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small lcd screen for apple tv

P

potatis

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 9, 2006
840
291
Does anyone know of a small widescreen LCD screen, like 10" max that could be hooked up as a secondary screen on the appleTV's output? Would be nice to so be able to watch album art & see what you're doing when playing music.

The iPhone itself comes to mind, but I understand it can't stream music to the appleTV through Airtunes? And the Remote.app only shows a text list in the iPhone of what's in the appleTV to play.
 
potatis said:
Does anyone know of a small widescreen LCD screen, like 10" max that could be hooked up as a secondary screen on the appleTV's output? Would be nice to so be able to watch album art & see what you're doing when playing music.

The iPhone itself comes to mind, but I understand it can't stream music to the appleTV through Airtunes? And the Remote.app only shows a text list in the iPhone of what's in the appleTV to play.
Click to expand...

You say 'secondary' screen...this means, I assume, you already have it hooked up to a TV where you , in fact CAN "watch album art & see what you're doing when playing music". Are you just looking for something to use so you can turn off your TV? Seems not really worth it...especially if you are going to be paying upwards of 100 bucks for an additional screen. :/ I commonly listen to music with my HDTV ON either showing a screensaver of my albums or photos.
 
mstrze, I don't want to be mean here, but the OP asked for a small second monitor, I'm sure he is aware that his TV will display an image.

I have thought of this setup as well. It would be nice to have a small, non-46" blinding display for seeing what is playing.
 
To display what is playing on iTunes probably. Who cares? The question was... is there a small monitor that would work... the answer is yes, answer provided. Case closed.
 
darkgroove said:
To display what is playing on iTunes probably. Who cares? The question was... is there a small monitor that would work... the answer is yes, answer provided. Case closed.
Click to expand...

The case is not closed because I have yet to have a question answered. Who gives you the right to 'close' things around here?
This is an open discussion forum where people share and discuss information. I'd like to discuss the need for a secondary screen as I'm not sure of the benefits and if those said benefits are of interest maybe I would like to use a secondary monitor.

Did you ever think about that?
 
MacBoobsPro said:
The case is not closed because I have yet to have a question answered. Who gives you the right to 'close' things around here?
This is an open discussion forum where people share and discuss information. I'd like to discuss the need for a secondary screen as I'm not sure of the benefits and if those said benefits are of interest maybe I would like to use a secondary monitor.

Did you ever think about that?
Click to expand...

I did not. My apologies.

One of the many ideas (that I had) would be as a cool visualizer to display the track info and album art in lieu of a big and distracting TV. Assuming you were using it with your main computer, you could use it for your calendar or ToDo list. Additionally, you could watch a movie on the small display at your desk while you worked on the main monitor without having to juggle windows (something I've wanted to do for a while). In a media center setup you could use it to display the clock when not in use, adding a high resolution element to what would normally be a stack of components. It could also scroll photos when not in use.

After having one for a little while I'm sure I would come up with more practical (well, slightly practical) uses. That is why I have thought about getting one... but not just yet.
 
darkgroove said:
I did not. My apologies.

One of the many ideas (that I had) would be as a cool visualizer to display the track info and album art in lieu of a big and distracting TV. Assuming you were using it with your main computer, you could use it for your calendar or ToDo list. Additionally, you could watch a movie on the small display at your desk while you worked on the main monitor without having to juggle windows (something I've wanted to do for a while). In a media center setup you could use it to display the clock when not in use, adding a high resolution element to what would normally be a stack of components. It could also scroll photos when not in use.

After having one for a little while I'm sure I would come up with more practical (well, slightly practical) uses. That is why I have thought about getting one... but not just yet.
Click to expand...

Apology accepted.

Sounds interesting but thinking about it my set up is in quite a large room and such a small screen would probably be hard to see.
 
darkgroove said:
mstrze, I don't want to be mean here, but the OP asked for a small second monitor, I'm sure he is aware that his TV will display an image.

I have thought of this setup as well. It would be nice to have a small, non-46" blinding display for seeing what is playing.
Click to expand...

