nicemms Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Basically my school is doing Chess as its annual musical on the 10th-15th March and the director has asked for two projectors on either side of stage, showing some chess videos. That was fine - we were going to have two projectors, splitter and a 20m cable and a 50m cable, with the source being a pc/laptop with screen monkey on. However there's an added twist to this now as during part of the show they want a live feed from a video camera, projecting onto these screens(sound not essential as the cast involved in this part will have mics). So my question is : how can we using same vga cables transmit the live video feed to the two projectors. To make it easier I've drawn a diagram. (Oh and as usual, budget will be small) http://images4.fotopic.net/?iid=yrvjov&...1&nostamp=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunk_1984 Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 I would have thought a small [composite?] video mixer would be the easiest option, something along the lines of the edirol v4.Use a Scan converter on the PC. Then either convert the output to VGA or use composite cable instead of VGA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 You might get away with composite video feed into the projectors, and switch the projectors from VGA to CV for the live bit. You'll probably need to create shutters to keep the transition clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sah1510 Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 How far away are the cameras from the control desk? Tell me if I am missing something here though, can you not just take the composite cable out of your camera and into the PC with a video capture device and then into screenmonkey? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicemms Posted February 21, 2008 Author Share Posted February 21, 2008 How far away are the cameras from the control desk? Tell me if I am missing something here though, can you not just take the composite cable out of your camera and into the PC with a video capture device and then into screenmonkey? Thats exactly the kind of thing I was thinging of, would screen monkey accept the live feed from that though? We had an av company in today and thats one of the things that was discussed, the other option was like you guys have said a video to vga converter device. # The camera will probably be about 30-50m away from the control desk. The length of cables is do-able so thats not a problem. Feeding the camera straight into a projector is out of the window as it would look naff. I'm not trying to big ourselves up here, but our school productions are always technically good(despite our small budget) We even have the Minister for Schools, Ed Balls coming to see the production this year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sah1510 Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 Thats exactly the kind of thing I was thinging of, would screen monkey accept the live feed from that though? I would expect so, but unfortunately I haven't ever used one (although I have been meaning to find an excuse to!) - but I will try and find out. Feeding the camera straight into a projector is out of the window as it would look naff. I'm not trying to big ourselves up here, but our school productions are always technically good(despite our small budget) I know what you mean and have been in similar positions to that before. It is nice to see that you have teachers etc that are keen in this sort of thing - it took me a while to persuade my teachers to get interested in it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicemms Posted February 21, 2008 Author Share Posted February 21, 2008 Well problem solved. We are using a video to vga convertor for the camera, so it can use the vga cables. Then a vga switcher to switch the vga of the camera and the vga of the pc, then a splitter to sendc the vga output to two projectors. I'll be using screen monkey to collect all the videos together and control them all together. So thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dosxuk Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Have you tested this with the gear you will be using? You may get a blue-screen-resync when you switch between the computer and camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicemms Posted February 22, 2008 Author Share Posted February 22, 2008 not actually got the gear yet, but will try it once we get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lxkev Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Get a mini dv cam, or usb web cam or a usb capture device (£10 of ebay) and shove it all through screen monkey. I use it all the time.. or download the 30 free day trial of arkoas :o Then you can do lots of smart things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sah1510 Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 I echo the above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simploerob Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 have you also thought about the loss of quality by spliting the signal? might be an issue with live feed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicemms Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 Just to keep you updated - we now use a capture card, works fab! (Was my sugestion but gt ignored at beginnning). The tranistion between it and other videos is great. Thanks a lot guys. For anyone whos interested, the show is 'Chess' and starts monday, with matinees on thursday/friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 And what software are thee using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicemms Posted March 5, 2008 Author Share Posted March 5, 2008 I'm using screen monkey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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