Hi,

I am totally new here and I like this site a lot. I had no idea there was such a modding community.

Anyway, I had the idea to turn my 233 iMac into a tv/dvd combo. I have gone thru the apple service manuals and I figured I could hook up an external tv tuner to the internal rgb cable and hijack the crt. Then possibly replace the cd-rom with a dvd player. My major concern is with power, but I'm sure I have overlooked some other issues. I certainly dont know enough about crts to do too much inside the iMac, but I am willing to learn of any techniques you guys have for dealing with them and if anyone can tell me if what I'm preparing to try is possible or even worth it.

Thanks

I'm guessing you'll gut it except for the CRT?

I guess so. I would probably leave the speakers too or upgrade them.
Do you know what kind of connection there is on a crt? What about power?

Leave the speakers, their is not much you can upgrade them-not to mention gutting them could ruin external apperance. The crt in Rev A thru D imacs (you have a Rev. A or B. probably) uses the old ADC (apple desktop connection), a proprietary connector used in macs up untill the Blue and whit G3 and in the origial iMac line.

Remove the logic board and take advantage of the large tray. Since you won't be using the Hard drive put that aside as well. There should be enough existing power from the iMac to get it going, though I would look at using the 12v to power the device itself and any additional power would come from the logic boards power cord.

As for the speakers, you pretty much have to take the whole damn thing apart if you want to put the new ones in right. It's tough, don't forget to discharge the CRT since you will be around the dangerous parts, and keep count of screws. If you have a magnetic screwdriver, it will come in handy.

Looks like a good project, a pseudo-HTPC per say?

That sounds like a sweet project. I see it as a complete case mod. I mean gut the whole thing. Get a TV to match the tube size and a small DVD player. They should both fit inside the case. Run two power cords and you won't have to worry about power issues. This way you can run them by remote control too. That is so cool, I may just have to do it myself!
-maestro

Thanks for all the replies. I like the idea of gutting the whole computer and putting a new tv and dvd player inside, I'm also considering gutting it and putting a flat panel inside, like the iPC, and then having a tuner to vga inside with the dvd player. I don't think the idea of using the actual CRT is going to work, I guess I'll just get started on removing some stuff and we'll see.

Thanks again.