I just purchased the 24" Dell Ultrasharp LCD monitor for my PC. I do not have digital cable, HD, or anything right now on my main TV. I have basic extended cable 109 channels and my sony TV in my living rooms built in tuner works fine. Not a single cable box in my home.

Thing is - as I type right now I want to be able to utilize the additional input sources (RGB, DVI, DB15, SVideo, etc) and the PIP on my monitor to watch tv. I do NOT want the tuner to have anything to do with my PC. This would have my pc and its PCI card doing the processing and I would like to stay away from relying on my PC to be on to watch TV on my monitor. I was thinking of those simple little coax boxes with the remote back in the day that were used on old console tv's so you didnt have to get up to change the channels.

Are these still available cheaply? Of course it would need Svideo, DVI, etc out to go to my monitor.

I looked for hours and couldnt find something cheap. Any help?

Thanks.

http://www.startech.com/Product/ItemDetail.aspx?productid=COMP2VGATV&c=CA

My sister has one of these - does the job also has a PC passthrough. She got it bundled with a projector but I think this thing sells for less than a 100 smackers on the street.

Thanks - that would nearly be perfect but it looks like theyve discontinued it and I cant find it through pricegrabber, etc.

I hope someone can find a like model for a little less....

Thanks again.

Found another brand for around 100.00. I will still look for a couple of more days just to be sure I don't overspend.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=201644589&SearchEngine=PriceGrabber&SearchTerm=201644589&Type=PE&Category=Comp&dcaid=15890

It still seems like I can go buy a 100.00 TV to set on my desk for this cost and still watch TV. I don't need anything fancy.

Also - looks like your original suggestion sold the design to another company and they rebranded and marked it down.

http://www.buy.com/prod/steren-203-250-tv-to-pc-converter-with-tuner/q/loc/111/202024665.html

Cheap VHS VCR (composite) makes decent TV tuner especially SVHS VCR (Svideo). DVD recorders have TV tuners too with even component output.

Huey beat me to it - I used a vcr until I finally got an HD box to feed my crt; also had an RCA dvd-recorder, which I'm still using in the 2nd theater. As he says, all three outputs, including 480i/p via component, plus you get a dvd player in the bargain. I'd for sure do that before I'd drop a C on just a tv tuner box.