I recently bought a 2405FPW 24 inch LCD monitor from Dell. The monitor is completely amazing and games look completely amazing on it. The problem is that when I try to view TV on the monitor things aren't so great.
Heres my setup:
3.2GHz P4
1GB RAM
7800GT 256MB video card
Leadtek Winfast 2000 XP Expert TV-Tuner card
Dell 2405FPW LCD Monitor
I am using a Dish Network DVR 625 receiver for the video source
The LCD has multiple inputs on it including VGA, DVI, S-Video, Component, and composite. When I got the monitor I was under the impression that I could just plug the satellite reciever into the monitor and BAM! I'd be watching crystal clear digital TV on my monitor. Well this isn't the case.
The satellite reciever has coax, composite, and s-video outputs on it. Because the monitor does not have coax inputs, I of course can not try that. However, I have tried composite and s-video input from the receiver into the monitor and both inputs, while quite viewable, are grainy/blurry and not what I expected at all. As a matter of fact, the composite input gives me a slightly clearer picture than the s-video input. When I use the PIP feature of the monitor and watch TV in a window of about 6"x4" the picture is ok but on full screen it looks like crap. I must say though that games and Windows itself looks totally amazing and I am completely blown away by this monitor in that sense.
I figured that if I got a TV-Tuner and ran the satellite through that and then into the monitor then the picture would be better. I was wrong. The picture is somewhat less blurry when using the TV card but the picture is much darker compared to the direct monitor connection. I have tried adjusting the contrast/brightness/hue/saturation settings from within the TV tuner card software but it didn't really help. I will also add that I have the latest drivers and software for the TV card. The reciever is connected to the TV-card using S-video.
So whats the deal? Was I just expecting to much? Is this as good as it gets? What (if anything) have I done wrong?
The 7800GT video card that I have has VIVO and the VIVO dongle has s-video in and out adapters on it. I thought that maybe I could run the satellite through the video card to get a better picture but apparently thats not what the s-video input is for. I have looked everywhere and can't really find any info on what the s-video input on the VIVO dongle is for so maybe someone on here can explain that.
I am assuming that the picture quality of the TV is so crappy because the resolution of the video isn't high enough and is simply getting stretched out in full screen. The software for the TV card will only go up to 768x480 or so. I found a piece of software called Dscaler that uses different drivers for the card but after fooling around with it for a couple hours I couldnt get any better results.
Is there a way to improve this TV signal? Like I said, otherwise this monitor is amazing. I am completely in love with it and I think it was worth every penny but I am pretty bummed about the picture quality when it comes to viewing TV.
I played a DVD from inside windows using PowerDVD and it looked pretty good. I just dont see why the TV signal looks so crappy and I dont know what to do about it if there is even anything I can do.
Someone on another forum suggested that I get and HD satellite reciever. From what I understand, only very few channels are in HD and that would mean that all the other non-HD channels would still have a crappy picture. The only upside to having an HD reciever is that it probably has component output but at this point I dont think component would help much.
Thanks for any help on this.
Heres my setup:
3.2GHz P4
1GB RAM
7800GT 256MB video card
Leadtek Winfast 2000 XP Expert TV-Tuner card
Dell 2405FPW LCD Monitor
I am using a Dish Network DVR 625 receiver for the video source
The LCD has multiple inputs on it including VGA, DVI, S-Video, Component, and composite. When I got the monitor I was under the impression that I could just plug the satellite reciever into the monitor and BAM! I'd be watching crystal clear digital TV on my monitor. Well this isn't the case.
The satellite reciever has coax, composite, and s-video outputs on it. Because the monitor does not have coax inputs, I of course can not try that. However, I have tried composite and s-video input from the receiver into the monitor and both inputs, while quite viewable, are grainy/blurry and not what I expected at all. As a matter of fact, the composite input gives me a slightly clearer picture than the s-video input. When I use the PIP feature of the monitor and watch TV in a window of about 6"x4" the picture is ok but on full screen it looks like crap. I must say though that games and Windows itself looks totally amazing and I am completely blown away by this monitor in that sense.
I figured that if I got a TV-Tuner and ran the satellite through that and then into the monitor then the picture would be better. I was wrong. The picture is somewhat less blurry when using the TV card but the picture is much darker compared to the direct monitor connection. I have tried adjusting the contrast/brightness/hue/saturation settings from within the TV tuner card software but it didn't really help. I will also add that I have the latest drivers and software for the TV card. The reciever is connected to the TV-card using S-video.
So whats the deal? Was I just expecting to much? Is this as good as it gets? What (if anything) have I done wrong?
The 7800GT video card that I have has VIVO and the VIVO dongle has s-video in and out adapters on it. I thought that maybe I could run the satellite through the video card to get a better picture but apparently thats not what the s-video input is for. I have looked everywhere and can't really find any info on what the s-video input on the VIVO dongle is for so maybe someone on here can explain that.
I am assuming that the picture quality of the TV is so crappy because the resolution of the video isn't high enough and is simply getting stretched out in full screen. The software for the TV card will only go up to 768x480 or so. I found a piece of software called Dscaler that uses different drivers for the card but after fooling around with it for a couple hours I couldnt get any better results.
Is there a way to improve this TV signal? Like I said, otherwise this monitor is amazing. I am completely in love with it and I think it was worth every penny but I am pretty bummed about the picture quality when it comes to viewing TV.
I played a DVD from inside windows using PowerDVD and it looked pretty good. I just dont see why the TV signal looks so crappy and I dont know what to do about it if there is even anything I can do.
Someone on another forum suggested that I get and HD satellite reciever. From what I understand, only very few channels are in HD and that would mean that all the other non-HD channels would still have a crappy picture. The only upside to having an HD reciever is that it probably has component output but at this point I dont think component would help much.
Thanks for any help on this.
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