Actually-good Picture-By-Picture adapter?

[Construc]

hi all,

im after something that should at first glance appear very simple, but has proven rather difficult to acquire: a picture-by-picture adaptor that correctly displays its resolution (and therefore, aspect ratio) to the sources, and mixes audio.
no such device exists, as far as i know.
there are many cheap picture-by-picture devices available, but they do not do either of the things one would expect from such a device.

let me draw for you, dear reader, a scenario.
the year is [current year], and couch-co-op is dieing. my girlfriend and i want to play [new video game] together, but it is online-multiplayer only.
we want to create or buy or find or otherwise procure a device for facilitating our couch gaming in a world devoid of first-party solutions.
our tv does not support any kind of picture-by-picture functionality.

i could just buy one of the cheaper devices, and run our two machines in letterboxed mode on our 4k tv, and separately mix and send the audio to the soundbar, that is possible with but a few small pieces of equipment, but it is not an ideal solution.
none of the devices i can find on amazon or such support a non-standard aspect ratio for any source, nor do they support combining audio from multiple sources.

what we would love, is a device that when splitting a 4k display into two, signals the host machines that the resolution and aspect ratio is different, such that the games can run natively in exactly half of a 4k display’s screen with no letterboxing, and also that audio from both sources is combined and sent to the display as one signal.
is there any such mythical device to be found, or is it possible through some witchcraft and a bit of jlcpcb to make such a device?

thanks for any help rendered,
cora.

[vlycop]

As someone with a Ti-fighter screen setup, i can tell you that many game will crash when vertical resolution is higher than horizontal resolution (making moving them to the right screen a chore)

So splitting a 4k vertically in 2 and not 4 may cause issue on that side of thing.
That aside, and without any test on my side, you could go with something made for prosumer like the RGBlink Mini-pro V2. i have no idea if it support multiple format in input, but some video mixer is bound to, and then you just have to set a custom resolution of 3840x4320 in windows

[Construc]

hmm, as a streamer-centric device id be concerned about latency, and also it looks as though the output resolution is limited to 1080p? that seems… bad

[vlycop]

This one was marketed as “live” so i though latency might be ok, but yes you will have do to a lot of research before buying anything.

Those device usually don’t record anything themself, so a 4k one should output at 4k for the recording side, but that’s a should.

Your need it very niche, i don’t believe you’ll find anything made specifically for it, that’s why i believe you might find something capable in the prosumer video mixer product, but you might not.

[Kerbys]

Im trying to do something like this for my WFH Setup.
Ive looked at loads of options like the asus OLED monitor which does PBP but letterboxes it.

The Only thing that does it is the Dell - U4323QE . Its a productivity monitor that does it.
If they had this functionality in a 60+hz OLED would be god tier.