TV tuner card for LCD

[Stacey]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den. Mainly is
going to be cycling through 1000's of digital images but would like to also
use for TV as there isn't one in that room and it will be mounted where I
can watch it laying on the couch. I realize they make TV-monitor combos but
they are like $250 more than a monitor and seem bigger as well.

My questions are, I know LCD's like to run at native resolution. Are there
TV tuners that convert in hardware the standard TV rez to 1280 X 1024 so it
will display to native rez? Or software that will do this? I know the
regular digital images can be resized so that isn't a concern. I'm just
concerned about the TV output to the monitor.

Other than this, which solutions seem to work best, separate PCI cards or
"all in wonder" types? Since I'm not going to be doing other things with
this box and will be either using it for full screen TV or full screen
display of images, multitasking etc isn't a concern. I already have several
"too old for anything else" type machines around so all I need is a screen
and a video/TV card card. If a PCI works OK that would be cheaper for me.

Of the brands, which TV chipsets seem to work best? Again no video capture
or anything fancy, just TV display. While I could run it in windows 98se,
Linux support for basic TV would be much prefered. Oh and a remote would be
nice!

TIA for any advice.

 

[kony]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den. Mainly is
going to be cycling through 1000's of digital images but would like to also
use for TV as there isn't one in that room and it will be mounted where I
can watch it laying on the couch. I realize they make TV-monitor combos but
they are like $250 more than a monitor and seem bigger as well.

My questions are, I know LCD's like to run at native resolution. Are there
TV tuners that convert in hardware the standard TV rez to 1280 X 1024 so it
will display to native rez? Or software that will do this? I know the
regular digital images can be resized so that isn't a concern. I'm just
concerned about the TV output to the monitor.

Assuming you have analog "tv-in" signal, the tuner "card" has a physical
tuner that will lock onto a frequency and send that to the A-D chip, for
example a Conexant 878. Whatever card, chip it uses, is what you'll be
looking for support on for (linux or Win98, whatever). Then of course
you'll have to decide on your preferred application, one of the free or
not 3rd party, or what's bundled with the card.]

So anyway, you have the digital video coming from the card (or staying on
the card with an AIW) as an overlay (unless there's some compatibility
problem with the video card (display adapter) that won't accept
overlays... in other words a normal modern card will do fine, choose one
that works good, displays a nice picture of (anything) on you LCD.

So, you have the tuner card with an app you like, that's supported by the
OS you want, or whichever tradeoff... can't help you there, don't know
what's well supported in Linux. If you're partial to a certain interface
for manipulation of channels and such then read a few reviews to see what
they look like... it can be a personal preference situation.

As for resizing, don't, at least not with the card, it'll reduce quality.
Set the card to full res, then the video card is what scales it to
whatever resolution you want (presumably the LCD's native resolution). To
that end you want a card with good motion compensation support and MPEG
decoding, IF you also want the ability to play back anything captured...
otherwise just use whatever you already have that makes the LCD look
good... generally ATI still has a slight lead for MPEG playback quality
but nVidia's not too far behind.

The video playback software should do the scaling. DScaler is a popular
title, but again you'll have to decide what you like, that or some other
??? If you get a card that has a remote you may be locked into the card's
bundled application that there are some 3rd party IR remote utilities
with plugins for various cards, but I can't tell you much about those,
IIRC "Girder" is one example.

Other than this, which solutions seem to work best, separate PCI cards or
"all in wonder" types?

yes ;-)
They both work fine, more-or-less. Separate PCI cards will use PCI bus
more, but for such a dedicated device it'll make no difference. I've
always thought of AIW cards as a PITA and would suggest a standard
Conexant (BT878), which has by far the greatest support by any 3rd party
apps... with a bit of hacking you might even be able to get one card's app
to work with another card but I can't help at all with that.

