One possibility was to purchase an old laptop and run our office ethernet out to the living room. I rejected this option because of the expense, the space required, and the fact that a laptop right in front of Michele would be a tantalizing object for Eleanor to tinker with. Curious babies are great, but during meals distractions are not such a good thing. An old Commodore 64 or Amiga 500 could drive the television directly, and receive data through a serial cable. I rejected this option because of the space required, and because of the energy required to drive yet another computer in our house.
Various manufacturers offer VGA cards with composite output.
I rejected that option because of the expense, and because of our strong environmental preference to avoid purchasing new equipment when possible. Modern computers require a tremendous quantity of toxic materials in the manufacturing process. I would have tried this option, but I was not able to locate a secondhand dongle and, again, did not wish to purchase a new one. I located a VGA to composite black and white video adapter circuit designed by Tomi Engdahl. This circuit calls for only a handful of resistors.