Product Description

Our DVI splitter cable provides a fast and easy way to simultaneously connect 2 DVI-D displays to a single digital DVI source. This 12" cable is made from the highest quality components to provide crystal clear video transmissions. With support for high-resolution images, this cable is ideal for presentations.

Product Details

• Brand: Cables Unlimited
• Model: PCM-2265
• Platform: Windows
• Format: CD
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.50" h x 1.50" w x 12.00" l, .35 pounds

Features

• Gold connectors provide maximum corrosion resistance for error-free data transfer
• Splits your video signal providing simultaneous display of the same picture
• Double-shielded foil and braid for high-resolution imaging
• Flexible jacket and thumbscrews make installation easy
• Lifetime Warranty

Customer Reviews

Probably not the right product for you...
This is a well-assembled and high-quality product as far as cables go, but it was useless to me. I have a two-monitor setup on my PC and wanted to duplicate the output of one my monitors to an LCD HDTV. The product comes with no real instructions, no support whatsoever, and the manufacturer hasn't bothered to tell people about the many limitations of this product. The result for me was many frustrating hours trying to get it to work. I have decided to return this product.

If you are even considering this product, here are some things you should know:

1) The product will only work for splitting a DVI signal from a "Dual-Link" DVI port. What that means is that if you're using it to split the output of a DVI port on your PC, for example, your PC's video card must output Dual-Link DVI through that port. Now Dual-Link doesn't mean that your card has two DVI ports. It is a special output mode for DVI digital signals where the video signal is sent through two sets of pins on your DVI cable. A discussion of single vs. dual link is available at <[..]. This passive (non-powered) splitter essentially relies on the redundant signal transmitted through the second set of pins to be able to output the same signal to two displays.

Many video cards only output Single-Link DVI, not Dual-Link, and it is not always easy to find out if your video card supports Dual-Link DVI. Some cards claim "Dual-Link DVI," but they're mistakenly referring to the fact that the card has two DVI ports. Finding out whether your video card supports true "Dual-Link" DVI is a challenging task, trust me, especially if your video card is a couple of years old. I ended up replacing my nVidia video card with an ATI card to gain Dual-Link DVI support, but it still didn't work for the reasons explained in (3) below.

2) This supports only DVI-D, meaning it works only with digital devices. The DVI standard can support analog outputs (to a VGA-type device), but that doesn't work for this device.

3) Even if you get a true Dual-Link DVI-D output through your video card, it still may not work. This is because your PC may not be able to deal with the fact that you have two devices connected through one DVI port. When you plug something into your PC's video card, the computer tries to figure out what type of device it is talking to so it can determine the available resolutions, refresh rate, etc., for that device. On my system, this identification step fails when I have the splitter plugged in, presumably because the computer can't figure out what the device actually is, so it determines that nothing is there. (The only way to get it to work on my computer is to plug in just the monitor without the splitter and then hot-swap the splitter, which fools the video card into skipping the identification step so it thinks it's still talking to just the monitor.)

The bottom line is that splitting a DVI video signal across two displays is far more complex than you would think. For most people, a powered DVI switcher or powered DVI splitter will work better for most applications.

Mostly works
1. Depending on what you're doing, you may have some problems with green dots being randomly flashed on the screen (they look like stuck pixels, except they jump around). This was especially true for video gaming; not as much for less graphics-intense activities.
2. Applications like the NVIDIA Control Panel that detect your monitor manufacturer, model, and resolution settings will no longer be able to do so.
3. Make sure that you are using DVI-D connections and not DVI-A.

DVI Splitter
If you are looking for a splitter to use two monitors on your computer through a dvi connection this is the one to buy.
One warning though, when you buy the DVI cables insure they have the correct pin layout, I made the mistake of getting a cable that had four pins around the blades and would not work.