Multiple SD Analog Outputs

d_vat

Hello Illustrious Forum!

I'm working on a project that would like to send simultaneous SD video signal to 12-16 individual video monitors. My thought is to send a single (or multiple) HD signal(s) to some kind of Digital to Analog "de-multiplexer" that would be able to split a larger signal into 640x480 segments that would go to each monitor. It'd sort of be the equivalent of the old "TV wall".

Is there any such device that does this and would work with current hardware? Would a matrix/scaler do the trick? Quality doesn't have to be pristine.

If anyone has any experience or ideas for this kind of setup I'd be very interested to hear your stories.

Thank you in advance,

Dan

MatthewH

What you are looking for is called a video wall controller. On the more inexpensive end of the spectrum is the Datapath x4 which will do what you are describing for 4 displays from one feed. Those are also a pretty popular alternative to the TripleHead2Go when a fourth output and/or more flexibility in terms of output resolutions and arrangement is needed. At over $1k each they would get a little pricey for 12-16 monitors but I'm not sure of a more affordable alternative other than using multiple playback computers with multiple graphics cards each. If you want more than four monitors from the same computer output you will need to look into larger video wall controllers but those start to get extremely expensive pretty quickly. If quality isn't such an issue, you might look into older analogue units that would be considered antiquated by today's standards but might meet your needs.

Fred

You do have one other option, there are some alternate firmwares written for western digital media players. The firmware syncs playback over lan. For a play only video wall (no interaction) these work very well. There are also some pro versions that are used by museums and galleries.

Here are some slick ones

http://brightsign.biz/products/hd220.php

And a DIY version.

http://syncstarter.org/hdsync/

Probably the cheapest way to make a video wall.

There are even some very expensive LCDs that have an on board video wall matrixing system.

Fred

d_vat

Very helpful responses. Thanks to both of you. Sort of intrigued by the standalone boxes and the budget is pushing me in that direction as well. Also, the image doesn't really need to be continuous and synched over most of the outputs. Many of them could just be DVDs looping while a few key screens are controlled by a computer.

Syncstarter project is _very_ interesting. I am wondering if there's a way that could be triggered over LAN via Isadora?

Also in the running, seeing what rental houses have composite Wall controllers in their trash bins ;-). I doubt these SD monitors even have current inputs like DVI. Might do 640x480 over BNC or D-Sub. Will see.

Thanks again.

Dv