I found this.... http://www.svideo.com/hdtvr8500.html It seems to be EXACTLY what I need! I know its made by ATI but how could it possibly only work with ati cards? I have nvidia. Isn't the video signal an industry standard? I mean is ati's vga really any different than nvidia's? Help me sort this out! Thanks
AFIK, the card changes it's out-put so that it can utilize the YPbPr adaptor. So, it will only work with an ATI card (well, the one's listed at least).
Just says it right on the page I suppose it will work electrically, but the serial EEPROM that tells the ATi card to turn on sync-on-green, set the right display timing periods, turn on interlaced mode if necessary, etc. will only work with ATi cards. It may work with a non-ATi card, but you will have to set the parameters manually. And $40 is not a good bet. Use the "sync-on-green" circuit at http://repairfaq.org/sam/vidconv.htm#nvcvgta7 . Since the 480p mode for a HDTV is directly compatible with 640x480 VGA, you will see the POST screen (which is good, because then you won't need another display just to use the BIOS setup). Then you need to edit the XF86config file to allow higher resolutions. http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO/index.html
So what about this? http://www.magenta-research.com/brochures/VGA_RGB.pdf my HDTV supports 480p and 1080i or i can i just build a VGA breakout cable? I have the pinouts for the d-sub.