Video Projector Interface Options

Chances are you have more than one video/data source you would like to feed to your projector during a given meeting or service. You may want to display announcements, teaching notes or music lyrics generated from your computer, as well as video presentations from a VCR or DVD, and possibly live video footage from one or more cameras. There are a several ways of accomplishing this with differing results and costs associated with each.

The easiest and most cost-effective way to switch between sources is to use your projector's own internal switching capability. Most projectors have more than one input and can take multiple types of video sources such as VCRs and DVDs – as well as signals from computers – and switch between them using the remote that comes with the projector. This will suffice for simple switching between two, or possibly three sources. The down side is that you will need to have multiple cable runs to your projector and when you switch using the remote everyone will see a blue screen and a message telling what source you are selecting.

A more costly option is to use a video switcher. These can vary in cost and sophistication. A switcher will take multiple input sources and select one at a time to feed a single cable run to your projector. If you are switching between computer and video you may need to use a unit that can upscale the video output to give it a higher resolution to match the computer output. Some scalers can provide switching functionality as well. Our CCI video experts can help you select the proper models for your application.

Maybe you would like to crossfade between computer and video or live video and recorded video. To do this you will need to use a video mixer. There are two basic paths here as well: a very costly high-resolution video mixer or a more cost-effective standard video mixer. If you choose the latter, you will need to downsample your computer signal to match the video inputs of the mixer with a scan converter. The mixer will allow you to smoothly switch, blend and even superimpose source images with each other and allow some other nice effects as well. This type of mixer is also the most elegant way to transition between multiple camera set ups.

Give us a call at 1-800-562-6006 and let our video experts give you some tasty solutions for feeding your projector.