Since I'm not going to be doing other things with
this box and will be either using it for full screen TV or full screen
display of images, multitasking etc isn't a concern. I already have several
"too old for anything else" type machines around so all I need is a screen
and a video/TV card card. If a PCI works OK that would be cheaper for me.

Yes a PCI card will work. If you have any inclination to capture, which
can be pretty convenient if you're watching and have a remote anyway,
you'll need either a card that can do hardware MPEG compression (more
expensive and possibly less compatible with 3rd party apps), or a somewhat
fair speed system to do the compression realtime, maybe 2GHz P4 or 1.7GHz
Athlon, depending on a lot of variables like resolution and codec.
Generally speaking any old 500MHz-era box will be more than sufficient for
just playback or watching MPEG files providing the video card has MPEG
hardware decompression support (as most anything semi-modern does,
semi-modern being in the last 6 years or so for nVidia or ATI, 3DFX,
Matrox). You may not feel that file playback matters much, but once you
get into it you may find a central media server is a pretty handy thing to
have, and shows aren't always on when you want to watch...

Of the brands, which TV chipsets seem to work best? Again no video capture
or anything fancy, just TV display. While I could run it in windows 98se,
Linux support for basic TV would be much prefered. Oh and a remote would be
nice!

Already covered more than you wanted to know, pick your OS and research
the cards it supports, then narrow down choices based on the app, remote
you like best. Win98SE will run most any of them, though they're all
subject to minor bugs, not just in 98SE but any OS. Hopefully whatever
you choose won't be buggy in a feature or effect that matters to you.
BT878 chipset cards are most universally supported but most of your
concerns about the LCD "issue" are based around the video card, not the
tuner card.

 

[Nemesis]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den. Mainly is
going to be cycling through 1000's of digital images but would like to also
use for TV as there isn't one in that room and it will be mounted where I
can watch it laying on the couch. I realize they make TV-monitor combos but
they are like $250 more than a monitor and seem bigger as well.

My questions are, I know LCD's like to run at native resolution. Are there
TV tuners that convert in hardware the standard TV rez to 1280 X 1024 so it
will display to native rez? Or software that will do this? I know the
regular digital images can be resized so that isn't a concern. I'm just
concerned about the TV output to the monitor.

Other than this, which solutions seem to work best, separate PCI cards or
"all in wonder" types? Since I'm not going to be doing other things with
this box and will be either using it for full screen TV or full screen
display of images, multitasking etc isn't a concern. I already have several
"too old for anything else" type machines around so all I need is a screen
and a video/TV card card. If a PCI works OK that would be cheaper for me.

Of the brands, which TV chipsets seem to work best? Again no video capture
or anything fancy, just TV display. While I could run it in windows 98se,
Linux support for basic TV would be much prefered. Oh and a remote would be
nice!

TIA for any advice.

Sure, you are a cheap ass bastard and should know that for graphics not any
*old* computer is adequate. Trying to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear
is what you are doing. I'd recommend a nice little TV video card that has a
remote and other goodies as well, but it won't run on cheap ass hdwe, or
the slowest version of Linux that supports the old hdwe.

Try getting a job and then buy the right stuff you lazy bastard.

 

[Gonzalo]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den. Mainly is
going to be cycling through 1000's of digital images but would like to
also use for TV as there isn't one in that room and it will be mounted
where I can watch it laying on the couch. I realize they make TV-monitor
combos but they are like $250 more than a monitor and seem bigger as well.

My questions are, I know LCD's like to run at native resolution. Are there
TV tuners that convert in hardware the standard TV rez to 1280 X 1024 so
it will display to native rez? Or software that will do this? I know the
regular digital images can be resized so that isn't a concern. I'm just
concerned about the TV output to the monitor.

Other than this, which solutions seem to work best, separate PCI cards or
"all in wonder" types? Since I'm not going to be doing other things with
this box and will be either using it for full screen TV or full screen
display of images, multitasking etc isn't a concern. I already have
several "too old for anything else" type machines around so all I need is
a screen and a video/TV card card. If a PCI works OK that would be cheaper
for me.

