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Actually, the cable length can be much longer than 4 meters. You are correct that it does depend upon the medium of the cable there are certain lengths; however, consider the actual specifications[pdf - Standards Orientation v5], or 1394a & b white paper[pdf]:

• Plastic optical fiber (POF) - 100m at 200Mb/s or 400 Mb/s
• Glass optical fiber (GOF) - 100m at 800Mb/s, spec. to 3200Mb/s
• CAT5e - 100m at 800Mb/s

Of course these are point to point distances (i.e. between devices) not the total length of the device chain which I do not believe there is a limit (couldn't find one anyways). And there are always repeaters such as here, or here if you need even more distance.

A simple cable conversion won't work!
All you'll get doing that is the VGA signal pumped into the analogue lines of the dvi cable.
A digital DVI monitor won't read that signal.

A proper VGA to digital converter costs ~$300
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/DVI_ADC-convert er.html#vgadvi

It's a digital signal. It gets there... or it doesn't. That's it. You don't need a $300 Monster Cable to do that!

If you've got $600 to drop on a PS3, you've got another $20 for cables. Move along, nothing to see here.

HDMI compliance is not required, you just need a DVI to HDMI is just a rework of the DVI cable to allow for easier consumer connections and include audio.
from http://www.ramelectronics.net/ "HDMI - Digital connection for Video and 8-channels of Digital Audio as well as device control features. Electronically better potential for supporting longer cable lengths than DVI for digital video.
Specification supports up to 12 bit Y-Pr-Pb video (rarely implemented on equipment) as opposed to 8 bit limit of DVI RGB."
I've used them before for other AV media conversion products and they make pretty good stuff.

also see the HDMI FAQ at http://www.hdmi.org/about/faq.asp
which states "Is HDMI backward-compatible with DVI (Digital Visual Interface)?
Yes, HDMI is fully backward-compatible with DVI using the CEA-861 profile for DTVs. HDMI DTVs will display video received from existing DVI-equipped products, and DVI-equipped TVs will display video from HDMI sources."

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/kd-vtca2.htm http://www.digitalconnection.com/products/video/9a 60.asp - Audio Authority 9A60, $112. And that's the cheap one!

Yes

The connector, as others have pointed out, is digital as well as analog.

Specifically it's called a "Mini Toslink" [1]. Basically it's the same form factor as a 1/8" stereo miniplug, but it's hollow and transmits the optical digital information out the very end. Or, a standard electrical analog stereo cable can be used. I think it's a Sony invention, the first place I ever saw it was on MiniDisc players.

It's actually a neat little connector, because you can squeeze it into devices without cluttering them up with separate digital and analog ones. It's not very widely used on higher-end equipment, though. They're usually either regular Toslink or (electrical) digital on coaxial cable, the latter of which means a $15 converter box from Radio Shack. For this reason I think, the big Power Mac G5s use the regular Toslink optical connectors instead of the minis on their DA ins and outs.

I'm actually quite disappointed that they didn't integrate the AirTunes functions into the iPod Hi-Fi. If they had, I'd probably be first in line to buy one at the Apple store tonight after work. Now that would be slick, just a sleek white box, controllable by either the iPod if it was attached, or an IR remote, or from the computer. As it is, it's just a very expensive boombox; they had the opportunity to create a "smart" product and decided not to. Too bad.

[1] http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/audio_toslink_c ables.html#mini

Actually, they'd better get cracking on some HDMI swithcers and HDMI-switching capable amplifiers...

Several companies are already making these. Here's one I came across. Of course, the price could stand to come down quite a bit...

Network Operations Centers use these kinds of setups all the time (except for the audio). This is going to seem like a plug, but I've been researching this for work. One that I've found so far is the MediaWall 2000. You can control it via serial or Ethernet, so the presumption is that you might have a customzed/handheld interface developed. They also have other, related products.

You say that you want an on-screen display with remote, but most configurations this complex aren't being built for you, they are going to emergency response centers and such where there is a person in the hot seat watching various view points. It needs to be quick, easy, and customized (label the inputs for example and put the most used at the front of the list). This quickly points to an embedded solution. Talk to a sales rep and find out what your choices are. I'm going to end up doing the same in a few weeks.

I'm quite sure this isn't the only vendor for this type of product, but I did search for a while and came up somewhat cold. Talk to a local audio/video specialist for help, although they probably will want a piece of the action.

As for the audio - you and I both know you need a mixing board, even a simplistic 16-channel version. You said that you want picture within a picture, but these really complex solutions might mean you want four pictures on screen and to have each feed come from one of four speakers, presumably in pseudo-surround mode. A mixer could work in two modes - aux1-aux4 feed amps that drive four speakers around you. The main setup could also just drive your fronts, although you'll lose and 6.1 sound you might be running.

In the end, I think you're overdoing it. You probably can't process more than two pictures at a time, much less 16, unless you're watching sports. You want to avoid a "bunch of VCRs" but yet you want 16 channels of individually tunable inputs ala tuners. I don't get it. You won't be able to maintain surround sound at 6.1 and still have multiple audio feeds. Since you want so much versatility, I assume you're one of those rich boys that will gladly plunk out US$3000 every couple of years for a new display. Then it may also be safe to assume you would pay someone US$1000 to design such a system to your specifications. People do this for a living so as the yellow pages in your area for help with Audio-Visual-Consultants.

