CompuServe Messages

Actually, most video overlay cards don't incur much of a processor penalty. They use the VGA "feature connector" to superimpose the digitized video into areas with a certain color, say, pukey purple. If you remove some of these cards, you can still start the TV program, but you only see a purple window. As long as the audio is coming from the TV card itself, there's little to no overhead. Of course, there are other problems with RF noise in a computer environment, another plus for the standalone tuner and monitor. I do have cable here at the office, supposedly to provide a stable video signal to my Toasters. 😉 I've also got a pair of nifty $150 gizmos from the Damark mail order catalog. It's a cable tuner with remote, but it also switches audio and video between three other composite video with stereo signals, and it's also got picture-in-picture. I cascaded them so I can watch two signals at once, if necessary, but I also made it easy to switch between three-four other video signals here on my desk. The only deficiency is that the remote doesn't have a "jump back to previous channel button," which I miss. You can independently choose between the four signals for the main and PIP pictures.