Display mirroring with Mac OS X.2.8 - 2 ATI vid cards.

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Diego_Knyte's picture
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Display mirroring with Mac OS X.2.8 - 2 ATI vid cards.

Sup guys, I'm trying to figure something out with my display options in OS X.2.8 but I'm stumped. I thought maybe I could bounce it off you guys' grey matter. Sorry for being long-winded.

I'm trying to get my TV/S-vid out to mirror the VGA of my main Radeon 8500 AGP card. I have a ATI Radeon 8500 AGP 64MB and an ATI Rage Orion PCI 16MB both with 17" VGA monitors attached. If I hook up a TV/VCR to the TV/s-vid out on the 8500 it splits the 64MB VRAM to 32MB each as it should. I have three displays I can scroll across. That part's no sweat...

I noticed that the OS X's Displays System Pref will NOT allow me to drag a monitor over another to mirror like in OS 9.x. When I select the Displays 'CDEV' in OS X there's only a check-box for Mirror Displays, which mirrors all 3 of 'em, unlike in OS 9.2.x you can choose which monitors are mirrored by dragging one display on top of the other within the Monitors' Arrangement tab. If I hit it, all three mirror.

Latest ATI updates are installed. I understand as per the ATI 8500 blah blah, that the S-Vid out will simulscan mirror the VGA port of the card but only if there's a VGA and a DVI LCD monitor attached. Using a DVI-VGA adapter will not allow simulscan, only mirror mode. Having both 17ers plugged into the 8500 cuts off the DVI port adapted monitor when TV mode is selected thru the ATI utility (mirroring to TV is possible but it hates Open GL full screen programs and mirroring iTunes to my TV).

So the question is: Is this a limitation of OS X having 3 displays? One solution would be to buy a DVI LCD but y'know, we work with what we got.

Much mahalo for suggestions or comments and taking the time to read this far. :coolmac: