Over the recent years we have seen multi-screen video technologies really improve to achieve some great things such as AMD's Eyefinity and Nvidia's Surround, we even have the Matrox TH2G and Mview products.
Unfortunately, there is still a lack of any DisplayPort to DVI Multi-Stream Transport (MST) hubs on the market and there is even less support for Portrait-Landscape-Portrait (PLP). The only way of achieving PLP for gaming is via the SoftTH software, which from experience is less than user friendly, and also limited to DirectX9.
Here at WSGF, we strive to push technology to its limits and bring to our community the very best in multi-monitor products, knowledgeable support and game fixes. With this in mind, we are interested in bringing to market a device that would allows users to have great flexibility in the way they wish to setup their displays and overcome most of the problems that plague many of our readers.
Updated:-
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Recently I got in touch with device manufacturer Datapath about tweaking one of their existing products, the X4 to cater to our community's needs.
The X4 is a splendid bit of hardware allowing users to create extravagant display configurations such as these possible here...
*Note all above images are using the existing x4 with DVI Dual-Link input interface.
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The device is an external unit that sits between the computer and the monitors, much like the Matrox TH2G device; however the device we would like to offer to the community would contain the following specs...
Input: 1x DisplayPort v1.2 full size connector
Output: 3x or 4x Dual-Link DVI
If you would be interested in this device, please join the site (if you haven't already) and share your thoughts with us.
Support for each monitor output to have its own configuration:
Bezel Correction - Allows for each monitor to have independent bezel correction.
Projector Edge Blending - Blend the edge of projectors to get that perfect alignment.
Rotation - Independently support different rotations per monitor, great for PLP setups!
Image UP/Down Scaling - Take a portion of your input signal and scale it to fit your monitors as needed.
Refresh Rate Conversion - Each monitor can be provided with a refresh rate that is optimum for it, example (60/75/60)
DirectX Independent - Totally independent of DirectX version giving both forward and backwards compatibility!
Different Resolutions - Run different resolutions on each monitor for those whom have a mis-matched set of screens.
Easily Configurable - Simple editing of custom input and output configurations via a USB connection to a PC.
Genlock - Auto-sense input and output frame rates, automatically genlocking when possible.
Low Latency - A delay of just 1 single video frame.
This would essentially be the first Displayport to DVI MST hub on the market, and if that was not good enough it is also able to support PLP (Portrait, Landscape, Portrait) monitor configurations while supporting DirectX11!
You could also use it with four projectors to create a 4k display for your home theatre.
The device will present itself to the operating system as a single large surface (aka 1 giant monitor), thus this will work on the windows desktop and in games without the need for any hacks such as SoftTH. It would also be GPU independent, and work with both AMD and NVIDIA cards.
What I would like to know is how much interest there is out there for this device, we really wish to make this happen but can only do so if we have enough interest so that we may get these devices produced for us. At present we expect the cost of such a device to be around £500-£600, however with enough interest we may be able to bring this down.
If you would be interested in this device, please join the site (if you haven't already) and share your thoughts with us. I would like to start an active discussion on what you the community would really like to see from such a device, and how much you would be willing to spend. So, please help us help you!
A year has passed since I started taking interest in this device, sadly there has been little movement in that time, however with still yet many requests for PLP solutions not limited to DX9 I am wishing to relight the candle on this topic.
During our transition form Drupal forums to phpbb forums, this article had any new comments disabled, I am creating this thread in order for members to post their new or continued interest in such a device.
The X4 is a pricy bit of hardware, tho when you compare it to the like of Matrox Triple Head2Go and the Mview products when they first come out, the x4 with all its features is not to bad considering.
The beauty of this device is that it would work with any device using the correct video signal (DVI) be this laptops, pcs, dvd/blu-ray players if converting HDMI to DVI, it is also agnostic of AMD Eyefinity/Nvidia Surround just like the Matrox Triple Head2Go device, and is of cause not limited to any DirectX versions so this would work in games as well as for general desktop use be that windows, linux or mac.
Of cause the unit you linked to is the tradtional X4 with DVI Dual-Link input, it can handle 4k resolution but only by dropping the refresh rate to 30hz on the input, the 4 output displays can still run at 60hz as documented in the pictures above.
In order to achieve 4k or even triple 1080p at 60hz the X4 would require a DP1.2 input, which is exactly the purpose of this article and the communications I have had with Datapath.
If this is something you are interested in then please show your interest here.
Since softth is going down the drain the new games will be problematic for me on my PLP, since I am a developer and also inside the embedded space I was thinking of picking up the SoftTH development work but its a patch job since things change all the time and also it isnt very future proof (especially if you use other DirectX injectors as well).
I also was looking at doing a custom embedded solution similar to what is proposed here using a beagleboard black and some hobby work but instad of doing displayport/hdmi out going directly on the LVDS and maybe offer some support similar to the new G-Sync hardware thats coming from nVidia (flexible refresh rates).
I might start fiddling with the beagle board anyway just for fun but if there is a professional unit that does it Im all over it.
What is a bit worrisome tho is that you basically have a monitor inbetween, this means that the data goes to the device then to the monitors internal device as well. This will most likely cause some delay (which is ok for pure video but for gaming might be an issue), going on the LVDS interface directly you eliminate these middle men devices.
A beagleboard black is 45$ with the additional software and hw the cost shouldnt be more than 100$ tops imo but as I said thats a non commercial hobby price tage
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