This is my thought process. I could hang onto my Power Mac 7500 and connect it to the component A/V ports in the back of any digital convertor box. Then use AVP and open up a window to view the live signal. I know it can be done, one way or another.

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Not a very good thought process, IMHO. The 5400 is a FAR superior platform than the 7500 for importing/displaying analog video, IIRC.

The 7500 will be CPU bound trying to do the conversion and drive a video signal out, unless it has a nifty Copro/Analog->Digital converter DSP setup like the TV-Tuner Card in your 5400. As far as the 5400 is concerned, it's just throwing a blank screen up on the CRT and the Video Pixels are piped straight into the video buffer from the DSP on the Tuner card . . . as I understand it anyway.

Prove this by doing a screen shot with a normal or small sized AVP window open on the 5400's CRT . . . shazzam . . . blank box while the 5400's desktop captures perfectly! The other dead giveaway is that using AVP to do a "Screen Shot" of the Video signal takes a LOT of horsepower and time for the CPU to accomplish.

I could be wrong about everything though . . . it hapens! :-/