[Dorfdad]

I am looking for some type of switch for my PC that will allow me to hook up the secondary monitor into a HDMI switch that will allow 2-3 different HDTV's to be used as the secondary Monitor Display.

I have seen plenty of 4 hdmi inputs to 1 output but Im looking for the reverse. 1 HDMI input 2-3 outputs with auto detect switching.

The idea is to hook my PC up to it and run 50 ft hdmi cables to both my basement and upstairs HDTV's to be used as a secondary monitor for gaming/ movies.

I already have a USB dongle placed in the middle of the basement roof that allows my wireless keyboard and controller to work perfectly from both rooms but I guess I will need some video

Any recommendations / suggestions?

[Blazkowicz]

live full time in the basement. sorry . but, this is a fun idea you have there!

[Rodéric]

None, but you'll need repeaters on your HDMI cable for that to work.
I also saw there are solution using ethernet cables to transport HDMI signal that work better over "long" distances.
Talking about which I remember seeing (expensive ~450$) specialized box that convert HDMI to TCP/IP and AFAIR allow one input to be displayed on several outputs at once.
You'll have to use your google-fu to find those and there might be cheaper alternatives that I'm unaware of.

(I just multiply the number of devices myself, I find it good for fault tolerance too ^^)

[Davros]

a 5000 series or later amd card has 1 hdmi but with adapters (2x dp to hdmi + 2x dvi to hdmi) you can run 5 independant displays and turn any combination of them on and off from your keyboard

[Malo]

I thought the 5000 series only had 3 display processors irrespective of how many ports you can do.

[MfA]

According to google 50 ft is generally doable with a decent cable, and just using a higher end video card with multiple outputs does seem the easiest solution.

[Davros]

@malo no
perhaps the 5000 series only support 3 monitors in sls mode (Single Large Surface) aka Eyefinity
but if you dont want multiple displays combined into one its 5 (apart from the eyefinity 6 editions)

[Lightman]

Originally Posted by Davros

@malo no
perhaps the 5000 series only support 3 monitors in sls mode (Single Large Surface) aka Eyefinity
but if you dont want multiple displays combined into one its 5 (apart from the eyefinity 6 editions)

It supports 6 displays, but most cards has only 3 outputs active (reason why there was HD5870 EyeFinity 6 Edition). DisplayPort on 5000 series is of older specification and cannot daisy-chain, some series 6000 and all series 7000 have DP1.2 which can daisy-chain so every card can support 6 displays out of the box with external DP HUB which as far as I know is still MIA.

[Davros]

@ lightman
guess we are both wrong, the 5000 series supports between 3 and 6 monitors depending on gpu
5800 supports 6 (although standard 5800s only have 4 outputs)
5700 = 5
5600 + below = 3

[Lightman]

Originally Posted by Davros

@ lightman
guess we are both wrong, the 5000 series supports between 3 and 6 monitors depending on gpu
5800 supports 6 (although standard 5800s only have 4 outputs)
5700 = 5
5600 + below = 3

Yes, forgot that lower end 5xxx had less outputs . Still Cypress was 6 outputs but most cards only supported 4 as standard but from Cayman every card was capable of driving 6 displays thanks to DP1.2 and therefore special EyeFinity edition card was no longer needed .

[Dorfdad]

Well I guess a Video card that supports 3 outs would be the best / easiest solution however I have a 570ti now but that only supports 2 outs... The other requirement I have to have is the video card needs to basically be really quiet under a load.. Any suggestions > Nvidia 570 for around 300.00?

[Davros]

It has to be really quiet and your not in the same room ????
if you want at least 570ti perf then
on the nv side it would have to be a 660 and up
ati would be 7870 and up

depending on how much you want to spend

[Blazkowicz]

Yes geforce series 6 support three or four outs, if you only really need three at most then any new geforce from 640 to 680 should be fine, if you have further needs you can use VNC or RDP or something else (ssh -X into a linux VM is fine)