Re: [edlug] pcmcia tv cards

[sxw@xxx.xxx.xxx]

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Alex Wasserman wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone has seen something that can give a tv signal 
> from a laptop, given that tv-out is not builtin. Something like a 
> pcmcia card. It doesn't need to do anything special, just be able to 
> play DVDs on the laptop and display them on a TV with SCART input.
> 
> Any ideas?

The easiest way to do it is probably with an external scan converter (also 
called down converters). These will take a {S,X,}VGA signal in, and give 
you a PAL video feed out. You get what you pay for though, and good 
converters are not particularly cheap - try a Google search to get an idea 
of suppliers and prices.

[ In the bad olde days, before video projectors had SVGA inputs, 
  everything (sources, mixers, etc) would run on composite video. Scan
  converters were essential to making the fancy demo appear on the huge
  video screen at the sales conference ]

Holdan Limited (http://www.holdan.co.uk) sell a PCMCIA based converters, 
but I don't know if you'd have much luck controlling them from Linux. 

You can, allegedly, achieve similar results without an converter at all, 
see http://www.sput.nl/hardware/tv-x.html. However, you might not be able 
(or want!) to drive your TV/laptop in this way.

Cheers,

Simon.

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