Hi all,
Thought I’d share my thoughts on a cool little gadget that solved some video issues for me. My HTPC is connected to a 7″ touchscreen LCD via a VGA cable and a 50″ DLP RPTV via a DVI to HDMI cable. The two monitors are set up in clone mode. The plan was to reduce the on/off cycles of my RPTV by allowing me to browse my CD collection or check the weather without turning on the beast. The problem I encountered was that whenever the HTPC was on and the DLP was off (or switched to a different input), the video drivers detected this and switched out of clone mode to single-monitor mode. When the DLP was turned back on, the drivers had to be manually switched back to clone mode. Stupid drivers!
So, after posting a few messages here and there (and contacting NVIDIA and eVGA), someone on AVS pointed me to Monoprice’s DVI Doctor. It’s a little box that stores the EDID (extended display identification data) from a monitor (for e.g. my DLP RPTV). Once stored, it relays this data to any source connected to it, making it look like the monitor is always on.
I purchased one and received it late last week. Included in the box was the DVI doctor (which is only 67x56x38mm), a 5V power adapter, a single sheet instruction pamphlet, and a 1.2m DVI-D cable. Following the instructions, I connected my RPTV to the DVI-D output, turned on TV, then connected the 5V power supply. The LED blinked for a few seconds, then stayed lit. Then I disconnected the power, hooked up the HTPC output to the DVI Doctors input, and I was done. I played with my HTPC a bunch over the weekend with the RPTV turned on and off and the DVI Doctor did what it was supposed to. The HTPC remained in clone mode regardless of the state of the RPTV.
EDIT: Here’s the link:
[url=http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011003&p_id=3048&seq=1&format=2&style=]http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011003&p_id=3048&seq=1&format=2&style=[/url]
I hope someone finds this useful!
erikt
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