Setup multiple displays including 2 projectors

[jhay_e03]

Hello,

I have a project that needs multiple display as the image shown below:



Please ignore the "layer 2 boxes" it is just a representation of video splitter. So basically I have 4 physical monitors and 2 projectors.


I want to make 4 multiple extended display as explained below:

D1, D2, D3 and D4 (2x projectors) are set as extended displays

Those 2 D3 monitors will act as duplicate display for D3

and another 2 D4 projectors will act as duplicate display for D4

================================

My question is, what kind of video splitters should I use for this setup. The image above is just an example of the setup and if you guys have better idea, everyone is welcome for any suggestions.

Thanks!

[camerongray]

You can't really get cheap splitters that do extended display except for some pretty expensive specialised ones such as the Matrox DualHead2Go.  You would therefore ideally want to fit a graphics card into the machine that can support 4 displays.  Beyond that you would just need regular splitters for the duplicate displays.  Also worth considering if you need to use VGA for the stage displays and projectors as you'd likely be better off going with a digital interface such as HDMI/DisplayPort/DVI as this will be a lot easier to worth with as you won't run into issues such as the signal quality being degraded when using long cables.

[jhay_e03]

Thank you Camerongray for your response.

Matrox DualHead2Go is actually a good idea but using Matrox DualHead2Go will act as ultra wide screen to the computer and not as 2 different display? In which it won't work for my plan for stage displays and projectors because I will assign D3 display for stage displays and D4 for projector and yes, it is expensive and almost the same price with NVIDIA GTX 1080.

I might consider your suggestion to upgrade my Video Card with multiple display outputs. If I buy a video card with 4 output, I can connect D1, D2, D3 (duplicate), D4 (duplicate) to each video ports to make it 4 extended displays and for D3 and D4 I will run a long cable and put 2 splitters for each cables to make both duplicate displays (Stage and Projector screens). Do you think that will work?

[camerongray]

A graphics card with support for 4 displays would definitely do what you need, just connect splitters to it for the duplicated displays. All you'd need to make sure is that the card can actually do 4 displays as not all cards can make use of all of their outputs simultaneously. This should be fairly easy to find out from the spec sheet of the card.

Just make sure to take care with cable lengths as you may end up using cables that are too long to work reliably.  In this case you can get powered signal repeaters which would likely help or alternatively you can get HDMI over CAT6 systems which can be used to run hdmi over CAT6 network cable at pretty reasonable distances.  I'd also make sure that you use powered splitters rather than passive ones.

[jhay_e03]

Sorry for the late response. I just returned home from vacation. BTW, I made a research on what video card should I use and I've found this one:

https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=08g-p4-6286-kr

Just wanna know if that video card will work or is it overkill?

I also noticed that the video card I've shown above has 4 graphic ports (1-HDMI and 3 DisplayPort) and the projectors that we are using have HDMI but not DisplayPort. If I will get hdmi over cat6 systems, I will use a DP to HDMI adapter to make it work? I am not sure if it will affect the performance of the HDMI/Cat6 systems?

Also, for the powered signal repeaters, this is different from HDMI over Cat6 right? Not sure what I have to search for Powered signal repeaters. sorry for being naive on this one. 

[jhay_e03]

I've found lots in Amazon for HDMI Extender but these 2 caught my attention:

AGPtEK 4K HDMI Extender 230ft/70m Transmission Supports 4Kx2K, 3D,1080P over Single CAT5E/CAT6/CAT7 Cable with Bi-directional IR Remote

https://www.amazon.ca/AGPtEK-Extender-Transmission-Supports-Bi-directional/dp/B01K9Y3VA2/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=electronics&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1532725796&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=hdmi+over+cat6&refinements=p_72%3A11192170011%2Cp_85%3A5690392011&psc=1

  -----   and  ------

AGPtEK 394ft/120m 1080p Real-time HDMI Extender over CAT5/5E/6 Cable with IR Remote Control,Support EDID

https://www.amazon.ca/AGPtEK-Extender-Transmission-Supports-Bi-directional/dp/B07B94F8LC/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=electronics&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1532725796&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=hdmi%2Bover%2Bcat6&refinements=p_72%3A11192170011%2Cp_85%3A5690392011&th=1

can I buy any of those?

[camerongray]

That card would work but is ridiculously overkill if you are just looking to output to a bunch of displays unless you are also planning on running intensive games or doing work such as GPU accelerated video rendering.  If you can't find a single card that supports all 4 outputs and don't really need any GPU grunt beyond just having a decent number of monitor outputs, you may be better off getting a pair of cheap cards and using them at the same time.  For the professional market, NVIDIA make the Quadro NVS cards and AMD make the Firepro models which are designed for uses cases like this where a powerful GPU isn't required but having lots of outputs and good overall stability and reliability is, however, these can be quite expensive so multiple cheap "gaming" cards could quite likely work out cheaper.

