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You are right that "loudness" controls don't really do DRC, but only the cheapest only boosted bass.

In any event, in the digital age we don't need kludges like prerecorded music with dynamic range compression. First of all, it assumes everyone's primary music environment is the car. My 15 minute commute barely affords me 3 or 4 songs. Second, the nicer car stereos (and premium cars) do background noise compensation, so people who care about their car audio already have solutions. Finally, I mean, it just sounds like ass - why would you advocate for this crappy sound?

Upon looking at your requirements again, you would need a larger matrix than I originally mentioned. Since you have 3 PC's total, each with 2 monitor outputs, you would need at least 6 inputs. This puts your matrix size in the 8x4 range (don't think you'll find a 8x2). This would bump the cost up depending on price.

I deal with Pro-grade gear for work, so I would suggest something along the lines of an Extron DXP 84 HDMI; or maybe a Kramer brand, or Atlona. I'm sure there are other options that may be cheaper, but can't speak to their quality. Most of these Pro grade models are also RS232 and Ethernet controllable, so if you know a bit of code, you could rig something up and send easy telnet or serial commands to make things a little more automatic to select your "scenes" that you described.

What would be really cool is if you had some kind of video matrix switcher, where you could route any of the available inputs to any of the available monitors on the fly.

Something like this thing:
http://www.extron.com/product/product.asp?id=mvx44 vga&subtype=136

Sadly they're insanely expensive for component video or VGA (probably worse still for DVI) -- for what I can afford, I'd only get composite. And really who wants to try to browse the internet via composite video.

My personal dream system would be an array of monitors not unlike yours, maybe one or two main ones with thin bezels so they're easy to use as extended desktops, plus a few others off to the side to put information or video feeds on. Plus a wall-screen projector for presenting data, watching videos, or just taking a step back and looking at something in a different way. Make all of them available to maybe 4 different computers, and you're looking at a 6x4 switch. Eek!

Uncompressed HD-SDI is 1.485 Gbps (SMPTE 292M).

Standard definition SDI is 270 Mbps.

See this overview

Avid Xpress, Apple FCP, Adobe Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas, and most other modern NLE software have keying as a standard feature. The four-input switcher I'll have to concede, but in the context of emulating the hardware, there are alternatives if you're not too concerned about online capabilities. Frankly, if you want online you shouldn't really be using a stock PC anyway. Then again, I don't think that the online capabilities of the original Toaster, given its rendering speed for certain operations, was really a factor.

Extron is to video gear as Blackbox is to networking gear.

They have something that will do what you want. Dig on their page, or give them a call and talk to one of their reps.

As another poster said: You get what you pay for. Meanwhile, your TV is burnt.

Runco rear-projection sets, for example, use neutral grey bars on each side, to help equalize burn-in across the width of the screen.

I'm pretty sure Extron makes a box that does the same thing, with justabout any monitor.

With any monitor, make sure you're not operating your next set in Torch Mode. That's usually how they're set up out of the box - it's a sick, cold war-like race to look brighter (and bluer) than everything else in the showroom. Simple to test, and fix: Pause a DVD during a very bright scene. Turn down the contrast control (sometimes labeled "picture"), until you notice the brightest subjects becoming a bit less so.

Your picture is now somewhat darker than it was before. This is a Good Thing(tm).

Resume watching the DVD. You'll notice an additional spectrum of detail and shades of grey that your TV couldn't display before, and everything from the power supply to the CRT(s) will last longer. Now, go do the same to your computer monitor, and keep it around for a few more years, too.

For more do-it-yourself action, buy/borrow/rent the Video Essentials DVD. You'll be enlightened.

Other fun stuff:

Pay an ISF-certified shop to use a color analyzer to calibrate your set to standard. It's not very expensive, and generally makes what was once a pretty decent TV into something approaching the view from a window.

It's usually cheaper and better to calibrate things properly, than to spend more money on a what the salesgeek/price tag indicates is a "better" model.

I picked up an incredibly cheap 19" Sanyo TV at Christmas time, for the bedroom. After a bit of basic work, using a calibrated Sony as a reference, I've got it displaying a more accurate picture than anything you'll find displayed on a store shelf. Big hint: The service menu is your friend, and all current TVs have one hidden somewhere in their firmware.

Forget plugging in a DVD player to a computer monitor.

Anything "mid-priced" will output some form of NTSC video, which is horrible in all incarnations. Even if you get -really lucky- and score a VGA-esque RGB output, you'll be ill-equipped to see "just how crisp it can be," because the DACs on your Sun's video hardware are significantly better than anything inside of a sanely-priced DVD player.

Better to pick up a DVD drive, and some good software. This is, after all, a computer monitor. Drive it with a computer. At 1920x1200.

You'll get, depending on hardware and software, some very fine scaling and framerate conversion and filtering. Things will be great, as good as it gets. If your Sun can't do it, a cheap PC with an appropriate DVD-supporting video card will still be cheaper than a super-high-res progressive scan DVD player.

