sure how to set up a PCI-E graphics card with a PCI card just for a TV out set to video overlay.

Must admit, I thought it was common to use just one card to do this - I'd heard Radeon and ATI cards worked this way but I don't know for sure.

Very very grateful for any help!

 

[noiseboyuk]

Really rather desperate for some kind of clue here, sorry for the multiple posts... there must be someone out there with some experience of this! Please?...

 

[noiseboyuk]

And another bump... lonely but hopeful sigh....

 

[noiseboyuk]

And another - anyone know how to make a PCI-E and PCI graphics card work together to enable video overlay out on the TV Out, or alternatively know of a card that can support video out at the same time as dual display?

 

[noiseboyuk]

Well, for the eternally optimistic benefit of anyone out there who might remotely care, I tried today a nVidia quadro and nVidia GeForce, both PCI-E. Both monitors work fine on the Quadro, leaving the GeForce just to handle the TV out. No matter what I do, absolutely nothing comes out of it. The card is recognised and works, but no TV out of any kind.

I'm beginning to suspect there is something up with the card. When I used "Force TV detect", and restarted windows, Windows crashed out on a loop. Even safe mode didn't cure it. Eventually I took the card out, restarted, then put it back in and restarted again, which fixed it.

Does it sound like a duff card to anyone else?