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$10,000 to split a video signal into quarters? They got fleeced. And how is this even a story? They took a video signal and split it into quarters. What am I s

$10,000 to split a video signal into quarters? They got fleeced. And how is this even a story? They took a video signal and split it into quarters. What am I supposed to be surprised or impressed by?

ericlewis 4y ago
I was sitting here thinking the same thing. You could probably achieve this with an rpi or two. The article is light on technical details unless I totally missed it..
- dylan604 4y ago
  The video from the tweet clearly shows the rack of gear doing it. It flashes them quickly and I didn't bother to try to pause the video to look. They look like boxes from BMD, but there are other manufactures that do this screen splitting for large room displays as well. It's pretty common gear in the AV world. The point isn't how they did it, but that they did do it. Only on HN is the actual point lost.
knolan 4y ago
I would imagine you could do it easily with a HDMI mod and some edid dongles for a few bucks.
- dylan604 4y ago
  Show me a BOM for this, please.
  - ungamedplayer 4y ago
    Probably with huge latency too. Everything is simple if speed/latency is not a consideration. Ie, you could use a webcam on a screen, and then cut it up using FFMPEG cropping, send each of them via an RTMP stream to a device... but then you have encoding + cropping + network latency. Sucks for gaming.
    - dylan604 4y ago
      that's the most bizarre way of thinking about it, that I'd almost think I had the idea myself. luckily, I grew up in this world, and am familiar with equipment that does this properly. phew. you failed to mention the major hit in quality of videoing a CRT screen with a webcam. also, hope that webcam supports genlock as well as the CRT, otherwise, your h/v sync will never match. and i thought i could come up with some zanny ideas. this one though, boy, i don't know.
      - ungamedplayer 4y ago
        We're going budget yo.
    - knolan 4y ago
      There are low latency dongles you can use for old consoles to output to HDMI, see my reply to the parent.
  - knolan 4y ago
    There are several N64 HDMI mods. Here is one on Amazon for $20. https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-HDMI-Converter-Cable-Compatible/dp/B07TGJZXWR https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-HDMI-Converter-Cable-Compati... Or this one for $150: https://www.amazon.com/Super-64-Nintendo/dp/B07TKF5XBS https://www.amazon.com/Super-64-Nintendo/dp/B07TKF5XBS You could also use an upscaler like the MClassic for $100: https://www.marseilleinc.com/mclassic/ https://www.marseilleinc.com/mclassic/ Then you need a 1x4 HDMI splitter like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Controller-Splitter-Supportt1920x1080P-Splicing-4-Channel/dp/B09TD4HJMF/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2IMYK9GQB5PEE&keywords=hdmi+1x4+splitter+video+wall&qid=1652130507&sprefix=hdmi+1x4+splitter+video+wall%2Caps%2C41&sr=8-4 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Controller-Splitter-Supportt1920x10...
    - dylan604 4y ago
      If >$400 is "a few bucks", then I'm seriously just out of touch
      - knolan 4y ago
        You are I’m afraid. It’s small money considering that the solution used in the article was an order of magnitude more expensive. You’ll also need the console. An N64 console is going to cost you $100 on eBay, a GoldenEye cart another $20. You’re also going to need four controllers for about $20 each. And displays… The key bit you need to get a digital signal is just $20 but you can pay more if you want and I linked such an option. The upscaler is entirely optional. The video splitter is the most expensive part but you’re really only looking at closer to $250 in extra gear to get this working in addition to the cost of the console, so yes, a few bucks. I’ve my old N64 sitting in a box in the attic. I could imagine setting it up for some students to play at work.
        dylan604 4y ago
        The solution to the article was because they already had the equipment on hand. So it actually was $0 expended and was just an excerise in "what if" and someone else said "hold my beer". So, why don't you just go ahead and spend those "few bucks" and do a nice little write up on the experience whether or not it was successful or not? It's just a few bucks after all
paulryanrogers 4y ago
It's a museum so reusing CRTs and their low latency is probably part of the appeal.
- djur 4y ago
  Yeah, the Ars Technica article makes it clear that this is a temporary use of hardware they already had on hand, and the $10k is just an estimate of what it would cost to buy this vintage hardware online today.

