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Adam 2007-01-16 13:07
Hi All,
I'm new to these forums and also to the world of multi monitor display systems. I am hoping someone here may be able to point me in the right direction in terms of a hardware and software system that would suit my requirements.
I am opening up a new restaurant and have decided to use Plasma or LCD displays for my Menus and as in store advertising. I anticipate I will be using around four or five separate screens all around 42 inch in size (I have not settled on using either LCD or Plasma yet and would appreciate any comments on this also).
I will be displaying a full menu across the four screens and advertising most likely on the fifth. The screens will not be in a video wall configuration but sepearated.
What would be the ideal system to go for in terms of a hardware and sofware combo that will allow me to go with this setup? I am not so interested in the actual monitors themselves as I can supply those (although I would again welcome feedback on the monitors you suggest I use) but it is more the computer that drives the multiple monitors and the software that allows it that I am interested in.
I really appreciate any help that you all can provide, thanks in advance!
Cheers :)
Adam.
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ECarlson 2007-01-16 14:29
Cool idea. Just about any computer and some inexpensive video cards should be able to handle that, since 42" screens don't have a particularly high resolution. You just need to put in enough video cards to put out 5 digital (DVI) signals, then connect the outputs of the video cards to the DVI or HDMI inputs on the monitors.
The long video cable runs might be an issue, but that can be handled. I believe there was a discussion many months ago about long (100') video cable runs.
I don't know what software you would use for the menus and the ads, but if the menus are static, you could generate them as wallpaper for the first 4 monitors, then run a slideshow for ads on the 5th, though I assume you would want to take advantage of the fact that they are electronic displays, and have animated menues and such, and to prevent image burn, by not leaving images static on the screens.
Please let us know how it progresses, and post some photos and screenshots if you can.
- Eric, www.InvisibleRobot.com
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Chris 2007-01-21 17:04
Hi, can you tell me how you have progressed. I want to do a similar project and would be interested to know more re: tips/shortcuts I can take.
Cheers
Chris
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Adam 2007-01-25 09:22
Hi Guys,
Thanks heaps for the info, Im in the process now of getting some prices of PC's fitted with 4 or 5 graphics cards. I'll keep everyone in the loop of what system config I finally go for and how I get on.
One question Im getting alot from the people Im getting to price these PC's for me is "what software are you going to be using to run the images on each monitor?".
And my answer is "Im not entirely sure" :) Does anyone have a recommendation of a program/software that is able to display different images through 4 to 5 monitors?
Thanks in advance!
Cheers,
Adam.
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ECarlson 2007-01-26 15:11
For 5 monitors, you could get a 4-output card and a 1-output card, or more likely, just get 3 inexpensive dual-out cards, since most cards are dual-out these days. Just make sure they have dual DVI outputs.
The only issue is what types of card slots the computer will have. You could use a pair of PCI-e cards in a motherboard that has dual PCI-e X16 slots, then put in a regular (old-school) PCI card, or a PCI-e X1 card for the 5th monitor. There is also at least one board that has 4 PCI-e X16/X8 slots, so you could use 3 ordinary, inexpensive ($100-$150) PCI-e X16 cards.
From what I've been hearing, the GeForce 7600GT cards seem to be a popular Dula-DVI PCI-e option. You can check the forums and database to see if people have had any issues running multiple 7600GT's together.
Another option might be to get a couple Radeon X1300 Dual-DVI PCI-e X16 cards, and a Radeon X1300 VGA/DVI PCI-e X1 card. Again, check to see if you can find anyone else who has had success or problems with this setup.
Newegg.com is a good place to shop for video cards, since they have reasonable prices, and hundreds of options.
Make sure you don't get fancy high-end 3D gamer cards, because they will likely run a lot hotter and require a lot more power than what you need.
You could easily run 5 different programs (aka, run the same program 5 times, or combinations of a couple programs), and put one full-screen on each monitor, so you don't really "need" any "special" programs.
I know there is at least one slide-show program that will use multiple monitors, which has been mentioned in this forum, but I don't think that is what you want.
- Eric, www.InvisibleRobot.com
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