External TV tuners...

wangjt1

Junior Member
Jun 5, 2004
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I recently got my Viewsonic NextVision N5 tv tuner and I have to say.....I'm pretty disappointed. I attempted to play Xbox on my monitor and it just turned out horrible. The picture quality looked like I was playing on a playstation 1. I tried all resolutions...and it gets worse at the higher resolutions :(. When I tried to play DVDs on the xbox...the image isn't even close to that on a TV. Does anyone have any experience with these? I was thinking about returning this and getting a N6...but not sure if that'll change anything. Are there any alternatives to this? I'm looking for an external one...
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
4
81
I really have no idea if this is true or not, but i know TVs have a much lower rez than monitors, & perhaps that's why it looks like crap on a monitor?
 

fr

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
6,408
2
81
i think it's because your monitor is higher resolution and has many more pixels than your TV. Maybe you need deinterlacing? I have no idea what you can do.
 

wangjt1

Junior Member
Jun 5, 2004
13
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I was thinking that the RGB cable might be crappy...therefore I get horrible picture? Could that be a possibility?
 

VisableAssassin

Senior member
Nov 12, 2001
767
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Originally posted by: Chebago
drop your resolution to 640x480 or 800x600 and find out.

or get the HDTV output pack for the xbox and try again.... Steve over at hardocp did it and said it worked really nice.
but i think that was the naiko (sp) box....cant remember and im too high on vicodin to care :p
 

Luthien

Golden Member
Feb 1, 2004
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I own the N6 and love it. The N5 doesnt have progressive scan capability I dont believe and that will make all the difference in the world for progressive scan games and movies. Progressive scan movies look better on a CRT than anything I ever saw on a HDTV plasma, TV or LCD etc. I have had Xbox from day one rather had complete access to it as if it was mine and that on a 65" LCD HDTV Sony TV and I have never played it or bother with it at all. I am a PC gamer that is so I cant comment on what happens exactly when you hook up Xbox to a CRT through the N6. Perhaps your N5 is setup wrong, or your not using the best connection you have with the N5. Best is component (required for progressive scan) followed by svideo then RCA. Good luck and do some more research.
 

matrixwalker2002

Junior Member
Jul 22, 2003
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just like what Luthien is saying, get the N6 model, it's only about $40 more (price is $170 on buy.com with free shipping) and it has component video processing and S and composite video as well. I personally bought the box so I could play my XBOX games on my old CRT Monitor, and hooked up through component, the image is superb! I haven't attempted S-Video b/c i don't have the S-Video adapter, (and i'll never need it), but from research i've done comparing these guys, the N5 was a very shortlived and bug filled product, and they've since discontinued making it in favor of the N6. Definitely in my opinion, return ur N5 product to wherever u purchased it, and go to buy.com and get the N6. They have the best service in my opinion of all the online sites, and just for the record, I had the free shipping option which would take like over a week to ship, they got it to my house in two business days!!! talk about great service, definitely get it from them.
 

wangjt1

Junior Member
Jun 5, 2004
13
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When you say component...does that mean the regular red/white/yellow cables? If not...how much do those cables cost for the Xbox?
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
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Wow...$170 to run an Xbox on a computer monitor? Plus $35 for Monster component cables? Yikes!

If it makes you feel any better, I ran my PS2 on my computer monitor through my ATi TV Wonder PCI and it looked pretty crappy. I used a program called "Dscaler" and it improved things significantly, I'm not sure if it would work in your situation though.

In my experience, consoles look best on TV sets, and PC games look best on PC monitors. You have to settle for something second-rate if you want to bend the rules.
 

Luthien

Golden Member
Feb 1, 2004
1,721
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Component cables are red white and yellow sometimes red white and blue etc. but they are often confused with RCA tripple cable in which only one of that cable group is for video and the others for left and right audio. Component triple cables are all the same thickness and generally thicker than RCA cables while RCA triple cables usually have the video cable as the thickest and the left and right audio thinner. I have my N6 hooked up to my second monitor and use it as a TV when I dont use it as a PC monitor and even then I use the picture in picture option to watch tv in a window while working. I run TV, progressive DVD and VHS through it no problems at all with better image quality than any TV I ever saw, but that is because your PC monitor has really been an HDTV on steroids all these years.
 

Slick5150

Diamond Member
Nov 10, 2001
8,760
3
81
Is the tuner Firewire or USB 2.0? Cause if it's USB 1.0, that could be the cause of your problem. Those things were awful as they simply didn't have enough bandwidth to produce any kind of decent picture quality.
 

matrixwalker2002

Junior Member
Jul 22, 2003
14
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Neither, the tuner is external. It hooks up to your monitor directly without ever going through ur comp. This way, u can watch TV w/o turning ur comp on.
 

wangjt1

Junior Member
Jun 5, 2004
13
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I have to say...this product is for a techie enthusiast...now that I think of it, I don't really need this :eek: Returning to amazon.com asap!
 

Luthien

Golden Member
Feb 1, 2004
1,721
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IMO it is not a techie enthusiast item but a very useful one that everyone would find useful if they only realized how useful it really is...
 

DarkKnight

Golden Member
Apr 21, 2001
1,197
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Originally posted by: SickBeast
Wow...$170 to run an Xbox on a computer monitor? Plus $35 for Monster component cables? Yikes!

If it makes you feel any better, I ran my PS2 on my computer monitor through my ATi TV Wonder PCI and it looked pretty crappy. I used a program called "Dscaler" and it improved things significantly, I'm not sure if it would work in your situation though.

In my experience, consoles look best on TV sets, and PC games look best on PC monitors. You have to settle for something second-rate if you want to bend the rules.


DEFINATELY use Dscaler!!! When I tried playing my dreamcast on my monitor using the default software it look crap. Dscaler helped the quality alot. It doesnt look as good as playing on my TV, but its a lot better. IMHO, I think buying youself a VGA box for the xbox will give you much better quality on the monitor than a TV tuner.