Ernest Christley wrote:
Jim Carriere wrote:

Darrel Toepfer wrote:

"John S" wrote...

Jim, I like some of the PDA based nav software (TeleType, Control
Vision),
but can't live with the tiny little screens on a PDA. And a nice
little
subnotebook computer--even used--is outrageously expensive.

J.C. Whitney sells a Pyramid 7" TFT/LCD monitor for DVD or
Videocassette
players (System: NTSC. Video input: composition video signal.)
$150.
Will this kind of monitor work with a cheap laptop computer?

Since a key part of the question is "cheap," it might take some
shopping around. I think there are inexpensive S-video to composite
adapters made too.

I'm typing from a computer that has composite out. Most Toshiba
notebooks have them. I have the Satellite model.

Unfortunately, it's useless for anything other than the DVD display as
the text is completely unreadable on the TV out.

TV CRT screens are much lower quality than computer video screens. I
guess the same must apply to DVD players. Also, NTSC (and PAL and other
TV standards) are analog and designed for low bandwidth, so you're never
going to get that really sharp picture that you see on a laptop.

OTOH, perhaps you don't need a really sharp picture... careful use of
colour and graphics (eg bar graphs that change to red to indicate
dangerous values and the like) might be usable to impart information.
Perhaps also some clever use of sound too?