HDMI Multiple Monitors Vexation

1. Do you want to have multiple monitors displaying different desktops?
2. Or do you want all the monitors to display the same desktop?

If you have only one HDMI port then you can accomplish item 2, but not item.

Are you sure you have an HDMI port and not a Display Port?
Can you provide the make and model of your computer?

Whether you can do what you want with your existing PC hardware depends on what graphics card it has, which we can't tell. That HP part number you supplied is too generic, and the DESKTOP-H92FAF8 bit, which sounds promising, produces no useful search results (for me, anyway). Whilst you can 'split' an HDMI signal out to more than one monitor, the displays would be identical. You need a graphics card with more than one output connector (so you can connect extra monitors) and the right s/w installed to allow that. If you already have an additional graphics output (display port), you could try that, but there is no guarantee that the system will recognise this as two seperate monitors - it might.

Thanks for your response: I appreciate your thoughts.

Yes. A direct connection to a video card would be best. I looked at mine but dismissed it after a first viewing. I will see what I can do about digging deeper into it tomorrow, Monday.
I have been looking at adapters like this one:


BVU3500H
Diamond Multimedia USB 3.0 to DVI/HDMI Video Graphics Adapter up to 2560×1440 / 1920×1080 (BVU3500H)

This video suggests that it or one like it will work with my machine because it has two USB 3 ports.
Diamond Multimedia USB 3.0 to DVI/HDMI Video Graphics Adapter up to 2560x1440 / 1920x1080 (BVU3500H) | Diamond Multimedia

There are many others mol like this one but I have not been able to sort them out.

I have focused on Diamond because they have a phone number. All the others I have looked at in Amazon do not provide such support. I will call them tomorrow.

Please let me know what you think of the video.

Again thanks for your thoughts.

This is not my area of expertise! But you will (somewhat surprisingly) probably not get much help here, as, unlike most of the other categories on TenForums, Grahics-cards is mostly populated by people with fancier-than-normal (meaning not cheap) hardware. I hardly ever visit this section for that reason - my h-w is not fancy. That said:

1. Do you have USB-3 ports on the HP? This adapter will not work with anything less. There are others that claim to work with USB-2, and they may, but performance may be an issue. Your CPU will have to do the work providing the extra graphics, and may not be up to it.

2. The proper (?) way to improve graphics is to add a dedicated graphics card - your info above is not specific enough about your HP to say what capability it has, but it almost certainly has one PCI-express slot - but you may be limited by the length of card that will fit. In addition, your power supply may not be up to it.

Please supply a fuller model number for the PC including date of purchase/manufacture, CPU fitted and anything else you think might be useful. There is a place (bottom left of every post from you) to allow you to enter the info once you know it.

hth, Martin

Thanks Martin. I did not get back to this today. I will try for it again tomorrow. You raise very good points. I recently raised similar comments in the context of USB port amperage draws. MOL the same question came up: how much current draw will the machine take before it trips its "circuit breaker".

After the last exchange in that thread I found an article that stated if a USB port gets overloaded W10 squawks. I stopped there. That issue and this one too may be needed to be ported to an electronics forum. I am too many decades rusty to sort this out by myself. I read some of the Amazon Diamond comments but they did not speak to these issues.

Yes. I do have two USB 3 ports.

I have not yet dug into the card spec's but will try to do that tomorrow.
Here are the specs on the machine. They may be helpful for now?

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05735556
>Lubin - mobo image
https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-570-p000-desktop-pc-series/13823514/document/c05382582


Thanks for your continued support.

Michael

- - - Updated - - -

Does this help?


- - - Updated - - -

Did you have a look a this page? Diamond Multimedia USB 3.0 to DVI/HDMI Video Graphics Adapter up to 2560x1440 / 1920x1080 (BVU3500H) | Diamond Multimedia
System Requirements

Compatible with Microsoft ® Windows ® 10, Windows ® 8, Windows ® 7, Windows Vista ®, Windows XP and Apple Mac OS (Mac OS 10.13.4, 10.13.5, 10.13.6 NOT Supported)
o 1.6 GHz CPU
o 1GB memory
For 6 screens where 1 screen can run full screen DVD video:
o 1.8GHz Core Duo
o 1GB memory
One USB 2.0 port
30 megabytes (MB) of free disk space
10MB Hard Disk space
1GB System Memory
Available CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive

Hello again: Yes, I did originally look at that USB-to-HDMI adapter, and it was tha fact that it says in the title 'USB3' that ed me to ask if you have that - I failed to spot you had already confirmed you did. Rather oddly, in its spec the page says it requires 'one USB2 port', so who knows what it really needs.

Your PC: I had already guessed you had a 570-p054 (it was the most common search result for HP570), and had found both those spec pages. Note that if you use USB for graphics, your CPU has to do all the work, and it may struggle to manage 2, let alone 3, monitors - although it depends on what you are displaying, and what screen refresh rate you want -it is unlikely to be any good for modern games.

The issue of USB load is unlikely to be power (amperage) - it will be the ability to send data fast enough. You won't be using it to charge/power things. However, whatever is inside it has to get its power from the USB lead, so current draw may be an issue. I believe the adapter uses DisplayLInk to drive the external monitors, it is not an external graphics processor (GPU). I am not sure, but I think it uses only the CPU to generate the signals, so the capabilities of your internal GPU may be irrelevant.

If it weren't for your small motherboard (20.5x22cm) I'd say get a proper graphics card - but it would take more 'research' to find one that would fit - low-spec ones will, for example a GeForce GT 710, but that may have less 'oomph' than your built-in GPU, and will cost about the same as the Diamond USB dongle.

As a final note, I see that your PC has both HDMI and VGA outputs. I would try attaching one of the monitors to the VGA port - you may be able to get 2 screens running without spending any more money!

Thanks for all your comments Martin. They all make sense to me in the way you say them.

I too found the spec's confusing. I need to tend to other things tomorrow so I will need to put this in the background for a short bit. When I can get back to ut I will craft a letter to Diamond and ask for further explanations.

I have connected the Walmart monitor through the VGA port. It works but not very well. The resolution is very poor in comparison to the HDMI, as expected, so I abandoned that approach for solutions like we have been discussing.

My next step will be incorporating your thoughts into the letter. If you could be so kind could you take a loo at it before I send it so that I know I have the facts straight?

Another track through this could be just purchasing one and trying it under the Amazon approval provision. Maybe you have a way to get a handle on the processor drag?

Good night from here.

When you say VGA resolution was poor: what are the numbers? By default, the system may set a low resolution on the VGA monitor to be 'safe' Did you try adjusting the resolution? I am running a bog-standard VGA connection to a 22" monitor at 1920z1080 (the native res'n of the monitor) and it looks fine.

I'm not sure its worth writing what may be a complex letter to Diamond - I'd try a phone call first. But for ~$50, you could just buy it from Amazon or Diamond and hope.

I have no feel for the effect the dongle would have on CPU load.