Use imac as video output

Question

Hi,
I have an imac and some other computers, DVD player & VCR
Is there any way I can use imac as a display of other machines? To make it work as a projector?
Thank you very much !
imac g5   Mac OS X (10.4.1)  

Answer 1

Hello,
There is not really a method to use your iMac as a display for another computer. It does not have any built-in video input ports, and is not designed to provide any sort of pass-through.
That said, you can pipe video into it from other sources using a USB video input. But, there will be some degradation in quality, and the video will have a slight delay from when it is sent to when it is displayed.
So, it works fine for watching video from say a DVD or VCR (or recording from those sources). But, it would not be ideal if you were using it as a display for a computer because the slight delay would throw-off your timing for the task you were performing. For example, if you were moving the mouse, the delay would make it appear as though you were in one spot when in reality you had moved past it. So, you would be in a different spot than you thought when you clicked the button.
But, the delay would not affect your enjoyment of VCR or DVD video since that is not interactive.
You can read about one of the more popular video input options here:
http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_whatiseyetv
Those adapters already have everything you would need to connect your VCR or DVD player to them. But, if you decided to go against my advice, and wanted to connect your other computers to it using your iMac as a monitor, then you would need to adapt the other computer's video to "Composite" RCA connectors first using one of the adapters available from Apple. But, as mentioned above, the video quality would be poor and the result mostly unusable. So, just stick with using this type of solution for connecting VCR and DVD players.
And, just for information purposes, this would not be suitable for devices like PlayStation games either. The delay mentioned above would result in your being unable to control your character. You'd likely be crashed, killed, or whatever before you knew it had happened.
I hope this helps.
Let us know if you have other questions.
P.S., if you'd like, go ahead and click the "Helpful" or "Solved" buttons on any of the posts / replies above if you feel they were helpful or adequately answered your question.