Gaming on two lcd-screens - recommendable?

[HonestIago]

I am currently using a 19" LCD Samsung 930BF and I am absolutely satisfied with it - now I just read about (ab)using two monitors for gaming but I could not find a list of games that do support this kind of display.
Gaming on my behalf is rather widespread, shooters, sports, adventures, rpgs (only thing I cannot stand are strategy games except turn-based ones).
Since I found nothing in the forums really relating to my question, I made up this new topic - should I get another Samsung monitor (figuring that using the same monitor makes sense) for about 260Euro or should I wait until my tv screen goes blank (it will happen over the next two years, I would guess...) and get a large tv screen and play on this one ( I do not watch many movies at home, so I do not really need the tv). My computer should be pretty much capable of everything, using a Conroe 6600 and a 7950GX for graphics.
Thanks for your input.
And maybe some of you can post their experiences with various games - whether it was easy to set them up and whether they run in full-screen or windowed mode.

 

[Hose]

I think your only considerations are: (a) which games will support dual monitor, and (b) how acceptible would the bezels be in the middle of your display.

 

[HonestIago]

I would not mind the bezels in the middle, they are not that annoying - for gaming. Certainly I would not want that for watching tv but that is out of the question anyway. I checked around for a bit and saw that most of the lcd tv screens have a 720i resolution which is different to my current resolution on my screen (1024x1280) - is that resolution (720i) enough to play nicely on a screen that big (most of them are in the range of 30-32")?
Well, a list of games supporting dual view would be nice but as I stated, there might be the tricky part of how they support it - windowed or full screen and I will not trust any of the publishers' statements, therefore I hope a few people around here can post their experiences.

 

[Hose]

Actually, all 720 HDTVs are 720p. They would have to rescale the computer signal to match the TV's specs. Many HDTVs are 1080p now, but about $500 more expensive. While there is no *broadcast* 1080p signal (takes too much bandwidth), the 1080p's will accommodate HDMI peripherals.

Suggest you check out the 24" UXGAs, 1920x1200. Those apparently display just about everything well.

 

[HonestIago]

I checked on the UXGAs but they are no good to me - they are pretty expensive, starting at 800Euro (I can get a good lcd-screen of 30" for that money) and they are too small to use them as a tv (for my needs). I can get a second monitor for about 260 Euro and have a combined picture that is a lot larger than 24" (admittedly, I would have the bezels inbetween). But I had not thought about the tvs' necessity to rescale the picture, which would probably lead to ugly distortions of my computer games - the bad thing is that you nowhere get to see these screens in action (sure, tv signal looks good, they are designed for it but I want to see the pc display as well) and I will not be shelling out money only to find out it is not what I wanted.
And the 1080i are out of question because of the price.

 

[Hose]

Maybe you could take your computer or a laptop to an electronics store and try a game on a 720p HDTV... that's the best way to know for sure.

It's a common problem. People want to display a computer signal on a TV, but the formats are not perfectly compatible. After all TVs are designed to display media input, not computer input. Still, many do a good job with the rescaling.

 

[HonestIago]

The idea of taking a laptop to a store over here is good - but obviously you have not been to a German store... customer service is still a term they need to look up in a dictionary

Thanks a lot for your input so far and maybe I will take my laptop there one day - accompanied by cameras