Room For Only One Monitor

I was hoping someone could give me a suggestion on this. I will be either building an XPC or buying one of those mini macs for my sons room. He has a small computer desk with room for one monitor. I need a monitor that will output his computer, VCR and game consol through a 3 input component switch.

I was thinking of just going with Svideo out from the computer to the switch then to a normal TV but the resolution of a TV I find is just not exceptable for running his schooling software. Any suggestions?

 

Hey you bonehead. This should be in HARDWARE!

 

Yeah well I'll put it there then. Sheeesh.

 

haha i was about to ask the 2nd poster to be nice, then i realized it was you

in any case, heres what I recommend:

get as large a CRT you can afford (you can get a nice refurb 21" for under $120 if you look)

in the PC, get a TV card. you can then hook the VCR and game console into the component video In on the TV card on a 2 input component switch. you just have to have the TV card program open to play video or games. you'll also need to get a conversion from component audio to digital audio to plug into the computers sound card.

 

Thanks.

I assume you suggest a big TV to compensate for the crappy resolution that it will provide. This is what I was thinking but unfortunately there is not enough room for a unit that size. I am thinking 14-18 inches max and weight is an issue as well.

You would think with all the talk of home intertainment PCs, convergence and such that someone would be designing more flexible viewing solutions.

 

well you could also go for a large LCD monitor --though any quality 19" or larger will run you over $500.

but still my advice is to go for a monitor and not a tv, for resolution sake. I see you were already thinking this direction... so good luck!

 

OOh Sorry I misunderstood. When you said CRT I thought you meant TV. Then the rest of your post just became blah blah blah. I re-read and now I have you 5 by 5.

So the TV in would be viewed on the montitor through software provided by ATI? Or would I have to view it through some kind of bundled capture app?

 

if you are using an ATi All In Wonder, then yes, the ATi software would be used for anything TV related. 3rd party TV software would also work so long as it recognized your TV tuner.

in any case, that setup is what I recommend, as I have set it up many times for friends of mine in dorm rooms or other places with limited space. this way they can watch DVDs, play console games, and watch TV all in their computer.

if you dont yet have the AIW card, i would recommend a separate TV tuner, simply because it can go into any computer in a future upgrade and be independent of the graphics card. the AIW are great cards though, so dont get me wrong.