Visual art disply on older machines...

Sorry for cross posting but I figured someone in these groups might be able
to point me in the right direction or more importantly save me from wasting
too much time.

So I have an old 400Mhz Machine I'm getting from a friend
I have 2 Monitors and a projector as well as I just bought a lot of 5 PCI
graphics cards on Ebay.

Now what would like to do is hook all this up with a dedicated machine for
video/visual display for parties.

So basically have the mobitors and projectors scattered around (and
decorated of course) showing video clips and what would really be cool would
be to have a mic on the machine to take the sound in from the party and have
the visuals dynamically adjust based on the beat.

I know winamp used to have a plug in for this but I never got it to reliably
work.

So my questions are if I load this machine with windows 2000 would this work
or is there not enough power??? Since its a dedicated machine if I remove
stuff could I get it to work or will I need to try Linux or something??? Or
is it pointless and should I just wait till I get a Gig machine or
greater??? Which will be a while since I am trying to pay off bills. :-(

Also any othere useful fun ideas would be great.

Thanks and sorry for the cross post, but I figured these groups might have
someone whose done this sort of thing.
John

John Weidenfeller wrote:
>
.... snip ...
>
> Thanks and sorry for the cross post, but I figured these groups
> might have someone whose done this sort of thing.

Then you could simply have set follow-ups to the group from which
you are posting, and avoided generating a long interminable
thread.

--
fix (vb.): 1. to paper over, obscure, hide from public view; 2.
to work around, in a way that produces unintended consequences
that are worse than the original problem. Usage: "Windows ME
fixes many of the shortcomings of Windows 98 SE". - Hutchison

From sci.engr.lighting ...

"John Weidenfeller" <> wrote in message
news:hrvfc.143218$w54.949627@attbi_s01...
> Sorry for cross posting but I figured someone in these groups might be
able
> to point me in the right direction or more importantly save me from
wasting
> too much time.
>
> So I have an old 400Mhz Machine I'm getting from a friend
> I have 2 Monitors and a projector as well as I just bought a lot of 5 PCI
> graphics cards on Ebay.

OK but bet you dont ahve 5 spare slots on mobo.

> Now what would like to do is hook all this up with a dedicated machine
for
> video/visual display for parties.
>
> So basically have the mobitors and projectors scattered around (and
> decorated of course) showing video clips and what would really be cool
would
> be to have a mic on the machine to take the sound in from the party and
have
> the visuals dynamically adjust based on the beat.
>
> I know winamp used to have a plug in for this but I never got it to
reliably
> work.

You need a spare slot for a soundcard, mebbe you want a more modern version
of winamp, or use the computer as the audio source, a few media players will
take external audio I think...

> So my questions are if I load this machine with windows 2000 would this
work
> or is there not enough power??? Since its a dedicated machine if I remove
> stuff could I get it to work or will I need to try Linux or something???
Or
> is it pointless and should I just wait till I get a Gig machine or
> greater??? Which will be a while since I am trying to pay off bills. :-(

Its an audio and not hugely intense graphics processing application, even
though winamp can go heavy in processor use, would think a 400 Mhz should
do the job.
Win98/me/200 will support up to 9 monitors its just getting the free slots.
Have plan B for when thing BSOD`s on you.

HTH
Adam

SO I now have reorganzed some of my equipment and have been left with an
800Mhz PIII to set up with multiple monitors.

I have an ATI Rage 128 card in it now and can chose 2 from the following
list of cards:

2 S3 Virge/DX
1 Diamond Stealth 64Dram
1 S3 Trio 64V+
1 S3 Trio 64V2DX

So I have 3 available slots for video cards so I was going to use the ATI
card as well as two of the above PCI cards. Though I only seem to get one to
work. The scond card shows up in the hardware info page with a yellow !

So I read somewhere that you can't have more than 1 S3 Trio card but wans't
sure if thsi was my problem or if there was some way around it.

Thanks
John

"John Weidenfeller" <> wrote in message
news:hrvfc.143218$w54.949627@attbi_s01...
> Sorry for cross posting but I figured someone in these groups might be
able
> to point me in the right direction or more importantly save me from
wasting
> too much time.
>
> So I have an old 400Mhz Machine I'm getting from a friend
> I have 2 Monitors and a projector as well as I just bought a lot of 5 PCI
> graphics cards on Ebay.
>
> Now what would like to do is hook all this up with a dedicated machine
for
> video/visual display for parties.
>
> So basically have the mobitors and projectors scattered around (and
> decorated of course) showing video clips and what would really be cool
would
> be to have a mic on the machine to take the sound in from the party and
have
> the visuals dynamically adjust based on the beat.
>
> I know winamp used to have a plug in for this but I never got it to
reliably
> work.
>
> So my questions are if I load this machine with windows 2000 would this
work
> or is there not enough power??? Since its a dedicated machine if I remove
> stuff could I get it to work or will I need to try Linux or something???
Or
> is it pointless and should I just wait till I get a Gig machine or
> greater??? Which will be a while since I am trying to pay off bills. :-(
>
> Also any othere useful fun ideas would be great.
>
> Thanks and sorry for the cross post, but I figured these groups might have
> someone whose done this sort of thing.
> John
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

"John Weidenfeller" wrote:
> SO I now have reorganzed some of my equipment and have been left with an
> 800Mhz PIII to set up with multiple monitors.
>
> I have an ATI Rage 128 card in it now and can chose 2 from the following
> list of cards:
>
> 2 S3 Virge/DX
> 1 Diamond Stealth 64Dram
> 1 S3 Trio 64V+
> 1 S3 Trio 64V2DX
>
> So I have 3 available slots for video cards so I was going to use the ATI
> card as well as two of the above PCI cards. Though I only seem to get one to
> work. The scond card shows up in the hardware info page with a yellow !
>
> So I read somewhere that you can't have more than 1 S3 Trio card but wans't
> sure if thsi was my problem or if there was some way around it.

John, take a look around this site, and at their forums:
http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/

I've found it to be the most useful resource for multiple monitor systems out there. Good Luck.

Jon