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Mac pro Desktop

D

Diskdoctor

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2006
24
0
I have just bought a new power mac. after being a pc user for 20 years.
My Mac pro as a 1900XT graphics card in it. I run 2 monitors on it.
my question is can any one tell me how to get my desktop to span across the 2 monitors. For eg my pc montiors are set at 1680x1050 with both side by side it gives me a desktop of 3360x1050. I can put a background picture on my desktop which spans both monitor.
But on this mac I can only show two diffrent pictures or the same picture twice. I want to use one picture and span it across both monitor.
Can I do this and if so how? or have i found something a mac can't do that a pc can.
 
i'm sure there is a way, isn't there... i mean, that just seem like a no-solution
 
In windows you can set it up in your display setting to span 2 desktops.(if your card supports it...I run a nvidia geforce something...256 meg.card)
The if you set it up to change the wallpaper each time you reboot the picture on both montors changes.
If I have to cut a image in two to do this on a mac..then why dose apple show a picture of new york spaning 2 desktops in there adds...
I bought this mac because I was told that thay are so much better than a pc..
So far I have found loads of bugs. Like if you are running windows with boot camp.. you have to put a jack plug in the head phone socket to turn of the internal speaker. So the sound just comes out of the pc speakers..I mean what is the point of fitting a 5.1 digital output if you can still here the internal speaker..It just messes up the sound from my surround sound...
any way cutting a picture in 2 in order to span it across two monitor..is a bit like cheating when you play a game. (its easy to win then) I won't to do it without cheating.. :eek:
 
Diskdoctor said:
So far I have found loads of bugs. Like if you are running windows with boot camp.. you have to put a jack plug in the head phone socket to turn of the internal speaker. So the sound just comes out of the pc speakers..I mean what is the point of fitting a 5.1 digital output if you can still here the internal speaker..It just messes up the sound from my surround sound...
any way cutting a picture in 2 in order to span it across two monitor..is a bit like cheating when you play a game. (its easy to win then) I won't to do it without cheating.. :eek:
Click to expand...


Ermm.. you bought a mac.. you've been told Macs are better (OS X is better) but you complain about Windows support? Oh lord
 
Diskdoctor said:
In windows you can set it up in your display setting to span 2 desktops.(if your card supports it...I run a nvidia geforce something...256 meg.card)
The if you set it up to change the wallpaper each time you reboot the picture on both montors changes.
If I have to cut a image in two to do this on a mac..then why dose apple show a picture of new york spaning 2 desktops in there adds...
Click to expand...
If windows spans a normal desktop background across 2 monitors, then it is stretching the image like crazy and it looks horrible. You always need 2 images for screen spanning to look good no matter what OS you are running unless the desktop background was created for the width of 2 monitors in the first place. Of every dual monitor backgrounds I have ever seen, they were always one photo split into 2 images.
I bought this mac because I was told that thay are so much better than a pc..
Click to expand...
You shouldn't believe everything you are told. Choosing an operating system is a personal choice and you should do some research yourself before spending 3 grand on a computer with an OS you have never used.
So far I have found loads of bugs. Like if you are running windows with boot camp.. you have to put a jack plug in the head phone socket to turn of the internal speaker. So the sound just comes out of the pc speakers..I mean what is the point of fitting a 5.1 digital output if you can still here the internal speaker..It just messes up the sound from my surround sound...
Click to expand...
Bootcamp is BETA software. Of course it has bugs. But the bugs you are referring to are most likely because of windows drivers, not bootcamp or your mac.
any way cutting a picture in 2 in order to span it across two monitor..is a bit like cheating when you play a game. (its easy to win then) I won't to do it without cheating.. :eek:
Click to expand...
It's not cheating. It's how it's done. Mac OS has the best multi-monitor support on any OS. XP doesn't even come close in that department.
 
If windows spans a normal desktop background across 2 monitors, then it is stretching the image like crazy and it looks horrible. You always need 2 images for screen spanning to look good no matter what OS you are running unless the desktop background was created for the width of 2 monitors in the first place. Of every dual monitor backgrounds I have ever seen, they were always one photo split into 2 images.
Click to expand...