Other interesting finds:

• Zektor audio/video switches. 4 channels, but HD and digital audio supported
• Crestron the maker of RS-232 control units.
• AMX - a competitor to Crestron.
• Tekron Communication Systems - okay, these guys are for broadcasters, but maybe you really want to get weird.
• AVR 8000 - a security video switcher
• Barebones for the cheapskate in all of us

Umm...maybe you didn't put enough effort into finding a solution. You have a few options:
1. Many HDTVs have DVI inputs -- you can hook this up to your DVI out on your video card (if it has one)
2. If your HDTV has an HDMI input, you can buy a converter to match up to your DVI out on your video card.
3. If your HDTV doesn't have DVI/HDMI inputs, or your video card doesn't have DVI output, you can always get a converter to go from VGA to component. A quick search of google popped this one and many, many more.

I know about HDMI. I also know about HDCP, which makes HDMI damn near useless to me.

Go have fun on google. The only problem being that not many TVs have more than one input for it, and I have yet to find a switch or reciever that will take more than one. If anyone finds one, let me know.

Oh. You should have taken your own advice.

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/hdmi-2x1-switch .htm
(2x1 HDMI)

http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=2758
(6 HDMI in, 2 HDMI out mirrored)

http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=2654 (HDMI in, DVI out)

If that's a similar product to the one on this page http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/usb-ps2-adapter .htm then it may not work. And the other one they have on there looks freaking huge. So, it looks like they exist (I didn't doubt that) but how well they work and how big they are I suppose it the kicker for this discussion right?

Buy a nice shiny Dual G5, stick it in your hallway.

And then buy a couple of 15 feet USB/Firewire cables to extend your keyboard, mouse, and external soundcards into your sound proof recording room.

Voila!

With all these stories about HDTV and big screens and wotnot, I felt inspired to hook up my TV to my computer. I have a 50-inch plasma tv, and surround sound with a hefty woofer, and - apart from the movie experience - how cool would UT2004 be on that!

Well anyway This site [ramelectronics.net] has some useful information about wot the holes at the back of ure TV do, and various other stuff.

That $250 Tivo is a 40 hour model, 20 hours or less if you want a decent picture. Start saving an HD signal and you're looking at maybe a 5 hour capacity.

So if you get more than 5 hours saved on the hd, just burn it on a dvd rewritable. That's one of the reasons to have the dvd-rw.

And let's not forget the box now needs to output an HD signal.

That's the point of the hd card I priced in. It had hd outputs as well I thought. May have misread the specs though. I thought it had both hd in and out on it so you could either view hd on your monitor or route the signal through the computer and out to your tv. As I say, I could have misread the specs.

It's really not valid to say this part costs $x and this part costs $y so putting them in the same box should be $x+y.

True. But that's one of the reasons I used off the shelf prices. I tried to compensate for that by getting higher priced products. Also, since all of these components work with the same kind of information, video signals, it shouldn't be that hard. A lot of the work has already been done.

If you can build a box that will record at least 20 hours of HDTV off digital cable and display it at HD quality, and put that box on the shelf at a price of $900, I'd say you need to go into business.

Heh. If I could, I would. ;) Seriously though, except for the digital cable, this site http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/HTPC.html built it from scratch. Unfortunately, they didn't report their final cost. But they also did just a little more on the computing end. An Athlon 1200 is probably a little overkill. Better to get a lower cpu and kill some of the fan noise I think. These should be quiet units.

Oh, I just found this:

https://www2.setssl.com/~hivizone/htpc/main_frame. htm

Scroll down to the Theatre Stylus. Runs $958. Just need to add in a dvd-/+rw and digital cable descrambler. If they ran linux instead of xp pro, that would more than make up for the price difference in dvd vs dvd recordable. And if they made these in bulk the price would come down quickly.

• Huh. I had heard of DVI but was mislead into believing it was just for digital video from cameras and stuff, and not for general purpose graphics.

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/DVI_monitor_cab les.html#adc

Has a neat summary about DVI at the bottom of the page.

ADC is pretty similar to DVI-I in that it carries USB, Digital, and Analog video signals.

Here is a link http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/hardware/Devel oper_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G4/PowerMacG4Cube/trin-5 7.html all about ADC connector and the signals it carries.

Have you counsidered a USB to PS/2 keyboard adapter?

Looking at this page it seems to tell me that fiber is not very cheap. Albeit I couldn't tell you which exact type of cable you would be needing (ST/ST, SC/ST, SC/SC), none of em are affordable in a practical sense. I am sure the hardware for this stuff isn't nice on the bank account either. As far as what you want to do with this fiber I am not sure. Run it straight to the computers or end up converting it into rj45 ports in the wall or something and running cat5 from the computer to the walljack.

I found a 3' Ultra2 LVD cable for sale here for only $45 dollars. 6' VHDCI SCSI cables are going for $93 at the same place. Still inifitely less than a 3' or 6' UltraATA cable.

For internal use, a 22-inch Ultra2 cable costs $17, which an 18-inch UltraATA costs $2. Neither price is likely to put off most computer buyers.

Finally, comparing current SCSI prices with current ATA prices is bogus, because the current SCSI product is many time better than the current ATA product. It's apples to oranges. If you find SCSI drives that perform on par with the fastest ATA drives, which is not easy, you will find their prices are reasonable. In fact, even crusty old SCSI drives like the Seagate Barracuda 4LP, introduced almost 5 years ago, still take the fastest ATA drives to town. Surely you could find a farm full of used Barracuda 4LPs for only a few hundred dollars, string them together into a software RAID array, and have vastly superior disk throughput than you would if you bought a shiny new IBM Deskstar GXP.