Of the brands, which TV chipsets seem to work best? Again no video capture
or anything fancy, just TV display. While I could run it in windows 98se,
Linux support for basic TV would be much prefered. Oh and a remote would
be
nice!

TIA for any advice.

Look at the TV-tuners made by View Sonic. OS independent and work with any
LCD.

 

[Dave C.]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den. Mainly is
going to be cycling through 1000's of digital images but would like to also
use for TV as there isn't one in that room and it will be mounted where I
can watch it laying on the couch. I realize they make TV-monitor combos but
they are like $250 more than a monitor and seem bigger as well.

My questions are, I know LCD's like to run at native resolution. Are there
TV tuners that convert in hardware the standard TV rez to 1280 X 1024 so it
will display to native rez? Or software that will do this? I know the
regular digital images can be resized so that isn't a concern. I'm just
concerned about the TV output to the monitor.

What an interesting post. I actually have the hardware you are asking
about, but never thought of using it in that way. Based on your post, I
decided to run an experiment to see how it would work. Short version . . .
it works fine.

Long version . . . I'm using a Dish Network 301 model receiver to output RF
on channel 4 to another TV. I temporarily switched this line over to the RF
input of a WinTV Go PCI TV tuner card on my wife's computer with a NEC
LCD1760V (BK) 17" LCD monitor. After installing the drivers and software, I
got the satellite up and running an "channel 4" on my wife's computer. It
took me a while to get the picture adjusted correctly, as default settings
for the TV Tuner card software had brightness too low, contrast too high and
saturation too high. (default settings looked like CRAP)

The software will allow the monitor to be used as a TV. They call it "TV
Mode" in Hauppage software. It does run the video full screen. At
1280X1024 LCD monitor resolution, there is a very small black bar at the top
and bottom of the screen. Up close, the full screen video looks kind of
hazy. BUT . . .

If you pull back about 8' from the screen (normal TV viewing distance), the
output is more than acceptable. I actually could get by OK using just my
wife's computer to watch TV, if we didn't have a TV in the room.

Based on that experiment and some quick research, I could probably recommend
a Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP Deluxe PCI TV tuner for you. It only runs about
fifty bucks, is remote controlled with a remote sensor, and claims to do
full screen video. Hauppage makes some nice cards, BUT they are A LOT more
expensive for the remote controlled versions, and they don't seem to include
a remote sensor, so I'm not sure how well they'd work. (IR remote is
useless without the remote sensor, as IR is pretty much line of sight)

http://www.leadtek.com/multimedia/winfast_tv2000xp_deluxe_1.html

Note that I haven't tried this Leadtek card, but based on what I've read
about it, I believe it should work well for you.

Some things to keep in mind . . .
- Before you install any TV tuner card, make sure your MONITOR is adjusted
properly for brightness and contrast, at least. Common errors are to turn
up the brightness and contrast too high. If you're not sure how to adjust
this, pick up a copy of Digital Video Essentials. Use that DVD to adjust a
regular TV (or all of them) in your house. That will help you learn to
adjust monitors properly, so that you will understand how to adjust
contrast/brightness/etc. PC monitors need to be adjusted the same way that
TV monitors do, even though they serve different purposes, usually.
- Default settings of your TV Tuner software will probably look like crap.
Even if your monitor is adjusted properly, video from your tv tuner card
won't match it without considerable tweaking. This is another good reason
to practice adjusting TVs with Digital Video Essentials, as you will need
those skills to adjust the TV Tuner software. Pay particular attention to
brightness, contrast and saturation (color level) adjustments. I suspect
the default settings of your software will probably give you a very dark
picture with way too much color. Luckily this can be adjusted.
- A LCD monitor doesn't usually have speakers. You will need to have a
sound card with AUX inputs to patch the sound from your TV Tuner card into.
And you will need to have amplified speakers to use with the TV Tuner and
Sound card, obviously. I'd suggest amplified three-piece speakers with
satellites that can be wall-mounted.

