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Windows guy will buy a mac if DVD can stretch three LCD's

A

anthonybuchanan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 17, 2002
7
0
I want to buy a powermac with a dual display card. I want to add a second card for three displays total.
Will using DVD playback sofware, can I stretch the movie so that I get a very wide screen experience.
This cannot be done using any Windows OS.
I will buy three Samsung 19" displays that all have a very thin bezel.
 
I'm fairly sure someone here in MR has a three LCD setup, I recently saw it in the "Show your setup" thread in the community section. He'd be best qualified to answer your question.

A personal question for you: Whats the rez on those moniters? Because suppose they were three 1600x1200 moniters = 4800 x 1200...are there any movies out there that have a 4:1 ratio? I'd be mighty interested :D
 
It does not work under Apple's DVD Player. It does work under Video LAN client, however you will not get a good experience due to aspect ratios, unless you are authoring a custom DVD for a kiosk or something.

BTW, a 42" Plasma display can be had for $3k nowadays...
 
Why would you want to do this? I couldn't stand watching a film where you have screen breaks between the image, it'll look awful! Plus you need to maintian the films aspect ratio (most of the time 16:9) which you wouldn't be able to do if you steched accross multipul displays. If you really want a wide display to watch movies don't get 3 4:3 displays, grab a wide format display (like the Apples 22", or 23", or many others) and a regular 17" for more screen real estate when u need it.

[edit]
I think Over Achiever was talking about me, but I don't use all 3 for the mac at the moment, waiting to find a cheap ATI 7000 to use 3rd screen. Currently have to hooked up to the Mac on a GF4MX and the other on a PC.

[edit 2]
Also, do you have a link to these 19" Samsungs, I'd like to see them.
 
I have a personal preference for this type of setup however it may be due to my having never actually seeing it in action except for pictures you will find at this link:
http://www.9xmedia.com/Pages-products/3000-Gaming-Systems.html

The monitors are 1280X1024 max however this feature is not important for DVD viewing. It could be very important for working with multiple non-DVD applications.

I am definitely a mac wannabe and visit apple.com daily just to see hot news. When I watch a DVD in Windows using powerdvd, while the movie is an 16:9 aspect ratio, I can watch it full screen or, inside a window. My thinking is that while the movie is non-full screen I can stretch it across the other three monitors.

If anyone has just two (2) monitors and could test this out I would be satisfied that if it works with two it will work with three.

I don't want an Apple Cinima or other large lcs because I am interested in this riight now.
 
Ok, those moniters I've seen before. There was a thread on moniters and these were mentioned ;)

318%20xs%20-%20financial%20family%20shot.jpg


As for the setup, it definately is cool. I personally use two moniters (my PC laptop spans to CRT)

[EDIT]So I was wrong about the multiple moniters[/EDIT]

I'm still not sure why you would want to stretch out the DVD over three moniters as 2 1280x1024 moniters will have a 5:2 aspect ratio, more than enough for the common 16:9 ratio.

As for workspace, if you can buy three LCDs, go ahead. It gives you a great amount of workspace. And a lot cheaper than the setup you linked to. :D ($9899? I know it includes a workstation, but sheeeeeesh!)

This is ultimate, eight 20.1" LCDs. $32000!:eek:
4%20over%204.jpg
 
Originally posted by Over Achiever
I know that XP does not support three moniters, but I'm sure there's freeware to change that;) I admit, it makes for one awesome gaming machine.:D
Click to expand...
What makes you say that? It does. You could put 4 matrox G200 MMS Quad cards in a PC and have 16 screens if you felt like it.
 
Over Achiever, can you stretch DVD playback across your laptop and your monitor ?

I want this configuration specifically for DVD playback since it will give as large an image as a 56" plasma. It will not work though if I cannot stretch the image across monitors.

I will have the added benefit of 3 screen gaming and mega workspace.
 
Sorry Over Acheiver. I did not answer one of your questions.

You asked:
I'm still not sure why you would want to stretch out the DVD over three moniters as 2 1280x1024 moniters will have a 5:2 aspect ratio, more than enough for the common 16:9 ratio.

The answer is that most critical activity occurs dead center on the screen. Having two monitors would result in the video being broken up dead center, which I consider unacceptable. Having three gives you amuch better experience.
 
edesignuk,

Windows will allow multiple monitors and it does so beautifully. However, DVD, tv tuners, quicktime playback, and most other 3D application can only run on the one primary monitor. That sucks.
 
Ahh...I understand now. But if you keep the aspect ratio, it won't be like you're watching the DVD on a 56" plasma. The DVD on three 19" screens will essentially be like a DVD played on a 23" 16:9 screen. Just thought you'd like to know.

And doing a quick calculation, the three LCDs would be like a 47" ultra wide screen.;)


So unless you want the 8 moniter setup you linked to, i dunno where you're getting your numbers from ;)
 
Originally posted by anthonybuchanan
I want this configuration specifically for DVD playback since it will give as large an image as a 56" plasma. It will not work though if I cannot stretch the image across monitors.
Click to expand...
You still have me confused. It will not give you an image te size of a 56" plasma. It may give you the width of a 56" but that's it. If you can find software that will allow you to stretch a DVD across 3 screens everyone will look very short and fat.
 
I do not beleive that the actor would be short and fat. I wish that someone would try this even on two monitors to see.
You are right that I will not exactly be as large as over 50" but it will be a very large DVD playback that i do not beleive will have short and fat characters on it.

Can someone try it.
 
Originally posted by Nipsy
It does not work under Apple's DVD Player. It does work under Video LAN client, however you will not get a good experience due to aspect ratios, unless you are authoring a custom DVD for a kiosk or something.

BTW, a 42" Plasma display can be had for $3k nowadays...
Click to expand...
I just realized that we completely missed that post...it does work if you use VLC. This is taken from their website.

Video output features: X11 (XShm, XVideo), SDL, DirectX, Linux framebuffer, GGI, BeOS API, MacOS X API. Hardware YUV acceleration, arbitrary window scaling.
Click to expand...

There seems to be a PC version, so maybe you could check it out yourself ;)
 
Originally posted by Over Achiever
This is ultimate, eight 20.1" LCDs. $32000!:eek:
Click to expand...

Is this thing real?????
I laughed so hard :p
I can't believe somebody's actually made a monitor as crazy as this.

Oh, and I watch DVDs on a Cinema display once in a while, but its refresh rate is not fast enough for video so that I see annoying interlacing stuff clearly. For video playback for entertainment, faster LCD, CRT or Plasma are better choices I think.

Well, it's not just the size, guys :D
 
Originally posted by yamadataro

Is this thing real?????
I laughed so hard :p
I can't believe somebody's actually made a monitor as crazy as this.
Click to expand...
It's not that crazy. Been on any large trading floors recently? Where I work all of the traders have 3 - 6 18" flat panels, if they have 6 they have them in the same type of formation. And it's the same in many places, these screens arn't designed for you at home, but there will be big business where 32k is nothing and saving space is everything.
 
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