Imac to mulitiple TV's question.

[Rdallas0720]

Hello I hope that someone can help me with my dilemma.

I Have 4 HDTV's setup in my lobby and purchased a new Imac to run a keynote presentation and background music. I setup up the following:
Imac mini display to HDMI
HDMI to 1x4 splitter / amp
2 50' HDMI cables to 2 tv's
2 100' HDMI cables to 2 tv's

I noticed that the more graphically intense my presentation that I would get a momentary cutout in signal for 1-2 seconds.

I spoke with a "professional A/V Tech" at an online retailer and he suggested that I test it with my bluray player to see if it was the mac. I got the same results so he suggested I purchase HDMI powered repeaters to go at the end of my TV's. I have and I still have the same problem.

1. I have recently been told that HDMI wasn't intended for the setup I have.
2. I should have used component out to my TV's instead.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Thanks in advance.

 

[EvilC5]

I would get 4 ATV2's and then take your keynote presentation and turn the slides into jpeg's and stream a slideshow and music from the imac....

could do it wireless or cat5 if needed....probably about the same cost as the long hdmi cables and splitter/amp and would give you some more options on things to stream.

just a thought....

 

[EvilC5]

I just looked and you are looking at around 600 just in cables and the splitter before you even pay someone to pull the cable....

4 x ATV2 ~400.00

 

[MicroApple]

I would just go with component out if its causing an issue. Really for a presentation I don't think you need HDMI. I know my component cables register as 1080i on my TV, not that bad quality.

 

[Rdallas0720]

I hadn't thought about using an ATV.
I have an apple airport extreme.
do you think that it can handle streaming to 4 ATV's simultaneously?

 

[EvilC5]

I hadn't thought about using an ATV.
I have an apple airport extreme.
do you think that it can handle streaming to 4 ATV's simultaneously?

i know i can do hd to 2 at once, so im sure a few pictures and music will go to 4 fine.

 

[Wheeler]

Try lowering the resolution- pushing 1920x1080 over 100ft of hdmi is tough, try 1280x720 or lower

You could also try ditching the 100ft cables and replacing them with 2 50ft cables with a signal booster linking them to make the 100ft

Getting 4 aTV slideshows in sync would be tricky, if that matters

This is why we need light peak!

 

[EvilC5]

Try lowering the resolution- pushing 1920x1080 over 100ft of hdmi is tough, try 1280x720 or lower

You could also try ditching the 100ft cables and replacing them with 2 50ft cables with a signal booster linking them to make the 100ft

Getting 4 aTV slideshows in sync would be tricky, if that matters

This is why we need light peak!

if the tv's are all in different locations, the sync of the slide show shouldnt be an issue. If the tv's are within a close proximity, I would wireless to an ATV2, then split the hdmi out off of that to the 2 tv's and save money on long hdmi cables and amplifiers. Again, just a different way of looking at the problem I suppose. I spent a few years pulling cable for a distributed tv system in a very large building and getting cables from point a to point b can be very difficult sometimes.

 

[Rdallas0720]

I was told by an apple employee today that I can't stream a keynote presentation to an ATV.

I would like to play my keynote pres along with itunes running music in the background.

 

[Wheeler]

I was told by an apple employee today that I can't stream a keynote presentation to an ATV.

I would like to play my keynote pres along with itunes running music in the background.

Is you keynote animated or just a bunch of static slides? If static, like EvilC5 said, you can convert each slide to an image, then do a slideshow on the aTV w/music. The you could go wireless to one aTV, hdmi out to splitter, out to the other TV's. Not sure of exact setup but sounds like that would shorten your HDMI runs, which I suspect is the cause of the image problems.

If the slideshow is animated- I suspect you could convert it into a video file and stream that through aTV

 

[EvilC5]

Is you keynote animated or just a bunch of static slides? If static, like EvilC5 said, you can convert each slide to an image, then do a slideshow on the aTV w/music. The you could go wireless to one aTV, hdmi out to splitter, out to the other TV's. Not sure of exact setup but sounds like that would shorten your HDMI runs, which I suspect is the cause of the image problems.

If the slideshow is animated- I suspect you could convert it into a video file and stream that through aTV

agreed, theres more than one way to skin a cat....