4x2 video wall - ffmpeg / vlc playback

[lootssl]

Hi guys,

really noob question, but I spent a week finding anything and got nothing.

I picked up eight old screens, some old Nvidia 290 graphics cards and some wood. The result looks like this:


[Attachment 47533 - Click to enlarge]

... and yes, I'm gonna do a lengthy How-To on it.

Now, this is supposed to be a "window to everywhere", i.e. playing back some 4k video. split to all 8 screens.

Now, this is obviosly more complicated than I thought.

- I could crop the video into parts, then play 8 videos.
disadvantages: CPU load, sychronicity, re-compression loss

- I could set up vlc to split the video and play on different screens. I found a tutorial for linux, but I have no idea about Linux, can't get all 8 screens working at once, and VLC doesn't "pad" the area between the screens as if it were a window with wooden things in between... but pretends it's one large screen. Doesn't work on 2 screens, so gave up on Linux.

TO emphasize this problem:

Let's say we habe a Video with a 12x5 resolution. I have 3x2 screens. There is a distance between the screens. I want to "skip" the parts you can't see due to physical lack of screen.

I have no idea how to do that.

Happy for any suggestions. Happy for any links. Happy for any Google search terms - happy with any SOFTWARE solution.

My total project costs are currently €16 for wood and screws, €21 for the Nvidia 290 GFX cards and €45 for an Dell 3010 i3 SFF desktop. I'm sure my hardware is fine for what I need to be doing, and I know I could buy a €1.000 65" TV to the same effect. But I want to get this working.

[JVRaines]

You could use a couple of Matrox C420 4-head video cards. They can be ganged for perfect sync and come with software that adjusts for display spacing.