Video Input Card for viewing/recognition on 2nd PC

[Lancefire]

I'm looking for a way to set up 2 PCs the following way. I need to take the video displaying on my main PC and output it to a viewable box on a 2nd PC. So everything that can be seen on my main PC is viewable on the 2nd PC. A cloned video card setup will not work for my situation. I see video input cards on websites for sale, but I'm not sure they do what I need. Essentially I feel like all I need is a way to use my 2nd DVI output from my video card on my main PC and send that signal to a video input on my 2nd PC and have it show that video in real time on the 2nd PC's independent monitor. I'll then need to be able to OCR (optical character recognition) the viewable video on the 2nd PC.

Thanks.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Get a KVM.

 

[Lancefire]

I don't think a KVM is what I need from what I've just read on them. I don't need to control 2 PCs with one set of mouse/key/monitor, I just need a way to take the video output from a main PC and have it broadcast for OCRing on a 2nd PC.

 

[Lancefire]

What about something like this, a video capture card:

Newegg.com - AVerMedia AVerTV HD DVR MTVHDDVRR PCI-Express x1 Interface

 

[MindoverMaster]

Can't you use Remote Desktop, or something?

Edit: You could use a monitor switch. Like this:

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

You want to take the desktop (whole screen) of PC 1 and display it on PC 2?

If you don't need high performance video (if you're just capturing text) you can set up a VNC or Remote Desktop server on PC 1 and then use a windowed client on PC 2, run the OCR on the window.

If you're just trying to move large amounts of text from PC 1 to PC 2, VNC and Remote Desktop both have clipboard sharing (copy from PC 1 and paste on PC 2 or vice versa). The only reason that you would possibly want to OCR PC 1 from PC 2 would be if you don't have physical access to PC 1 or cannot install software on it (if you're just using text, copy and paste into a document, if you're trying to OCR a scanned document just install the OCR software on PC 1 directly).

If you have no ability to do OCR on the PC and you can't install or configure a remote desktop or VNC server, then as a last attempt you should try hooking the two PC's together by video cord (it's extremely inefficient and mind bogglingly pointless, but if it's your only hope and you absolutely need it then go for it). You'll need some method of inputting high definition signals. Most consumer tuner/capture devices are designed only for TV and multimedia connections (composite/s-video/component/hdmi), finding one with VGA in might be tough.

 

[Lancefire]

Quote: You want to take the desktop (whole screen) of PC 1 and display it on PC 2?

Yes. Quality is only slightly important since I'll be OCRing text and some images only. But it needs to be a live feed in real time. The avermedia card below and software definitely hints at being able to accomplish what I need, but I can't hook it up where it's recognized by the main PC's video card as a valid output (like a monitor/TV).

I installed the Avermedia card mentioned, in the 2nd PC where I need the video sent. It has HDMI inputs, and clearly pulls video from my DVD players via dongle quite well. However, hooking the first PC's video card's HDMI to the avermedia input does not get recognized. Clearly it's looking for a monitor or TV, etc. Is there any way to force clone the video card so that it's pushing video through both the DVI and HDMI outputs it has? Or is there a device I can buy, even if it's an actual TV with a video output, that allows for passthrough of video signal. It would need to be recognized by the main video card, which is a standard ATI 4830 with DVI/HDMI outputs.