I too was wondering WHY...sorry if you took it the wrong way.

And HOW would this work? It's a USB monitor, not HDMI so I am assuming you;d have to jailbreak the ATV to get this to work...IF you could get an external to work through USB.

You said it could work...case closed but I don't think it's as simple as process as you are offering. I mean, HOW would one set this up to be able to allow it to work.

MacBoobsPro and I share the same opinion of course, that having a small screen tied to an ATV seems overkill. Maybe an update to the Remote app will provide the functionality the OP wants?
 
Those usb monitors look nice, but do they work even with a hacked appleTV? I see they have hdmi variants also, but appleTV can probably not output to both hdmi and component (to the big tv) at the same time? Just like it switches between ethernet and wireless modes when you unplug that cable.

I have a component to s-video/composite converter (http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/a...-component-to-video-down-convertor/VS223.html), so a screen with s-video/composite input could work. The converter also bypasses component so I think I could get the same image output to the regular TV through component and to the small screen at the same time.

Anyway, I keep my appleTV close to my hifi set, so the small screen would be there or nearby. And the big TV a couple of meters away. Like someone suggested I think it's a bit overkill having a big TV to look at album art. Sort of makes me play less music cause it's distracting. A small screen could be turned on all the time, the big one just for films.

Edit: found this (http://www.vfmstore.com/m32970.htm), but dislike those bottom buttons. Could a photoframe be sufficient or would that mean jerky animation in menus? (http://www.battery-store.co.uk/digital-photo-frame-7-inch-10.4-inch.html)
 
Hi all, I was curious about the same thing, sort of. I have my stereo in the living room that I only stream music to. I thought it would be cool to swap out the airport express for an apple tv2 and have a small (7"?) screen attached to show album art. I am having trouble finding a compatible device though with HDMI. This would not be a second monitor it would be the only monitor.

I have been scouring amazon to see if there are any candidates to no avail. Any ideas?
 
odenslayer said:
Hi all, I was curious about the same thing, sort of. I have my stereo in the living room that I only stream music to. I thought it would be cool to swap out the airport express for an apple tv2 and have a small (7"?) screen attached to show album art. I am having trouble finding a compatible device though with HDMI. This would not be a second monitor it would be the only monitor.

I have been scouring amazon to see if there are any candidates to no avail. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

I think you can use a HDMI to DVI adapter to connect to a TV or Monitor with DVI input. I bought a couple of those at a local Home Depot on sale for $2.00 each... :D
I'm waiting for my AppleTV to arrive so I could test how it works with the DVI adapter.
 
An iPad would be the ideal monitor, albeit a bit expensive. Question is if it's possible to use the HDMI cord for input?
 
Edit: Sorry, I totally missed the entire point of the thread and that's to hook up an external display to your Apple TV, which is not a Mac. I was recommending AirDisplay but this only works for Mac computers, sorry!
 
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The problem with many 7" lcd's are that they're a bit ugly, I almost would rather consider removing the foot of a 20" cinema display and mounting it to the wall and then connect it with a hdmi-dvi adapter to the apple tv.

Surely there must be some cheap chinese iPod/iPad copy or lookalike screen that looks good and can receive video through a hdmi cable? Or maybe not...

Anyway the ATV2 with Airplay could be a more convenient solution, if:
1. You could have an iPod touch/iPhone, then stream to from them to an iPad. But, the iPad can't receive Airplay signals, just transmit. Unless you hack it?
2. You could just have an iPad/iPod touch placed somewhere, which you remotely control somehow, and it would stream to the AppleTV through Airplay.
 
odenslayer said:
Hi all, I was curious about the same thing, sort of. I have my stereo in the living room that I only stream music to. I thought it would be cool to swap out the airport express for an apple tv2 and have a small (7"?) screen attached to show album art. I am having trouble finding a compatible device though with HDMI. This would not be a second monitor it would be the only monitor.

I have been scouring amazon to see if there are any candidates to no avail. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Im got the same case as you, did you find any?
 
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