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Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: DefJam on February 18, 2006, 04:23:53 pm

Title: Is it possible to hook up 4 monitors to one computer ?
Post by: DefJam on February 18, 2006, 04:23:53 pm

Hi all,

Just giving some thoughts to my next cab (still need to fix one of my current cabs), and I was just wondering if anyone knows if its possible to hook 4 monitors up to one computer.  I want them all to display the same thing.  It's going to be a 4 player cab and each person gets his own monitor (at least in theory)

I saw on e-bay somebody sells an adaptor that says it can send a signal to 4 computers, but have no idea if it would work.

Oh yeah, they may be LCD monitors.

Anyone have any ideas ?
Thanks Jim

Title: Re: Is it possible to hook up 4 monitors to one computer ?
Post by: grantspain on February 18, 2006, 05:02:59 pm

your gonna need a distribution box,be careful its got to be the correct thing-if you just get a splitter then your signal will be poor-if you get an amplified splitter then your signal could get interferance.i know you can buy the correct thing from companys like cpc/farnell-www.cpc.com-but the correct part dont come cheap.at our bowling centre we run 22 screens from a cheap dis unit using bnc inputs and the pictures are crap(because they bought cheap)

Title: Re: Is it possible to hook up 4 monitors to one computer ?
Post by: markb on February 19, 2006, 06:19:22 am

There are quad monitor graphics cards out there but they are pricy:-

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/reviews/sys_quad/ (http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/reviews/sys_quad/)

My mobo has onboard vga, I also have a 9800 pro installed which and have swapped between the 2 before when I had driver issues so both running together is possible.
Maybe (I will stand corrected though) it would be possible to split each of these and therefore get 4 outputs. I do not know if this is healthy though so it could be risky to try out.

Title: Re: Is it possible to hook up 4 monitors to one computer ?
Post by: boykster on February 20, 2006, 12:29:16 pm

Yep, people do it all the time.  What you need is a vga distribution amplifier/splitter, like the ones here:

http://www.hometech.com/video/hd15split.html

The first one is a 1->2 box, the second is 1->4.  Price isnt too bad, and its much easier to use one of these boxes rather than trying to configure 4 video cards to display the same thing (cheaper in the long run too).

You can go higher end (and lower) but for about $100, these will do the job nicely.

Here's another lower cost option...i've never used avtoolbox equipment before, so I cant' attest to the quality..but they have a 4=way distribution amp for $79 (AVT-4214).

http://www.avtoolbox.com/distributionpage.shtml


Cheers,

Rich