Customer Reviews

Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition D2G-A2D-IF

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It is a great product. Does as promised. This is the second of this devices that I own. I also own an analog edition DoubleHead 2 Go.

Two small problems with it. The setup is not as intuitive as it should be, and requires serveral startup cycles to get the right resolution (and it is still a tricky issue). The second issue with it is that even though you get two screens, windows treats them as one big screen. This means that you can not split them. So you basically have only to config options:

a) Laptop - Screen - Screen
b) Screen - Screen - Laptop

For me the best option would be

c) Screen - Laptop - Screen

But this configuration is not possible unless you like to have it as one of the two supported configs (a or b) logically and physically as (c) But then you would get wierd warping of windows as you move from one screen to another. I do not know if this is a limitation because of windows, but if those two issues were resolve I would rate this product 5 stars.

On more thing, before you buy you need to go to the Matrox website to see if your Laptop's Display card is supported, and if it supports the correct resolution for the two monitors you are going to use. They have a wizard that helps you with this.

I bought the DualHead2Go (from Amazon, fulfilled through ANTOnline) to connect my macbook pro to two 24" monitors. Everything in the product said that it would work, but it didn't. After hours working with it and online with Matrox Tech Support, they finally decided that it didn't support my HP monitors in full resolution. (Your monitor has to be capable of syncing at 58Hz, which some can't.) I could still use it while losing about 25% of my screen real estate (at 60Hz), but that's not why I want two monitors! When I tried to return it, I had a small tear in the internal cardboard packaging because I couldn't figure out how to open it. ANTOnline didn't return my emails for months, and then finally told me that the return period had expired while they hadn't responded. It's been days and days of hassle. So be very careful with the DualHead2Go and especially with ANTOnline.

This is a great product to provide a wide workplace for single video output machines, or maybe for a dual screen terminal session for notebooks (without using the notebook screen as one of them). I'd waited for the digital version to come out, as I wanted to use my DVI inputs on the monitors. I had expected DVI input to the device, so was mildly disappointed to find it's VGA input, DVI output. (so back to the dvi->vga adapter for the mac).
But it works great. installed like a dream. (but did have to go to preferences and manually tell the mac that I had a 2800 wide display). works fine, the screen is stretched across the two monitors.
Lesson #1. get monitors with the thinnest side frames possible, to reduce the "gap" in the middle of the display.
Lesson #2. Adjust your preferences so that windows open up in the left or right side of the display. otherwise, they will tend to open in the middle and be interrupted by the monitor edge gap. Especially annoying when you light up a Windows session over citrix, as things like powerpoint will insist on centering the display, so you end up dragging the window to the left or right a lot.

But overall, this is great. Move my Eyetv or audio editing on one monitor and do other work on the other. Most happy with this, and a whole lot cheaper than buying a 36" monitor.

If you're planning to use this for a laptop, at least one running Windows XP, forget it. Every time I connect my laptop to DualHead2Go, my right monitor doesn't work. I have to reset the Matrox to factory settings (which requires a reboot - Why???), wait for the Matrox software to start up again (unbelievably slow), edit the list of available display modes (you only get 4 to choose from, and Matrox's own software says that 2 of the 4 that it chose for me aren't even supported on my hardware - Why???), reboot again and wait for the Matrox software to start again, then choose the correct display modes. And tomorrow morning, I get to do it all over again. It used to take about half an hour, but now I've got it down to only 20 minutes of wasted time each day. Also, there's almost no in-product troubleshooting - you just get sent to Matrox's web site, which I haven't had time to search between all the reboots...

I have been using for about a month (continuousl) using my macbookpro to drive 2 external 1600x1200 screens. The setup was a bit more painful than I would have hoped, largely because Matrox seems to think that we all live in a Windows world. But once going, the hardware has been flawless. My only complaint is that Matrox did not bother to write software to give me 2 1600x1200 screens but only gives me one 3200x1200 screen. With two monitors, I have this nasty bar between the two seamless screens, and a number of mac notifications open up split between the two screens. On my PC, Matrox gave me a driver which allowed me to have two separate screens (this was for a Matrox card, I have not run the dual head on a PC). Note that the DVI (digital edition) box is only a bit more expensive and you need this to get the better resolution.

