nigel 2007-02-19 22:38
OK, so this is really quite out there and maybe it isn't even possible.
I'm a final year multimedia student and we're hoping to create a video installation that will play video on 3 monitors in front of you. I have minimal experience in developing for multiple monitors, but have used 2 for many years that both come out of one video card slot (2x VGA).
We hope to be able to play one video stream, which we will develop in a standard definition 16x9 across three screens which adds up to a single stream of 2160x480 (720x480 times 3). If we can get a video card and processor to play video of this size and if we can set up a three monitor output then can we be guaranteed that we will get the one video stream to play across the three outputs?
So my main questions are simply,
how easy or hard would it be to modify a standard desktop PC to output to three monitors? And secondly, if this is set up correctly, will full screen "super-wide" video divide itself up across these three outputs and play full screen? Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated as this is all new to us, and we'd love to hear different experiences or potential problems.
All the best,
Nigel
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nigel 2007-02-20 23:41
Sorry to bump this up, but just wondering does anyone have any knowledge about whether this is possible? Have people ever watched full screen video even split across two monitors?
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0ctane 2007-02-21 11:44
I have been out of the multi-monitor scene for a while, but last I knew, only the Matrox Parahelia could span across three monitors to display video or games. I am not sure if the new Crossfire or SLI can do it.
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Million 2007-02-21 17:33
Although I dont fully understand your application's requirement, but I think matrix dvd is your solution, maybe you can test it from www.xj-spark.com.
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nigel 2007-02-21 20:03
Thanks very much for the responses, they are much appreciated.
Basically what we've to do is play one large flash video file that is at a ratio of about 5:1 and so we will have to split this across three monitors. Have people ever tried to view a flash swf across three monitors?
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nigel 2007-02-21 20:06
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/full_screen_mode.html and my own experience has flash only picking one monitor to pick to play full screen, but has anyone ever divided it across three monitors?
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ECarlson 2007-02-23 14:15
Just get a Matrox Parahelia card, and it will allow 3 monitors in span mode. Span mode fools Windows into thinking it is one really wide monitor, as opposed to the regular Windows Extended Desktop mode, where Windows sees each monitor individually, and controls the multi-monitor experience itself.
There are also external video-wall devices that can take one video signal and spread it onto multiple monitors, but that is probably more expensive.
Also, you could use an actual video format, instead of flash, then use a multiple-monitor-aware video player, and a regular 3-monitor setup.
- Eric, www.InvisibleRobot.com
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James 2007-02-27 11:38
I believe flash videos can be split across multiple monitors across multiple cards with no special hardware.
At least YouTube vids etc. work like this.
If not you can use a piece of software called SoftTH which makes all 3 monitors appear as one to your system. Matrox make a hardware solution that does the same thing but performs better and also costs extra cash.
People use the hardware one for games but i think you'll get away with the software one for videos.
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nigel 2007-02-28 22:56
Thanks for all the responses so far, it's much appreciated.
We got some funding so are going to run the Matrox TripleHead2Go off (hopefully) A sony vaoi laptop running a GeForce Go 7600 card. I have read a huge amount about it so am hopeful that it will all work out OK.
I will keep you all informed as it may be of interest to see the end result.
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