Duplicating Signal to Mulitple Monitors

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Offline DCOMMAND

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Duplicating Signal to Mulitple Monitors
« on: April 02, 2014, 06:15:46 PM »
A client has requested 2+ displays run identical content in one location. They do not want to pay for an SBB and License at each monitor. We've tried sending a signal from the primary monitor's SBB DisplayPort out to the 2nd monitor, but are having issues.  We tried an HDMI distribution amp, but the distributor drops the control signals. Is duplicating the content on a 2nd monitor possible without adding an SBB and License to each additional display? (MD40C & SBB-C)

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Offline 460FPN2

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Re: Duplicating Signal to Mulitple Monitors
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2014, 06:05:57 PM »
the DP out port will not send the hardware controls on/off, those only come out of the magicinfo out port and their special DP to DVI cable.
You could use the second TV's built in timer to turn it on/off though, but as far as switching to another input source is probably not going to work.

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Offline Toasty

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Re: Duplicating Signal to Mulitple Monitors
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2014, 12:03:57 PM »
It would all depend on the model of screen you are using as the primary screen, if this has a "VGA-DVI-HDMI OUT" then you should be able to the connect to a second screen via the same interface but IN on the second screen.

 

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Offline DCOMMAND

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Re: Duplicating Signal to Mulitple Monitors
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2014, 02:41:37 PM »
Thank you both for your responses. The primary screen does not have any outputs other than audio for additional speakers. The client doesn't care so much about the 2nd monitor turning on and off as the location has offered to do that manually. However, while running a 2nd monitor via the DisplayPort (to HDMI), the SBB seems to crash after running for a while. Does anyone have any idea why that would be?

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Offline 460FPN2

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Re: Duplicating Signal to Mulitple Monitors
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2014, 04:37:32 PM »
I noticed that the paging file is set to only 512MB on these SBBs. I always change that to system-managed size on D: (leave C alone) and I get a lot less of the out-of-memory errors.
I also set it to Windows 7 Basic theme instead of the Windows 7 Aero theme which uses more memory.

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Offline DCOMMAND

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Re: Duplicating Signal to Mulitple Monitors
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2014, 04:48:49 PM »
Thank you! I will investigate further. We did successfully duplicate on a 2nd monitor with 1 SBB with the DisplayPort to HDMI. We did lose control of the 2nd monitor (which we knew would happen). However, be advised, the SBB mis-behaved depending on the monitor. We tried 1st with another Samsung signage unit which had issues rendering the correct resolution from the single SBB. The 2nd try was with a Sharp monitor and it seemed to work much better (weird!)

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Offline 460FPN2

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Re: Duplicating Signal to Mulitple Monitors
« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2014, 08:11:33 PM »
the "issues rendering the correct resolution" is the scaling option in the AMD Vision Engine Control Center. Right click on the desktop and go to the AMD Vision option at the top.  Then go to My Digital Flat Panels and choose Scaling Options. By default it does some kind of underscan when you're using a DP to HDMI cable. Just set to to 0% and you won't get that black border around the screen.

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Offline DCOMMAND

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Re: Duplicating Signal to Mulitple Monitors
« Reply #7 on: April 10, 2014, 08:21:19 PM »
Great info! Thank you!!