Video killed the Saturday night

[j4]

We exchanged contracts yesterday, so we're most of the way to owning a house. As an absolutely essential part of the packing/moving process, we are trying to connect the VCR to an LCD monitor (this is actually sort of essential - we really want to get rid of the space-consuming TV, but might have to settle for getting rid of the VHS videos). This is proving difficult.

So, we have the following devices (described as best I can - I'm not a hardware geek at the best of times, and AV is all Deep Magic):

* HP 1502 LCD monitor with video in cable ending in 15-pin VGA (female) connector

* VCR with the following outputs: RF (m), 2 x 3mm audio out (f), SCART (f)

* a TVBox 1440ex which has the following sockets: 8-pin VGA (f), 3mm audio in (f), 3mm audio out (f), 9-pin (f) MMI-C, antenna in (f)

(The magic TVBox thing lets us connect the PlayStation to the monitor, so it's not a wasted bit of kit even if it doesn't, as I fear, let us connect the VCR to the monitor as well.)

We also have the following cables/adaptors:

* SCART (m) to 5-pin S-video (m)
* SCART (m) to red/white/yellow AV thing (f)
* SCART (m) to SCART (m)
* 3mm jack (m) to 3mm jack (m)
* 14-pin (m) to 8-pin (m), god knows
* PlayStation (f) to red/white/yellow AV thing (m)
* GameCube adaptor, too complicated to describe but probably not relevant

My questions are:

1. Reassure me here, please: it is possible to connect an LCD monitor to a VCR, yes? The internet seems divided between "no you cant but just get a chepa tv lol" and "yeah you need some kinda box you can get it off ebay lol".

2. Assuming it's possible at all, is it possible with some combination of the above kit?

3. If not, what's the cheapest and easiest way of joining the dots which doesn't involve a) having a TV, or b) crimping/soldering? (The ideal answer would be along the lines of "you need an X to Y connector, you can get them from Maplin for £2.99".)

Thank you in advance, and sorry for being such a div when it comes to hardware. :-}

Comments

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

I'm probably a bit of a div, here, but it seems to me that the TV box is designed to take an analogue TV signal (you probably need to check that) and turn it into a signal suitable for an LCD monitor.

This is essentially the job that you want to do, so cable endings are a problem to be solved by finding adapters, rather than resigning yourself to be limited to the input/output styles that they have predefined.

I would take pictures of the the TV box video/TV signal inputs (look for audio and video inputs to see if they are separate) and pictures of the possible video outputs, similarly for TV outputs and LCD monitor inputs and take them to Maplins and try to find someone who can talk to you intelligently about input/output converters for the various bits of black box hardware.

They may well say that you may not be able to do it without looking at the functions of the individual pins in which case you can start chasing down instructions as to which pin/connection on which type of cable does what, or bin the lot. Theoretically, though, it should all be possible. This kind of cable chaos makes me cross because it is unecessary. Cables do not involve amplitudes that may damage signals - they're just a case of taking the right bit of information to the right place. The bits of hardware you have are clearly able to accept the signals and do conversions, so the cable confusion is just proprietry nonsense - and not your ignorance, just techy arrogance.

Having said that, you may need another black box between the video output and the TV box input; the video signal may have to be converted into something that a TV understands. So far as I can see, the TV box takes a signal that the TV understands and converts it into a signal that the LCD monitor understands. Most video players, however, output a signal directly into the TV - I don't know if TVs generally contain another set of blackboxes that convert the video signal into a TV signal or if the video output is already TV understandable.

[j4.livejournal.com]

I'm going to take pictures of everything today if I can. It could be a fun LJ quiz. :) If imc and truecatachresis's thing below doesn't work, then maybe Mr Maplin will be able to help, but to be honest he wasn't that helpful when I bought the TVBox from him. :-/

If it gets to tracking down functions of individual pins then, to be honest, I think I'm going to admit defeat and just, y'know, replace the videos on DVD or something sensible like that. :-}