Device Search: One Output, Two Monitors, One at a Time

Device Search: One Output, Two Monitors, One at a Time

So my situation is that I just got a new shiny HDTV and my computer has a Blu-Ray player on it so I want to pipe the output to the new TV so I can watch my moving pictures on it, and maybe even pipe other forms of output such as streaming video or video games to the big TV. The problem is that I already have two monitors connected to my video card! To complicate things, the resolution I want to run the TV at (1900x1080) and the resolution my second monitor uses (1280x1024) are different.

So the behavior I want is pretty simple... I just want a device I can connect both output devices to and pipe the input to it and then just be able to watch the signal on one device at a time.

So far the devices I have found, video splitters, are for simultaneously piping output to two different output devices, but they seem to be very problematic if the two output devices use different resolutions and all of that, because the output signal can only be in one resolution. I'd like to bypass this by finding something that simply only sends output to one device at a time.

Anyone have any solutions for me? Anything you guys are currently using?

Thanks

Eh, I found a solution... DVI extension cable, HDMI to DVI converter, manual switching desk side... not pretty, but effective.. no one seems to make an auto switcher for this situation.. sort of surprisingly.

Or change the video card to one that supports three or four monitors.

Not cheap, and can't comment on differing resolutions.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5642515&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4348739&CatId=3585


I'm not sure what they mean by 'Display Port" or "HDTV". They might be either HDMI or S-Video or some new nomenclature I haven't heard of.

Newegg has a better picture of the Diamond card, but the reviews aren't all that great: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103073

Not recommending any card, just giving examples or something to look for if you want to go that route instead of adding adapters and cables and switch boxes.

Digging a bit, DisplayPort is indeed a new standard in video connections and cabling:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort

I currently have a dual GPU video card that is quite good for playing games, so changing video cards is not an option for the time being! The thing I care most about if my FPS.

You could always get an extra, cheapish graphics card just for the TV.

yeah that may not be a bad idea Mac...

Most halfway recent, cheap Radeon HD or GeForce chips should also support at least some hardware acceleration for blu-ray decoding - stuff like iDCT etc., quite likely fancier stuff as well.