I think this will work fine. It works fine on my wife's hardware. Her
system uses a Hauppage WinTV Go! PCI TV tuner card (but it's not remote
controlled), a EVGA Geforce4 MX440 video card, a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
sound card, AOpen brand remote-controlled 3-piece amplified speakers, NEC
LCD1760V (BK) 17" LCD monitor with 1280 X 1024 native resolution. After
proper adjustments, in "TV Mode" (full screen), it works just fine as a
television from a normal TV viewing distance. A similar or better LCD
monitor of 19" should work even better as a TV. -Dave

 

[Gary Tait]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den. Mainly is
going to be cycling through 1000's of digital images but would like to also
use for TV as there isn't one in that room and it will be mounted where I
can watch it laying on the couch. I realize they make TV-monitor combos but
they are like $250 more than a monitor and seem bigger as well.

My questions are, I know LCD's like to run at native resolution. Are there
TV tuners that convert in hardware the standard TV rez to 1280 X 1024 so it
will display to native rez? Or software that will do this? I know the
regular digital images can be resized so that isn't a concern. I'm just
concerned about the TV output to the monitor.

Software will have to, unless you want to invest in a separate digital
TV tuner (assuming you have digital TV available)

Other than this, which solutions seem to work best, separate PCI cards or
"all in wonder" types? Since I'm not going to be doing other things with
this box and will be either using it for full screen TV or full screen
display of images, multitasking etc isn't a concern. I already have several
"too old for anything else" type machines around so all I need is a screen
and a video/TV card card. If a PCI works OK that would be cheaper for me.

It should, if you can get software to easily upscale.

Of the brands, which TV chipsets seem to work best? Again no video capture
or anything fancy, just TV display. While I could run it in windows 98se,
Linux support for basic TV would be much prefered. Oh and a remote would be
nice!

Personally, I'd get a BT878 based tuner card, an play with that (they
are rather cheap, and with plenty of Linux support).

 

[kony]

Sure, you are a cheap ass bastard and should know that for graphics not any
*old* computer is adequate. Trying to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear
is what you are doing. I'd recommend a nice little TV video card that has a
remote and other goodies as well, but it won't run on cheap ass hdwe, or
the slowest version of Linux that supports the old hdwe.

Try getting a job and then buy the right stuff you lazy bastard.

To give you an example, the retail box from one typical BT878 based
tuner/cap card here specs the following:

Win98SE or higher (SE needed if card only has WDM driver, not VXD)
64MB memory
Pentium II 300
DirectX 8.1
PCI 2.1 slot
16 bit sound

In other words, almost any system made after H1 '98 has the minimal spec
to be able to use the card, including recording at lower res & compression
rates/codecs... without recording the minimal spec would be lower for the
CPU. This may also exclude integrated video older than roughly '01, that
is, using at least 100MHz system memory bus if the frame buffer is from
main system memory instead of a dedicated onboard memory. That doesn't
necessarily mean all Super Socket 7 based systems would work due to their
immaturity at time of release, but most would given the right video card.

It's not 3D gaming, doesn't need a strong system just to watch the input
video in 2D @ 30FPS.

 

[Dave C.]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den. Mainly is
going to be cycling through 1000's of digital images but would like to also
use for TV as there isn't one in that room and it will be mounted where I
can watch it laying on the couch. I realize they make TV-monitor combos but
they are like $250 more than a monitor and seem bigger as well.

My questions are, I know LCD's like to run at native resolution. Are there
TV tuners that convert in hardware the standard TV rez to 1280 X 1024 so it
will display to native rez? Or software that will do this? I know the
regular digital images can be resized so that isn't a concern. I'm just
concerned about the TV output to the monitor.