Those HDMI extenders look like they would do the job fine, I've previously used cheaper ones from AGPtek (although they were only rated up to 60m and I was only using them with a 17m cable) and they worked fine.  You shouldn't really need any sort of signal repeaters if you are using the CAT6 system since they can take the signal over much longer distances than a regular HDMI cable (those can be rated at up to 120m, I've found standard HDMI cables can start to struggle around 10m).  No real issues with converting DP to HDMI, you'll very likely have to do this as most cards tend to have more DP outputs than they have HDMI.

[jhay_e03]

That card would work but is ridiculously overkill if you are just looking to output to a bunch of displays unless you are also planning on running intensive games or doing work such as GPU accelerated video rendering.  If you can't find a single card that supports all 4 outputs and don't really need any GPU grunt beyond just having a decent number of monitor outputs, you may be better off getting a pair of cheap cards and using them at the same time.  For the professional market, NVIDIA make the Quadro NVS cards and AMD make the Firepro models which are designed for uses cases like this where a powerful GPU isn't required but having lots of outputs and good overall stability and reliability is, however, these can be quite expensive so multiple cheap "gaming" cards could quite likely work out cheaper.

Yeah I guess it is overkill. I am considering GeForce GTX 1060 for this setup because for sure I will just use it to output multiple displays and no rendering. I just attached the System Requirements for EasyWorship software from https://www.easyworship.com/software/systemrequirements

Computer Configuration
Recommended Configuration
HD, Foldback, Video Feeds & Alpha Channel

• Operating System: Windows 7 - 10 64-bit
• CPU: 2.5 - 3.4 GHz Intel i5 or i7 Quad Core
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Hard Drive: SSD or 7200 RPM HDD
• Graphics Hardware: NVIDIA GeForce GTX

Graphics Cards
The video card or GPU is the device that processes video content for displaying on your monitor or projector. Video cards equipped with the NVIDIA GTX GPU will provide the best experience.
Recommended
HD, Foldback, Video Feeds & Alpha Channel

• 650-680
• 750-780
• 950-980
• 1050-1080

[/color]

I don't know if I can buy different types of video card as the software recommends GeForce GTX card that't why I am sticking with GeForce GTX models. and you are correcnt, Quadro NVS cards are expensive and idk if that will be an ideal for the software though. Since, GTX 1050-1080 is one of the recommended graphics card model, I think the graphic cards I posted below would work or is it still overkill?

• MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G ==>> https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX63127
• EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SuperClocked 6GB  ==>> https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX63115
• EVGA GTX 1060  ==>> https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX63114

Those HDMI extenders look like they would do the job fine, I've previously used cheaper ones from AGPtek (although they were only rated up to 60m and I was only using them with a 17m cable) and they worked fine.  You shouldn't really need any sort of signal repeaters if you are using the CAT6 system since they can take the signal over much longer distances than a regular HDMI cable (those can be rated at up to 120m, I've found standard HDMI cables can start to struggle around 10m).  No real issues with converting DP to HDMI, you'll very likely have to do this as most cards tend to have more DP outputs than they have HDMI.

Thanks for the idea. Now, I know I am confident enough to buy this model.

[camerongray]

Ahh, if the software does state that a GPU would be required or that it will at least benefit from it then going for a GeForce card does make sense.  I was more assuming that it would be used for more traditional presentation or video playback software which doesn't tend to use the GPU that much.  A 1060 seems like a fairly sensible option, I doubt that that software would really push the GPU hard enough to require anything like a 1080ti so a 1060 seems like a reasonable option.  EVGA and MSI's sites both state that their cards support 4 monitors so they seem like pretty decent options.

[skypuppy]

You just have to verify WHICH 4 monitors the card supports and verify that your monitor inputs are the same.

[jhay_e03]

@Skypuppy

You just have to verify WHICH 4 monitors the card supports and verify that your monitor inputs are the same.

I will verify later if the monitor are compatible with GeForce 1080 or 1060 but I believe it will be fine. In regards with the monitor inputs, for sure projectors that I will buy has HDMI. but the monitors that I will use for this project has different inputs. Monitor 1 has VGA and HDMI input and monitor 2 has VGA and DVI. But I believe that will work fine for 1080 or 1060 graphic card? or should I buy 2 new monitors with identical specs?

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@Camerongray and everyone,

Just make sure to take care with cable lengths as you may end up using cables that are too long to work reliably.  In this case you can get powered signal repeaters which would likely help or alternatively you can get HDMI over CAT6 systems which can be used to run hdmi over CAT6 network cable at pretty reasonable distances.  I'd also make sure that you use powered splitters rather than passive ones.

Sorry for super late response. We just came up for a final plan that's why I don't wanna reply till we got the update. The changes is not that major tho. it is almost the same and more simpler than the first one but before I buy the devices, I would like to check with you guys if this will work.



So the changes now is, for stage display, we decided to use a projector (D3) for it so it will give us bigger screen for the people at the stage instead of larger monitor/TV. There will be only one projector screen for stage display so that one will be fine. My only concern is the 2 projectors for main display (D4) and it will be duplicate display. Is it okay to use HDMI over Cat6 for D4 that will be connected to HDMI splitter to make it duplicate? I'm not sure if it will degrade the display quality if I do use HDMI over Cat6 and HDMI splitter?

Thanks for your help.