Looking for Cheap Multiple VGA Graphics Card for Narrowcasting

[Aisling]

Hey!

 

I'm doing IT for a study association at my university. Among other things, we have the oppurtunity to drive ~10 screens around our association room. These are fed by a computer which outputs three different screens: a status screen (displaying a simple webpage with some JavaScript), a screen containing sponsored messages (images with occasional YouTube video's) and a screen dedicated to YouTube playback (Chromecast-ish interactivity) to provide audio and video in the association room. The computer outputs to three VGA-input-transmitter-boxes, that output the videofeeds to a proprietary system that duplicates video streams and feeds them to the various screens mentioned earlier. There's also a fourth screen that does not output anywhere (it's basically a VGA to DisplayPort adapter with some shorted terminals), but that we use for TeamViewer access without interrupting the other screens.

 

Currently the computer runs two of the displays (those with YouTube video's) of of the on-board graphics of the motherboard. The other two screens (including the dummy screen) are run from a years old third-hand graphics card. We currently have issues with this configuration (unstable graphics card and various HDMI/DisplayPort to VGA adapters) and wish to set it up a little more professional.

 

What we have is the following:

- A relatively capable Windows 10 computer (Intel i7-4770, GIGABYTE Z87-HD3 Motherboard)

- Several proprietary transmitter boxes that only have VGA in

 

We are looking for the 'right' way to drive these multiple monitors from the single computer. We were hoping to find a graphics card with multiple VGA outputs (1x4 or 2x2) meant for this kind of narrowcasting, but these doesn't seem to exist. We also need to make sure that the YouTube screens can handle the HD streams.

 

The only constraint is that we really have to use the VGA transmitter boxes (as it's the only way for us to drive the screens we want to drive), and are on a limited budget (we can't afford to build an entirely new PC at this time). Ideally we would like to spend less than €100.

 

Any pointers would be appreciated!

[KenjiUmino]

13 minutes ago, Aisling said:

We are looking for the 'right' way to drive these multiple monitors from the single computer. We were hoping to find a graphics card with multiple VGA outputs (1x4 or 2x2) meant for this kind of narrowcasting, but these doesn't seem to exist. We also need to make sure that the YouTube screens can handle the HD streams.

consumer cards with more than one VGA pretty much died ages ago, some of the latest cards don't even have ANY analog output any more.

 

i guess your best bet would be to get a recent budget card with the desired amount of outputs (analog or digital) and buy yet another bunch of converters - something-still-supported-to-vga converters - and use the output from those to drive your proprietary vga thingies

[Zagna]

Matrox M9140 LP PCIe x16 provides 4x VGA but.... even on eBay the cheapest atm is 140€. New ones are closer to 500€.

Pricey but Matrox does 2D cards well.

[KenjiUmino]

3 hours ago, Zagna said:

Matrox M9140 LP PCIe x16 provides 4x VGA but.... even on eBay the cheapest atm is 140€. New ones are closer to 500€.

Pricey but Matrox does 2D cards well.

true. had a few matrox cards back in the PCI and AGP days and the picture quality over VGA was outstanding.

 

if i remember correctly, they were also among the first to put 2-4 or more VGA ports on their cards and actually allowed to expand the desktop onto multiple monitors.

consumer cards back then had one VGA and maybe s-video at best - but you could not even use both at the same time.

[Aisling]

KenjiUmino and Zagna thanks for your answers. So buying one or two budget cards with the appropriate adapter cables is unfortunately the way to go. Although it will probably already help a lot to have a little more recent card.

 

I'll also take the Matrox card suggested by Zagna under advice, perhaps we can find a cheap one, and for next academic year we can also budget a little more.

 

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UPDATE: If someone else is looking for an answer: we're currently looking into an RX460-like card. It has three outputs which can be adapter to VGA. We can then put the dummy output on the mobo.