[geeks] converting composite video to modern screns

[Joshua Boyd]

On May 10, 2007, at 10:06 PM, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:

> What's the best way to convert a composite video signal to work on a
> small LCD?
>
> Mostly for old computers, but also for game consoles.
>
> Ideally, it would also do things like svideo, but composite is a must.
>
> The plan is over the next year to hover over 15" LCD sales and snag
> something as cheap as possible, maybe 2-3 of them, and try to use them
> to replace older displays that either take up a lot of room, or are
> going bad.

Go to a video game store (or ebay, or elsewhere) and look for a box  
that does that for about $50.  That's what I use for my DVD player  
and assorted video game systems.  The box was pretty generic.  It  
does s-video and composite.  As far as I know, it strictly is a line  
doubler rather than a real video scaler.  I actually use it with a  
SGI CRT rather than an LCD though.

> Is this a bad idea?

Two things.  Video quality on computer LCDs can be rather spotty.   
And if you find the LCDs for $70-80 (what cheap used ones seem to be  
locally) and add $50 for the converter box, you seem to be near the  
price of a small LCD TV, which is likely to do a better job than on  
old 15" LCD.  Especially for video games.