Faux PIP -- 7" secondary monitor

[[-- edited -- solution found; actual product was a 7" Lilliput MONITOR (driven over HDMI as a monitor, not USB as a vid-card/monitor)]]


So, if I buy this...
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/usb-gadgets/c609/
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=842

..do you think I'd be able to watch videos on it while I play CoX in full screen mode on Windows 7? I ask because I cannot make VLC, MPC-HC, or any other video player stay 'always on top' in Windows 7 while playing CoX (though I CAN in WinXP on the same PCs (dualbooted)).

Do note that it states that it has its own video card-ish thing, so that may help with the full screen problem on the main video card.

Assume I have the necessary hardware power for this otherwise.

Thanks in advance.

My impression has been that a lot of displays like that just plain aren't fast enough for real usage, but I can't guarantee it.

My solution involved one of those little portable DVD players.

Yeah... I keep thinking i could just use my netbook or iPad

You know, I didn't think to simply test the 2ndary monitors I ALREADY have setup. With the game in FULL SCREEN mode on my main monitor, on the 2nd monitor (off of the same video card) I CAN run a video (even a full bit rate BLU RAY) on the 2nd monitor. I don't know why, but I thought the 2nd screen was blanked when a full screen game was run on the main.

That said, I feel confident that the USB screen WOULD work, though I do wonder how exactly the video player would decide whether to use software (CPU) or hardware (GPU) decoding -- i.e. would it still use the MAIN video card to decode the video even if the video was shown on another display that is driven by a different video card (the USB screen supposedly runs off of its own video 'card').

Interesting indeed.

Perhaps then what I really need is a sub 12" (6-12" diag) LED LCD screen with a decent resolution that can take in HDMI or DVI, then I can run it as a real 2nd monitor off of the main video card.

Anyone know of such a thing? [I don't want bigger, because then it's no longer a PIP, it's a PBP... and I want to place it in my straight ahead viewing plane -- my main screen is a 40" display that I sit no more than 3 feet away from, with a 30" Dell 3008 on the left and a 24" Dell 2405 on the right of the main.]

Not sure to your question, but I did like this line: "Connect up to six UM70s (or any other USB monitor for that matter!) to one Windows-based computer simultaneously."
Now that's some PiP! Use that and 3D Vision Surround...... Multi-Taskers Anon will begin session shortly....


*edited for missing words.....

honestly, i just break out my laptop on the side when i want to run in full screen. those USB monitors have trouble with certain apps, like Java and Flash, at least in my experiance where i work, we have a 4 monitor setup, 2 on a real video card, the other 2 on a USB-VGA adapter.

Looks like I may have found my solution with mini LCD with HDMI input that is favored by those looking for a cheap external screen for their cameras....

This is also a Lilliput, but a different model with HDMI input (i.e. it doesn't have it's own vid card and would use my main GTX 480, which would likely work a lot better anyway):
http://cheesycam.com/external-hdmi-lcd-7/

BAM! Trigger pulled. (slightly different version; has HDMI and component inputs; I'll have to snap a few photos of my setup once I get it finalized)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=390241448301

Woot!

Received my 7" screen today. Again, I bought the MONITOR version, not the USB vid/card version. The model I bought has both Component Video In AND HDMI in. Using DVI->HDMI from my older nvidia card (8800 GT), I have it running as a 2nd monitor.

I've found that (so far) VLC works fine playing full screen on monitor #2 while gaming on monitor #1. Framerate drop is not even noticeable. And THAT is while playing back a full 1080p Blu-Ray original file (i.e. very high bit rate).

Also, it can of course run nicely as a monitor taking in HDMI input from my cable box. Because the device will take in a 1080p signal, everything works peachy (this is needed to avoid issues with the other 1080p screens attached to the same cable box).