1 PC, 4 larger Monitors, 4 seperate slideshows

jody-h wrote on 12/12/2017, 9:11 AM

Not sure how to best do this, so throwing the idea out there for discussion. I am going to mount four (4) 42" monitors in a row in our home (framed to look like picture frames). We have been scanning in thousands of pics from our entire life (ours, kids, parents, grandparents, and everything in between). We now want to start splitting them up between the 4 monitors, multi-windows per screen. Screen 1 is the kids, 2nd is my wife and I, 3rd is our family (parents, grand, brothers/sister, nieces, etc.), 4th will be our travels and friends. My question is pretty broad: How do we best show 4 separate slide shows running on these 4 monitors? Want to do this with one PC. Would really like to run it with only one program and not 4 running simultaneously if possible. I will need an inexpensive video card that will give me 4 monitors. Will move all pics to internal drive in this PC (they will be backed up on other drives). Also want to figure how to put monitors on a timer in the PC so that they turn on and off at set times. I can take my time with this, but any ideas or feedback is very much appreciated. Large endeavor, put the final is worth it. Thanks!

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 12/12/2017, 12:05 PM

The simplest method would be to export the slideshows as MP4 video files and play each of these on one of the screens.

. . . . Would really like to run it with only one program and not 4 running simultaneously if possible. . . . .

This is a gotcha, - I have never seen a player that will play 4 videos simultaneously in 4 separate windows on one PC so you need a video player software that will allow multiple instances to run at the same time.

This immediately rules out Windows Media Player you can only run one instance of it on a PC.

VLC does allow multiple instances and can be placed on individual monitors, made to play full screen and have individual playlists.

HTH

John EB

emmrecs wrote on 12/13/2017, 3:29 AM

Just to follow John's post, is there any such thing as an inexpensive video card that will allow simultaneous connection to four video monitors, each having a discrete feed?

Jeff

jody-h wrote on 12/13/2017, 7:58 AM

lol, don't know at this point about the cost of the video card or the best solution for it. Figure I need to go into a Micro Center and ask them. Doubt there is a bargain card out there for this, but for me inexpensive means I don't need it to run high-speed gaming graphics. I will just need to add additional cooling to the PC, update the power supply, configure the (or those) video cards, find and/or configure software to turn the monitors on & off at set times, and then start the whole splitting of the pics and vids once I get the software issue figured out. Have a feeling the card(s) will run me a few hundred.

johnebaker wrote on 12/13/2017, 8:14 AM

. . . . Have a feeling the card(s) will run me a few hundred. . . . .

Believe it or not a lot less than you think - the cheapest I can find that will drive 4 monitors is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti.

However you will have you check the connection capabilities of the monitors you are attaching - see this article.

HTH

John EB

jody-h wrote on 12/13/2017, 9:06 AM

@ johnbaker Perfect! Wow, a lot less expensive than I thought. I just did a search for graphic cards with 4 HDMI ports and there were a lot more out there than I thought, prices ranging everywhere. Many of these TVs only come with HDMI and USB. May look at 4K since they now aren't much more and mad sure the vid card can handle it. Finding 43" 4Ks (Sharp) for under $300 each. Screens are now staying much cooler, even when left on all day, so heat will not be a an issue.