Access to RGB input of Nav system screen?

[Mini4Cathy]

Has anyone seen a way to connect to the built-in screen using the analog RGB connection between the Nav system and the screen? I'm curious about switching between the Nav display and a Mac mini. Going in through the RGB input would allow a simpler configuration and better resolution than composite.

The rear-view camera kit and video control module provide access via composite input. The Video Input / TV / DVD kits like GNET all seem to be a variation on that same approach. They take composite input. Does anyone know of anything comparable but that enables VGA input to the Nav system screen?

[pcnorton]

How about this:

RGB Link

Its RGB though.


Paul

[Mini4Cathy]

Quote: Originally Posted by pcnorton

How about this:

RGB Link

Its RGB though.

RGB is what I need but the GNET box doesn't help, unfortunately. Although it conects via RGB to the screen, the video inputs on the GNET box are both composite only. It costs $350 and does no more than what the $240 MINI Video Control box does.

The ideal solution would handle 2 RGB sources, delivering one or the other to the screen. It needs to be detected as if it were the screen itself by the sources (or at least by my Mac). I'd like to be able to have it switch to the source I choose via a USB interface.

So now I'm looking into KVM units to switch between RGB sources. There are some that can be toggled between sources via keypresses on a USB keyboard plugged into the KVM. I don't want to have a keyboard attached just to switch to a different video source, but perhaps I could emulate a keyboard and send the keystroke signal out one of my USB ports to the keyboard port of the KVM.

It's getting a little Rube Goldberg-ian at this point, but I'm hoping to hide the complexity once I have something that works.

[joeinitaly]

Watching and learning.

[Mini4Cathy]

It turns out that there are many issues preventing RGB access to the Nav screen:

1. The connection is RGsB (sync on green RGB) rather than the typical RGBs or RGBHV. It needs a RGBs to RGsB transcoder. There are some designs in the hacktheibus group on Yahoo, or there are commercial ones for about $250 and up.

2. The screen is an unusual 400x234 display. I haven't seen any postings of instructions for getting Mac or PC video to work with it. It's not clear that the commercial transcoders would work with the display.

3. You'd need an RGsB switcher to switch from the Nav display to the computer display and back. I haven't found one of those, either.

So composite video is the best you can expect from this display, and there are 3 or 4 solutions that do that.