Other than this, which solutions seem to work best, separate PCI cards or
"all in wonder" types? Since I'm not going to be doing other things with
this box and will be either using it for full screen TV or full screen
display of images, multitasking etc isn't a concern. I already have several
"too old for anything else" type machines around so all I need is a screen
and a video/TV card card. If a PCI works OK that would be cheaper for me.

Of the brands, which TV chipsets seem to work best? Again no video capture
or anything fancy, just TV display. While I could run it in windows 98se,
Linux support for basic TV would be much prefered. Oh and a remote would be
nice!

TIA for any advice.

Sent a long reply earlier, but it never showed. Basically, Leadtek makes a
tuner which should work OK for you. But your monitor needs to be adjusted
properly. Also AFTER your monitor is adjusted properly, the TV Tuner
software will need to be adjusted properly. If you don't know how to do
this, pick up a copy of Digital Video Essentials on DVD and practice by
adjusting your TV (or all of them). The factory settings of your TV Tuner
software are likely to give you a picture that looks like CRAP. But I tried
using my wife's computer system as a TV, and it works great from a
reasonable viewing distance, after it's properly adjusted. You will need a
sound card with AUX input, plus powered speakers. Note that Hauppage makes
TV tuner cards, but they are more expensive than Leadtek. Plus, the remote
control versions of the Hauppage cards don't seem to include a remote
sensor, which means that the included IR remote is probably useless with the
Hauppage cards.

I tried using my wife's computer as a TV, and had good luck with the
following hardware: Dish Network model 301 satellite tuner, Hauppage WinTV
GO PCI TV Tuner set to channel 4 to match RF output of satellite tuner (note
this TV Tuner card is NOT remote control), EVGA brand Geforce4 MX440 video
card, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card (used AUX in on this for sound),
AOpen brand 3-piece amplified remote controlled speakers, NEC LCD 1760V (BK)
17" LCD monitor. From about 8 feet away, this setup looks and sounds good
for TV use. The Hauppage software does full-screen at 1280X1024 resolution
on the LCD monitor with just small black bars at the top and bottom of the
screen. With a decent 19" LCD monitor (I recommend NEC brand), you should
be happy with the results. But again, be aware that you will need to do
extensive adjusting to get the picture to look good. Default settings of
your tv tuner software will likely give you a dark picture with way too much
color. -Dave

http://www.leadtek.com/multimedia/winfast_tv2000xp_deluxe_1.html

 

[Dave C.]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den. Mainly is
going to be cycling through 1000's of digital images but would like to also
use for TV as there isn't one in that room and it will be mounted where I
can watch it laying on the couch. I realize they make TV-monitor combos but
they are like $250 more than a monitor and seem bigger as well.

My questions are, I know LCD's like to run at native resolution. Are there
TV tuners that convert in hardware the standard TV rez to 1280 X 1024 so it
will display to native rez? Or software that will do this? I know the
regular digital images can be resized so that isn't a concern. I'm just
concerned about the TV output to the monitor.

Other than this, which solutions seem to work best, separate PCI cards or
"all in wonder" types? Since I'm not going to be doing other things with
this box and will be either using it for full screen TV or full screen
display of images, multitasking etc isn't a concern. I already have several
"too old for anything else" type machines around so all I need is a screen
and a video/TV card card. If a PCI works OK that would be cheaper for me.

Of the brands, which TV chipsets seem to work best? Again no video capture
or anything fancy, just TV display. While I could run it in windows 98se,
Linux support for basic TV would be much prefered. Oh and a remote would be
nice!

TIA for any advice.

