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Finding out whether your video card supports true "Dual-Link" DVI is a challenging task, trust me, especially if your video card is a couple of years old. (The only way to get it to work on my computer is to plug in just the monitor without the splitter and then hot-swap the splitter, which fools the video card into skipping the identification step so it thinks it's still talking to just the monitor).The mere existence of this product is misleading in that it suggests that splitting a DVI video signal across two displays is simple and straightforward. I ended up replacing my nVidia video card with an ATI card to gain true Dual-Link DVI support, but it still didn't work for the reasons explained in (3) below.2) This supports only DVI-D, meaning it works only with digital devices. A powered DVI 1x2 splitter from [.]. The result for me was many frustrating hours trying to get it to work. This is a well-assembled and high-quality product as far as cables go, typical of a Cables Unlimited product, but it was useless and will likely be useless to you. I have a two-monitor setup on my PC and wanted to duplicate the output of one my monitors to an LCD HDTV. What that means is that if you're using it to split the output of a DVI port on your PC, for example, your PC's video card must output Dual-Link DVI through that port.
Some cards claim "Dual-Link DVI," but they're mistakenly referring to the fact that the card has two DVI ports. For most people, it isn't. This is because your PC may not be able to deal with the fact that you have two devices connected through one DVI port. will cost more ([.].), but will actually work. On my system, this identification step fails when I have the splitter plugged in, presumably because the computer can't figure out what the device actually is, so it determines that nothing is there. Now Dual-Link doesn't mean that your card has two DVI ports. When you plug something into your PC's video card, the computer tries to figure out what type of device it is talking to so it can determine the available resolutions, refresh rate, etc., for that device. The product comes with no real instructions, no support whatsoever, and the manufacturer hasn't bothered to tell people about the many limitations of this product.
The DVI standard can support analog outputs (to a VGA-type device), but that doesn't work for this device.3) Even if you get a true Dual-Link DVI-D output through your video card, it still may not work. This passive (non-powered) splitter essentially relies on the redundant signal transmitted through the second set of pins to be able to output the same signal to two displays.Many video cards only output Single-Link DVI, not Dual-Link, and it is not always easy to find out if your video card supports Dual-Link DVI. I have decided to return this product and purchase a powered DVI splitter from Monoprice.If you are even considering this product, here are some things you should know:1) The product will only work for splitting a DVI signal from a "Dual-Link" DVI port. It is a special output mode for DVI digital signals where the video signal is sent through two sets of pins on your DVI cable.
If you do not have a Dual-link port, your computer will not put out enough juice to split the signal.Issue 2: Mac OS X uses an auto-detect to determine what monitor is attached and what resolution signal to send. OSX correctly identified 1920x1080 for my HDTV, but would not let me scale the output down to the 1680x1050 required of my monitor. This is a solid cable, and as others have commented, it does split the image. It appears as though the cable has a primary side and a secondary side, so that only one monitor talks to the computer. (My computer monitor never accepted the signal from either output, even when it was the only thing plugged into it).All told, if you are trying to rig up a cheap man's DVI switch between two different devices (like a monitor and a TV) pay the money for a switch because this cable is built for one purpose only: splitting a single signal to two similar displays. However, it has some technical requirements that the company seems to have no interest in sharing:Issue 1: You MUST have a dual-link DVI port on your computer. Many graphics cards that have two ports will have both a single-link DVI port, and a dual-link DVI port (like some for the MacPro).
You need your devices to be able to use it though, which can be an issue. It splits the signal as it's designed to, you can't complain there.
I found out the hard way. Splitting a video signal is not that simple, your computers video card must support multiple displays (and if it does it prabobly alredy has 2 or more connections). if your video card does not support multiple displays this connector will definitlly not work.
I may have a defective product, but we'll see once I exchange it. Very dissapointing. I tried to split one of my display outputs so that I could use both my LCD monitor and my television. They both work individually, but when I hook them up to the splitter, neither of them work at all.
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