temew Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 Hello! My client has 6 old TVs that he wants to have on stage as part of a VJ set he asked me to do.. The problem is that I don't have any real experience with using TVs. I was told that the TVs have scart and rca plugs for video in. I don't have a video mixer but my pc has 2vga outputs and an s-video output. I tried to connect my pc to one of the TVs with s-video - rca cord but the picture didn't fill the whole TV and I could see that dark bar that comes from the frequency difference too. What do I have to do to get the picture to all the 6 TVs so that the picture will fill the whole screen area w/o problems? If there is a cheap sollution that would be better because I don't want to spend all the budget on those TVs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 If the TVs do indeed have either RCA or SCART inputs then just buy/rent a 6-way AV amp/distribution box and a boat load of Phono/RCA extension cables. Then get a VGA to composite converter (as I recall there were lots on Ebay when last I checked) to send the output to the TVs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 You may need to find the remotes and set each TV to play the AV channel ie the video line in. Or you use scart and additionally put 9v on pin 8 ( to ground pin ) to sellect AV. Some TVs also select aspect ratio by volts on pin 8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
temew Posted July 31, 2009 Author Share Posted July 31, 2009 You may need to find the remotes and set each TV to play the AV channel ie the video line in. Or you use scart and additionally put 9v on pin 8 ( to ground pin ) to sellect AV. Some TVs also select aspect ratio by volts on pin 8. I'm sorry but I don't quite get this.. Do you have a link to somewhere that would explain that volt thing and how I can use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRisdale Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 From your initial post it sounds like you've not had any trouble selecting the AV or scart channel. The problems with the picture under scanning and having a frequency glitch could well be solvable through your graphics card settings. Right click on your desktop and click on settings/display. Click on monitor two, and then start looking for a frequency setting and something that says over or underscan. These may also be hidden under 'advanced' on the main display settings, or may not exist at all depending on your graphics card. If they don't, you might be best off getting a cheap VGA to S-Video converter as suggested. I think you can get them from CPC for about £25. In any case, you certainly will need a distribution amp. Gareth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
temew Posted August 1, 2009 Author Share Posted August 1, 2009 I think the biggest problem when trying to get the system work without a scan converter is that how to get windows understand that I want to have 50Hz and PAL resolution.. Is there any software that makes it possible to create custom resolutions and custom frequency settings? I have 2 graphics cards at the moment: a GForce 6900GT and ATI Radeon X800 XT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peternewman Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Powerstrip may well be worth a look for the custom resolutions. I don't know if it will go to 50Hz/PAL and I've not used it in anger myself, just started it up when someone else had already configured it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Symbolic Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 Hi, There is another option for connecting TV's together. If each of he TV's have 2 scart's usually one of them is in/out. So what you need is an s-video to scart adapter and 5 scart cable’s. Set one scart on each TV as the input and the one with in/out to output. Regarding the s-video output, if you’re aiming for good quality, you should try finding a video capture card with video output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 The old TVs are fine, and feeding 625 line PAL video to them is easy. This is the snag. You haven't actually got this output - so you need to get it - which is what people are suggesting. It's never quite as easy as it sounds. There are plenty of cheap boxes you can buy that will convert the output of your video card into something the TVs understand. However, most of them have to have adjustments to move the picture left, right, up, down, and sometimes even zoom. and squash/stretch in both planes. This messing around usually introduces a softening or degrading of the image - so a nice clear computer image ends up quite unpleasant on the televisions. If you get a proper scaler, which are more expensive, then the quality is much, much better. Many computers have s-vid out on 4 pin mini-DIN connectors. How this gets displayed on the television is much more hit and miss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
temew Posted August 4, 2009 Author Share Posted August 4, 2009 what kind of devices would you suggest for example paulears? and is there some qualifications I should look for when I'm buying the converter box. the picture doesn't have to be the clearest one in the world because the TVs are on the stage for only to create some effect but a good picture quality would be good too. I don't have a huge budget for the box, probably only like 100-150 euros. a cheaper one would be appreciated though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 This messing around usually introduces a softening or degrading of the image - so a nice clear computer image ends up quite unpleasant on the televisions.Trust me, its nothing compared to what the RF modulators do to the image :( But as long as the audience aren't too close, for many purposes, the lowest of the low that is RF is perfectly adequate... (Did some work on a thing that had a bunch of ten quid ex-rental tellys on stage many moons ago...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
back_ache Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 Hi, There is another option for connecting TV's together. If each of he TV's have 2 scart's usually one of them is in/out. So what you need is an s-video to scart adapter and 5 scart cable’s. Set one scart on each TV as the input and the one with in/out to output. That won't always work, on a lot on tv's, the "out" on the scart comes from the analogue tuner, not from the selected source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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