Sent a long reply earlier, but it never showed. Basically, Leadtek makes a
tuner which should work OK for you. But your monitor needs to be adjusted
properly. Also AFTER your monitor is adjusted properly, the TV Tuner
software will need to be adjusted properly. If you don't know how to do
this, pick up a copy of Digital Video Essentials on DVD and practice by
adjusting your TV (or all of them). The factory settings of your TV Tuner
software are likely to give you a picture that looks like CRAP. But I tried
using my wife's computer system as a TV, and it works great from a
reasonable viewing distance, after it's properly adjusted. You will need a
sound card with AUX input, plus powered speakers. Note that Hauppage makes
TV tuner cards, but they are more expensive than Leadtek. Plus, the remote
control versions of the Hauppage cards don't seem to include a remote
sensor, which means that the included IR remote is probably useless with the
Hauppage cards.

I tried using my wife's computer as a TV, and had good luck with the
following hardware: Dish Network model 301 satellite tuner, Hauppage WinTV
GO PCI TV Tuner set to channel 4 to match RF output of satellite tuner (note
this TV Tuner card is NOT remote control), EVGA brand Geforce4 MX440 video
card, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card (used AUX in on this for sound),
AOpen brand 3-piece amplified remote controlled speakers, NEC LCD 1760V (BK)
17" LCD monitor. From about 8 feet away, this setup looks and sounds good
for TV use. The Hauppage software does full-screen at 1280X1024 resolution
on the LCD monitor with just small black bars at the top and bottom of the
screen. With a decent 19" LCD monitor (I recommend NEC brand), you should
be happy with the results. But again, be aware that you will need to do
extensive adjusting to get the picture to look good. Default settings of
your tv tuner software will likely give you a dark picture with way too much
color. -Dave

http://www.leadtek.com/multimedia/winfast_tv2000xp_deluxe_1.html

 

[Dave C.]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den. Mainly is
going to be cycling through 1000's of digital images but would like to also
use for TV as there isn't one in that room and it will be mounted where I
can watch it laying on the couch. I realize they make TV-monitor combos but
they are like $250 more than a monitor and seem bigger as well.

My questions are, I know LCD's like to run at native resolution. Are there
TV tuners that convert in hardware the standard TV rez to 1280 X 1024 so it
will display to native rez? Or software that will do this? I know the
regular digital images can be resized so that isn't a concern. I'm just
concerned about the TV output to the monitor.

Other than this, which solutions seem to work best, separate PCI cards or
"all in wonder" types? Since I'm not going to be doing other things with
this box and will be either using it for full screen TV or full screen
display of images, multitasking etc isn't a concern. I already have several
"too old for anything else" type machines around so all I need is a screen
and a video/TV card card. If a PCI works OK that would be cheaper for me.

Of the brands, which TV chipsets seem to work best? Again no video capture
or anything fancy, just TV display. While I could run it in windows 98se,
Linux support for basic TV would be much prefered. Oh and a remote would be
nice!

TIA for any advice.

Sent a long reply earlier, but it never showed. Basically, Leadtek makes a
tuner which should work OK for you. But your monitor needs to be adjusted
properly. Also AFTER your monitor is adjusted properly, the TV Tuner
software will need to be adjusted properly. If you don't know how to do
this, pick up a copy of Digital Video Essentials on DVD and practice by
adjusting your TV (or all of them). The factory settings of your TV Tuner
software are likely to give you a picture that looks like CRAP. But I tried
using my wife's computer system as a TV, and it works great from a
reasonable viewing distance, after it's properly adjusted. You will need a
sound card with AUX input, plus powered speakers. Note that Hauppage makes
TV tuner cards, but they are more expensive than Leadtek. Plus, the remote
control versions of the Hauppage cards don't seem to include a remote
sensor, which means that the included IR remote is probably useless with the
Hauppage cards.

