Cloning a 4K panel to a 1080p monitor

Question

Okay first let me say this: I know that MANY people dont understand that cloning a monitor in windows means that BOTH monitors do have the same resolution. Now Im trying to do something that goes in this direction.

We have a big 4K TV sitting in the lobby and we need to monitor the content it is showing on a small tiny display with a resolution of 1080p. I know that windows wont mirror the 4K footage to the smaller screen.

What I would like to do is to mirror the 4K footage and scaling it down to 1080p and sending this to the small screen up in the office.

We do know that sampling the footage down will decrease the sharpness etc. This does not matter. We just need to see whats going on on the 4K screen on a very small 1080p display.

Our system has a GTX 970 build in. Is there a way with Nvidias system configuration?

Solution 1

Recently I found a nice way to solve this. Im answering on my own question so everybody having the issue can read it. I now use a 4K screen getting the full 3840x2160 px output from my GTX 970 and a second 1080 px display displaying the same content. So I mirrored the 4K display with downscaling to a display with less resolution.

Having a NVIDIA graphics card there is no need for any additional software or even hardware.

HERE'S HOW: Just right click on the desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel. Go to the 3D Settings and click Manage 3D Settings. Scroll down to DSR Factors and set the setting to 4.00x if you want to display 4K footage on a 1080 px display. Now you go to the windows display settings and set the resolution on the 1080 px display to 3840x2160 px. Of course this does not provide better quality on the 1080 px display. It might be worse but quality is not the reason why i have been doing this. Also I dont know if there is a equivalent solution for an AMD graphics card.

Solution 2

I'm not entirely sure that this can be achieved with built in software, the "cloned" output expects to put out the exact same picture on multiple ports.

This means you either need

1. to have it at 1080p and let the 4k screen do upscaling or, if you still need the 4k resolution,
2. you need to downscale the image for the 1080p monitor.

For the downscaling solution something like a hardware 4k to 1080p converter box would do the trick. Something like this 4k to 1080 up/downscaler.

These kinds of bits of hardware should not be significantly expensive, but I think it is the only way it is going to work in practice.

Solution 3

Windows can only duplicate a monitor by setting both monitors to the same resolution. The solution is to use a third-party product.

For example TeamViewer, which by default, will scale the transmitted screen to match your own screen. TeamViewer is free for personal use, otherwise using a subscription model.

For more information see the article TeamViewer and Ultra High Definition and 4K monitors.

There are alternatives to TeamViewer, but I don't know how well they work with monitors of different resolution : Ultra VNC and TigerVNC.

Comments

[Arjihad]

I hoped that there might be a downscaling solution provided by software.

[Arjihad]

Interesting. But this requires internet access right? Is there a wired solution?

[Mokubai]

Remote desktop is definitely a solution if you don't mind the viewing box being another PC. Teamviewer can be configured for local network only authentication using a single access password rather than the normal "one-time" passwords and internet authentication so it can definitely work. The only thing would be that you would fall foul of the "free for private use only" licence clause. There's almost no way they could detect the box if you block its internet access and limit it to a local network, but morally you would be in the wrong and in breach of the licence.

[harrymc]

See the post Peer 2 Peer connection no internet available. As @Mokubai said : Using TeamViewer is based on an honor system.

[Christopher Hostage]

There are other Remote / Screen Sharing Tools available. All have the same security concern - if someone malicious notices the shared screen, they can work that vector into the source PC. Also, my experience is that long-term remote sessions require babysitting and can be embarrassing if they fail in the midst of a presentation or similar.

[ARGMAN]

You're a life saver man! But did that cause a "foggy" look on the 1080 monitors or am I imagining that!

[Arjihad]

No. The picture always looked fine.