(1) In Windows you simply use a back ground image that is 3360x1050 and it not stretched and looks really cool. The Start botton is on my left hand monitor and the clockis on the other with a long task bar between the 2.

Bootcamp is BETA software. Of course it has bugs. But the bugs you are referring to are most likely because of windows drivers, not bootcamp or your mac.
Click to expand...

(2) I no Boot Camp is Beta software. But Boot Camp created the windows drivers so its down to boot camp not windows if the drivers don't work. I have no dought that apple will fix these problems.

You shouldn't believe everything you are told. Choosing an operating system is a personal choice and you should do some research yourself before spending 3 grand on a computer with an OS you have never used.
Click to expand...

(3) I reseached it for 3 weeks before i bought it and it was a lot more than 3 grand the I have a 512 meg graphics card in, 4 gig of ram, a 250 gig and a 750 gig hard drive and two monitors 23'' so you do the math,

I am not saying i am not happy with my new mac in fact i love it i just want it to put my big 3340x1050 picture across both monitors, and there must be a way to do it... With the os or some other software...

The Mac OS is all eye candy and as some really nice features thats why the new windows vista as copyed a lot of them...

To be honest I just don't want to say that my new xx grand mac can't do something my 200 dollor pc can
 
i'm with you in that i think there should be an easier way than to split the image in half... altho in the mean time, splitting it might be what you want to compromise for now, til we find a better soln... surely a 3rd party app would do...

but in term of the gaming span onto 2 monitors... i dont know about that
 
With Gaming you don't use both monitors to play. But it really cool because you can use one to play a game and still show your desktop on the other and run say a chat program and chat to friend at the same time..
 
Diskdoctor said:
With Gaming you don't use both monitors to play. But it really cool because you can use one to play a game and still show your desktop on the other and run say a chat program and chat to friend at the same time..
Click to expand...
oh that...
that's the reason i made my 2 LCD mirrors when i play game under XP... if i draged the mouse too far, then it kicks me to the desktop, not good.
 
I've got the same issue. Just got hold of 2 huge desktop pics for the upcoming Supreme Commander game and they are designed for dual screens. I showed them to my boss who has a pc running XP and it spanned them perfectly across his dual 19" screens. Can't do it in OS X (have 2 17" screens). Annoying!!!

Btw that mandolux site is cool! Great pics on there!
 
OK, so a few things come to mind reading this discussion. Perhaps those of you who have made suggestions can help clear up the details I'm not understanding.

1) One of you mentioned a website with dual-screen wall-papers. So, I checked that out. But, they still appear to be two images that would be used separately. One on each screen. Is this how you are using them, or are you combining them into a single wider picture?

2) One of you said that Windows allows you to use two separate wall-papers (one on each screen). I'm using Vista Ultimate, and have not seen or located this setting. I have spanning enabled, but have not found a setting for separate desktops or separate wall-papers. Let me know if I'm missing something.

3) One of you said you are using separate pictures on each screen on your Mac. Is this in OS X? Are you combining these images? Or, have you found the trick?

For the record, I am using:

Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad with 3 GB RAM, Default (base) graphics card with 2 MB of RAM, two 19-inch wide-screen DVI monitors. OS 10.4.10 and Windows Vista Ultimate with Boot Camp.

I'd be interested in hearing clarifications on the above as it relates to both OS X and Windows Vista.

I was just thinking the other day that I would like to have two backgrounds instead of the same one on both screens. So, then I stumble on this thread, and found it interesting.
 
Diskdoctor said:
...
I am not saying i am not happy with my new mac in fact i love it i just want it to put my big 3340x1050 picture across both monitors, and there must be a way to do it... With the os or some other software...

The Mac OS is all eye candy and as some really nice features thats why the new windows vista as copyed a lot of them...

To be honest I just don't want to say that my new xx grand mac can't do something my 200 dollor pc can
Click to expand...

Of course there are pros and cons on each platform. For me OS X wins any day, but that might be different for somebody else.

But come on, this is such a minor thing. I mean, how often do you change the desktop background? In the time it took you to moan about it here you could have cut 100 images in two if you know anything about Photoshop. Maybe even 1000 if you use an action and the automate function.
 
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