As others have noted, this is a very specialized piece of equipment. As far as I can tell, it is only useful if you want to use your notebook as your desktop and you want two monitors. But this is what I wanted.

In terms of stability, etc., just fine. Give me two non-seamless screens on a mac and it would be 5 stars if you need this box - given its limited market, its price does not seem crazy.

Overall, I really like the product. Certainly makes dual monitors with a notebook a reality. However, there are a couple of kinks that Matrox still needs to work out. First, there are compatibility issues with Office 2007, and having talked with Matrox Tech support, they hope to have these issues dealt with with their next software update. Currently, you cannon maximize MS Word 2007 without it spanning both displays. Also, in IE 7 the "full screen" is spanned across both displays. Matrox says that because of the frequentcy of MS updates, they cannot keep up. Since both Office 2007 and IE 7 have been out for years now, I would expect compatibility by now.

Be aware if you are in the US, when calling their tech support, it is an "international" call to Canada (which I was not aware of until I got the phone bill..yikes). Would be nice if they had a toll free number.

All in all, still very satisfied with purchase.

I'm not sure what the review suggesting that this product is not for laptops is talking about. This product is PERFECT for laptops, as most laptops only have one external monitor output. I have a Lenovo X61 tablet connected to two Dell 24" widescreen monitors using the DualHead2Go. This gives me a total resolution of 3840x1200. Setup wasn't completely intuitive, and I did have to get on the phone with Matrox tech support to help me set it up. Turned out this was a problem with the Intel graphics drivers, and Matrox tech support very knowledgeably helped me find an older Intel driver that worked better with the Matrox box. (They even did the work for me using Remote Desktop.)

It now works beautifully. My only complaint is that the software doesn't seem to react well when I hot undock, so I've gotten into the habit of shutting down the machine when I'm ready to undock and head home. A little inefficient (since Vista takes so long to shut down and reboot) but not a huge deal.

If you're thinking of buying this product make sure you carefully check the compatibility with your system. The Matrox web site has a downloadable utility that will do this for you. Do you homework so that you're not stuck with a product that won't work with your system!

I can second the review by Bruce Funk - this item works great on my iMac (new metal 20" iMac). I have it set up so that I have the iMac and two 17" displays running (three display areas in total, although it treats the two 17" monitors as one area, as he said). That gives 1680x1050 + 2560x1024 for pixel area. And now with three workspaces, one is for email, one is for the web, and one is for my EyeTV tv viewing. Pretty amazing setup.

The wording on "two independent displays" is somewhat misleading. The device works, but it combines two displays into a single display as far as your video card is concerned. This means the displays have to be next to one another. I tried to put my laptop display between two side monitors. This worked technically, in the fact that the displays were recognized and displayed my desktop. But I was unable to "split" the displays so they would virtually be on either side of the laptop.

If you are just looking for a USB video card for truly independent displays, they are out there and far less expensive.

NVidia graphics card users need to be aware that the advertised wide screen resolution of 3 x 1680 x 1050 or 5040x1050 does NOT currently work. Matrox technical support claims that this issue is caused by a driver issues by NVidia and that they are attempting to work with NVidia to resolve the issue. Technical support has offered me a "patch" which should create a work around but I have yet to get the patch via email from Technical Support as promised.

Also note that Matrox Support is very limited. I have attempted for two days to get someone to call me back or answer the phones in both US and Canada Support and Sales office with no luck.

I am attempting to run this device on three Samsung T260HD 25.5" monitors on two NVidia GTX 295 cards running in SLI. I have read online that in order to run three monitors at 5040x1050 your monitors must support 57 Hz refresh rate. I have not been able to find the rates listed for these monitors on Samsungs site. I hope the system works as I did run the GXM verification tool before I purchased the device and it was approved to operate on my system at the max resolution.

At this time the device does not work at an acceptable resolution for my screen size. I am only going to give it three stars instead of the 1 that it currently deserves. If I am unable to resolve the issues the item will be returned to Amazon and I will update and resubmit a lower rating.