Turning old TVs into Monitors

I suppose the quick answer is "yes" if you have a dedicated recording studio or a NEWS room.
But, a laptop generally has an "output" for video siganals (external monitor). So all TV's would show the laptops screen.
You could try and connect all the TV's to a multi channel CCTV device/recorder/dvr that has usb connection.

Martin

 

The inputs for that type of equipment are typically RCA or BNC. BNC being more common these days.
The laptop would be able to display all TV's as if they were cameras.
*I have never tried this* but cannot see a reason why it wouldn't work.
You would need scart to RCA and then an RCA to BNC adapter. Or make your own cables.
This obviously depends on the outputs the TV has. But as you mentioned older TV's, probably scarts or S-Video.

No. Just view them all on the laptop.




Martin

 

Hmm, I will try this in the morning. I have a few DVR's doing nothing...

Martin

 

Ok, I have made a real mess here with wires, adapters, vga converters, s-video, wireless 2.4ghz, rca, scarts, dvr, and of course an old portable black and white tv. Sorry I don't have ten tv's.
YES, in my living room!! No wonder the wife left me!!
Bottom line is it works! In many configurations even wireless.
I was also able to record/capture the tv signals too with the cheap (£4.00) EasyCap usb device.
Naturally, there wasn't a signal from the tv, so a digibox was used.
My setup had only one active picture and the other 8 were blank/black.

But this is all "one way traffic" to the laptop.
You cannot "send" a signal to each tv. It's a case of 'wysiwyg' from the tv's to the laptop.

If you want to send different signals to different monitors, you will need to spend £ thousands on professional equipment used by news rooms and editors.
As Dave said, only one signal can be "sent" from the laptop.
I knew it would work!, I just wanted to make a mess

Martin