Lcd + tv tuner

Lcd screen is now hella cheap. i'm thinking about getting a 20inch lcd screen and a tv tuner. i'm thinking about connecting the tv tuner to my laptop, and connect the 20inch lcd to my laptop. this way, I THINK i can watch tv on my 20inch lcd and also work on my laptop at the same time. this is workable right? my laptop is pretty new, the Asus F3 with X1600 256mb.

 

Yeah, as long as you use different inputs you can switch between TV and the notebook easy with most LCDs.

 

Yeah, what you are looking to do will work, I do that alot with my 19" and my ATI TV Tuner. I would reccomend not going full screen thought, because you might lose quality. Remember, standard TV is 640x480, and you are looking for at least 4 times that size.

 

really!? ONLY 640x480?! but the tv tuner i'm looking at says it can run 1280x1024. so it runs at 1280x1024 right? or all satellite tv and cable runs at 640x480? also what system in the cable in US? CATV/VHF/UHF? the tv box says it supports all of them. also, will running the tv slow my laptop down?

 

The TV tuner will support resolutions up to that, but if the feed going in is not that high it won't display it that high. Unless you have an HD feed your resolution is not going to be real good. I think S-Video carries a signal of 800x600.

 

i'm gona use this in my dorm in UWashington. i'm not sure what system they have. i hope they have high resolution. so you're saying most US household cable is only 640x480?

 

Yeah, thats why if you hook your computer up to a TV like a 36" TV, it looks bad, because it is low resolution on a large screen. The program will be more than able to display the TV in fullscreen but it won't look great. If you have digital or some newer broadcasts, and compatible hardware, it will look OK. The other thing that I should consider telling you this, is that I live in Wyoming, and outside of town at that, so I get bad reception on an antanae, so I have to say I haven't tried cable, but I don't think it will be fantastic, usable, but not fantastic.

P.S. - I have played XBox and used a VCR on my TV tuner before, those look just fine on full screen, so you very well could be OK.

 

unless you can get a high-def signal it won't look very good on the monitor. I really doubt that you'll get HDTV in your dorm room (unless you rent an HDTV digital cable box).

Regular NTSC signal is indeed 640x480, that's also compressed. If that seems extremely low, then don't forget that DVDs are 720x480 But no, you will not get anywhere near DVD quality video unless you get HDTV.

 

by the way you can also get a TV tuner that will connect directly to your monitor, bypassing your computer.

 

so the quality problem is actually from the cable. hm.... so watching tv on a 20inch lcd screen with tv tuner is pretty bad? so you don't recommend me turn it full screen?

 

The quality problem is with any non-digital signal. I posted this in another thread, it might help explain things a little bit.

The downside of using a computer monitor as a TV is going to be the same downside as if you buy a really expensive 1080p HDTV. Unless you have a 1080i or 1080p signal, it's simply not going to look that great at that high resolution. The resolution of current DVDs is 720 × 480, and when that's stretched out onto a WUXGA LCD it isn't that clear. Those of you who have WUXGA screens and watch DVDs know it's not exactly optimal, and it's the same way if you have a 50" 1080p plasma TV and you watch DVDs, so it's not restricted to computer use, it's a restriction of the DVDs. If you watch something with a 720i or 720p signal it will be the same way, just not as bad. 720p has a resolution of 1280 x 720, so it will also be a little fuzzy when stretched over that many pixels. If you are fortunate enough to have an input of 1080i or 1080p then you can watch the signal on the 1920x1200 screen at a resolution of 1920x1080. This is optimal, because with small black bars you can watch the feed in the native resolution of the screen and it will look perfect.

Hope that helps.

 

ya, zimm. i understand. thanks alot for the info. now i'm stuck. i guess getting lcd and a tv tuner is pointless. the quality isn't that good anyway. or maybe i should get a lcd tv that can watch tv directly. thoughts?