Multiple Monitor Solution Suggestions

Our bridge club wants to be able to display on multiple monitors from a single PC. Please suggest ways we might be able to do this. The situation and requirements are as follows.

We wish to display something (timer clocks) on two extra monitors. Each monitor will show a different clock. At times we want to show the same thing on the two extra monitors, such as a PowerPoint slideshow. We do not want to have to do complicated reconfiguring.

The user of the PC needs to be able to start the timer clocks and configure and operate them. However, he will not be able to see the extra monitors well enough to just use them. Hence he needs either to operate them from the PC monitor, or yet another monitor (or pair) located at the PC.

I know how to do all this if we were able to have two more monitors at the PC, each mirrored to one of the external monitors, but we do not have room for that.

Can anyone suggest any ways this might be done? Is there software that can be run on the PC that allows windows on that PC monitor to be mirrored to secondary monitors, for example?

I could ask a lot of questions, but I’m going to simply suggest you look at DisplayPort devices. If you have a desktop PC of recent vintage, you can install a DisplayPort card that will allow you to serve and control several monitors, depending on your horsepower. There are display management programs that will PROBABLY do what you want.

You can probably do the same thing with HDMI, but DisplayPort is a better fit (based on the developer’s intentions).

I’ll second this.

I have a graphics card added to my PC that has four output connections – two DVI, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort and I still use it for some intense gaming. But DVI is considered old now and there are more modern ways to connect multiple monitors to a tower PC.

Now-a-days, you can find a cheap USB2 or USB3 (or even USBC) adapter to connect to whatever input your monitor(s) use, Windows will install a generic DisplayLink driver for it, and you can connect to as many monitors as you have USB ports – so you might even add a couple small monitors for the PC operator. For the needs you describe, that probably won’t tax the motherboard too much.

It’s typical to display one PC on multiple monitors as one big giant multi-paned monitor, or to mirror the same thing on multiple monitors. Windows will handle that quite well on its own. Software dedicated to handling your special display needs (two coupled mirrors) will probably cost you twice as much as one of those adapters – $20-ish – and a utility for displaying multiple clocks can probably be found for a couple bucks.

Good luck! Please keep us apprised.

–G!

Our standard setup at work is a laptop & two external monitors. Mine, like most of them has a different display on each of the three screens (extended desktop) & the mouse flows between the three monitors as if they were one long one. If I go into presentation mode, what’s on my laptop will be mirrored on another display.
Unless I’m misunderstanding your question, Windows handles this natively.

Could the operator just start it on the monitor in front of him & then drag your clock program to one of the other monitors in the extended desktop configuration?

With just basic Win 10, it’ll be easy duplicating displays. Displaying different clocks on each monitor will be challenging.