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How to have multiple audio outputs?

How do I get multiple video and audio outputs on a PC

  • I would like to connect two external TVs to my PC, each playing its own independent video with audio. The source video files would be located on the PC's hard drive. Would I need two video cards or a single card with dual video outputs? Also would I need two audio cards? Is there a video software that can run in multiple instances that will allow me to select the video and audio outputs for each video to separate the outputs? Can anyone suggest a solution to accomplish this?

  • Answer:

    You'll need a video card with two HDMI out ports. And two TVs with HDMI input. Any cheap onboard/integrated sound is good enough to deal with dual audio. If thats *all* you want, you could build a pretty darned cheap setup. A couple hundred bucks (?), especially if you're willing to go for second hand parts. Software? You can get http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ to run multiple instances. Fullscreen the two video files on the two screens.

dennis10512 at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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Thanks for the response. Say I install a video card with two HDMI outputs, how do you assign the VLC instance to a specific output on the video card and same for the sound output? I checked the VLC menu and documentation and didn't see it mentioned.

dennis10512

You'll have to get a pretty hefty videocard if you want decent performance. So any card you get that can handle two HDMI screens with different video streams *should* have the included software to accomplish what you want to do.

rich

When you hook up the two HDMI displays, most OSes will let you "extend desktop" so that you get a 3840(1920x2) x 1080 pixel surface. Open VLC, open video in that window. Drag window to one monitor, double click to maximize that window and it will fullscreen on that screen. Open another instance of VLC and open another video on the second window. Drag it to the other monitor, double click to maximize, and voila. Two separate screens displaying two independent 1920x1080 (say) videos.

porpoise

The easiest thing to do with the audio would be to pan one instance of VLC hard left and the other hard right, send the left signal to one TV and the right signal to the other, but I'm not seeing a way to do that within VLC. You could do this by editing the video files -- converting them to mono then removing the audio on either the left or right channel. If you need these to be in stereo, however, this suggestion will not work at all.

The Great Big Mulp

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