$10,000 to split a video signal into quarters? They got fleeced. And how is this even a story? They took a video signal and split it into quarters. What am I supposed to be surprised or impressed by?

ericlewis 4y ago

I was sitting here thinking the same thing. You could probably achieve this with an rpi or two. The article is light on technical details unless I totally missed it..

dylan604 4y ago
The video from the tweet clearly shows the rack of gear doing it. It flashes them quickly and I didn't bother to try to pause the video to look. They look like boxes from BMD, but there are other manufactures that do this screen splitting for large room displays as well. It's pretty common gear in the AV world. The point isn't how they did it, but that they did do it. Only on HN is the actual point lost.

knolan 4y ago

I would imagine you could do it easily with a HDMI mod and some edid dongles for a few bucks.

dylan604 4y ago
Show me a BOM for this, please.
- ungamedplayer 4y ago
  Probably with huge latency too. Everything is simple if speed/latency is not a consideration. Ie, you could use a webcam on a screen, and then cut it up using FFMPEG cropping, send each of them via an RTMP stream to a device... but then you have encoding + cropping + network latency. Sucks for gaming.
  - dylan604 4y ago
    that's the most bizarre way of thinking about it, that I'd almost think I had the idea myself. luckily, I grew up in this world, and am familiar with equipment that does this properly. phew. you failed to mention the major hit in quality of videoing a CRT screen with a webcam. also, hope that webcam supports genlock as well as the CRT, otherwise, your h/v sync will never match. and i thought i could come up with some zanny ideas. this one though, boy, i don't know.
    - ungamedplayer 4y ago
      We're going budget yo.
  - knolan 4y ago
    There are low latency dongles you can use for old consoles to output to HDMI, see my reply to the parent.
- knolan 4y ago
  There are several N64 HDMI mods. Here is one on Amazon for $20. https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-HDMI-Converter-Cable-Compatible/dp/B07TGJZXWR https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-HDMI-Converter-Cable-Compati... Or this one for $150: https://www.amazon.com/Super-64-Nintendo/dp/B07TKF5XBS https://www.amazon.com/Super-64-Nintendo/dp/B07TKF5XBS You could also use an upscaler like the MClassic for $100: https://www.marseilleinc.com/mclassic/ https://www.marseilleinc.com/mclassic/ Then you need a 1x4 HDMI splitter like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Controller-Splitter-Supportt1920x1080P-Splicing-4-Channel/dp/B09TD4HJMF/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2IMYK9GQB5PEE&keywords=hdmi+1x4+splitter+video+wall&qid=1652130507&sprefix=hdmi+1x4+splitter+video+wall%2Caps%2C41&sr=8-4 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Controller-Splitter-Supportt1920x10...
  - dylan604 4y ago
    If >$400 is "a few bucks", then I'm seriously just out of touch
    - knolan 4y ago
      You are I’m afraid. It’s small money considering that the solution used in the article was an order of magnitude more expensive. You’ll also need the console. An N64 console is going to cost you $100 on eBay, a GoldenEye cart another $20. You’re also going to need four controllers for about $20 each. And displays… The key bit you need to get a digital signal is just $20 but you can pay more if you want and I linked such an option. The upscaler is entirely optional. The video splitter is the most expensive part but you’re really only looking at closer to $250 in extra gear to get this working in addition to the cost of the console, so yes, a few bucks. I’ve my old N64 sitting in a box in the attic. I could imagine setting it up for some students to play at work.
      - dylan604 4y ago
        The solution to the article was because they already had the equipment on hand. So it actually was $0 expended and was just an excerise in "what if" and someone else said "hold my beer". So, why don't you just go ahead and spend those "few bucks" and do a nice little write up on the experience whether or not it was successful or not? It's just a few bucks after all

paulryanrogers 4y ago

It's a museum so reusing CRTs and their low latency is probably part of the appeal.

djur 4y ago
Yeah, the Ars Technica article makes it clear that this is a temporary use of hardware they already had on hand, and the $10k is just an estimate of what it would cost to buy this vintage hardware online today.