Use my laptop as an HD MONITOR? (not TV)

I have a Sony VGN-AR590E with a beautiful, crisp 1200x1920 screen. I want to use it as a field monitor for several HD devices (some with no firewire) say for example for precision manual focusing of an HD camcorder like a Canon HV20 or watching from an external HD-DVD stand alone machine like the Toshiba's. I need a high quality video in that's better than the standard composite video or S-video signals which limit the resolution to 480i, such as is made by Pinnacle ( Dazzle etc). I need 720p or 1080i component video in, VGA (D-sub 15 pin) in, or HDMI in (with HDCP compliance). I can't find any expresscards or any other way to feed a streaming signal straight (or with very little delay time) to my laptop's LCD so I can use it as a direct monitor. Can anyone help?

Here's what I don't want: to turn my laptop into a DVR or an HDTV using an external ATSC tuner like the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1500. Those sorts of devices only have antenna or QAM cable RF in, which is useless for my camcorder and HD-DVD player which can't generate such a signal. I am also aware of the soon to be released Hauppauge HD PVR USB connected box, but in its encoding to H264 I think there will be too much delay so focusing will be difficult and I don't want any re-encoding in the first place. (it's also kind of big for portable applications) I don't want to record the incoming signal at all, just view it.

Samsung had a laptop with a detachable screen a couple of years back, the M70, and I wonder if it used a common VGA or DVI/HDMI connection? With a component to VGA adapter such as my Key Digital KD-CTCA3, that probably would've worked for me. Of course my Sony's screen won't detach and I don't want an M70 instead, I just thought I'd mention it.

TIA everyone!

 

oops double post

 

Looks like you've done a bit of research on the TV tuner and Capture card devices.

The main problem is; there isn't a budget consumer device that will be able to handle 720P or 1080i for notebooks. Even if the device says it can "handle" a 1080i input signal, it's likely not real-time decoding, so you won't be able to instantly view the feed like a TV would be able to without significant quality loss.

For example, the Hauppauge HD PVR device you mentioned is a USB device, and that itself will be the bottleneck as a 1080i signal theoretically will surpass the 300mbps bandwidth that USB allows unless the HD device has a built-in decoder and able to "downsize" that feed instantly. The only option is to look for an HD ExpressCard device, but even that has the physical limitation of the PCIe 1X bandwidth standard of 5Gbps in comparison to PCIe 16x at 80Gbps for dedicated Video Cards.

 

Didn't the Sony AR series come out with a version with HDMI or Component input that is tied in with their dedicated Video Card? I remember that as one of their selling features.

 

Found an image of the side panel with the audio and video inputs.

 

That looks similar to my side panel but not exactly (I have only one S-video jack out and also an in would only give me 480i video quality anyways, not HD). The HDMI and VGA jacks under there are only video outs, not ins.

No. What it does come with is an ATI cablecard outboard tuner, which connects with USB, and lets me view and record over-the-air and even scrambled cable HD broadcasts. It's the only legal way to record HBO-HD etc. to an outboard computer hard drive in original, full HD quality.

Compared to my living room HD TV using a standard HD Comcast cable box the image and sound on my laptop/ATI box setup is delayed by about one second or less, I guess due to processing of some kind. Quite livable for me. A component video in image that was delayed by one second would still be of great value to me so I think USB should be able to handle what I want.

Thanks though.

P.S. The ATI HD tuner box does have low-def composite and S-video ins which bypasses its ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuner section, but no HD ins such as component video. If it did I'd be all set.