2 x 2 video wall - cheapest solution you can advice

I have 4 Panasonic TH-43LFE8E LCD screens and I want to have a 2x2 setup with one source. The resolution doesn’t need to be as high as 3840x2080, it can be less.
Those screens have no displayport video input and I don’t want to use an external device like a video wall processor.

The source will be just one PC. Which graphic card can solve my problem? Did you use a similar setup before?

i’d recommend an ati with mst and the DP->4xHDMI splitter from club3d

Thanks velcrome but how is it possible if there is no DP input on the screen?

it splits to hdmi?
if this does not help, maybe you should be more specific about the inputs other than that it is not dp.

The screen has 1xHDMI, 1xDVI-D and 1xVGA input. Can you send a link which products do you exactly mean?

Why not just get a 4 output gpu? From either nvidia or amd. They should do it without anything extra but some dp to hdmi/dvi/vga adapters.
I would prefer nvidia since their cards are not as picky regarding using active or passive adapters.

splitter

no additional drivers needed. be careful about the rather flimsy cable, and never look back on tripleheads

Thanks velcrome - but this splitter is DP and my monitors don’t have DP input.

then you need adapters from dp to whatever format your monitors have.

There are also splitters that do DP -> 4*HDMI, like this one for example.
But as sune already said, why not just use the outputs of the gfx card?

Hi bjoern (or Bjørn), thanks for the help. This device is exactly doing it. For such an installation I need:
1 x DP TO HDMI 1x4 VIDEO WALL (MST) SPLITTER HUB ($297)
1 x AMD graphic card with Eyefinity (Radeon HD 5450 seems to be a cheap one) ($69)

This is a solution of something like $400. So which card do you mean exactly? An NVidia card with 4 outputs, anyone? I read many articles about it, some say that a card with 4 outputs doesn’t support a 2x2 view… There are many rubbish information about it.

Which exactly gfx card are you talking about? And how can I be sure that it supports 2x2 screen?

hey mehmet,

after a month of absence, I am finally back in our studio and had a chance to doublecheck. And you are right, the splitter we use is actually outputting DP again. We’ve been using it with HDMI nonetheless, but of course it needs four adapters for that, just as @sunep said. With adapters it’s working perfectly, even a fifth output and an additional control screen was possible with a x90 series (only with
a seventh screen it failed).

Nvidia’s spanmode was restricted to exactly 3 (and later also exactly 5) “identical” screens. However, drivers were updated recently, so they might be more flexible at last.
That said, for multiscreen and dx11, lately we’ve been using ATI with much more success.

Hi velcrome, I appreciate that you are following the thread. Which AMD card do you suggest to use? Which one is cheap (I will not use it for gaming) and can offer 2x2?

this hints that ati basically has put the necessary features across their entire product line.

its more a question on what content you want to show and finding a compromise with your budget.

velcrome, this is exactly bjoern’s advice, right?

I suppose you need to run interactive content or even VVVV specifically. In case not, the cheapest solution is using four Raspberry Pi synchronized over the network, or even over the GPIO if you are really on a budget. Using Pi Zero, this could get you under 40EUR and also the power consumption bill is very small.

Hi id144, but they need extra software which is not for free, right? Can you make a roughly BoM (bill of materials)?

@mehmet operating system for raspberry (raspbian distribution of linux) is free, same goes for the video player (omxplayer). bill of materials would be 4x raspberry pi(original, 2 or Zero), 4x resp 2x usb charger + 4x usb micro b cable, 4x microSD card 4gb+, 4x acrylic case

Thanks, sorry @id144 but what is “4x resp 2x usb charger”?

Raspberry is powered over USB-B micro cable, some charges(power supplies) have two outputs, so two of such chargers may do the job.