Monitor to connect old video game consoles

[jadamso]

A few weeks ago I came across my old stash of consoles (N64, Dreamcast, PS2) in the garage and it got me thinking...

Has anyone ever successfully connected one of the above to their PC monitor and if so how?

I remember at the time using a dvd/freeview player with a VGA converter which looked great but when I connected the consoles to my monitor (1024 x 768) the picture looked cloudy.

Does anyone know of any PC monitors that have the right inputs (e.g. S-Video, Stereo AV, Component, etc)?

I've looked on the internet and the only ones I've found are these multimedia monitors with a tuner which I don't want.

Any ideas?

J.

P.S. I believe BenQ offer a monitor which you can connect a Wii to but I don't own that console and so don't know about the connections/picture quality.

[duc]

My Dell 2005fpw has all the connectors.

[DanceswithUnix]

Well I bought a 1080p 22" TV for my son's new computer, seems to have gone up a fiver in the last week but even at £165 I think it is still a good deal:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167724

HDMI, SCART, composite, freeview and a built in DVD player. Looks better in real life than that picture too

Only downside so far is that the HDMI input scaling can't be turned off so I am going to have to switch to the VGA socket for the PC (when I find an audio cable that is).

[acetoo]

The issue with connecting standard PC monitors to old style T.V. style resolutions is the difference in scan rates.

In PAL Tv-signals are sent at 15.6 kHz, while VGA is approx. double that. Scan doublers are available but they aren't cheap.

Quality of inbuilt RF or composite inputs vary and can look very harsh on modern Monitors or flicker badly.

[jimbouk]

I had my old BBC micro running through composite in on an old VIVO graphics card - worked no trouble. Might be an alternative? A cheap tv-card with composite/s-video in would save having to get a new monitor...

[DanceswithUnix]

My Dreamcast has a box which outputs S-video and VGA, though not all games support the VGA mode. Might still be able to get one on e-bay.