[mythtv-users] xbox / htpc switch?

Brian Bartlow mythtv at roostervision.com
Wed Jan 5 12:47:02 EST 2005


I need a little bit of advice.  This is a little bit off topic, but it 
relates to my mythbox connection to my projector.  And hopefully someone 
here will have a solution.

I have both a mythbox htpc and an xbox in my theater.  I have one vga 
cable running through my wall from my electronics closet to the 
projector hung on the ceiling.  I'd like to get something to switch 
between the xbox and the htpc using IR.

What seems to be the best choice is to use an IR keyboard and a KVM 
switch.  Then I could program in the hotkey to switch between the two 
into my programmible remote and everything would work.  Ideally it'd be 
a USB KVM switch so I could plug both USB cables into the HTPC so I 
could control the HTPC no matter which video signal was currently active.

The one problem I'm running into is that if I only want to play my xbox, 
a typical 2-port kvm switch won't be powered unless the HTPC is on.  It 
gets it's power through the ps2 or usb cable.  Looking through newegg 
it's difficult to determine if any of those kvm switches will take an 
external power supply.

Does anyone have experience with this?  Anyone know of a decent 
inexpensive 2-port kvm switch with external power?  It doesn't even have 
to have usb functionality.

Is there another option?

Along the same lines, my projector will accept component inputs on it's 
"computer 2" input.  In theory I could convert the VGA-out on my htpc to 
component and then run both the component from the htpc and the xbox 
through my receiver and then to the projector.

How does the quality compare between component video and vga?  Is there 
any difference?


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list