Higher resolution output to external monitor????

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eburness

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Hey guys,

I'm wondering if it's possible for me to output my ibook G4's video signal to an extrenal display such that the display only shows up on the monitor and not the ibook's LCD?? This is a fairly standard thing that pc laptops can do and having employed the extended desktop hack, I know for a fact the Radeon 9200 can easily do 1600x1200. But with the extended desktop hack, it won't let me use the extrenal monitor as the primary window of output. That is to say, I still have to see my dock, taskbar, etc on the ibook's 12" LCD. Anyone know of a way to solve this problem?? Thanks for any help.

ibook G4 1.07ghz
768mb DDR RAM
30GB HD
Airport Extreme
OS X 10.3.6
 
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So basically you want to use an external monitor as your primary display, but can't set it to a higher resolution because the iBook's screen only supports 1024x768?

If you could ignore the iBook's screen, the graphics card should support a higher resolution. Have I assessed the problem correctly?


Haven't a clue... sorry!
 
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vuschejan

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Aptmunich said:
So basically you want to use an external monitor as your primary display, but can't set it to a higher resolution because the iBook's screen only supports 1024x768?

If you could ignore the iBook's screen, the graphics card should support a higher resolution. Have I assessed the problem correctly?


Haven't a clue... sorry!

I've done it, but I just messed with the monitor prefs in preferences
 
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eburness

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vuschejan said:
I've done it, but I just messed with the monitor prefs in preferences

Well, Yes, what I want to do is use the external monitor as the primary display. Now, video mirroring does that in a sense, but doesn't let you do a resolution higher than what is being simultaneously outputed to the iBook's LCD (which has a MAX resolution fo 1024x768). So I think what I need to do is either...

A.) Have the iBook send a video signal to ONLY the external monitor (LCD goes blank), in which case the iBook would auto-detect that it was outputing to a display with a higher max resolution.

B.) Using the extended desktop hack, configure the dual display setup so the ibook LCD is the secondary display and the external monitor is the primary display.


Any suggestions????
 
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Well not really, but I haven't tried the screen doctor hack yet either, so ...

You say your option B.) doesn't work right?

Maybe vuschejan can shed some more light on how he did it...
 
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If you go into the monitor preferences where they show the Arrangement tab (not sure if it shows up in iBooks) you can drag the top gray bar (symbolizes the Finder Bar) to the other monitor
 
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eburness

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trpnmonkey41 said:
If you go into the monitor preferences where they show the Arrangement tab (not sure if it shows up in iBooks) you can drag the top gray bar (symbolizes the Finder Bar) to the other monitor

Does that put only the finder bar on the other display or the entire desktop set? (eg: icons, dock, and taskbar)

The funny thing is I feel like this HAS to be doable. Pretty much every PC laptop can do this, and thus far I've found my iBook to be a pretty superior machine.
 
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That moves everything to the other screen. This is how it works on the powerbook since screen spanning is supported.

I guess Apple disable screen spanning on the iBooks just to make it another reason the powerbook is more powerful
 
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vuschejan

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trpnmonkey41 said:
That moves everything to the other screen. This is how it works on the powerbook since screen spanning is supported.

I guess Apple disable screen spanning on the iBooks just to make it another reason the powerbook is more powerful

Ok I figured it out, I didnt have to use a screen spanning hack because well, I didnt need it, I guess its no longer prohibited.
A. Connect Monitor
B. Go to sys prefs
C. Click display
D. Click Show Displays in menu bar
E. Go to the little display in menu bar
F. To span, click turn off mirroring
G. To mirror click turn on mirroring
H. Within that menu is both displays and what their under
I. Click Display prefs and it will bring up a menu for both of the screens, you can then choose what you want each to be.

Hope This helps!
 
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eburness

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vuschejan said:
Ok I figured it out, I didnt have to use a screen spanning hack because well, I didnt need it, I guess its no longer prohibited.
A. Connect Monitor
B. Go to sys prefs
C. Click display
D. Click Show Displays in menu bar
E. Go to the little display in menu bar
F. To span, click turn off mirroring
G. To mirror click turn on mirroring
H. Within that menu is both displays and what their under
I. Click Display prefs and it will bring up a menu for both of the screens, you can then choose what you want each to be.

Hope This helps!

Thanks for the reply, but I think what you're describing simply allows me to up the resolution on an external monitor, which I already know how to do. What I'm trying to do is output my desktop (with the finder bar, dock, and icons) to the external monitor and have it be the primary desktop. That is, the LCD on the iBook would become the secondary display. Or, if possible, turning the display on the iBook LCD off and only ouputting to the external monitor. Sorry if I was unclear. Any new suggestions?
 
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vuschejan

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eburness said:
Thanks for the reply, but I think what you're describing simply allows me to up the resolution on an external monitor, which I already know how to do. What I'm trying to do is output my desktop (with the finder bar, dock, and icons) to the external monitor and have it be the primary desktop. That is, the LCD on the iBook would become the secondary display. Or, if possible, turning the display on the iBook LCD off and only ouputting to the external monitor. Sorry if I was unclear. Any new suggestions?
Isnt that the same thing though? You have a mirror picture that you can use as your primary on the the bigger monitor in a different size, then you just turn the contrast till the display on the ibook is off...
 
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eburness

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vuschejan said:
Isnt that the same thing though? You have a mirror picture that you can use as your primary on the the bigger monitor in a different size, then you just turn the contrast till the display on the ibook is off...



No, not the same. When you turn on mirroring (at least on the iBook) the display on the external monitor only goes as high as the display onthe iBook's LCD. As such, when I do video mirroring, the only resolution I can output to the external monitor is 1024x768. Screen spanning does let me crank up the resolution to a nice 1600x1200 on th external monitor (LCD remais at 1024x768), but does not let me configure the external monitor as the primary desktop screen on which the finder ba, dock, and icons appear.
 
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vuschejan

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eburness said:
No, not the same. When you turn on mirroring (at least on the iBook) the display on the external monitor only goes as high as the display onthe iBook's LCD. As such, when I do video mirroring, the only resolution I can output to the external monitor is 1024x768. Screen spanning does let me crank up the resolution to a nice 1600x1200 on th external monitor (LCD remais at 1024x768), but does not let me configure the external monitor as the primary desktop screen on which the finder ba, dock, and icons appear.

If you follow my directions you can do that. Hit turn off mirroring in the top part, then you have two windows, screen resoulutions for the Ibook and one for the monitor. I cranked mine up to 1600x1200 just now.
 

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