What would I need to use my LCD as an HDTV?

[aberdeen5]

I'm getting a 2005FPW in about a month and would like to use it as an HDTV. What would I need?(I know I need a TV Tuner but would I need a special one to get HD?)

 

[JonnyBlaze]

are you looking at getting a pc hdtv tuner or a standalone box?

 

[aberdeen5]

I guess a PC one

 

[Markbnj]

There are a couple of issues. You can get a tuner card like the HDTV Wonder from ATI. This will decode over the air HDTV, or any unencrypted cable HDTV channel (if there are any). It won't let you get general HDTV service from your cable company, since most of those services use proprietary encryption. If you are in a major market there are probably several broadcast HDTV channels in your area.

To get cable HDTV in general you would need to use a settop box, and either run the output into your tuner card (assuming the ATI decodes HDTV on its line-in), or directly to the alternate inputs of the monitor.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: aberdeen5
I'm getting a 2005FPW in about a month and would like to use it as an HDTV. What would I need?(I know I need a TV Tuner but would I need a special one to get HD?)

A 2005FPW is not an HD monitor because its resolution is too low. You need a 2004FPW(sp?) for that to work.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Originally posted by: goku

Originally posted by: aberdeen5
I'm getting a 2005FPW in about a month and would like to use it as an HDTV. What would I need?(I know I need a TV Tuner but would I need a special one to get HD?)

A 2005FPW is not an HD monitor because its resolution is too low. You need a 2004FPW(sp?) for that to work.

ever heard of 720p?

 

[TheGizmo]

yea it'll work, let me save you some time and tell you what i learned last week.. ATI HDTV Wonder only gets OTA (antenna included), but its free, you can't get hd content from your cable provider with this card.. depending on your area you could get a bunch of channels OTA though. Comcast can sell you an hdtv settop box and you connect that via component or dvi to your lcd.. then you will get all the hd channels from your cable provider. on top of that there are a few other pci cards as well that will let you get unencrypted hdtv.. FusionHDTV Gold 5, MyHD, and a few others. Or if your cable provider's settop box has an enabled firewire output, you can plug the firewire into the firewire port on your computer and watch through that (not as good quality, but still damn good, and you don't get on screen menus).

 

[TheGizmo]

oh and avsforums.com has a lot of good info

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: TheGizmo
yea it'll work, let me save you some time and tell you what i learned last week.. ATI HDTV Wonder only gets OTA (antenna included), but its free, you can't get hd content from your cable provider with this card.. depending on your area you could get a bunch of channels OTA though. Comcast can sell you an hdtv settop box and you connect that via component or dvi to your lcd.. then you will get all the hd channels from your cable provider. on top of that there are a few other pci cards as well that will let you get unencrypted hdtv.. FusionHDTV Gold 5, MyHD, and a few others. Or if your cable provider's settop box has an enabled firewire output, you can plug the firewire into the firewire port on your computer and watch through that (not as good quality, but still damn good, and you don't get on screen menus).

^^What he said, basically.

I have the MyHD MDP-130 myself (and a 2005FPW), and it works great for watching the unencrypted HD channels over cable (in addition to OTA, if I were able to get a signal here). OP - are you just looking to get your local channels in HD (which is really all you're going to get anyway unless your cable company doesn't encrypt any of the other channels)? And how much are you looking to spend? And do you have cable already... (even if you just have standard analog cable, the cable companies often send the locals unencrypted on the same line so you can get them with a QAM tuner like the Fusion 5 or MyHD). Or, if you're in or near a fairly big city, then you should be able to get most of your channels OTA (check antennaweb.org for more information on your local broadcast towers and their locations).

Let me know if you have any more questions, I'll be happy to explain any of this stuff in more detail (as well as I can anyway).

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: goku

Originally posted by: aberdeen5
I'm getting a 2005FPW in about a month and would like to use it as an HDTV. What would I need?(I know I need a TV Tuner but would I need a special one to get HD?)

A 2005FPW is not an HD monitor because its resolution is too low. You need a 2004FPW(sp?) for that to work.

1680x1080 > 1280x720.

