Tv on a PC or PC on a TV?

[lynaskin]

I'm trying to condense some of the equipment in my sons room. I'm trying to either watch tv on his pc, or display his pc on the tv. I'm looking for a suggestion for a tv/lcd that we can hook his computer to, or a video card that will display on his tv.

I tried an older all-in-wonder ve, but the output to the tv was "fuzzy". Thought it was the old tv, so, i went and bought a new tv with the same result.

Any suggestions on a video card that has crisp output to tv? Or, and lcd tv, that will double as a monitor. I guess i'd prefer the lcd tv route, so we wouldn't have to have the pc on to watch tv or dvd.

I'm looking to spend less than 1000, and of course bigger is better.

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

Lyn

 

[Vegito]

im using the dell 19" lcd tv.. kinda cool.. u can do split screen and watch tv & use pc at the same time.. also theres picture in picture features where you can kinda work and watch at the same time..

I would get lcd tv with vga/dvi, unless you plan to do both at the same time..

 

[Looney]

What kind of TV are you using? Is it an HDTV or LCD? Or just a regular TV? If it's regular, you're not going to get any better text.

Also, what kind of inputs are you using? DVI, components, svideo, etc.

For $1000, you can get a pretty damn good monitor or LCD TV. Will this be his primary computer? If so, get a Dell 2005 or 2405 monitor... he'll be able to watch TV on them just fine with a turner. If this isn't his primary computer, then a 27" or 32" LCD-TV will do.

 

[lynaskin]

Vegito, What is the model # of your dell lcd? That sounds like it would work for us!
Lyn

 

[lynaskin]

Looney,
We just tried it on a plain tv. . . text was bad. This is going to be his primary lcomputer, and his primary tv. He has a big built in his room, and there isn't really room for both a tv and a monitor.

He has a directv tuner, and dvd player, so i'd probably be better off with an LCD tv. But I'll take a look at the dell's you mentioned.

Thanks Again,
Lyn

 

[Vegito]

http://www.thefesteringcyforce.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=32

Thats my lcd 1900 tv.. its like 400 bucks now... 700 last december when i got it..

you should check out other lcd tv before buying...

the only thing i did not like was at high volume, the speaker sounds cheap

no close caption on SVHS. this thing had like 7-8 inputs.. component video was awesome..

 

[lynaskin]

That looks pretty good. I'll do a little research first, but that looks like it would work for us!

Lyn

 

[lynaskin]

Oh, and if you could point me to the deal for $405. . . On the dell site it's 600+

Thanks again for all your help.
Lyn

 

[Markbnj]

There's two things to remember about tuner cards: 1) they sample the analog signal to digital and compress it into an MPEG2 stream. MPEG is a "lossy" compression algorithm, so there is some quality reduction inherent in the process; 2) your monitor, even an old CRT, has much finer dot pitch than the average television. Standard NTSC resolution is relatively coarse (720 x 486 is the highest I think), and it doesn't get any less coarse when blown up to full screen on a monitor that is operating at, say, 1024 x 768 or higher. If you display the overlay in native res you get a little window, suitable for watching from the desk (24" from screen max.) If you blow it up you get a full screen image that will look pretty good viewed from the couch 7-10 feet away. Of course, at those distances you need better than a 17" monitor as well.

Cable signal strength can also play a role in image quality, especially if there are a few splitters on the line, or a long run from the service entry point. Inline amps are available to solve those issues.

The optimal solution for me was a large LCD and a 550Pro-based tuner card. I use the Intervideo DVD codec for rendering, and Beyond TV for channel control and audio. The setup works very well, and full-screen is more than acceptable from the couch. I have a long run, and boosted the signal at the drop point with an Electroline active return 1ghz. broadband amplifier.

 

[Some1ne]

You can use the TV as the display for your PC, but unless it is a HDTV display you're not going to get useable image quality with it, as the resolutions supported by the TV will just be too poor, so no video card will give you any "crisper" output.

Doing TV on the PC is a much more feasible option. Obviously the quality is constrained by the size of the monitor, but as long as the room is reasonably small, TV will at least be watchable on a 17" monitor just fine. All you really need to do this is a TV-tuner card.

 

[Vegito]

Originally posted by: Some1ne
You can use the TV as the display for your PC, but unless it is a HDTV display you're not going to get useable image quality with it, as the resolutions supported by the TV will just be too poor, so no video card will give you any "crisper" output.

Doing TV on the PC is a much more feasible option. Obviously the quality is constrained by the size of the monitor, but as long as the room is reasonably small, TV will at least be watchable on a 17" monitor just fine. All you really need to do this is a TV-tuner card.

Thats why you need to shop around.. the viewsonic 20" i looked at was like some unuseable resolution 480x480 or something.. my dell supports 1280x768, so it works like both, real monitor and lcd tv. Some lcdtv has bad resolution and can not be use for monitor

 

[JonnyBlaze]

i would go with the dell 2405fp. it has component (hidef), composite, svideo, dvi & vga ports.