Separate Audio on Multiple TVs

[keeperofthecode]

I'm planning to purchase a Dell Precision T1700 with a AMD FirePro™ W4100 2GB Video Card. It has 4 display ports out which I will use to hook up to three TVs using supplied dport to hdmi adapters. What I need is to be able to play different videos on each TV which I know is not a problem but what happens with the audio. Will the HDMI automatically play the audio from the video on that screen or do I need to use some special video player to handle this? Thanks.

 

[itpromike]

Depends what you're putting on that screen but most Vid apps aren't configured for multi-zone setups. What I mean is, you can have your video card out put to multiple displays, any PC can do this as it can be used with multiple monitors. However if you put VLC on one screen to play 1 video, then in VLC's settings you tell it which video source you want to use as well as which audio source - if you choose one of the display port outs then that is what that app is configured for. So when you open that app, it will always play audio from the one display port you choose in settings. Now you could choose to install 3 separate installs of VLC, or whatever app you use as long as it supports multiple installs. Then you could just use one install for each screen. Then however your box will be running separate installs and multiple video/audio streams for each install. That could be insanely taxing on the system... Most - if not all consumer grade or inexpensive video playback applications will work like this.

The other option I see is putting a AVR that supports multiple zones in front of the TV

 

[keeperofthecode]

I planned for i5 CPU, 16GB Memory & 10,000 RPM HD for this system. I can go up to i7 CPU if I need to. That is all this computer will be used for is just running these videos. Do you think it will be able to handle it? Thanks for your advice.

 

[poofyhairguy]

If you don't mind, can I ask what you are trying to do?

If it is some sort of display setup at a store or something? Or are you trying to make one HTPC that covers an entire house?

For the former some software rigging can probably be done. The setup would be rough, but then you could just forget about it.

For the latter you just need to take that budget and invest it in three celeron NUCs instead. A central HTPC is never a good idea, it is always a bitch to manage for the less technical people in your life. As soon as a Windows update reboot closes the specially configured program whoever it is who depends on that TV is boned until you bust out the mouse and fix it. There is no way to make such a setup have a high WAF.

 

[keeperofthecode]

Display setup at a store more or less. An audio visual company locally asked me to build them one PC to handle all three LCDs. I agree, if it were me I would install computers at each monitor and remote into them individually but they do not want to do it that way.