Those of you who use dual monitors...

[RolltheStampede]

and recommendations for a set of monitors, i should be coming into some cash soon.

[SQ]

Only thing about dual monitors I couldn't understand was having one monitor larger than the other or having one monitor at a larger resolution than the other. D:

I started out with a 15" monitor and when I got enough money to buy another, I just bought another 15" instead of going bigger. It's not too impressive but it helps tons (I'm also only on 1024x768 ).

It's awesome, especially for editing. When I was in college, I'd often times have Premiere and After Effects up at the same time, constantly transferring project files from one to the other. I had Premiere ont he Primary and After Effects on the secondary. Worked amazingly. I would definately suggest this for people hwo work in two programs at the same time.

When only using one program I generally have most of my main stuff on the primary monitor and then output monitor/window on the secondary.
Recently my video cards (I rigged up my computer wrong and have two, one monitor for each one. So sue me, I'm an idiot) have been mucking with premiere so the video monitors in premiere cannot touch the secondary or my computer will crash. So I now have mostly the basic "editing" layout on the primary, but I have my bins, effect controls, effects window, etc., all on my secondary. This format has been treating me well so far. I also re-learned how nice it is to have both source monitor and output monitor right next to each other, lol.

If you're used to editing all in one monitor, which I do for a few programs but not many, the secondary monitor is still useful. As someone previously stated, when they use avid they have director notes and such on the secondary. I could never use Avid with dual screens, I think. D: But I do similar as her.

Primary monitor has the editing stuff/program, secondary monitor hold notes, text, IMs, etc. Right now in my current project, I've mostly been using the secondary monitor to list episode summaries since I have almost every episode of a two season show in my current project. D:
It is also good for beta testing your own betas.
I have the media player playing my beta ont he secondary monitor while correcting timing errors inside of Premiere on the primary monitor. First time doing that was today and it was an amazing idea =)

For uses other than editing, my monitors have pretty much assigned tasks. Primary is for whatever I am currently focused on, which is usually web browsing. Secondary is for everything else- current text file(usually for webpage editing), IM windows, a current chat.

I am not sure if one large monitor could be as helpful as dual monitors. I have my quicklaunch toolbar (I use XP) as a sort of 'vertical divider' between monitors. I like this separation of space. I think if I had one large monitor rather than two I would not use my real estate as efficiently.

If you do get dual (or more) monitors, I would definitely recommend investing in a program called Ultramon, as well (If you use Windows). It's only $30 and it is extremely valuable.
I would rather one monitor than multiple monitors if I was not able to use Ultramon.

tl;dr - Dual monitors are amazing, one single huge one might not be as good. If you get more than one monitor, get the program Ultramon as well.

[NeoQuixotic]

Dual monitors is great. It gives you a lot more room for your timeline and preview windows. What's even better is more monitors (obviously), but a dedicated preview monitor. Being able to have dual screens and then another monitor for full size preview is great. I only have one monitor at home, but at school we have dual 20" Apple Cinema Displays with a broadcast quality preview monitor. This is basically the standard setup for a professional video editor. The downside to this is an actual broadcast quality monitor, especially HD capable is very expensive. You can always get away just using another LCD monitor though. I just love the higher end stuff !

[Dar]

i dont have dual monitors at home, but at school i had them 2nd period.

they were a great help, the extra space helps a lot

[outlawed]

Still spinnin on some 24s here.

[Kionon]

Still spinnin on some 24s here.

Yew ballah.

[AaronAMV]

I guess dual monitors would help if you're running a Virtual Machine, eh?

I just realized I still have a monitor back from 2007, how do I set it up to get it to work?

[hasteroth]

Wait... is it possible to hook a laptop up to a 2nd monitor?

[AaronAMV]

Wait... is it possible to hook a laptop up to a 2nd monitor?

Yes

http://www.maxivista.com/

[Unlimited Rice]

Wait... is it possible to hook a laptop up to a 2nd monitor?

Some laptops come with VGA inputs for you to connect to a monitor. If not, you can probably find a VGA adapter of some sort. I have a mini-DVI to DVI adapter to connect my macbook to my 2nd monitor to use sometimes.