s-video tv as a second monitor

[Godsrock37]

does anyone know if u can use a s-video connection to a tv as a secondary monitor. I know u can have multiple monitors at a time but what about a monitor s-video mix? what about dual s-video's?

ill admit i havent had much time to research (not good practice, i know). ive been pretty busy and i know i get pretty quick responses here.

the ultimate goal would be to be able to hook my tv up to my cable, then switch to my s-video connection on my laptop whenever im working on a ton of stuff at once or need a place to put a vnc connection to one of my servers and work on my laptop at the same time. it would be pretty darn useful, any other way to do this? open for any suggestions

[nihil]

OK, firstly, I haven't gotten round to trying what you ask, so this is theoretical.

I have a device called a GrabBee III which does the s-video link. I would guess that the rest depends on your video card and the software?

Check out the GrabBee III then look for similar kit?

[SirDice]

As a hobby I VJ in clubs.. We use a setup on my laptop that has a control screen on the LCD and the S-Video outputs our videostream. I've done this with ATI and Nvidia cards... The card however does need to support dual screens. Another option is to use 2 (single monitor) video cards.. Heck, you can put as many videocards as will fit in your kit.. Right now I'm sitting in front of a triple monitor setup..

So, yes it's possible to use a dual screen setup with VGA and s-video/composite. Check the specs of your laptop. If it supports dual screens, it should work.

[JewishIntent]

SirDice is correct it is possible. I had switched my room around a bit a while back so i could lay in my bean bag chair and play FFXI since i have a wireless keyboard and mouse, but the monitor was just too small to play on from that distance, like 10 feet away, so i hooked up an extra tv we had sitting around via the s-video output of my vid card and just had the game running on that screen and winamp and the such running on the monitor's desktop.

[Godsrock37]

thnx guys, i think that about answers my question, ill have to check specs as said above, but now i know its at least possible, hmmm, now to find a good flat panel tv with s-video and coax for the cable

[SirDice]

Originally posted here by Godsrock37
thnx guys, i think that about answers my question, ill have to check specs as said above, but now i know its at least possible, hmmm, now to find a good flat panel tv with s-video and coax for the cable

I also have one of my boxes hooked up to the TV.. Used an s-video<->SCART connector for that (it also has audio inputs).. So everything is neatly tucked away at the back..

[JewishIntent]

Hey i thought i should mention this so you don't run into what i did. Unless you get a really nice TV to do this with do NOT expect good picture quality even from s-video. I believe it has something to do with the refresh rate of a tv, but when i was gaming on my tv i found that without the text and icons on my desktop set to extra large everything was too fuzzy to read. I ended up unhooking it and just returning my setup to normal after a few weeks because it was just too hard to read much of anything on that tv, although i fell in love with windows magnifying glass thingy. Just thought i would put that out there.

[Godsrock37]

hmmm, good point, i havent hooked up my s-video in a while, ive done it once or twice but it always blacked out my laptop screen, creating the question, now looking up specs and software. i wonder if its worth it if i cant read it, i bet theres tv's with higher/lower refresh rates for specific apps, but probably more expensive. ill have to research some and find out if its worth it. thnx for the tip

thnx for the pointer SirDice, that would have driven me insane if it was sloppy (yay for OCD!), if i get the tv ill most likely get one of those too -Hunter

[allenb1963]

It isn't so much a matter of refresh rate as it is of resolution. You don't want to try to browse the web or edit a document on the TV but it'll be fine for playing games @ 800x600 and will do an excellent job of displaying videos if set as a fullscreen device. In other words, clone mode is the only way I've found to be satisfactory and my set is a 36" model.

[SirDice]

One other option, which should give a better picture quality, is to use a VGA to RGB SCART converter. I've never tried this but I've come across it several times on HTPC forums.

The svideo output usually can only do max. 1024x768. By using the VGA to RGB converters you should be able to hookup an HDTV and make use of it's higher refreshrates/resolutions..

http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/