Separate video display from control

[jnusbaum]

I am guessing that this is asking too much but....

I am looking for a solution that allows me to separate the control function from the video display function. In particular I want to be able to playback video (through an svideo port) while using the PC for normal PC functions (Quicken, web, etc.).

I would not be using the PVR functions for all tv viewing but would only be using it for occasional recording and playback. I would use the normal PC display to view the guide, set up recording, etc. but on playback would want the video to go to the TV out, not the normal VGA graphics out. I do not want to just display the PC desktop/windows on the tv display.

At first I thought the WinTV PVR 350 might be what I wanted since it has a separate TV out and does not depend on the PC graphics card or Windows for video display but the TV out is not supported by Beyond TV.

I also have speculated that if I had a second video card I might be able to use that for the TV out but I really don't think that will work.

Any suggestions? It does not seem that any PVR software supports this mode and in fact the only hardware I am aware of that supports a separate TV out is the 350.

If there is no solution then I would have to have a separate PC dedicated to the PVR functions and I was hoping to avoid that.

[Jobo]

Ok, not EXACTLY, sure if thi is what your asking, but if you get any semi-new video card it usually supports two outs. So this way you can connect your vga port to your computer monitor, and your svideo out to the TV. This should pretty much do what you want, no need to complicate it.

This is pretty much what I do, but my second out is the DVI port to the LCD HDTV.

Make sense?

[zysurge]

Jobo:

This is what I tried to do as well (although using s-video as my 2nd out), but hen I couldn't get SnapStream to go full screen on the 2nd display. It would only go full screen on the primary.

Is this just a limitation of my card, my connection method, or what? I'm currently running in clone mode so SS is displayed in both locations.

Thanks!