# finding equipment



## itie (Jan 23, 2009)

hello,

i was in a theatre once and in there rack they had this thing (i have no idea what its called) bit it was about the size of a rack mountable cd player. it had a vga out put to the projector then it had all different types of inputs that you could switch to like s-video, dvi, etc.. i would love to know the name of it or something like it. my schools projector in the theatre (which is hung in a spot that noboby can reach with out a lift) only has vga coming into the booth.


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## avkid (Jan 23, 2009)

Believe it or not, it's called a video switcher.


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## itie (Jan 23, 2009)

now i feel dumb. but thank you


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## ruinexplorer (Jan 24, 2009)

avkid said:


> Believe it or not, it's called a video switcher.


Well, a switcher can't change the signal, so he most likely needs a scaler. A switcher cannot distinguish between signals and so will only pass the same signal through that it is receiving. While some projectors could handle this, they usually will need to have the information changed in their menu. I think the OP was looking for something like this.


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## museav (Jan 26, 2009)

The unit that ruinexplorer noted is a dual scaler, seamless switcher. Two advantages to this type of unit is that it it does provide very clean switching with no glitches and it can support preview functionality. However, where budget is an issue, there are a number of less expensive single scaler switcher/scaler offerings. Switching is not quite as clean, they typically freeze one frame of the current source then switch sources to the scaler and then switch to the new scaled source, but they are also typically significantly less money. Manufacturers for both single scaler 'scaler/switchers' and dual scaler 'seamless switchers' include Analog Way, Barco/Folsom Research, Extron, FSR, Kramer Electronics and TVOne.


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