djw1981 Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 A friend's church have asked me for some help. They have a fairly simple set up VGA distribution from a tech area to a foldback screen on stage and via Cat5 (Kramer adapters) to a projector in the ceiling. Their inputs are currently one of two laptops (both HP). The older one has AMD graphics and a VGA port and both screens display loverly 16:9 images. The newer laptop has an Intel graphics card and HDMI out. With a 'cheap-ish' HDMI-VGA adapter, they connect this to the VGA distro amp. This gives a correctly scaled image on the foldback screen, but the projector letterboxes the image further, and keeps dropping this signal as out of range. The only EDID in the system is currently coming from the 'VGA Digital monitor' which I took to be the foldback screen. My thoughts were - a DualHead Mattrox card to replace the VGA distroamp, but this needs a USB and a VGA input, and this would require the use of the HDMI. Any other (low cost ie sub £100) ideas. replacing both machine with a fixed desktop has been considered and rejected already. They have the cabling to go HDMI all the way to the projector (ie 2x CatV) but would need to buy the adapter,a nd would need a distribution to get the signal via the VGA cabling to the foldback screen on stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 I assume you mean cat5 not CatV? You can get EDID emulators which might be worth a try if you can get one on loan or demo? We have issues like this at one of our hotels- vga into a wall panel (crestron scaler) is fine but via a vga d/a it's like a letterbox as you describe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw1981 Posted April 3, 2016 Author Share Posted April 3, 2016 I;ve found http://stuff-uk.net/p-2031315.aspx which appear to offer an ideal solution (if it works) - allowing for other laptop being connected, and doing EDID emulation. Any other thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Fernand Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 What happens when you connect Laptop HDMI > VGA Converter > Projector? You don't say what resolution/refresh you are Outputting and what is the native resolution of the Projector? Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw1981 Posted April 8, 2016 Author Share Posted April 8, 2016 The laptop defaults its output when an HDMI connector is inserted and won;t let you access that part of graphics card control. Proj has a (claimed) native 1600x1200, but we are running it in 16:9 mode so 1600x900 one assumes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Fernand Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 Might be worth trying Powerstrip - http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm That way you can potentially force the required Output via HDMI. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevep Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 Bit of a longshot, but you didnt say what projector you have - but some projectors have a VGA output which could possibly be run out to your monitor? i.e. you'd only need to feed the projector with HDMI and let it do the split. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 My experience of projectors that offer a vga out is that it is strictly a mirror of the vga in- haven't met one yet that will downscale the HDMI input. Happy to be proven wrong tho :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw1981 Posted May 24, 2016 Author Share Posted May 24, 2016 They have decided to switch to an HDMI over Cat5 cable system (eg http://www.tvcables.co.uk/2-way-hdmi-over-cat5-splitter-kit.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjw94-6BRDkk568hcyg3-YBEiQAnmuwkhs6vm_wpO2iHlfXOhhQ0sJGEhGusPDHPEkWEzFaodEaAp3A8P8HAQ) as both the displays have HDMI ports, as does the laptop. The above type system looks like it should work, but given their current stuff if Kramer and given that the performance of unbranded boxes from consumer websites can't be guaranteed, I've been looking for a better version. however, either my google-ability is letting me down or I haven't hit the correct search term. Any recommendations. HDMI in, 2 Cat5 out to 2 receivers (Cat5-HDMI). I;d rather not have HDMI split then 2 HDMI extenders, to reduce the number of connections, unless there's no other choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Fernand Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 CAT cable - if you can run solid core, non-CCA CAT6 it is more reliable for HD than CAT5. Distribution - we find Church systems tend to 'evolve' over time so providing something with long term flexibility is a good option. HD over LAN - is what we use/supply for this type of application, 1 x TX for the Source, a multi-port Gigabit Switch as the Hub plus 1 x RX for each Display. Long term you can add as many Displays as you have ports on the Gigabit Switch and if required you can convert to a multi-source/multi-display 'Matrix' relativley easily. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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