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How do I effectively watch HDTV on a monitor (via computer)?

307 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by DrDon, Dec 24, 2005

r2tincan

Discussion Starter · Dec 24, 2005

I'm looking at buying a large enough monitor for my computer that I can watch movies from about six feet away.

I want to have this monitor connected to my computer, and most likely be used as my primary display monitor as well. I want to be able to watch over-the-air HD content, as well as HD content from a satelite or cable box, as well as HD content from my hard drive.

I want to be able to watch 1080p content from my hard drive.

My current equipment:

AMD 2600+ on an Asus A7N8X mobo

about 2 gigs of PC2700

Geforce FX 5200

My questions are the following:

1) Which monitor should I buy? (I keep hearing about the 2405FPW? Something cheaper would be nice.)

2) What kind of upgrades (if any) do I need in order to watch TV on my computer? I'm assuming I need an HDTV tuner, and in that case how do I get one without the broadcast flag. (I want to record this, too.)

Any information as well as personal experience would be helpful.

The monitor guys told me to come here and ask you guys, so that's what I'm doing. I also need to know how to convert my 5200's RGB output to DVI and not and still be "Digital". Can I do that?

Thanks!

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mjones73

· #2 · Dec 24, 2005

2) For OTA, a nice ATSC tuner card would work. For cable, you'd need a box with firewire output to pass HD into the PC. No current sat boxes can be hooked up to a PC via HD at all, some very older models can be modded to add a firewire or USB port but it's costly ($500+) and the Directv receivers are going to be obsolete at some point.

Basically if you plan to view via a cable box or sat box, get yourself a TV that has enough inputs that you can attach your PC to it and also the cable/sat STB.

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DrDon

· #3 · Dec 24, 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by r2tincan
1) Which monitor should I buy? (I keep hearing about the 2405FPW? Something cheaper would be nice.)

2) What kind of upgrades (if any) do I need in order to watch TV on my computer? I'm assuming I need an HDTV tuner, and in that case how do I get one without the broadcast flag. (I want to record this, too.)

1) Kind of hard to top that Dell for what you're looking for. You can surf over to the Plasma & LDC forum and ask around, if you like.

2) There was a great article in PC Magazine about three issues ago on DVR software. Didn't find that one, but here's one on turning a computer into a DVR (with some HDTV information). Head over to the Home Theatre Computers area for more.

Odds are you'll have to swap out your video card for one that outputs DVI. And I wouldn't worry much about the broadcast flag.

For my own purposes, I went with a Windows MCE box for general DVR purposes. Haven't upgraded that to HD, yet (although the graphics card has DVI), as I prefer the cable company's DVR.

Doc

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