Whereas, a DVD player will only drive the monitor at a couple of fixed frequencies and resolutions, which may or may not include overscan support, and thus show a chance of being incredibly poor-looking on a computer display - and that's only if you get the interfaces to talk to eachother at all.

That all said, if you're insistant, this box will do what you want with just about any analog signal you can come up with. And since noone seems to want to make an analog -> DVI converter, things get even more hairy. Something like this this adapter card along with this way-overkill video switcher might do it.

You don't want to ask what any of that stuff costs, though. There's reasons why the price isn't listed on the web page. (other stuff probably exists which does similar things with varying amounts of overkill, but Extron has a reputation for being the best. If you wanna see "just how crisp it can be" in such an arrangement, look no further.)

Forget plugging in a DVD player to a computer monitor.

Anything "mid-priced" will output some form of NTSC video, which is horrible in all incarnations. Even if you get -really lucky- and score a VGA-esque RGB output, you'll be ill-equipped to see "just how crisp it can be," because the DACs on your Sun's video hardware are significantly better than anything inside of a sanely-priced DVD player.

Better to pick up a DVD drive, and some good software. This is, after all, a computer monitor. Drive it with a computer. At 1920x1200.

You'll get, depending on hardware and software, some very fine scaling and framerate conversion and filtering. Things will be great, as good as it gets. If your Sun can't do it, a cheap PC with an appropriate DVD-supporting video card will still be cheaper than a super-high-res progressive scan DVD player.

Whereas, a DVD player will only drive the monitor at a couple of fixed frequencies and resolutions, which may or may not include overscan support, and thus show a chance of being incredibly poor-looking on a computer display - and that's only if you get the interfaces to talk to eachother at all.

That all said, if you're insistant, this box will do what you want with just about any analog signal you can come up with. And since noone seems to want to make an analog -> DVI converter, things get even more hairy. Something like this this adapter card along with this way-overkill video switcher might do it.

You don't want to ask what any of that stuff costs, though. There's reasons why the price isn't listed on the web page. (other stuff probably exists which does similar things with varying amounts of overkill, but Extron has a reputation for being the best. If you wanna see "just how crisp it can be" in such an arrangement, look no further.)

Forget plugging in a DVD player to a computer monitor.

Anything "mid-priced" will output some form of NTSC video, which is horrible in all incarnations. Even if you get -really lucky- and score a VGA-esque RGB output, you'll be ill-equipped to see "just how crisp it can be," because the DACs on your Sun's video hardware are significantly better than anything inside of a sanely-priced DVD player.

Better to pick up a DVD drive, and some good software. This is, after all, a computer monitor. Drive it with a computer. At 1920x1200.

You'll get, depending on hardware and software, some very fine scaling and framerate conversion and filtering. Things will be great, as good as it gets. If your Sun can't do it, a cheap PC with an appropriate DVD-supporting video card will still be cheaper than a super-high-res progressive scan DVD player.

Whereas, a DVD player will only drive the monitor at a couple of fixed frequencies and resolutions, which may or may not include overscan support, and thus show a chance of being incredibly poor-looking on a computer display - and that's only if you get the interfaces to talk to eachother at all.

That all said, if you're insistant, this box will do what you want with just about any analog signal you can come up with. And since noone seems to want to make an analog -> DVI converter, things get even more hairy. Something like this this adapter card along with this way-overkill video switcher might do it.

You don't want to ask what any of that stuff costs, though. There's reasons why the price isn't listed on the web page. (other stuff probably exists which does similar things with varying amounts of overkill, but Extron has a reputation for being the best. If you wanna see "just how crisp it can be" in such an arrangement, look no further.)

Here's one by Extron.

(VGA, SVGA, XVGA, etc. are all RGB, for those who don't know.)

i'm not sure what the xbox is using for output, but you're probably best served waiting until they release a real vga adapter. if you absolutely cannot wait, you have a couple options. first, you can go the cheap route with a cheese box from AV Toolbox. these boxes will upconvert a standard ntsc composite or s-video signal to be displayed on the monitor. none will use the high def output though.

if you want high def, expect to pay upwards of $2000 USD. check this guy out from www.extron.com. extron makes all sorts of very nice broadcast quality conversion equipment, if you have the pockets deep enough to afford it.

my suggestion? wait till MS releases the $40 vga box :)

This PL-300 may be your solution. Its usually used for digital projectors and transmits several remotely or locally, SWITCHABLE video and audio signals from the transmitter to the receiver via CAT-5(b) cable. Also it has an bi-directionall RS-232 port on both receiver and transimtter, so you can interact with the display or sources. It can be connected to any AV controller board that uses RS-232. I have used these extensively and found them to be very good products.

Also, anytime i need to do some funky/custom cabling switching etc... Extron has been a good source for cables and distribution amps.

When you get your project dialed in, let us all know how you did it!