Dan 7.1 Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 ADC breaks out to DVI pretty cheaply, because it carries the same video signal and the adaptor just ignores the extra power/sound/usb pins. (does ADC actually have sound?) Once you have DVI, a DVI-HDMI cable is pretty cheap too for a no-name one. For the CRT, DVI-VGA adaptors are dirt cheap and plentiful because everyone who buys a video card these days gets 1 or 2. Apple even used to give you one for free on PowerMacs and PowerBooks... Once you get VGA output, then a normal VGA - 5xBNC cable should hook up OK. Well ADC does have USB, so presumably it will carry the same digital audio signal used by the first cube speakers or the original Sound Sticks ...and by nothing else. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted April 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 Thanks for the comments & HIYA, ~Coxy! I've found a couple of very interesting gizmos if a pure cable based solution isn't practical. :b&w: VGA to HDMI Analog/Digital Video Converter, Also for SVGA, SXGA http://www.stsi.biz/sx-vh-01.html Component Video + Audio to HDMI Converter, 1080p Compatible http://www.stsi.biz/sx-ym-01.html I could very well be wrong . . .but getting the sound into the HDMI connection seems to me to be the Achilles' heel of this project. jt =8-\ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
alk Posted April 21, 2009 Report Share Posted April 21, 2009 Your project hasn't been shot with a poisoned arrow just yet... For my TV, I have two possible setups. The first connection is VGA which I use when I connect an iBook. My TV comes with a VGA port to connect directly to a PC (or Mac) with a VGA port. Beside that is a mini-stereo port to connect to the headphone jack on my Mac. That way the audio and video are both connected and selected at the same time when I select "VGA" source from my TV's input source menu. This is a pure analog solution and most (but not all) HDTVs will offer this type of connection. The second connection is made via HDMI which I use when I connect a modern PowerBook or Power Mac. My TV has three HDMI ports, and one of them also includes RCA audio (left & right analog stereo) input ports right beside it so that I can connect an HDMI source that doesn't carry audio on the digital connection but still get analog audio. So from my Mac, I connect a DVI->HDMI cable to the DVI port (or alternatively to an ADC->DVI adapter which can be surprisingly expensive for a pin-to-pin connector with no electronics inside) and I connect a mini-stereo to RCA cable to my headphones port. I connect the DVI->HDMI cable to the HDMI port on the TV, and the mini-stereo->RCA cable to the RCA audio ports on the TV. Then when I select the right input source (HDMI-3 in my case, but surely different for you), the TV automatically displays the video signal from said HDMI port but gets the audio from the associated, colocated RCA ports. Not all TVs have this feature, so your mileage may vary. The DVI->HDMI (or ADC->DVI->HDMI) connection is definitely the easiest way to go if you can. And you can always consider using a separate external (as in not integrated into the TV) speaker system for your audio connection if necessary. Peace, Drew Quote Link to post Share on other sites
alk Posted April 21, 2009 Report Share Posted April 21, 2009 Just a note to say that my earlier references to "DisplayConverterX" are incorrect. The correct tool is DisplayConfigX. The memory isn't what it once was... Get it here: http://www.3dexpress.de/ You can get SwitchResX here: http://www.madrau.com/ Peace, Drew Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bunsen Posted April 21, 2009 Report Share Posted April 21, 2009 Ebay seller macmetex seems to have a ready supply of VGA to 3, 4 and 5 BNC cables for cheap. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Christopher Posted April 21, 2009 Report Share Posted April 21, 2009 I just did a 720p movie trailer from apple and my Dual G4 with 1GB of ram is chugging, it's dropping frames all over the place. Quicktime says between 4 and 8 frames per second. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
alk Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 I just did a 720p movie trailer from apple and my Dual G4 with 1GB of ram is chugging, it's dropping frames all over the place. Do you understand the difference between playing HD content and upscaling 480i content to 1280x720? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dan 7.1 Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 I just did a 720p movie trailer from apple and my Dual G4 with 1GB of ram is chugging, it's dropping frames all over the place. Do you understand the difference between playing HD content and upscaling 480i content to 1280x720? The answer is no. Lets let it be. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Christopher Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 I didn't Sorry. His post mixed up my head. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted April 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 Just kidding, everybody should check out the artwork eeun posted over in the 'fritter edition of this thread. http://www.applefritter.com/node/24071 It's WELL worth a peek (it's almost at the bottom of the page) and a hoot as an example of a wiring diagram to begin with, but his caricature of me is just plain uncanny. It's an incredible feat of visualization for someone who's known me for freakin' years in these fora (forums?) and has never laid eyes on me. eeun= jt, still LOL! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LCGuy Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 Hahaha, love it! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted April 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 To get two displays simultaneously, you need a GeForce4 MX class video card (or better) from nVidia (typically 64MB or more of VRAM - not to complicate things, but the GeForce2 MX with TwinView and 64MB VRAM will do dual monitors) or an ATI Radeon 9000 (Mac Edition) or better. But I might have done a big OOPSIE! I bid on/won one w/32MB of VRAM, Have I shot myself in the . . . Will one w/32MB VRAM do the job? jt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Christopher Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Did you get the GeForce 2? If you did then most likely, you did shoot yourself in the foot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted April 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2009 Did you get the GeForce 2? If you did then most likely, you did shoot yourself in the foot. The auction said: "This is a factory installed Nvidia GeForce4 MX (model A74) graphics video card with 32 MB DDR SDRAM. It has both DVI & ADC connectors, and supports digital and analog resolutions up to 1920 X 1200 pixels . . . pulled from a working MAC Mirrored Door MDD G4, and is guaranteed to work." Dunno, some auctions mention 64 MB & some don't, if it's not what he said it was, he'll have to stop the sale . . . . . . or he's gonna get some REALLY nasty feedback! > jt >8-P Quote Link to post Share on other sites
alk Posted April 26, 2009 Report Share Posted April 26, 2009 The GeForce4 MX should support dual displays even with only 32MB of RAM. That should work for you, though you'll likely need an ADC->DVI adapter as well... Peace, Drew Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted April 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2009 The GeForce4 MX should support dual displays even with only 32MB of RAM. Hooray! Thanks for all your input, comrade. Not too shabby for $22 shipped! . . . though you'll likely need an ADC->DVI adapter as well... Got any links to suppliers of (relatively) inexpensive/(fairly) high quality cables. You know that ole' price/performance sweet spot! = I'll be needing an adapter to HD-15 VGA as well, which port for which? jt =8-D p.s. anybody have good links to howtos for fixing impedance mismatched speaker/A/V Receiver combos. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted April 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 . . . I won an nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 64 MB on this go-round all right . . . but maybe the packaging and shipping costs are a TEENSY bit on the extreme side . . . . . . . ships in original packaging with all the trimmins' . . . nestled inside a Power Mac G4 Dual 1 GHz MDD. jt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
alk Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Awesome! You'll be pleased with that setup. Will you still need to drive dual displays now? Peace, Drew Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted April 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Awesome! You'll be pleased with that setup. HEH! Will you still need to drive dual displays now? Erm . . . not a freakin' clue! jt =8-D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
alk Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 You know, over the last couple of months I've been watching the price of G4 Macs come way down. It's been really very impressive to see an MDD that a few months ago would have sold for $600 start selling for $200-300, and, IMHO, about time. Picking up a dual G4 at 800MHz or faster is now actually affordable. The real question is what to do with that hardware! I've devoted a lot of my spare CPU cycles around the house to ripping my rather sizable DVD collection to my Macs using HandBrake. That is something the MDD will be able to do handily, and it can play some nice movies on your HDTV. It'll make a decent DVD player if you so desire, or you can turn it into a home theater system if you have a large collection of ripped movies like me. I'm working on about 1TB of MP4 files split over two 1TB SATA drives on my dual 1GHz Quicksilver. I've shared out the drives by NFS so all my Macs can access the video files, and I play them back on my HDTV via iBook, PowerBook, or anything else I have on hand. Of course, you still need to calibrate your expectations: HD content (720i/p, 1080i/p) is still largely a no-go on the G4. One day I'll build my own HTPC out of the carcass of my old Apple Set Top Box and a PowerBook G4 or something. That will be fun. I keep looking for junkparts on eBay I can bend to this use but get distracted by them and end up using them for something else (like digital picture frames) before I can actually finish this project... Peace, Drew Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted April 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 You know, over the last couple of months I've been watching the price of G4 Macs come way down Picking up a dual G4 at 800MHz or faster is now actually affordable. The real question is what to do with that hardware! I've got a Metric CrapLoad of LICENSED Graphics, CAD/CAM software, some of it for cutting silk-screen stencils. vinyl cutting/pen plotting on paper & doing Photographic Quality (circa 1998, but good enough for me!) Color Printing on the 40" Plotter now residing in my living room. I've got lots of Apps for building fonts, digitizing logos or artwork,etc. Not to mention yet another Metric CrapLoad of LICENSED Software consisting of (Claris)AppleWorks, Quicken, Utilities and Misc. Apps that only run under OS 9. That'd be my answer as to your question of "what to do with that hardware!" IIRC, this is the second fastest machine ever made that'll boot right up in OS 9.2 It comes with the original packaging, KBD, (the accursed) Pro-Mouse, install CD's, and Manuals. :b&w: It's got TWO procs runnin' at over TWICE the clockspeed of the trusty ole' 466 DA's lonely all on its ownsome CPU . . . . . . and I snagged it for only $335 w/shipping. Not such a bad way to upgrade, eh? jt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Christopher Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 If i had a decent amount of G4's of the same speed, I would actually buy Pooch and run my very own parallel computing center. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.