I tried using my wife's computer as a TV, and had good luck with the
following hardware: Dish Network model 301 satellite tuner, Hauppage WinTV
GO PCI TV Tuner set to channel 4 to match RF output of satellite tuner (note
this TV Tuner card is NOT remote control), EVGA brand Geforce4 MX440 video
card, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card (used AUX in on this for sound),
AOpen brand 3-piece amplified remote controlled speakers, NEC LCD 1760V (BK)
17" LCD monitor. From about 8 feet away, this setup looks and sounds good
for TV use. The Hauppage software does full-screen at 1280X1024 resolution
on the LCD monitor with just small black bars at the top and bottom of the
screen. With a decent 19" LCD monitor (I recommend NEC brand), you should
be happy with the results. But again, be aware that you will need to do
extensive adjusting to get the picture to look good. Default settings of
your tv tuner software will likely give you a dark picture with way too much
color. -Dave

http://www.leadtek.com/multimedia/winfast_tv2000xp_deluxe_1.html

 

[kony]

Sent a long reply earlier, but it never showed.

1st reply did post, 'round 9:30.

Basically, Leadtek makes a
tuner which should work OK for you.

Newegg may have some refubs of those still, $29 delivered... the listing
reads "OEM/Barebone" but one I bought a few months ago was complete,
others have received complete package too but YMMV...
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-122-132R&type=Refurbish

But your monitor needs to be adjusted
properly. Also AFTER your monitor is adjusted properly, the TV Tuner
software will need to be adjusted properly.

It's not much of an issue though... odds are the monitor is already
adjusted as desired, so if file playback looks off then adjust the video
card's overlay, then when both monitor and video card are looking good the
card's interface is all that's left, can be compared to any other TV as
per personal preference.

 

[John Cholewa]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den. Mainly is
going to be cycling through 1000's of digital images but would like to
also use for TV as there isn't one in that room and it will be mounted
where I can watch it laying on the couch. I realize they make TV-monitor
combos but they are like $250 more than a monitor and seem bigger as well.

My questions are, I know LCD's like to run at native resolution. Are there
TV tuners that convert in hardware the standard TV rez to 1280 X 1024 so
it will display to native rez? Or software that will do this? I know the
regular digital images can be resized so that isn't a concern. I'm just
concerned about the TV output to the monitor.

Other than this, which solutions seem to work best, separate PCI cards or
"all in wonder" types? Since I'm not going to be doing other things with
this box and will be either using it for full screen TV or full screen
display of images, multitasking etc isn't a concern. I already have
several "too old for anything else" type machines around so all I need is
a screen and a video/TV card card. If a PCI works OK that would be cheaper
for me.

Of the brands, which TV chipsets seem to work best? Again no video capture
or anything fancy, just TV display. While I could run it in windows 98se,
Linux support for basic TV would be much prefered. Oh and a remote would
be
nice!

Hauppauge chipsets are generally considered up there in coolness. I
recommend that you take at least a cursory look at MythTV. The main web
page is at "http://www.mythtv.org/", and you can install it through urpmi
by adding Thac's repository to your system. Thac's is at
"http://rpm.nyvalls.se/graphics9.2.html". The way to add the rpm sources
is to type "urpmi.addmedia thacs.rpms http://rpm.nyvalls.se/9.2/RPMS with
hdlist.cz" (without the quotes) as root in a terminal or konsole window.
Then you might be able to get away with typing "urpmi --auto
--no-verify-rpm mythtv-suite" (as root).

MythTV is like a PVR, sort of like Tivo. You can use a generic remote
control to set recordings and change channels, and it provides an easy
interface for playing DVDs, VCDs, video files, songs, mini-games, rss
newsfeeds, photo galleries, and other stuff. Oh, and it can keep an
updated copy of the next week (or more?) of TV scheduling that you can
click on to record. It does stuff like timeshifting, as well, though you
probably need to have a greater than 1GHz machine to do stuff like live
pausing.

If you want to play around with MythTV without trying to install it on your
current computer (it has MySQL as a dependency, so I don't know if that'd
cause problems for you), you can download the "KnoppMyth" Live CD. This
allows you to boot up to the MythTV front end to try it out. Mind you, I
haven't tried out KnoppMyth yet, though I'm tempted.

