What kind of video card?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I want to run a monitor and a feed to an overhead projector at that same time on a Compaq Presario. Any suggestions?

[Jason]

Depends on what the projector inputs are really. HDMI, DVI, or VGA?

Actually.. since it's a projector I assume it doesn't require audio, so you'd be fine with any vid card that has dual DVI outputs, which is most of them these days, and an adapter if necessary. DVI to VGA and HDMI adapters are readily available and cheap.

[Jason]

Then again.. if it's an old enough projector it might require an RCA connection or a composite connection.. older vid cards almost always had an RCA video out (yellow), but I've never encountered a vid card with composite output.

[Jason]

... if it's an exceptionally old projector it might require a coaxial input.. in that case I suggest you buy a new projector. It would be cheaper than finding a video card with a coaxial output.. but if it comes to that I'd suggest looking up old ATI TVWonder cards - which are PCI and not PCIe and would most likely give you a migraine attempting to make functional on a modern system.

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

Jesus christ. Just do a fucking shadow show, or something.

[rasetsu]

These days it's an embarrassment of riches. I'd pick a Radeon HD 5450 card with either appropriate outputs or outputs + adapter. I just picked one up for $10 after rebate, and it does DVI + HDMI + VGA. They're not powerful enough to play games, but they're a perfect fit for home video or 2D graphics. As to brand, most any, as the cheapies will be just knock-offs of the reference design. Mine's an XFX, but good names are Sapphire, Gigabyte, HIS, Asus, MSI... and a few others, but that should do you (Sapphire is my druthers). (Powercolor isn't a personal favorite, but they seem okay and tend to undercut the others on price.) If you want something from NVidia, let me know. There was a $10 card on sale recently which likely would have worked, but I'm pretty certain that deal has expired.

(If you're looking for something with some horsepower, a quick scan pulls up this EVGA GeForce GTX 650 at $90 after $10 rebate and is good bang for the buck, but not an exceptional deal by any stretch. (I lean towards AMD Radeons these days, for which I look at something in an HD 7750 or the slightly pricier HD 7770. These aren't pure-adrenaline devices though; they'll game, but detail levels or resolution may need to be dialed back a little bit, depending on the game. I'd have to re-review things, but if you're looking for a card that's inexpensive and will still game, I'd look at any of the many HD 6670 cards. If you're looking at performance cards, watch whether the card has DDR memory or GDDR memory; the DDR memory is cheaper, but also knocks something off the performance of the card.) PM me if you want more than my quick seat-of-the-pants gander at that card. [EVGA was a well-regarded name a few years ago, but I haven't kept up with the market].)

[pErvinalia]

Anything will, with an adaptor. Although, I've bought a cheap dvi to standard monitor plug adaptor off ebay before and it didn't produce a clean signal. Not sure why. Probably because it was a cheap piece of shit.

Most digital projectors, which I assume is what you mean, have a standard monitor connector.

Ok, just thinking... Is this computer a laptop or a desktop? If it is a desktop, then I see what you are asking. You need a card with two outputs. Although, I'm pretty sure you can get an adaptor that will split the signal into two cords. Although, in that case, the resolutions might not match between the two units, so either your monitor will be whacko resolution or the projector will be whacko resolution.

[Feck]

I found an overclocked 2gig raedon 7850 for £140 it has plenty outputs hdmi dvi etc

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not HDMI, just the old blue plug. This is a recycled/donated computer so it ain't much. Both connections need to be DSUB?

[klr]

Most cards these days have VGA, DVI and HDMI connectors.

Like rasetsu, I use the AMD Raedon HD 5450 as a "safe" choice. Actually, I have two of them, because I have two desktop PCs. One of them had more powerful HD 6670, but I had to remove that as it was apparently the source of various problems, exact reasons unknown.

[pErvinalia]

No, you can use the DVI one as well. What type of connection does it have on the projector? You can get adaptors, but as I said, I had trouble with a dvi to dsub adaptor. I think it was probably because it was cheap as shit.

[klr]

No, you can use the DVI one as well. What type of connection does it have on the projector? You can get adaptors, but as I said, I had trouble with a dvi to dsub adaptor. I think it was probably because it was cheap as shit.

That might have been due to analogue/digital (in)compatibility issues.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Both are DSUB.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Comments?

[pErvinalia]

No, you can use the DVI one as well. What type of connection does it have on the projector? You can get adaptors, but as I said, I had trouble with a dvi to dsub adaptor. I think it was probably because it was cheap as shit.

That might have been due to analogue/digital (in)compatibility issues.

Well it showed the picture ok, it just had some interference. So the adaptor must convert it, I guess, from analogue to digital.