Home entertainment concept

[Hemsworth]

Heres an idea for 'ya. Is it possible to convert your monitor to a SCART lead? If so my idea is to buy a TV card & wire my video player to my PC & a surround sound system to my sound card & have a full home entertainment system in a box, literally! My plan is to wire all forms of music player to my PC, and all possible forms of video input. It's pointless but it'll keep me busy (and pennyless)

[sdousley]

you could buy a (reasonably) cheap graphics card that has TV out on it.... That way it outputs audio/video as a composite, meaning that u can put the audio wherever u wanted (onto the speakers) and the screenonto the telly.

I got my card for £35, and it has VGA-Out, DVI-out and TV-out. It's an nvidia Geforce FX5200

[Redman]

you could buy a (reasonably) cheap graphics card that has TV out on it.... That way it outputs audio/video as a composite, meaning that u can put the audio wherever u wanted (onto the speakers) and the screenonto the telly.

I got my card for £35, and it has VGA-Out, DVI-out and TV-out. It's an nvidia Geforce FX5200

Done that (video out) to a televisionset but it was worthless. The desktop images was extremely garbled (changing herzrate didn't help either). I also bought an VGA>SCART/S-Video converter, but the display still was lousy.

[sdousley]

Done that (video out) to a televisionset but it was worthless. The desktop images was extremely garbled (changing herzrate didn't help either). I also bought an VGA>SCART/S-Video converter, but the display still was lousy.

Didn't say it'd b brilliant.

What res did u use? Cant really use more than 800x600 on my 14" TV, and i dont think it goes up much as it would with TV sizes either.

[Hemsworth]

Would it be any better if I used a flatscreen TV do you think?

[Krendoshazin]

Would it be any better if I used a flatscreen TV do you think?

tv's are not suitable for use as a monitor, where tv's need only as much as 30 interlaced frames per second, monitors need as much as 80 progressive frames per second, or more in some cases. also a tv picture is 800x600 stretched over the entire screen, unlike a monitor where 1600x1200 is truely 1600 pixels by 1200 pixels, that's why tv picture is so poor in comparison to monitors.

flatscreen monitors need to have a response time of at least 10 milliseconds, otherwise during gaming you'll experience what's known as ghosting.

yes you can hook a scart up to vga, you'd need a switch-between to change from vga to scart, you can use the switch to switch between the connectors rgb points, and then have the scart's sound diverted to stereo output and keep the vga ID connections as a continous connection between the two. this would mean however that you couldn't use your computer at the same time that you used the vcr. if this is the aim you're trying to get, then there's your answer right there.
if you're experienced with electronics like i am you could make one yourself, you'd need to know the connection layout first though, if not, i'm sure you could pick one up somewhere, although where exactly i don't know, maybe lektropacks will have something.

if what you're trying to do is hook the vcr up to the computer to play the videos on a program, well that's a different matter entirely

[Hemsworth]

Would it be any better if I used a flatscreen TV do you think?

if what you're trying to do is hook the vcr up to the computer to play the videos on a program, well that's a different matter entirely

indeed that is what i am planning. my hope is that i can convert all analogue forms of data storage to digital if i so wish as i encounter people & family members who have movies i want on video or albums i want on tape/vinyl. sorry, should have outlined that a little better. could you reccomend a program for ripping video perhaps?

[Krendoshazin]

first you'll need a video capture card, the vcr sends the data to the tv in analogue format to trick the tv into thinking it's receiving a reception signal, the video capture card is used to convert analogue video into digital video.
you'll probably need a scart -> s/video & 2 channel audio converter for it to work. ( converter )

after this you'll need a program to capture the data, some form of tv capture software should work as it's the same signal, it'll just need to know where it's grabbing the data from.
after the data has been captured, it'll need to be edited (if needed) and then converted to mpeg2 format to be a good size (max 4.7GB) and correct format to go onto dvd

remember that you can only capture at the same rate that the vhs cassette plays, so if you want to rip a 3 hour film, it'll take 3 hours, there's no way to speed it up

[Krendoshazin]

after having a look around, this would be more suitable for what you want, the video capture card and also this Cavo_PcScart1.jpg (SCART -> s/video and audio )

also it might be worth consideration to get a time-base corrector and a colour video-corrector. the time-base corrector will correct problems with video such as jittering or unstable pictures, loss of sync data, geometrical distortions, picture bending, white lines at the top and bottom of the screen etc, if you can get one that also corrects colour then i'd recommend the all-in-one package

[Hemsworth]

Thanks