[boy8cookie]

I have two VGA monitors that I want to use as pseudo digital picture frames. What's the best / easiest way to drive these monitors. I've got an old iBook I could devote to powering one of them, or maybe both with a VGA DA. Thoughts?

[residentEvil]

you mean old CRTs? what size? you must have some large damn end tables. the cost to keep those powered on for a few months is probably more then a brand new LCD digital picture frame fresh from a factory

[boy8cookie]

Originally Posted by residentEvil 

you mean old CRTs? what size? you must have some large damn end tables. the cost to keep those powered on for a few months is probably more then a brand new LCD digital picture frame fresh from a factory

They're LCDs, and I quite like the form factor of their cases.

[bstone]

You're going to need an emergency kill switch.

[downinflames68]

Just buy one on CL for $25. It'll be cheaper than whatever you're doing.

[boy8cookie]

Do you make money every time you refer someone to craigslist?

I'm not looking for alternative suggestions, I'm looking for ideas on how to do what I initially asked. I like the form factor of the displays, they, themselves, are part of the art factor for me.

[sek929]

Your plan and methods are stupid, listen to Rob, he always knows what's best.

[downinflames68]

K, have fun spending 10+ hours getting that to work.

[Railroader]

See.

[besson3c]

10+ hours? I have no idea where you got that number from, Rob. What the poster wants to do is pretty simple, there isn't much to it if you have the money...

All you need is a computer with a video card that supports multiple heads/Displayports. It looks like Displayport is the leading and most common way to connect a monitor to a computer these days, you can get a video card with as many as 6 Displayports:

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Video Cards & Video Devices,Desktop Graphics / Video Cards,6 x Mini DisplayPort

Just search NewEgg and find a highly rated video card with the amount of display ports you need, and get whatever adapters or whatever you need to connect the cable to your monitors. You probably won't get very far with doing this with a Mac unless you have a Mac Pro, but you can build a cheap PC pretty easily, even a Hackintosh if you want to use OS X.

The building your own PC part might involve a little time to research, but there are ways to make that pretty simple with barebones PCs, if you aren't looking to build the entire thing from scratch. A barebones PC is basically a base + motherboard + fans + power and everything else you'll need so you basically just buy a compatible processor, hard drive(s), video card, and memory and you are set. You might need to spend some time researching this on NewEgg, but you won't need "10+ hours to get this to work" unless you want to build a Hackintosh (I have no idea what is involved there). A monkey can assemble a barebones PC if they have all the parts they need.

[seanc]

To drive your two existing monitors, I'd suggest you pick up a quiet PC, such as a Dell (generally quiet machines) or a quiet home built tower. Let us know what you do intend to get, we can give some advise.
It doesn't have to be fancy, a Dell Optiplex GX270 would work just fine, just make sure it's had a re-cap or new motherboard.

Get a dual head graphics card with VGA/DVI output or two DVI & add DVI > VGA converters as required.

Pick an OS, XP if you have a license or Linux.
Next question is, do you want both monitors to display the same photos, or different photos?

[residentEvil]

so what you are saying, is you have two monitors with VGA connectors? hella lot different then having to VGA monitors (the resolution of VGA is 640x480, which is why i commented about old CRTs and their size...only CRTs of 15+ years ago were that).

see the difference and why i posted what i did? you didn't mention anything about LCDs. if you would have, i would have suggested a few things.

doesn't matter though...do whatever you want. post wrong information, you get snarky posts.

good luck with your project.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by seanc 

To drive your two existing monitors, I'd suggest you pick up a quiet PC, such as a Dell (generally quiet machines) ...

Please tell that to the accountant’s Dell at work. The GPU has been replaced twice due to fan noise, and it still requires regular whacks to the case to stop it from vibrating. (Cheap-ass sheet metal… ugh.)

[amazing]

Downscale your plan and just use one monitor as a picture frame...that's all you can do with an iBook.

[seanc]

Originally Posted by tooki 

Please tell that to the accountant’s Dell at work. The GPU has been replaced twice due to fan noise, and it still requires regular whacks to the case to stop it from vibrating. (Cheap-ass sheet metal… ugh.)

Sounds like a Dell Vostro! They are cheap, flimsy rubbish.

As for GPU fans... replace it with a passively cooled card, or use on-board video, I can't believe your accounting software requires dedicated GPU Dells often have the onboard video on the boards, but with plastic blanks over them to stop users getting confused.

[boy8cookie]

Originally Posted by seanc 

To drive your two existing monitors, I'd suggest you pick up a quiet PC, such as a Dell (generally quiet machines) or a quiet home built tower. Let us know what you do intend to get, we can give some advise.
It doesn't have to be fancy, a Dell Optiplex GX270 would work just fine, just make sure it's had a re-cap or new motherboard.

Get a dual head graphics card with VGA/DVI output or two DVI & add DVI > VGA converters as required.

Pick an OS, XP if you have a license or Linux.
Next question is, do you want both monitors to display the same photos, or different photos?

This solution is the simplest, but not really cost effective. I was hoping to turn the old iBook into the source, maybe using the internal screen connection for one of the displays? I'd have to read more about that.

Originally Posted by residentEvil 

so what you are saying, is you have two monitors with VGA connectors? hella lot different then having to VGA monitors (the resolution of VGA is 640x480, which is why i commented about old CRTs and their size...only CRTs of 15+ years ago were that).

see the difference and why i posted what i did? you didn't mention anything about LCDs. if you would have, i would have suggested a few things.

doesn't matter though...do whatever you want. post wrong information, you get snarky posts.

good luck with your project.

Since when is this snarky? Are you genuinely irritated that I posted "VGA monitor" instead of "monitor with VGA"?

Even if I meant a VGA monitor, wouldn't a VGA monitor connect via VGA to a computer? Wouldn't that mean providing an image to it would be the same as providing an image to an LCD with a VGA connector?

---

Unrelated to all this backlash, I came up with the idea of sculpting something and attaching it to the screens, almost as if the sculpture is coming from the screen. I'm still toying with the idea, and may still go with the computer powered thing. Any thoughts of a material to sculpt that would be light enough to attach to the LCD portion of the screen?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by boy8cookie 

This solution is the simplest, but not really cost effective. I was hoping to turn the old iBook into the source, maybe using the internal screen connection for one of the displays? I'd have to read more about that.

Not going to happen. The iBook does not have a video card that will do that, and it is not user replaceable.

[boy8cookie]

What about a USB > VGA solution? Thoughts on these devices?

[besson3c]

What devices? Your problem isn't a connectivity issue, it's the fact that the video card in your iBook does not have the power to power multiple monitors.

[boy8cookie]

Something like this:
IOGEAR - GUC2015V - USB 2.0 External VGA Video Card

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by boy8cookie 

Something like this:
IOGEAR - GUC2015V - USB 2.0 External VGA Video Card

Heh... There are USB products for everything! Looks good, although the max res is 1280 x 1024 and it only does VGA rather than DVI.

[boy8cookie]

That max res actually works out, it's the same res as the monitors I'm playing with. Just noticed, though, that it claims to support windows XP & Vista (not mac).

[reader50]

OWC has USB video adapters that work with Macs, but the drivers are intel-only.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Heh... There are USB products for everything! Looks good, although the max res is 1280 x 1024 and it only does VGA rather than DVI.

Someone didn't read the thread.