Today’s laptop computers can be a serious replacement for a desktop setup. They can feature fast multi-core processors and professional video cards that desktop PCs do, and they are much more portable. One nagging problem with a lot of laptops are their issues when connecting to multiple displays. Most road warriors that use a laptop pretty much just connect a mirrored display when doing presentations, but a programmer or graphics designer really needs at least three displays to work efficiently.
Not all laptops even support triple displays, even though they may feature a DisplayPort interface, and this is especially true with notebooks that utilize integrated Intel HD graphics. I know several developers that have company-provided notebook comptuers that cannot use more than one attached display, and are limited to dual-monitor mode. The only way to get around this is to attach a USB display adapter, which requires additional CPU power and can slow things down.
One of the better solutions to this problem is to use the Matrox DualHead2Go Digital SE adapter. This hardware is connected externally to any laptop that has a DisplayPort interface, and enables a multi-monitor desktop up to three monitors wide with a desktop resolution of 5760×1200 when coupled with your laptop’s display.
There are some caveats to what you can do with this device, and we go over them in this review.
The DualHead2Go Digital SE works by tricking Windows into thinking it has one huge monitor with an extreme widescreen resolution,and then the hardware device splits the digital signal amongst two connected monitors.
Using the product this way opens up some new usages. Of course this can increase business productivity for those that could otherwise not enable more than two displays. You can organize windows into different sections of your desktop and move non-critical information onto a side display, compare documents side-by-side and you can multi-task without having to toggle between applications.
The Matrox DualHead2Go Digital SE package is rather small and has all the normal product information explaining what it can do. Inside the box is the DualHead2Go external interface, a USB cable, a DisplayPort cable, and a Getting Started CD.
The hardware interface box is rather small, and can easily be transported in a laptop bag. The box is made of thick steel and its corners have been curved to prevent snagging on anything. The device has lots of stamped holes to allow for heat to escape through natural convection. The front of the box has a DisplayPort socket, USB port and power LED. The rear of the device has two DVI ports for connecting two monitors that support up to 1920 x 1200 resolution each. There is no power switch on the device, and turns on automatically when it receives power from the host computer’s USB port.
For testing, we connected the DualHead2Go Digital SE to our Lenovo W520 laptop which has both Intel HD Graphics and an nvidia Quadro 100M Graphics card. We connected up two ViewSonic VA2431 monitors, both of which support 1920 x 1080 resolution. Getting the device ready only takes a minute or less. Just connect the USB cable between your PC and the device’s USB port, insert the DisplayPort cable, and connect two monitors to the back of the unit. Honestly the part that took the most time was securing the DVI plugs with their screws.
Once your PC or laptop is turned on, the power LED on the DualHead2Go Digital SE turns on but appears red. This indicates that the unit is receiving power but is not actively processing any video. Once Windows boots up then this light changes to green, and all of your connected displays are in “clone” mode. You will have to install the software and configure the device before you can set up an extended desktop display.
The included CD does not have drivers, but instead redirects you to the Matrox website to download manuals and drivers. On one hand it’s great that the user gets the most updated drivers, but on the other it appears that the CD is unnecessary. At least it takes you directly to the drivers for your product rather than having to dig through the downloads area.
Once the drivers are installed the display will work immediately, although a reboot is recommended.
When you first run the Matrox GXM software, you are presented with a Quick Setup option, but you can go directly into the software for advanced options. On the main screen of the software is Multi-Display Setup, Desktop Management, Keyboard Shortcuts, System Settings, Administrator Options, Help and Troubleshooting, and About options.
As mentioned previously, the two external monitors connected to the DualHead2Go Digital SE are viewed by Windows as one big monitor, which you can see if you look in the Windows Screen resolution settings. You will see two monitors: the normal laptop display and an extra-wide external monitor.
The first step to set up an extended desktop is to use the Multi-Display Setup option. Everything is probably set up by default and you may not have to touch this. You can change the display settings for each individual monitor, such as resolution, color palette and refresh rate. You can even set up rotation options in case you want to have one really “tall” monitor rather than an extra-wide setup.
On the next page we look at the snapping options…
Windows Vista introduced some neat “snapping” features which let you automatically set up windows side-by-side or maximizing an application using mouse gestures (dragging the window to the left, right, or top of your monitor). These neat snapping features are crippled in traditional multi-mon setups, as you can only snap to the left of your left-most monitor or right of your right-most monitor. Matrox lets you address these issues and other weird caveats in its Desktop Management module.
