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Hardware recomendations

vvvv beta general
#1

Hello,

i am planning to use vvvv as a replacement for max msp and a reason to switch to more powerfull windows hardware.
I am mainly going to playback video on a 4 screen installation and also have a 5th screen for the interface. (maybe some videomixing too, also some parallel video recording from usb to composite adapters)
Questions:
what would be the best way to connect 4 screens (i thought the 5th screen would be best connected via a IGP (intel HD or AMD) ?
The cables will be arround 20-30m long and will run allong the cables for high power theatrical lighting. I thought that a VGA connection would mabe the most reliable, but there is no graphics card with 4 vga outputs anymore. The screens will be HD but the signal does not necessarily have to be in HD resoltion (for my puroses)
Also what hardware needs will i have for 4 different videos (maybe rapidly switching) playing at the same time (possibly also recording sequences from usb2composite adapters)?
is vvvv the best choice for this anyway ?
greetings and thanks for every answer

#2

Hi,

You could use 2 x Nvidia GTX 660 which are around 180 € and manage 3+1 screens.
You would have 4 native DVI outputs and will work also as VGA outputs with adaptors for your video flow.
Then you will have 4 extra outputs for monitoring or future video outputs
Check out the Nvidia website for all specifications and functions of those GPU.

Concerning your differents videos depending on the resolution, frame rate, bit rate. But anyway buy a SSD drive is the best solution to store your video.

And finally, vvvv can be good choice for your purpose.

Hope it helps. Check also ATI functionnalities.

Anto

#3

ATI offers Multiscreen and Eyefinity without the need for a SLI/Crossfire, whereas NVidia’s multiscreen solution NEEDS at least a two card SLI…

There are ATI cards with up to 6 DisplayPort outputs which can be active simultaneously and in one screen group! And DP->VGA is also possible.

But depending on your budget fiber-optic communication might be a better solution. With that you can get those 20-30 m without the need for ugly analog VGA signals ;)

… just my two cents…

#4

Actually that’s not true. The GTX 680 for example doesn’t need a second card for surround mode. And as far as I know the 670 and 660 also work on their own. Have a look here:
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/3dvision-surround/system-requirements

#5

Fibre Optic is quiet expansive. If you go with VGA your Signal might get disturbed due to problems with electrical grounding. If you can’t efford the fibre-optic converters, you might want to considder using a laptop.

#6

also not completely true, you can go up to 20m with HDMI probably more

#7

@ io

Cool. Without a big quality loss? How does that work? Do you need some kind of hub?

#8

@drehwurm: I am talking just plain HDMI (quality) cable, with hubs/repeaters/cat5 and similar you can virtually go as far as you like

#9

hello thanks for the answers,

my budget is a big concern. i have to make it all possible with arround 700 euro (i know that is redicolous)

i am more familiar with nvidia, but as far as i know 5 displays on one card will not be possible (unless its an absolut high end card)
i found a configuration for arround 660 euro something like this :

1 x url=http://geizhals.at/763235Seagate Barracuda Spinpoint 500GB, SATA II (ST500DM005)/url
1 x url=http://geizhals.at/890677SanDisk Ultra Plus Notebook 128GB, 2.5", SATA 6Gb/s (SDSSDHP-128G-G25)/url
1 x url=http://geizhals.at/846374AMD Athlon II X4 740, 4x 3.20GHz, boxed (AD740XOKHJBOX)/url
1 x url=http://geizhals.at/612342Crucial DIMM 8GB PC3-10667R reg ECC CL9 (DDR3-1333) (CT102472BB1339)/url
1 x url=http://geizhals.at/613014ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5, Radeon HD 6950, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, 4x DisplayPort (90-C1CQ80-S0UAY0BZ)/url
4 x url=http://geizhals.at/530809Sapphire aktiver DisplayPort/VGA Adapter (44000-01-40R)/url
1 x url=http://geizhals.at/845220ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M, A75 (dual PC3-14900U DDR3) (90-MXGMH0-A0UAYZ)/url
1 x url=http://geizhals.at/540077Cooler Master Elite 430 (RC-430-KKN1)/url
1 x url=http://geizhals.at/448489be quiet! Pure Power L7 530W ATX 2.3 (L7-530W/BN106)/url

for the VGA signal issues. i found a repeater for about 30 euro (i know they are probably not high quality) but i guess in case of bad signals vga + repeater is still cheaper than HDMI (with expensive high quality cabling/ repeaters). DVI and DP both are not specified for long distances.

Do you think that configuration will have enough power ?
Also, because the GPU is only available once, and i am note sure when i will order, what would be an alternative for it ?
Will SLI/CrossfireX utilize both GPUs equaly ? I read a little in the forums here about SLI/CF and it sounded like there would could be some issues.
thanks again for reading

#10

Well that’s not true for plain HDMI cable…
A cable needs to pass tests for compliancy and after 45 feet/ 13 m it’s not possible to get the required performance with “normal” passive HDMI cables.

for example:
“Monoprice technical support recommends 25 feet as a practical limit for their high speed cables to carry both a 1080p and 3D signal.”

But you can get active cables like this one for 20+ m:

#11

Streaming 1xfullHD and 2xXGA from a GTX560m over 3 HDMI cables of 20 meters each, standards are minimum specs, not max, a standard definition won t stop a manufacturer to exceed those requirements.

#12

i own a 670 and i was able to connect 4 dislay at the same time
i also tested 3 matrox th2g on the 2 dvi and hdmi ports and used a Dp to VGA for my full hd monitor. Worked just fine, 9 outputs at 1280x1024 + my monitor at full hd

I also tested 2 projector with 2 hdmi cablses 20m with no problem at all

just get a i5/i7 , a 670 nvidia card, and a 64g/120g ssd. thats all you need :)

#13

hi thanks for the tips

since im on a low budget would it mabe be better to go with an AMD CPU
or are there VVVV specific disadvantages towars an intel cpu (besides from the normal performance difference ?)

#14

@vjc4 - did you create a span (withe 3d vision or whatever it’s called) between the three th2gos?

#15

nvidia 3d is capble only on HD resolutions, meaning it won’t work with tripplehead. however you can hack it with shaders provided by colorosound if your device supports hardware 3d splitting.

#16

I think mrboni refers to nVidia surround, not 3D as in 3D glasses and such

#17

this surround span super doggy, i tryed with 3 t2go was working at home but on setup i sweared every bad word. Hating that you can’t select witch actually monitors you want to span… forget this crap use 11

#18

Same goes for ATI Eyefinity, groups and likesuchas, better done everything in vvvv and just go fullscreen in each output.

#19

well techniacally tripplse are better in some cases, thay work withot surround

#20

@mrboni i did’t install matrox drivers. I just pluged 3 matrox, and use the extend desktop option, nothing else. it worked just fine.

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