Need help with digital signage setup.

[knarf]

I'm trying to help my wife set up a plasma (Samsung SP-P4251, EDTV) as a window display in her real estate office. She wants to connect a computer that will run through a series of listings that will be in jpeg format. The ability to display motion video would also be nice. Looking for recomendations/advice.

1. Hardware - She's going to buy a budget computer to run this. I'm guessing she'll need a good video card.
A. What's a good video card for this?
B. I'm guessing you'd have your data on the harddrive as opposed to a dvd. Will a normal 7,200 rpm harddrive be ok?
C. Should she add lots of ram to the computer, or will the video card's onboard ram suffice?

2. Software - I'm thinking she'll need something along the lines of MS Powerpoint. She's thinking of setting up some type of HTML program. Any recomendations here?

 

[Creig]

First thing I'd do is replace your window with something shatterproof or that TV will end up MIA. Other than that, just about any computer 400MHz or better with 256mb RAM will be more than enough to simply display pictures/video. Depending on what inputs the TV has, you may need a video card with SVideo out or you may be able to hook up to it directly. You'll have to check. Any old HD would suffice. PowerPoint is designed for presentations so I would go with that.

 

[knarf]

These are my inputs:

6 A/V inputs, including:
? 3 composite video (2 rear, 1 side)
? 2 S-video (1 rear, 1 side)
? 2 rear-panel HD-compatible component video
(accepts 1080i/720p/480p/480i signals)
? 1 rear-panel DVI digital video input with HDCP copy protection
PC input: analog RGB (D-Sub 15-pin)


The resoluton of the plasma is 852 x 480 pixels. If I use the PC input, will the picure quality be any less than if I added a video card with other outputs?

 

[Creig]

Many displays today have a digital RGB input. The standard digital input found on these displays is DVI - Digital Visual Interface. There are two types of DVI connectors in use: DVI-I and DVI-D.

DVI-I connectors are designed to carry both digital and analog signals while DVI-D connectors are designed to carry digital-only signals.



Your Samsung lists the following specs:



Inputs and Outputs Notes

DVI Input: This input consists of left and right RCA audio jacks and a DVI-D terminal. The DVI-D terminal can accommodate a copy-protected digital connection (HDCP) to other devices (such as digital set-top boxes) that have compatible interfaces.

Note: The DVI-D terminal will accept 1080i, 720p and 480p signals.

PC In: This input consists of a stereo minijack and an analog RGB (D-Sub 15-pin) jack. This jack allows you to connect a digital set-top box with an RGB output, or a personal computer with a D-Sub 15-pin output.




So you can either use the D-Sub 15 cable with a standard video card, or maybe go with something like an ATI All-In-Wonder and a DVI-I to DVI-D cable.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Creig
First thing I'd do is replace your window with something shatterproof or that TV will end up MIA.

Winner. First thing on the list should be to make the big-screen lightweight stealable TV not-so-stealable.

- M4H

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Creig
First thing I'd do is replace your window with something shatterproof or that TV will end up MIA.

Winner. First thing on the list should be to make the big-screen lightweight stealable TV not-so-stealable.

- M4H

No, the first thing to do is check wether local codes will allow such signage in the window. I know around here they are pretty strict with what signage is allowed in the windows.

 

[knarf]

Will a standard video card display in 16:9 ok?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: knarf
Will a standard video card display in 16:9 ok?

Yes (assuming by "standard" you mean something produced in the last 2-5 years by ATI or NVIDIA), although you may need a program like PowerStrip to allow you to force the resolutions correctly if the TV doesn't have the proper ones programmed in. You definitely want to use the VGA or DVI connections (DVI being probably a little better).