The Desktop Management module is where you will spend most of your time, anyway. You can set up lots of “cells” within your “virtual monitor” that applications can snap to. By default, your external monitor sets up two cells to divide the display equally. Whenever you maximize a window, the software will maximize the application to the cell and not the entire monitor, which would span two displays.
We split our display into four horizontal cells, which gives us back the “left and right snap panes” that were present in a single-monitor solution. Of course, you can set up a lot of different cells depending on your needs. You no longer “drag” the application to a monitor’s edge, but the application will snap to the nearest cell when you click its maximize button. If you snap an application to the top of the desktop, then it will snap to the nearest cell you have set up rather than taking up the entire window.
The PowerDesk software also has a feature to “identify” your monitors, like Windows does in multiple monitor setups. In addition to the “1”, “2”, and “3” labels, the software shows all of your defined cells (1, 3.1, 3.2, etc), so you can see where applications will snap to.
Knowing this, most of your displays’ configuration will take place in the “Desktop Management” module. You can roll application windows up and down by holding Shift and clicking the Minimize button. There is also a “snap windows” feature, but we couldn’t see how this worked. One handy feature is the “Prevent menu spanning” and “Prevent tooltip spanning”. If you have an application menu that would otherwise roll over onto the next monitor, the software forces it to move so the menu isn’t broken up. Similarly, the “Center dialog boxes” option forces any dialog boxes (alert boxes, Save As dialogs) in the center of the monitor. You can also have the application maximize to a cell rather than the entire monitor.
This worked pretty well for most applications, but Photoshop and other Adobe applications do not like to be contained. Clicking the maximize button will go full-screen across two monitors, and dialog boxes appear in the bezel between the monitors.
Having such a huge desktop can make the mouse difficult to find sometimes. The PowerDesk software lets you set a keyboard shortcut to locate your mouse. We set up a shortcut of “Ctrl + W”, and when pressed then the entire desktop changed to blue, except for a small circle which locates the mouse pointer. This makes it rather obvious where your mouse is, and is much better than the default that Windows includes. You can also set up a macro that swaps the active window to the next cell, which can be helpful when arranging “maximized” applications on your screen.
You can also set which monitor the “Windows Welcome” screen should appear on, but most people will leave this at default, which is the primary display.
Setting Primary display
Windows will only show the taskbar on the “primary” display, but you can easily change this to your new extended monitor in the Multi-Display Setup. If you set the “regular” monitor as the default, then your taskbar will only appear on one screen, and this also sets the default for wallpaper. Wallpaper on your extended display will have black borders around it and look rather hideous.
The alternative is to make your extended display the default, which not only spans the taskbar across both monitors but allows your wallpaper to extend both displays without any issues. In this mode you could set a wide-screen photo and it would appear properly on your external displays but appear squished on your laptop. The software was also intelligent enough to know orientation of our setup, so our mouse cursor didn’t “hit a wall” requiring shuffling monitors around as can happen with traditional multi-mon setups. You will notice that your clock and any taskbar widgets appear on the right of the secondary monitor, which could be annoying to some users.
There is also an Administrator Options mode which lets you set options for any users of this computer. Honestly I can’t imagine the scenario when someone would want to hinder the “snapping” or keyboard shortcut features of this product, but it can be done.
You can set up the modes of your displays in Mode Management, but you probably won’t have to mess with this much since using today’s display technology. In our previous TripleHead2Go analog review (here), we had to tweak refresh rates and other settings, but today’s digital displays are pretty much using 60Hz standard.
This setup works great if you have two matching monitors, or monitors that have the same resolution. If the resolution doesn’t match, then you will be forced to use the lowest common denominator. Suppose you have two monitors, one with 1920 x 1200, and another with 1600×1050. You will have a maximum resolution of 3200 x 1050, which will make the monitor with a higher default resolution look a little blurry, as it is not running its native pixel size. The display would also seem “off” if the monitors differ slightly, such as mixing 1920×1200 and 1920×1080. The key to good experience with the DualHead2Go Digital SE is to use matching monitors with the same resolution.
Gaming
Most games are not multi-monitor aware, and those that are only allow you to configure which single display the game will run in. Since you have one large monitor spanning two displays, you can force a game to use both displays, but it will probably not be a pleasant experience. Many games focus the main character or cross-hair at the very center of the screen, which in this configuration would be right where your two monitors meet. Real-time strategy gamers may find delight with the extra screen real estate, however.
