[milkmanchris]

I asked this question about a month ago, wanting to use a 20" imac as an external monitor for my 12" PB, the answers i got seemed to think that this was not possible.

Quick brainwave (probably dumb moment i know), but if i used a usb tv card on the imac, and fed the PB output in through this devices input would that work ?

Just seems a lot cheaper than a 20" cinema display and the wife and kids will get a new puter out of it too.

Cheers

C

[nJm]

Well, it would work but it would look terrible. I've found to keep things legible on a TV, I need to run the NTSC/PAL output below 800x600. Also, when outputing the video through composite (yellow rca jack) or s-video, you only have access to 4:3 aspect ratio resolutions, not wide screen.

So, would it work? Yes. Could you actually use it? No.

It might be different if you could find a TV Tuner box that accepts a DVI input.

[SSharon]

Adding to the above poster, you will also find it hard to use because of the time delay associated with the USB tuner. This is the same thing as trying to plug a nintendo into an eye-tv (which I have tried) and playing. You just can't, USB isn't good enough and the delay was horrible. What I don't know is what the delay is like for a wirewire unit, so you might want to ask someone in peripherals to test this out with a eye-tv 200 or above.

Also, are you trying to really use the imac as a second display for working or more for movies etc.?

[the_glassman]

USB would be horrible. If you could use Firewire or Ethernet it would be much better. I remember there is supposed to be a utility that would let you do this over ethernet, but for the life of me can't remember at the moment. You also might be able to do something like this with Apple's Remote Desktop.
http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop

[milkmanchris]

Originally posted by SSharon:


Also, are you trying to really use the imac as a second display for working or more for movies etc.?

Second display

[tooki]

Just forget it, then.

What you want to do is plain and simply nowhere close to what it was designed for, so even if you could make it work, the performance would be lousy.

Why not buy them a 17" iMac, and you buy yourself a non-Apple 17, 18, or 19" LCD?

tooki

[solbo]

It really is a shame that there is no way to use the iMac as a monitor, all those 20 inches of beautiful screen space could be put to many good uses. It would be excellent to play games on.

[GSixZero]

Why don't you boot your PB into target disk mode, and then boot the iMac from the PB's system folder? Yes, it will be a slow over the FW400, but it'll substitute.