Help with up to 6 Distanced Displays using Radeon 7770's.

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Israel Strutt

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May 15, 2013
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10,510
Hi guys,

I've been reading a lot of forums, articles and information pages about what I'm going to ask, but it seems I cannot find the exact answers I am looking for anywhere, so I thought I'd present a terribly challenging question to you and see if what I'd like to do is possible.

Basically, right now, I am running a Windows 8 PC, which has two Radeon 7770's, Giga UP4 board, 750W power, 16GB of RAM and an i7 3770 core.
This is displaying to 4 screens at present, as I list them I'll tell you how they are connected, to make thing s a little easier to understand.

The two primary screens are Samsung cheap syncmasters (1280x1024), these are connected via DVI to one 7770, which leaves that 7770 with a DisplayPort and HDMI interface, only the DP is usable.

Then we have the TV screen which is approximately 30m away (1920x1080). This is connected via VGA>DVI to the second 7770.

Lastly there's the projector, also roughly 30m away, this runs off the HDMI port on 7770 number two, through a cat5 extender, to the projector. It displays at 1024x768, although is supposed to display 1920x1080. There is excess cat5 cable I have not yet cut down to allow for full display.
This leaves a DisplayPort and a DVI interface free on 7770 two, the DP is the only one usable.

So these are all displaying happily. They work well. All is well. All are displaying separate to one another (no cloning).

But now I want to connect two new screens.
Oh joy.

Basically, I want to know if it's possible to use the DisplayPort interface of one card, convert them to either HDMI or VGA, and run them possibly a bit more than 30m, and display them at 1080p the other side. I don't know if it will be possible. I don't think so.

These two screens will be cloned, so I can happily power a double adapter on the other side, there's no problem there.
I'm also happy if anyone know a different way of combining the current screens, so it makes it easier to connect the new display.


Any help at all would be awesome.

Here's a quick summary of the resources available:

Radeon 7770 - DVI / DVI / DP / HDMI

Radeon 7770 - DVI / DVI / DP / HDMI

To send to:

< 1m Syncmaster - 1280 x 1024 max - DVI / VGA

< 1m Syncmaster - 1280 x 1024 max - DVI / VGA

< 30m TV - 1920 x 1080 max - HDMI / VGA

< 30m Projector - 1920 x 1080 max - HDMI / VGA

30m > Cloned TV's - 1920 x 1080 max - HDMI / VGA

I really hope there's a chance this works. This will make life easier for me.
Feel free to recommend any adapters that will makes this work, money is not a problem.

I'm in Western Australia btw.
 
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MyNewRig

MyNewRig

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May 7, 2013
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It is pretty hard to get one's head around your specifics, but for the sake of efficiency i will provide general information that may or may not help you achieve your goals, but if not then report back and then your problem description could then be read more carefully.

I am not sure about your "Distance" issues, but i will comment on connections, the one thing i know well.

You can use a simple formula to know how many displays you can connect to the card which is (The number of Displayports you have on the card + 2)

So if you have 1 DP and any other connections, then you can connect 1 + 2 = 3 displays

If you have 2 DP and anything else then you can connect 2 + 2 = 4 displays ... and so on...

Some cards have 4 DP which means they can power 6 monitors which is the Chip's upper limit as it can not do more than 6 displays no matter what connections you use.


Now for this to happen you have to either have native Displayport displays or use ACTIVE adapters for DP to DVI or DP to VGA or to HDMI etc ..

and of course you can freely convert between the three digital interfaces DVI/HDMI/DP/mDP with passive adapters to get the type of connections you need on the other side, mix and match according to your own preferences.

These Active DP adapters are really short as they only provide an active conversion, as one male DP/mDP end goes into the card and on the other end you have a female DVI/VGA/HDMI to connect your cables to which can be as long as the signal can travel

If you feel that you are still not answered by this information then report back.
 
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I

Israel Strutt

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May 15, 2013
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That definitely helps me in my research, thanks!

I'll report back if I find out the rest myself.
 
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MyNewRig

MyNewRig

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May 7, 2013
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I think your issue is best broken down into two challenges, the first is how many displays can i power out of cards and this one i answered and provided you with the formula to calculate that, also the types of connections you can get out of your cards i also answered and it is in short (anything goes) using the right combination of cables, adapters and converters as indicated above, including gender converters

Remember anything can be passive except the DP to DVI/HDMI/VGA coming from the Displayport in the card which again you can then change its type or gender with extra cables/converters on the other end.


The second challenge which i have not addressed is the distance you could carry the signal and that is best dealt with isolated from the first challenge, lets say for example you can run a 30M cable from the card's native DVI port to a DVI monitor/device, and you find that it works with or without signal repeaters, then i would assume that the same cable system could be used to run from the converted DP to DVI signal via the Active DP to DVI adapter to power your 3rd distant monitor/display/device :)

Cheers
 
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bjaminnyc

bjaminnyc

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Jun 17, 2011
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I think you've already got the hardware necessary to complete you desired setup sans the active displayport adapters. You did not mention the content you'd be streaming. If you're planning on playing anything with copyright protection on the TV's or projector you should avoid connecting those screens via displayport. I've had issues with HDCP on my monitor connect by DP, WMC will not show cable card content.

If you go the route of active DP adapter for the two low res monitors you'll likely have less issues. I would avoid the long cable runs with the adapters and will make your wiring options a bit more flexible considering you'll have dvi+vga or HDMI native outputs to choose from for 1080p content. Additionally throwing extenders in the mix unquestionable will be less troublesome without the adapters on that output.
 
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