 

[Stacey]

Sure, you are a cheap ass bastard and should know that for graphics not
any *old* computer is adequate.

Thanx....

 

[Stacey]

Dave C. wrote:

Based on that experiment and some quick research, I could probably
recommend
a Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP Deluxe PCI TV tuner for you. It only runs
about fifty bucks, is remote controlled with a remote sensor, and claims
to do
full screen video.

Thanx (and to everyone else who responded), I ordered this card tonight. I
saw it yesterday before I posted this, just wasn't sure about all of this.
Thanx a bunch for doing that experiment. I'm going to get this all working
with a CRT and then start looking for an LCD to hang on the wall. That
card/software will even do TEVO like stuff so it might be fun playing with
that as well! One box I have sitting around is a P3-800/133 with 256meg of
ram, should be plenty.

 

[Dave C.]

What you are trying to do should work great. You don't need to spend extra
on a flat panel tv/pc combo monitor. I tried an experiment with my wife's
computer to see if her LCD monitor would work OK as a TV. It looks a little
fuzzy up close, but so do our real televisions. From a normal TV viewing
distance, my wife's 17" LCD looks fine. BUT . . . it took quite a bit of
adjusting to get the picture to look OK, as the factory default settings of
our TV tuner card were horrible. I'll list my wife's computer specs. below.
I will also recommend you pick up a copy of Digital Video Essentials DVD.
This works great for both normal televisions and high-definition equipment.
Use that to adjust the real television(s) in your place to give you good
practice so that it will be easier to adjust the picture of your TV tuner
card. For what you are looking to do, there is only really one TV Tuner
card I could find that is reasonably priced and readily available and remote
controlled with an IR sensor. Hauppage makes some decent cards, but nothing
that would really work for what you want to do. There's a Leadtek one for
about fifty bucks that looks like it should work great, but I haven't tried
it.

http://www.leadtek.com/multimedia/winfast_tv2000xp_deluxe_1.html

Keep in mind that you will need a good sound card with AUX input and powered
speakers, also. My wife's system works great as a TV though, and you should
be able to build a system with better specs. for very little money.

My wife's hardware: Dish Network 301 satellite receiver (feeds RF output on
channel 4), Hauppage WinTV GO PCI TV Tuner card (not remote controlled),
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card (AUX in or this card handles audio),
AOpen brand 3-piece powered and remote controlled speakers, EVGA brand
Geforce4 MX440 video card, NEC 1760V (BK) 17" LCD monitor, Windows XP Pro.

When looking for your monitor, make sure that it is bright, and has a wide
viewing angle. I could whole-heartedly recommend the NEC 1760V or a 19" NEC
model with the same specs. Also, when you get your monitor, make sure that
brightness and contrast are set correctly on it before you try to run the TV
Tuner software. You will need to make extensive adjustments in your TV
Tuner software, but those adjustments will be easier if your monitor is
adjusted correctly. If you're willing to do a little tweaking though, I
think you'll be happy with the results. My wife's LCD monitor makes a
perfectly acceptable TV. Oh, the software runs the video at full screen at
1280X1024 resolution, with just a little black bar at the top and bottom of
the picture. It looks great, when properly adjusted. -Dave

 

[Stacey]

Working on a new project. Building a simple box for an in wall mounted 19"
LCD to use for a TV/-digital image display frame- for my den.

Thanx for everyones help! And Dave, I think you missed I had the followup
set for alt.comp.hardware to limit the crossposting (my software does this
by default). Thanx so much for testing this for me, I have that leadtek
card on the way!

 

[Dave C.]

Thanx for everyones help! And Dave, I think you missed I had the followup
set for alt.comp.hardware to limit the crossposting (my software does this
by default). Thanx so much for testing this for me, I have that leadtek
card on the way!

Oooops. I thought my posts were going nowhere. -Dave