Karaoke Forums

Had a quick question on using computer LCD monitors. I run off a desktop computer and run from rca video to a converter that runs to a splitter and shows the karaoke / music videos on tv's throughout the bar including the tv on the stage for the singer. There are rafters in this bar and there is a stripper pole (bar's idea, not mine) by the tv stand so needless to say the tv has been knocked over a few times. I thought about getting like a 19" LCD computer monitor with VGA in and mounting it to that rafter so I don't have to worry about it getting hit. Would it be possible to run all the other tv's and still have a way to hook up an lcd computer monitor for the singers? Reason I ask is because I already have the monitor so it would be much cheaper than going and buying an actual flat screen tv to hang up there. Any ideas? Thanks.

Yes, you can get a splitter cable for the VGA port on your computer. The VGA-to-RCA box I use came with one in the box: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815117102

Keep in mind that VGA signals are not meant to be driven across long cable runs, and if you do so they may be subject to interference. If it will take you 20+ feet of cable to reach that TV I would look for another solution. It might work over a somewhat longer cable run but I do not know.

I believe Cables2Go sells wireless VGA sets but I do not know anything about their quality.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

What if I ran from video out on my pc and ran that across the rafters in the bar and had this video to vga converter mounted in the rafter by the lcd and just ran a 4 foot vga cable to the lcd monitor? Think this would do what I'm wanting?

http://www.svideo.com/video2vga1.html

RCA video cables are similarly intended for short runs, and may be subject to interference just like the VGA cable. I do not know which one is likely to work over a longer run. I have had 30 foot RCA video runs work fine, and also had them look terrible. I guess it's worth a try if you can return the converter but I am not sure I would buy it if you can't get a refund if it doesn't work as well as you want.

Maybe you could get the bar to supply a TV?

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

I am probably just gonna have to try it and hope it works. If not I'm sure I could put it in another bar where the stage is closer to the booth. Getting this bar to even pay us can be a hassle. It's the only gig I've ever had that pays weekly instead of nightly and they tend to have a track record of letting a few weeks go by before they decide to pay. It usually comes down to me threatening to leave and starting to pack up my equipment before they wanna pay yet they say we are the best DJ/karaoke service they have ever had and pack their bar 4 nights a week for a ridiculously low price....

/end rant

Thanks for the help =P I'm probably just gonna get that converter and if it ends up not working I'll either throw it on craigslist, keep it for other applications, or just eat the money spent on it.

Rather than using a thin RCA cable, use coax (RG59 will work) with either an F or BNC connector, then use an adapter at each end to convert to RCA. I've seen coax runs that have been hundreds of feet long and not have any interference problems. You may want to invest in a small video DA if the signal is split more than once just to be on the safe side. Though they aren't cheap anymore, Radio Shack should have everything you need to do the job, even Wally World might have most of what you need.

I'm more intrigued that you've got a stripper pole. Does it ever got utilized for karaoke?

Mojo

It also depends on the quality of the cable. I run a 50 foot VGA cable with no ill effects. It is also a pretty beefy cable (and from cables-2-go too!).

I think I will try the coax and rca routes, see which works better. And as far as the stripper pole.... I'll post some clean pictures but that thing does tend to get used.

p.s.
Our show at this particular bar isn't really 'family friendly'. Not that that's the type of show I like to run, but this bar is crazy and that's what the staff wants.

I use a 75 foot VGA cable from monoprice and it works just fine. Under $20 too.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10201&cs_id=1020101&p_id=3573&seq=1&format=2

I'll add my 2 cents in support of this too. With a good quality cable there's no reason you can't go up to 100ft. I have a 50ft cable myself that I use at every show. It's not like we're talking about high-quality fast moving graphics here (i.e. gaming), we're talking extremely low resolution and fairly slow changing images. You're not going to be taxing the connection limits at all.

As far as splitting the signal, I use the PC to TV EZ if I need VGA and RCA. It gives you VGA, RCA and S-Video outputs all of which can be driving separate displays simultaneously. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VU ... 1DAGGMEXP1

The other thing I've been running into more and more are bars with Flat Panel displays that have VGA connections on them. For those I just use a VGA splitter that I bought from Radio Shack (sorry don't have a link but it's a USB powered 2-way splitter).

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Nice, thanks alot guys!