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Video Multiplexing on Large Screens?
videoPIP asks: "I recently finished putting together my home theater (including a projector). As I sit there and watch stuff on the big screen, I remember a time back in college where my housemates and I would have 2 or 3 TVs crammed into the entertainment center, one usually having a football game on and the other playing movies or for video games. This got me to thinking - I know that, for CCTV security systems, they have 4 screens visible at a time, but they are usually black and white (like at Best Buy). I've looked on Google for these, and there are all sorts of configurations (4/9/16 channels), (simplex/duplex,triplex). I was wondering if anyone has married one of these multiplexers with a projector, or even a very large TV to get the ultimate Picture-in-Picture experience?"
"I guess the things that are important are:
1. 16 channels and the ability to combine multiple screen areas to have 'larger' screens.
2. Ability to convert input signals to BNC jacks (which is most boxes I see) or have 'normal' inputs: composite/svideo/component(doubt that last one).
3. Likewise, convertible or normal outputs.
4. Comes with remote control and on-screen-display for setup(don't want to mess with a serial interface).
5. Audio inputs/outputs would be nice, otherwise I would need a similar 16-to 1 audio switcher with remote.
I don't care about alarms/video signal loss/motion capture, so those features I could take or leave.
Another related question is how to provide 10+ cable/satellite inputs that are controllable with a single remote without having to have a freakin' rack of VCRs or other boxes."
1. 16 channels and the ability to combine multiple screen areas to have 'larger' screens.
2. Ability to convert input signals to BNC jacks (which is most boxes I see) or have 'normal' inputs: composite/svideo/component(doubt that last one).
3. Likewise, convertible or normal outputs.
4. Comes with remote control and on-screen-display for setup(don't want to mess with a serial interface).
5. Audio inputs/outputs would be nice, otherwise I would need a similar 16-to 1 audio switcher with remote.
I don't care about alarms/video signal loss/motion capture, so those features I could take or leave.
Another related question is how to provide 10+ cable/satellite inputs that are controllable with a single remote without having to have a freakin' rack of VCRs or other boxes."
Your linked items are interesting but I think you may have misunderstood his request- he doesn't want to have multiple monitors/TVs synchronized and showing the same video. What he wants is to use one large screen - projection, HDTV and display 4, 9, or 16 individual video sources all on one image (like the black and white CCTV security video footage mentioned).
With that said, I'd suggest a high-end dual core desktop PC with 3 or 4 TV tuner cards installed. Connect this to your HDTV (1920x1080 preferred!) with a DVI cable and enjoy. Of course it may require writing custom software to display those all at once, or alternating Xvid/H.264 files for some of the squares. I'm actually working on a scaled down version of this for my next house. I want to watch TV/video and have other things overlay on top- Weather forecast at a button press, caller id when the phone rings, Video PiP of the front door when someone rings the bell, etc. You know, the typical home of the future junk. I really just want to try for the hell of it, I may never get it all working but I'll learn a lot along the way...
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security companies sell them.
buy an analog one, not digitall, unless it is fast enough to update every image at your desired framerate. digital multiplexors that i've seen usually only update each image maybe 4-8 times per second. digital is cheaper, but you don't get what you want with digital.
that was about 7 years ago though, i don't know what they're capable of now.