Managed to snag something fairly nice through the Buy/Sell forum...a ScancardII enabled television that directly accepts VGA input.
Good news: It has a turn-on-when-plugged-in setting.
Bad news: If you do it this way, it defaults to tv mode and vga mode.
So my options are either leave it powered in vga mode (and have to turn it on manually) or have it auto-turn-on in tv mode (and have to manually switch it over), neither of which is optimal.
Except...the ScancardII also has a serial port, and the
documentation say that:
The ScanCard II assembly is equipped with a RS 232 (Serial) Input. When a computer’ s Serial Port is hooked to the ScanCard II through the RS 232 input, the computer can control the various functions of the television. (Refer to SmarkLink specifications available under DNA.)
I'm hoping I can use this serial connection (as hard as that is to pull off under windows xp) to either turn on the tv or tune it to vga mode when the computer boots. Has anyone else used a tv like this? I'm having trouble finding the specs for this Smartlink.