Videocard(s) for multiscreen solution

ijsco

Distinguished
Mar 29, 2006
26
0
18,530
For a soon to be realised project at the restaurant/club I work at I need to build a pc which can control 6 screens independently...
We have a total of 12 screens with Sharp V10 beamers which are wired with BNC cables to a matrix that sends the correct images to the beamer.
Usually a VJ uses only 3 sources and we supply them with a couple of Pioneer DVJ's or they bring their own stuff.
I am looking for a videocard (or 2) that can encode to MPEG2 , control 6 screens independent and preferably has BNC connections.
Here's a pic of 11 (Amsterdam) so that you got an idea of what I'm talking about...

8958-380-221.jpg
 

emp

Distinguished
Dec 15, 2004
2,593
0
20,780
Get maybe buy 2x 7600GT and look around for Matrox's TripleHead2Go line up, that's probably your best chance? I guess 2 cards with 2 DVI ports each * 4 TripleHead2Go gives you 12 signals? Sorry not really my area of expertise.
 

Joe_The_Dragon

Distinguished
Sep 19, 2006
512
0
18,980

the TripleHead2Go does not work like that and it is vga :( only

You may also have to get a board that can run the pci-e slots at x16 x4/8 x16
The MAC pro can run up to 4 video cards but the very low number of pci-e lanes will make it slow
 


Could you provide a little more detail?

What are the monitors going to be displaying plain video, 2D animations, 3D animations, anything/everything?

I assume you mean DECODE MPEG2, not encode, right; or do you have an intermedite driver for the monitor that requires and MPEG2 input of some kind? Sorry just a little confused.

Also what are the resolutions and refreshes of the monitors and are they TV based or PC based monitors (ie no worries about PAL?, just standard VESA support)?

The biggest limitation will be the BNC connector requirement, especially if you're looking for BNC on a powerful card (required for 3D+).
 

ijsco

Distinguished
Mar 29, 2006
26
0
18,530
the TripleHead2Go does not work like that and it is vga

They have converters BNC -> VGA

we had a Red Bull Video Beat event 2 weeks ago with 2 Matrox Tripleheads where we put up 6 screens (18 total) extra and worked ok except that we had to buy the converters off course ...

Could you provide a little more detail?

It's MPEG2 Video so it is strictly 2D.
There are no monitors , only Sharp V10 beamers (12 total) and the source is standard 16:9 DVD resolution.
The POP-player (video server) we use sends the images through the Matrix which sends the images to the correct beamer.
The POP-player only works with MPG2 so I want a card to ENCODE because a lot of artists come with the wrong source format so I want to be able to encode to MPEG2 on the spot.
I've heard of ATI cards which can encode video (faster than , and) without stressing the processor.
I'm looking for a card that can do both ; control a minimum of 6 screens and has the ability to encode to MPEG2.
BNC isn't really an issue anymore cause now we have 6 BNC -> VGA converters ;)