Eight screens running scrolling ads - Need tech help

[Long John Silver]

Hi all,

Helping open a "tourist" type info center, and we want to turn one wall into a big wall of screens, each with it's own set of scrolling images (pics, ads, maybe even videos)

We can get 22" monitors for $120 each or so, but of course we don't want to use a dedicated PC for each monitor (or two).

Challenge is: How can we achieve the goal with the least possible expense.

My first thought was to somehow use a USB stick with the images. I know some monitors have USB ports.

Other thought was to run one dedicated PC with multiple instances of "virtual machine" or something similar - but, that won't work because of video card limitations.

Does anyone have any ideas or know of any new technology that would allow this?

Basically, what we need is 8 large digital picture frames - that's the functionality.

Any help is appreciated,

Thanks,

LJS

[bemac]

The AMD Radeon HD5670 video card can do three monitors...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150504

It does not require a lot of power, like other high-end video cards. You may need an adapter (display port to DVI). You can run three low-budget PC's each with one of these cards, and that would give you 9 monitors, or even big screen TV's may be cheaper (if you are covering an entire wall). For low cost machines, may want to check out a Dell Inspiron with an AMD cpu.

[phideaux]

How about going the other way, with one xtra large HDTV that you subdivide into 8 "screens". I would bet there is some commercial software that can make it easy to manage and display 8 video output feeds. You'd probably need a dedicated PC with a lot of horsepower to drive it.