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jersey · Mar 26, 2006, 02:49 PM

Hello All,

Here's the situation: In October I have a very large and important exhibition of my video works here. There may be up to 10 video pieces in the show. For each piece the set up I'd like to use is Dell 20.1" widescreen monitors and and Mac mini / small form factor pc to run the video. Over time I have found that and uncompressed 4 gig video file will give me much clearer image than a compressed dvd, obviously, so I have decided I must run them off of hard drives.

However, buying 10 minis may be cost prohibitive, I cant even seem to find an old base model 1.25 for less than $375. I have considered Oppo Digital DVD players, which have been claimed to be the best player available, but still feel like its a compromise.

In the meantime, I have been looking at small form factor / mini pc barebone setups as an in-between compromise. Running linux should make them stable enough for the simple task I'm asking of them.

Does anyone have any suggestions on kits, video cards w/DVI, other components, etc? Any info would be really helpful.

Thanks.

macaddict0001 · Mar 26, 2006, 06:09 PM

You could run 10+ monitors off some combinations of boards/cards with one computer.

Love Calm Quiet · Mar 26, 2006, 06:19 PM

"You could run 10+ monitors off some combinations of boards/cards with one computer."
Really? 10 different shows (not mirrors)?

jersey · Mar 26, 2006, 07:04 PM

I had thought about that.....but the money I'd have in a new g5 + cards to run the things... it would probably be more in the end. Not to mention the problem of the 600 Sq ft gallery, I'd need some long dvi cables.

And as far as presentation goes... a mini mounted behind a monitor on a 8 inch arm is nice and clean. 1 or 2 towers with all kind of cords isn't.

meelk · Mar 26, 2006, 07:23 PM

get the Oppo dvd players.

jersey · Mar 26, 2006, 07:29 PM

Originally Posted by meelk

get the Oppo dvd players.

I have a friend who just bought one.... and they do look great... but I hate to sacrifice the quality due to compression. And with these videos, I need all of the quality I can squeeze out of them.

vmarks · Mar 26, 2006, 08:19 PM

it really does seem like you should be able to put something together to limit the number of machines required. maybe it's five machines with two video cards? Maybe it's five machines with twinview cards in them?

There are dual DVI cards that can do different images on each display, not mirroring.

The reason you're going to run into problems displaying more than one movie on one machine is hard drive access. With 4GB movies playing, I think I would test this by opening more than one simultaneously on one monitor just to see when performance drops off.

If you aren't tied to small form factor, it's possible to pick up 99 dollar barebones machines and then add the hard drives, gets you out at each machine for about 200 total.

Mithras · Mar 26, 2006, 08:21 PM

It's not entirely clear to me, but can you use DivX encoding at 1080i and a high bitrate to get better-than-DVD quality out of the Oppos?

macaddict0001 · Mar 26, 2006, 08:50 PM

Yes, some pci-e cards support four monitors via two dual-link dvi ports and special cables.
Your monitor
a solution
You will also need a mobo with 2 pci-e slots, a lot of ram, and an extremely fast hard drive You can run any additional moniters needed off of pci cards. You may find that two computers are cheaper, due to the high cost of the multi-display adapter.

jersey · Mar 26, 2006, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by Mithras

It's not entirely clear to me, but can you use DivX encoding at 1080i and a high bitrate to get better-than-DVD quality out of the Oppos?

I have spoken with the folks at Oppo, and 720 x 480 is all the machine supports when playing an avi file.

jersey · Mar 26, 2006, 09:06 PM

Originally Posted by vmarks

it really does seem like you should be able to put something together to limit the number of machines required. maybe it's five machines with two video cards? Maybe it's five machines with twinview cards in them?

There are dual DVI cards that can do different images on each display, not mirroring.

...
If you aren't tied to small form factor, it's possible to pick up 99 dollar barebones machines and then add the hard drives, gets you out at each machine for about 200 total.

I have tossed around 5 machines with 2 cards each, but again I run into cluttered installation due to wires.

I am leaning towards the small form factor so the machine can be mounted behind the display on the wall, but should still be able to do it for 250ish each, I would think.

Mac Write · Mar 26, 2006, 09:27 PM

For highest quality image (with decent file size) go H.264 1080P or even un-compressed QuickTime (Would Pixalet be good for interlaced video? I know it's good for animation).

macaddict0001 · Mar 26, 2006, 10:44 PM

you can get mini-itx boards with a via cpu for a good price nowadays. there is always the imac g5. Or perhaps a dealer could loan you some computers.

CMYKid · Mar 27, 2006, 12:18 PM

...