You really need three monitors to get a good multi-monitor gaming experience, such as Matrox’s TripleHead2Go provides. The DualHead2Go Digital SE is really optimized for productivity or kiosk applications.
On the next page we list the features, then draw a conclusion…
Features
- Lets you connect up to two monitors to the single DisplayPort video output of your system
- Creates a stretched desktop of 3840×1200 (2x1920x1200)1 across two displays
- Uses your system’s existing GPU to deliver a solid platform for office, 3D design, and multimedia applications
- Open an application on each display or span one across the two
- HDCP compliance for protected content playback
- Works with displays and projectors
- Quick and easy to install—there’s no need to open the computer case or insert components
- Spans taskbar across monitors for easy access to all your open applications
- Runs in clone mode and shows the same content on all displays
- Includes Matrox PowerDesk software to easily manage your desktop configuration
- External device that won’t void your system warranty
- Expand your desktop further by connecting a second DualHead2Go Digital SE to your graphics hardware to support up to four monitors at a time2
Supported Resolutions
| Resolution | Refresh Rate |
|---|---|
| 1600 x 600 (2x 800 x 600) | 60Hz |
| 2048 x 768 (2x 1024 x 768) | 60Hz |
| 2560 x 720 (2x 1280 x 720) | 50 1, 60Hz |
| 2560 x 768 (2x 1280 x 768) | 60Hz |
| 2560 x 800 (2x 1280 x 800) | 60Hz |
| 2560 x 960 (2x 1280 x 960) | 60Hz |
| 2560 x 1024 (2x 1280 x 1024) | 60Hz |
| 2720 x 768 (2x 1360 x 768) | 60Hz |
| 2800 x 1050 (2x 1400 x 1050) | 60Hz |
| 2880 x 900 (2 x 1440 x 900) | 60Hz |
| 3200 x 900 (2x 1600 x 900) | 60Hz |
| 3200 x 1200 (2 x 1600 x 1200) | 50 1, 60Hz |
| 3360 x 1050 (2 x 1680 x 1050) | 60Hz |
| 3840 x 1080 (2x 1920 x 1080) | 60Hz |
| 3840 x 1200 (2 x 1920 x 1200) | 50Hz 1 |
| 3840 x 1200 (2x 1920 x 1200) | 60Hz |
| 4096 x 1152 (2 x 2048 x 1152) | 60Hz |
The Matrox DualHead2Go Digital SE allows you to extend your desktop for hardware that has limited capabilities. This device only takes input from a DisplayPort and most hardware that features a “professional” graphics port can easily drive three monitors. I’ve seen some laptops that do have a DisplayPort plug but only feature Intel HD integrated graphics, which in many cases will not drive more than two monitors.
Desktop PC users that have a DisplayPort are probably using a professional video card such as an nvidia Quadro, which has no problem running triple monitors.
The DualHead2Go is already a niche item, and this product further limits its potential audience by requiring a PC using a DisplayPort.
The DualHead2Go Digital SE allows laptops with lower-end chipsets to increase productivity by driving up to three monitors (if you include the laptop’s display). This product is also great for presentation purposes, as you can clone your primary display on two monitors or even have a “double-wide” or “double-tall” presentation display.
The product does overcome several issues that productivity users run into when running multiple monitors. The PowerDesk software lets you set up “cells” within the virtual monitor that lets you snap application windows, and the software does a great job keeping menus and dialog boxes from getting caught between screens. Not all software behaves with PowerDesk however, such as Adobe Photoshop.
If you fit in the category of users who need this functionality, then this product is a lifesaver.
2 Comment
Hello..
Actually we have been purchased 10 display full HD multi touch LEC with including 4 Dualhead 2go digital SE, which 8 display connected via digital SE and 2 display connected directly to graphic card.
The issue when we group all 10 displays together, instate of resolution 9600×2160 we are getting 5760 x 2160, so then those 2 displays which are directly connected to AMD have fine resolution but those 8 displays which connected to Matorx are totally stretched.
So where is the problem?
Best Regards Daneil
I'm having trouble deciphering your broken English. Are you trying to stretch a stretched desktop? The device is limited to a maximum native desktop, and cannot be infinitely stretched. Perhaps Matrox would like to chime in?…