[mythtv-users] Laptop Video out?

[Tony Rein]

On Wednesday March 1, 2006 12:39 am, Kichigai Mentat wrote:
> "Sleep is the best meditation."
> 	--The Dalai Lama
>
> On Feb 27, 2006, at 07.39, James Pifer wrote:
> > I have mostly used MediaMVP for watching recordings. I've recently
> > started watching a traditional mythfrontend in a specific location
> > using
> > an LCD monitor. I've found it really nice using the frontend for
> > livetv
> > and mythvideo. I especially like how well PIP works. (PVR350 and
> > 250 on
> > backend)
> >
> > So, I'm interested in maybe trying this in my main viewing area to see
> > what happens to the WAF. The obvious problems are TVOut and LIRC.
> >
> > Anyone have TVOut working on their laptop? I have a laptop that I run
> > mythfrontend on occasionally and it has a SVideo out. Would be nice to
> > do some initial "testing" with it. Just wondering if there's any
> > chance
> > of making use of it. I'm running FC4. Laptop is HP Compaq nx9110. I
> > know
> > nothing about the SVideo port, except that I can see it. The video
> > card
> > a is Radeon Mobility 9100IGP.
>
> I'm running a Mac OS X machine with an ATI Radeon Mobility 9000. I
> have a RCA/S-Video out dongle and I've had no problems with my TV-
> Out. But, truth be told, TV-Out varies between laptops and video
> cards. Unless your TV-Out is classified as a separate adapter, you
> shouldn't have any more problems with MythTV used with TV-Out versus
> any other output.
>
> > Any thoughts on this?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > James
> >
You say that you're using an LCD "monitor." You might check to see if it has 
VGA input.

I had an old Thinkpad with lots of stuff broken. I was wondering what theck I 
was going to do with it, and found out that it makes a pretty nice mythtv 
frontend. It's almost silent, doesn't use very much power, and can be tucked 
into a fairly small cabinet, out of view. Operation with wireless (via a 
wireless-to-ethernet bridge, as it has no built-in wireless) is OK.

Remote control is via an irman receiver plugged in to the serial port and a 
Hauppauge grey remote that's a spare around here.

We bought a 20" LCD monitor to use with it, but some LCD TV sets have VGA 
input. With the Thinkpad, there was no special setup at all required to use 
its external VGA port -- just plug the monitor in and the laptop boots up 
with its own screen blank and all output appearing on the external monitor. I 
suppose I need to do something extra to get the output to show up on both 
screens at once, but that hasn't been that important to me.

Audio is with a set of fairly cheap computer speakers plugged directly into 
the laptop.

The WAF is pretty good. Of course the biggest influence here would be the 
aesthetics of the monitor and speakers, but you can probably find some that 
aren't too "geekish."

Good luck.

Tony