CMYKid · Mar 27, 2006, 12:20 PM

here is info on some recent ULTRA-small form factor boxes designed just for this running Linspire:
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/22..._peek_linspire

This article talks about easily and cheaply building the same thing in a slightly larger Mini-ITX format:
http://www.xyzcomputing.com/index.ph...iew&id=589

Or maybe there's a dealer in town who'd loan you some for a big sign at the show. Hell, call apples PR/Placement people, if the show is high-profile enough then you might get some traction.

jersey · 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by CMYKid

Hell, call apples PR/Placement people, if the show is high-profile enough then you might get some traction.

I have been thinking about calling them...wonder if there is a better # to reach them at besides the 1800myapple? Yeah, the show is super high profile.... it arguably one of the top 5 museums in the country for contemporary art.

jersey · Mar 27, 2006, 02:39 PM

Damn....that Cubit 3 is nice.....but with what it costs, the money to have it shipped, and with all of the other parts, I'm not too far away from a mac mini.....

ort888 · Mar 27, 2006, 02:57 PM

Can you sell them all when you are done? Buy 10 mini's on a credit card and sell them on ebay after the show. You will probably make back 80%-90% of your investment.

jersey · Mar 27, 2006, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by ort888

Can you sell them all when you are done? Buy 10 mini's on a credit card and sell them on ebay after the show. You will probably make back 80%-90% of your investment.

I have also thought about this.... but I was looking to get the base config 1.25 g4's and by May of '07, when the show comes down, they will be silly old. And the other part is the initial lay out of almost 5k. Not that I cant, but would rather not.

jersey · Mar 27, 2006, 03:28 PM

Wonder about pvr / tivo set up...... but do they have dvi ? I'm not too familiar with them.

vmarks · Mar 27, 2006, 04:41 PM

Originally Posted by jersey

Wonder about pvr / tivo set up...... but do they have dvi ? I'm not too familiar with them.

no, and you wouldn't like tivo's compression.

CMYKid · Mar 27, 2006, 05:35 PM

i would DEFINITELY not bother to call the 800 number, thats just service and such. You'd do much better to look in the phone book and get the direct corporate number, or better yet track down and call/email a VP of Marketing or Consumer Relations with a comprehensive proposal that covers the prestige of the institution, your work, expected number of attendees their product will be exposed to, method of display, etc. The minis are cool enough looking, and have the logo on the top, I'd consider writing into the proposal that you'd mount them to the wall next to the monitor rather than hide them behind. It'd blend in smoothly with a white gallery wall while still advertising the brand.

In addition, the mini is marketed to be sold separately for switchers that already have peripherals, touching on that fact in your proposal and tying it in with the fact that you're using Dell monitors atached to them (thus demonstrating the ease of integration with other hardware) would be a good angle for when they evaluate the value of your proposal to them.

Phone calls aside I would definitely spend some serious Google time tracking down an aforementioned VP. Press releases are INVALUABLE sources of this info and VPs are high enough to make decisions but low enough in the order of things that they tend to read and answer their own email.

If you really get hard up you can check out my post in the PVR thread here for info about modding an XBox to play video. not sure if you can do a DVI out tho.

jersey · Mar 27, 2006, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by CMYKid

....snip....

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I actually called the 800 # and they gave the # for PR and they in turn gave me the contact info for the proper people. The person I spoke to was very helpful. She told me to write up the request, not the gallery or museum; they [Apple] " like to keep things personal" .

I haven't started the email, but will do so later tonight. I'm actually thinking about asking for the whole set up, minis and screens, if I'm already trying to go down that road. I actually insist on the minis being mounted behind the screen, thus all of the "prestige" would go to the dell monitors, and that’s not what I want.

olePigeon · Mar 28, 2006, 11:08 AM

I think someone mentioned it, but you could also try renting some computers.

jersey · Mar 28, 2006, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by olePigeon

I think someone mentioned it, but you could also try renting some computers.

I've looked into it, and at a 6+ month time frame I would be better off buying them and taking a 30+% loss on resell.

CMYKid · Mar 28, 2006, 03:25 PM

yep, good, let me know how it works out and mayeb I'll take in the show.

jersey · Mar 28, 2006, 08:59 PM

Well that was fast. They put the smack down on my product loan inquiry really fast. Next idea....

jersey · Mar 30, 2006, 05:17 PM

Well.... it took me exactly 2 days to break down and buy a couple of minis.

They showed up on the apple site for $379 and I had 2 $30 off 300 coupons.... so at 349 ea I couldnt pass them up.