Re: Looking for a slimline PC

On Tue, 1 Jan 2008 05:55:30 -0800 (PST), alt.mcarter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
wrote:

On 1 Jan, 11:54, Jaimie Vandenbergh <jai...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Tue, 1 Jan 2008 02:35:31 -0800 (PST), alt.mcar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
will need to spend on a DVI-> whatever the TV wants.

I think it's an RF signal. That's waht it say on the back of my telly,
anyway. Do adapters exist for this?

Ah. The very first thing you need to do is work out what signal you
can use to talk to the telly...

If all you have is an RF input, you may be scuppered. I don't know of
any computer kit that talks RF outside studio equipment.

Normally, the lowest quality input on a telly will be composite,
presented as either a yellow phone plug (plus red+white phonos for
stereo sound) or through a SCART connector (the big rectangular one
about the size of a small box of matches). It's pretty poor quality,
particularly for computery signals.

Next is S-Video, which is the little round plug with pins inside,
looks like a PS/2 keyboard/mouse plug. Reasonable quality.

Next is RGB over SCART, which I'm pretty sure nothing computery talks.
As good as old-style interlaced TV signals get.

Next is Component over phonos, red/green/blue plus more for audio.
Exactly as good as RGB for old-style TV, but can also support HD
resolutions and progressive scan if the screen can.

Then VGA over d-sub, vanishingly rare except for projectors.

Then you get the digital formats, DVI and HDMI. HDTV flatscreens only,
pretty much.

I've actually got a graphics card in my old computer that does S-Video
(AFAIK). Is that the new standard in TV connections?? I'm confused.
Square pegs. Round holes. Sigh. My telly is only from 1998, or
something - maybe that's considered Jurassic in this consumer-mad
internet-accelerated age.

Might be. You may be able to convert a source to RF by plugging
through a VCR, which usually accept RGB over SCART, or at least
Composite either over SCART or phonos, and then gateway that over to
the TV via the RF cable. Composite will be ***.

My telly's about the same age, and has two SCART plugs in the back.
One of which supports only composite, the other composite and RGB.

I feed it from a Mac Mini with an Elgato Diversity dual DVB tuner,
through a DVI->composite adapter that connects to the component-only
SCARTs on the back of the telly. The Mini is the PVR and all-around
media centre, running EyeTV on OSX (rather less functional than
MythTV/Linux, but it's good enough) or FrontPage for other stuff.

There seems to be so many "gotchas" when buying stuff that it's easy
to get fed up with it all.

But thanks for the advice so far ;)

Best to know now if you need a new TV for this project!

Cheers - Jaimie
--
If you haven't got time to RTFM, you haven't got time to whine about it.
.