Low-Cost Composite->VGA/DVI solution?

Quick background, basically, I moved into my college residential last Sunday, and basically, they supply you with a standard 17" TV with a mono-speaker, which, albeit is fine for TV, it isn't for my gaming purposes.

Basically, was wondering if there's a KVM-style switch for hooking a console up to your monitor/speakers in a hassle-free manner. Would much prefer to use my Wii/PS2 at 480p using component cables on my crystal-clear (ignoring the fact it's covered with dust and finger prints) 17" LCD monitor, than this hard-on-the-eyes (my eyes can't stand interlaced or <75hz displays) CRT TV set.

Is there anything specific I should be looking for? All I found with google were some converters for all sorts of inputs (VGA, DVI, HDMI, S-Video, composite, etc), and holy crap they were expensive, up in the $200+ range, and didn't even include an audio port!

Pretty much any DVI-capable KVM is going to be unreasonably expensive, from what I've found.

What kind of monitor do you have? Does it have both DVI and VGA? Does it have a composite or svideo in?

If you have composite/svideo you can find a convert pretty cheap. If it has VGA you can do some reasonably priced converters as well. If it's DVI-only, then expect it to be expensive...

Just both a VGA & DVI connector here.

Shame to hear about the KVM, if I can't find anything that fits my requirements in the $50 range (google still showing nothing decent), I may have to hold off the idea.

Makes me wish Nintendo did keep their word regarding being able to hook the Wii up to a PC monitor, would just be a lot less of a hassle with an official VGA/DVI cable for the thing.

[EDIT] Holy jumpins, just looked at some 2-4x PC KVMs, and cripes they're expensive. I always figured these things would just be a simple cheap-to-make input tunneler, guess I was wrong.

i use a pctv card to play with my wii on my PC screen, cheaper solution imho but sure not the best, you better stick with the tv, ...

If it's a PS/2 model there's also extra circuitry to make it safe to hot-swap mice -- many people don't realize it, but PS/2 connectors aren't suitable for hot-swapping. If you change mice with your computer turned on, there's a real possibility that you'll fry your onboard PS/2 controller. (I've seen this happen myself on multiple occasions over the years)

USB is definitely more involved than just a cable extension.

but anyway -- if you look around you can get a dual VGA-based KVM in the $30-$40 range. DVI will be several times that.

Another thing to consider: since your monitor has both DVI and VGA connectors, you may be able to hook up both devices directly, and use the monitor controls themselves to switch between inputs. At least you wouldn't need to manually switch cables -- although don't count on this working without actually trying it or checking with the technical support of your monitor manufacturer: My own LCD has the annoying habbit of auto-detecting the ports. the DVI connector is fine, but if you're watching the VGA input then the screen will blank out for a second every 10 seconds or so if there is also a DVI cable connected

Hmm, well, there are plenty of HDTVs where DVI-HDMI is the way to go, then maybe optical digital audio to boot. That would be far superior, imho. If you're looking at X360 or PS3 gaming, where it's pure HDMI, you'd best hope that you have a monitor or HDTV that has more than one HDMI if you're gonna be doing that, or there are mobos that supply HDMI ports as well... Dunno that you have HDTV Tuner cards that use HDMI, tho.