TFT Monitors
 

I am going to buy a new tft monitor. Is there any way that I can have my
television play on it as well as my pc. Cheers.

S.G.

Besides getting a TV tuner card in your computer, you can get a monitor with
TV inputs as well. Shop around and see what's available.


"Steve Gill" wrote in message
...
I am going to buy a new tft monitor. Is there any way that I can have my
television play on it as well as my pc. Cheers.

S.G.

Thanks how much will a tuner card cost me.
"Chris" wrote in message
...
Besides getting a TV tuner card in your computer, you can get a monitor
with
TV inputs as well. Shop around and see what's available.


"Steve Gill" wrote in message
...
I am going to buy a new tft monitor. Is there any way that I can have my
television play on it as well as my pc. Cheers.

S.G.

On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 12:13:24 -0000, "Steve Gill"
wrote::

Thanks how much will a tuner card cost me.

About $50-70 Canadian or $45-60 USD for the ATI TV-Wonder or the
Zoltrix TV-Genie. These are the low end though, but quality is good
enough for most people. Of the two, the TV-Wonder is better quality,
but the Zoltrix comes with more stuff. The ATI one has better
support, and is more likely to be supported in the future. Zoltrix
has a habit of dropping support for stuff when the next big thing
comes along.

There are also more expensive TV-Cards, and the winTV tuners from
Hauppage are often recommended, but the prices tend to be considerably
higher. The question of whether the added features and image quality
are worth it depends on your needs and how picky you are with image
quality. As I said, most people find the image quality from the
cheaper cards to be adequate. There is, a noticeable difference if
you compare recordings made from the low and high end cards though.

Anyways, here's some homepage links. They provide only basic
information, if you want reviews, you may want to do a google search
on the product names:

www.ati.com (though finding the TV Wonder page is sometimes a
challenge with their new layout)

www.zoltrix.com (TV-Genie)

www.hauppauge.com (winTV)


----------------------------------------
Thanks,
MCheu

"mcheu" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 12:13:24 -0000, "Steve Gill"
wrote::

Thanks how much will a tuner card cost me.

About $50-70 Canadian or $45-60 USD for the ATI TV-Wonder or the
Zoltrix TV-Genie. These are the low end though, but quality is good
enough for most people. Of the two, the TV-Wonder is better quality,
but the Zoltrix comes with more stuff. The ATI one has better
support, and is more likely to be supported in the future. Zoltrix
has a habit of dropping support for stuff when the next big thing
comes along.

Avoid anything from ATI... Their software and support are awful.

Also, avoid anything USB unless you need a portable tuner. I've got a
Hauppage one here and, while it works, again the software is poor. Also,
being USB the quality of the picture isn't as good as it could be since it
has to use the USB bandwidth.

There are also more expensive TV-Cards, and the winTV tuners from
Hauppage are often recommended, but the prices tend to be considerably
higher. The question of whether the added features and image quality
are worth it depends on your needs and how picky you are with image
quality. As I said, most people find the image quality from the
cheaper cards to be adequate. There is, a noticeable difference if
you compare recordings made from the low and high end cards though.

thanks for the help guys. I have a radeon 9200 graphics card. Will this be
replaced by the tv card or will i run both.
Thanks
"Phrederick" wrote in message
news:SxoBb.626334$9l5.340653@pd7tw2no...

"mcheu" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 12:13:24 -0000, "Steve Gill"
wrote::

Thanks how much will a tuner card cost me.

About $50-70 Canadian or $45-60 USD for the ATI TV-Wonder or the
Zoltrix TV-Genie. These are the low end though, but quality is good
enough for most people. Of the two, the TV-Wonder is better quality,
but the Zoltrix comes with more stuff. The ATI one has better
support, and is more likely to be supported in the future. Zoltrix
has a habit of dropping support for stuff when the next big thing
comes along.

Avoid anything from ATI... Their software and support are awful.

Also, avoid anything USB unless you need a portable tuner. I've got a
Hauppage one here and, while it works, again the software is poor. Also,
being USB the quality of the picture isn't as good as it could be since it
has to use the USB bandwidth.

There are also more expensive TV-Cards, and the winTV tuners from
Hauppage are often recommended, but the prices tend to be considerably
higher. The question of whether the added features and image quality
are worth it depends on your needs and how picky you are with image
quality. As I said, most people find the image quality from the
cheaper cards to be adequate. There is, a noticeable difference if
you compare recordings made from the low and high end cards though.

Avoid anything from ATI... Their software and support are awful.


That has not been true for a number of years now. They are actually
one of the best out there right now. I highly recommend the AIW
series.

If it involves a TV tuner and ATI, RUN AWAY!!!

Video cards are marginally acceptable, the TV software/drivers just STINK!

"Skyfrog" wrote in message
om...
Avoid anything from ATI... Their software and support are awful.


That has not been true for a number of years now. They are actually
one of the best out there right now. I highly recommend the AIW
series.

On 15 Dec 2003 16:13:44 -0800, (Skyfrog) wrote:

Avoid anything from ATI... Their software and support are awful.


That has not been true for a number of years now. They are actually
one of the best out there right now. I highly recommend the AIW
series.

I'd certainly have to disagree about the drivers, they still don't
properly support the non-Radeons very well even though they're sold on
server boards (Rage Pro chipsets), and the AIW MMC software is still
very poor considering how long they've had to "finish" it.

Most manufacturers get "it" working right after a year or so, but ATI
took several years and still there are half a dozen systems here where
an error is generated if you do something as simple as (trying) to
uninstall the !@#$%^& driver. It's a sad joke, but at least the
Radeons have good performance.

The AIW is a bad choice for anyone with an empty PCI slot.. it offers
nothing extra, only negatives, at a price premium every single time
you want to upgrade the video card.


Dave

"kony" wrote in message
...
On 15 Dec 2003 16:13:44 -0800, (Skyfrog) wrote:

Avoid anything from ATI... Their software and support are awful.


That has not been true for a number of years now. They are actually
one of the best out there right now. I highly recommend the AIW
series.

I'd certainly have to disagree about the drivers, they still don't
properly support the non-Radeons very well even though they're sold on
server boards (Rage Pro chipsets), and the AIW MMC software is still
very poor considering how long they've had to "finish" it.

Should have clarfied a bit... ATI's TV software/drivers are awful.

Their video card stuff is much better, but I'm still hearing about stupid
errors in the latest drivers. I'm waiting on my 9600XT... should be fun.