My folks have an older computer with a 20" Samsung LCD monitor

[dug777]

Computer is rather chuggy (old P4 Northwood/RDRAM Dell) and they'd rather not have to go through the delight of starting it up/shutting it down.

What horrible things would happen if I got them a DVD player with a DVI out, and plugged it in?

Do any DVD players come with a DVI out and a 3.5mm stereo jack (for the speakers?)?

Could I just get them a HDMI to DVI adapter?

Alternatively, would a PS2 do the trick?

Cheers folks :beer:

 

[JohnAn2112]

PS2's can only connect using composite, s-video or component so unless your folks' monitor has those connections, that won't work. You could get them a DVD player with HDMI out and use an HDMI>DVI cable to connect it to the monitor, however, that will only give you video. You will still need external speakers for audio.

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

You'll want HDMI > DVI and RCA > 3.5 stereo adapters.

 

[s44]

Doubt it will work well, old monitors are 16:10 and 20" models don't have 1:1 or advanced scaling.

edit: unless it's so old that it's 4:3

 

[dug777]

Thanks folks.

Monitor is pretty new, two years at the most. It has HDCP, but I'm not sure about scaling options.

EDIT: I think I'll just suggest they soldier on with the old computer at this stage.