How to choose between multi-screen expander and video wall processor?

How to choose between multi-screen expander and video wall processor?

 

 Many customers may have questions. Both of them are large-screen splicing devices. Why are there two series of products? What is the difference between them? How should I choose for my project? 

There is no doubt that large screen splicing is indeed one of the similarities between multi-screen expanders and video wall processors, but their differences are also very different. Now follow my steps to better understand them~

 

 

When it comes to large-screen splicing, its demand originated from the fact that the size of only one screen is not enough to display the needs of users, so there are demands to splice different numbers of screens into one large screen in a certain arrangement and combination, such as 2 screens (1 row and 2 columns), 4 screens (2 rows and 2 columns), and 9 screens (3 rows and 3 columns). There are about two kinds of solutions in the early days:

1、Use the graphics card spanning function of the multi-screen graphics card to splice each display screen into one. But this has a disadvantage. The more screens you need to splice, the more multi-screen graphics cards you need, and the higher the requirements for the computer motherboard, the higher the cost. The worst thing is that the number of multi-screen graphics cards that can be inserted into a computer motherboard is also limited. It is rare to find a motherboard that can insert 3 multi-screen graphics cards, which can only solve the problem of splicing large screens within 12 screens.

 

2、In order to reduce costs, the value of the distributor comes into play. Using a distributor of more than 1 point and the splicing function of the splicing screen splicing board, it is easy to splice a large screen. But this also introduces several new problems. The more screens there are, the worse the clarity; when the total aspect ratio of the large screen after splicing is not 16:9, the picture will be severely deformed.

 

In order to meet the needs of high clarity, no image distortion and low cost, the multi-screen expander was born. It can achieve the ultimate visual feast, making the input resolution completely consistent with the total resolution of the spliced large screen, which is what we define as the point-to-point display effect, solving the problems of poor clarity and image distortion.

So how does he reduce costs? The multi-screen graphics card mentioned above is directly connected to the display or the distributor, and only a small part of the resources of this graphics card port is used (only 1920*1080 or 3840*2160 resolution is output). The multi-screen expander takes advantage of this point, receives the larger resolution of the multi-screen graphics card port (such as 7680*1080), and then divides this resolution into several parts (4 parts) and transmits it to each display. Expanding 1 graphics card port into 4 outputs, so that 1 multi-screen graphics card can connect 16 displays, reducing the resource waste of multi-screen graphics cards, and also reducing the requirements of computer motherboards and multi-screen graphics cards, thereby reducing the cost of the entire project. The figure below is our conventional 1:4 multi-expand topology diagram. Under certain conditions, we can achieve a 1:9 point-to-point effect. In other words, the role of the multi-screen extender is to expand the graphics card port, improve the resource utilization of each graphics card port, and obtain the ultimate visual display effect.

 

Now that we have talked about multi-screen extenders, how did the video wall processor come about? Don’t worry, please continue reading.

After satisfying the above requirements, the customer is anxious again. The input source of the multi-screen extender must be a discrete graphics card to achieve the best effect. What if the input source is a laptop, Android box, DVD, etc.? And how to solve the problem of switching/opening windows/roaming multiple input sources?

Then, the video wall processor was born. Of course, in most cases, the input source does not require a multi-screen graphics card, so the point-to-point display effect is not an essential requirement. Here, the concept of proportional display effect is introduced, that is, the input source gives a resolution that is proportional to the total resolution of the large screen after splicing. The video wall processor will proportionally enlarge this input signal to the output large screen so that the picture is not deformed. (The input source here usually refers to a computer without a multi-screen graphics card, Android boxes, DVDs and other sources with fixed resolution output. The proportional display effect can be achieved by changing the window size or customizing the playback content)

 

In summary, here is a summary of the differences between a multi-screen extender and a video wall processor:

1、The multi-screen extender has a point-to-point display effect. The video wall processor can display point-to-point under certain conditions. In most cases, it has a proportional display effect.

2、The input source of the multi-screen extender is usually a computer with a multi-screen graphics card, because the resolution of the input to the multi-screen extender must be consistent with the output, and the video wall processor has basically no requirements for the input source type.

3、The multi-screen expander has only one input source. If you need to open a window, you can use our window opening software to have more playability.

4、The video wall processor has optional functions such as multiple input source switching, window roaming, etc.

 

Simply put, if you need the ultimate picture display effect, please choose a multi-screen extender; if you need multiple input signal sources for switching, window roaming, etc., please choose a video wall processor. Have you learned it?

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