 

[TheUnk]

Originally posted by: RaiderJ

Originally posted by: goku

Originally posted by: aberdeen5
I'm getting a 2005FPW in about a month and would like to use it as an HDTV. What would I need?(I know I need a TV Tuner but would I need a special one to get HD?)

A 2005FPW is not an HD monitor because its resolution is too low. You need a 2004FPW(sp?) for that to work.

1680x1080 > 1280x720.

The 2005FPW native resolution is 1680x1050, a 16:10 aspect ratio. So, when watching HD content you will still get black bars at the top and bottom, although smaller. To say the resolution is too low though is just silly.

Pretty much all PC monitors have the resolution to display HD at the same quality as an expensive HDTV. The difference is usually the aspect ratio and the technology required to display the HD content.

 

[RKS]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: TheGizmo
yea it'll work, let me save you some time and tell you what i learned last week.. ATI HDTV Wonder only gets OTA (antenna included), but its free, you can't get hd content from your cable provider with this card.. depending on your area you could get a bunch of channels OTA though. Comcast can sell you an hdtv settop box and you connect that via component or dvi to your lcd.. then you will get all the hd channels from your cable provider. on top of that there are a few other pci cards as well that will let you get unencrypted hdtv.. FusionHDTV Gold 5, MyHD, and a few others. Or if your cable provider's settop box has an enabled firewire output, you can plug the firewire into the firewire port on your computer and watch through that (not as good quality, but still damn good, and you don't get on screen menus).

^^What he said, basically.

I have the MyHD MDP-130 myself (and a 2005FPW), and it works great for watching the unencrypted HD channels over cable (in addition to OTA, if I were able to get a signal here). OP - are you just looking to get your local channels in HD (which is really all you're going to get anyway unless your cable company doesn't encrypt any of the other channels)? And how much are you looking to spend? And do you have cable already... (even if you just have standard analog cable, the cable companies often send the locals unencrypted on the same line so you can get them with a QAM tuner like the Fusion 5 or MyHD). Or, if you're in or near a fairly big city, then you should be able to get most of your channels OTA (check antennaweb.org for more information on your local broadcast towers and their locations).

Let me know if you have any more questions, I'll be happy to explain any of this stuff in more detail (as well as I can anyway).

How is the quality with the MyHD 130 for OTA HDTV? I am planning on getting this with the dvi daughter card and connecting it to the Dell 2405.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: RKS

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: TheGizmo
yea it'll work, let me save you some time and tell you what i learned last week.. ATI HDTV Wonder only gets OTA (antenna included), but its free, you can't get hd content from your cable provider with this card.. depending on your area you could get a bunch of channels OTA though. Comcast can sell you an hdtv settop box and you connect that via component or dvi to your lcd.. then you will get all the hd channels from your cable provider. on top of that there are a few other pci cards as well that will let you get unencrypted hdtv.. FusionHDTV Gold 5, MyHD, and a few others. Or if your cable provider's settop box has an enabled firewire output, you can plug the firewire into the firewire port on your computer and watch through that (not as good quality, but still damn good, and you don't get on screen menus).

^^What he said, basically.

I have the MyHD MDP-130 myself (and a 2005FPW), and it works great for watching the unencrypted HD channels over cable (in addition to OTA, if I were able to get a signal here). OP - are you just looking to get your local channels in HD (which is really all you're going to get anyway unless your cable company doesn't encrypt any of the other channels)? And how much are you looking to spend? And do you have cable already... (even if you just have standard analog cable, the cable companies often send the locals unencrypted on the same line so you can get them with a QAM tuner like the Fusion 5 or MyHD). Or, if you're in or near a fairly big city, then you should be able to get most of your channels OTA (check antennaweb.org for more information on your local broadcast towers and their locations).

Let me know if you have any more questions, I'll be happy to explain any of this stuff in more detail (as well as I can anyway).

How is the quality with the MyHD 130 for OTA HDTV? I am planning on getting this with the dvi daughter card and connecting it to the Dell 2405.

As long as you can get a stable signal (and assuming the station's source material is good), the picture quality is excellent. Since it's a digital signal, you basically either get the signal or you don't. I have the DVI daughtercard too, and it works quite well, picture quality can be noticeably better than the VGA at 1920x1080 resolution. The other features of the card are nice too - hardware decoding (=low CPU usage), timeshifting, etc.