Monitor Advice

[Hawthy]

I have been working from home on my laptop quite a bit recently and borrowed a monitor so that I could have a bigger screen. The new monitor is set up next to my existing monitor, which looks dull, yellow and just awful in comparison. Time for an update.

My question is, if I buy a monitor with two HDMI inputs, I assume that I could have my personal desktop permanently plugged in and I could also plug in my work laptop when I needed? If so, could I have both computers turned on simultaneously and alternate somehow between the two? Or would it be a case of having just one computer on at a time?

My thinking is that instead of the current set up of two 23 inch screens side by side cluttering up my desk, I could get just one larger monitor and free up space while getting a nice big screen that I can use for both work and play.

[ameerat42]

I used to able to do just that . With 2 inputs you switch (actually cycle) through a few more, depending on
what it's got.

[gcflora]

Yes, you can do that. More usually though you'll have your PC connected to the "display port" (DP) (which is what modern monitors have and often more than one as well as other digital ports) and then the other things connected to the HDMI port(s). You then do exactly as you say... "cycle" using the monitors on-screen display. The reason I do it that way, with main PC using the display port rather than HDMI, is that I find the quality of HDMI image slightly poorer than using the DP -- might just be my HDMI cable though. So main computer is connected via DP and laptop is connected via HDMI.

Edit: Based on the above, the monitor may not need 2 HDMI ports: 1 HDMI + 1 DP/DVI would suffice. Most monitors come with 2 HDMI ports as well as the plethora of other ports though. Best to check with the actual monitor once you've narrowed down your choices though. Just checked and my monitor has 4 video input sources selectable from the OSD (HDMI-1, HDMI-2, DP and USB-C) (I use HDMI-1 and DP).

Edit 2: I just checked specs and remembered why I use DP and not HDMI for both inputs. The maximum refresh rate for this monitor is lower when using HDMI than using the DP. That's why I use DP for main computer. Whether or not all monitors are like that I don't know. For some people it doesn't matter (I can tell the difference between 60Hz and 40Hz though... many people cannot)

[Tannin]

Just for clarification, Display Port isn't really more modern than HDMI; they are both about the same vintage.


Monitor connection standards over the years have been:


Mono / Hercules (analog, long obsolete)
CGA (analog, long obsolete)
EGA (analog, long obsolete)
VGA & enhanced versions of it (analog, still in use but now obsolescent)
DVI (digital, was very common now slowly fading away, though still very much in use. There were also several weird and uncommon DVI variants, including an analogue one. No-one knows why.)
HDMI (digital, current)
Display Port (digital, current)


HDMI sprinted out of the blocks and became quite common early on, where Display Port was a bit of a slow starter. Technically, they have been pretty much equivalent to each other - and indeed until recently equivalent to DVI - and both get enhanced with new versions from time to time. Display Port, for some reason, seems to be mounting a bit of a comeback lately and isn't as uncommon as it used to be. I expected Display Port to quietly die the same way Betamax did, but it seems to have kicked on.

(For the record, I mostly use Display Port, but only because that's the format my Thinkpads provide and it's easier to buy a monitor to suit the laptop than the other way around. Most (all?) high quality monitors do all three - DVI, Display Port and HDMI. For more extra detail than anybody in the entire universe except Arthur could possibly be interested in, see the Wikipedia articles.)

[Hawthy]

Thanks for the advice. Picked up the monitor today and it works perfectly. Bigger screen and more space. Win / Win. Cheers.