scan converters

[Michael Grobe]

hello:

the various complexities of using VNC for screen-sharing demos 
got me to thinking about alternatives.

has anyone tried using scan converters for these demos?
that is, in more detail:

   use a scan converter to take the VGA signal from a laptop
   or workstation and convert it to composite video for the
   video capture card for normal broadcast over the grid.

this would be MUCH simpler than the VNC approach (especially the
bi-level VNC approach invented by eric).  i suppose it would
be considerably lower resolution, so it would be unusable for
some demos or PPT slide sets.

i have found a cheap scan converter...well, relatively cheap...
$495 list price...i have a call in to see about an edu discount.
for similar quality (VSC-75 or VSC-100) the Extron edu price 
appears to be about $1000.

the product is the CORIOscan Select from tvone.com (www.tvone.com).
(up to 1024x768, composite, s-video, and RGB output, ntsc and pal 
switchable, scan rates up to 100KHz, etc.)

if nothing else this MIGHT make a reasonable backup tool for VNC
and dPPT, if it isn't good enough for general use.

:michael grobe