<sigh> This is not a difficult problem to solve. First off, the MacBook Air is _not_ a netbook. Netbooks are defined by their low-power processors (typically Intel Atoms). The MacBook Air has a full multi-core Intel I5 processor, which means it can do real work.
The best way to approach this is to look for a USB video input device, such as those from El Gato, which can input video to the Mac. From there, just use the El Gato application to display the video, or save it to disk. I don’t know if El Gato has a VGA-capable converter, but I do know they have devices that can input other video formats such as those common to current TVs and DVRs. I believe their URL is www.elgato.com or something similar. You may have to search for a suitable device that does VGA, and I suspect it won’t be inexpensive. Still, worth the effort. I would expect the conversion task to take a notable amount of processor horsepower since much of the conversion occurs inside the Mac. This means that that extra horsepower you get because the MacBook Air is _not_ a netbook will be very useful. You might also want to look at an alternate solution - an external monitor that the P3 and the MacBook Air can feed. While this solution means that you can only see one or the other video sources at a time, it might actually be less expensive. Jack B, W6FB On Jul 10, 2014, at 1:15 PM, Dauer, Edward <eda...@law.du.edu> wrote: > A week or two ago I posted this question: Would it be possible to have > the P3's SVGA output displayed on the screen of a MacAir computer, and > have a logging program resident on the same computer, and be able to > toggle between the two with a simple computer keyboard stroke? Neat trick > for contesting if there's no room for dual monitors, eh? > > The simple answer (but see below) turns out to be no - with some dongling > older Macs could operate as "dumb" monitors but newer ones (like my > MacAir) cannot, a fact I had confirmed by a tech at the local Apple store. > I was told that only the 27" monitor (too big for my space) might be able > to do that, and maybe it couldn't either. > > I was referred by a member of this reflector (thank you) to a > computer-consultant friend of his, from whom I learned that there was no > direct way to do it but that it could be done if the P3's SVGA output > could be made into the electronic equivalent of an Internet web site. > Moreover, he said, that should be possible using something called > "Raspberry Pi." > > Right. For an EE or computer expert, maybe; but not for a Liberal Arts > sort of guy. Even my Internet research about "Raspberry Pi" was > entertaining but incomprehensible. But that aside, does anyone know of a > way to feed the P3 output into a server sort of thing and have it come out > as something that will fool the MacAir into thinking it's a web site, > hence toggleable vis-a-vis the resident logging program? > > If it turns out to be patentable I'm willing to share the royalties . . . > > Ted, KN1CBR > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to jackbrin...@me.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
