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TV tuner card for LCD
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. -- Stacey |
#2
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On Fri, 02 Apr 2004 01:09:58 +0000, Stacey wrote:
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. |
#3
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Stacey wrote:
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. |
#4
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"Stacey" wrote in message ... 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/wi..._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 |
#5
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On Fri, 02 Apr 2004 01:09:58 +0000, Stacey wrote:
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). TIA for any advice. |
#6
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On Fri, 02 Apr 2004 08:10:24 GMT, Nemesis wrote:
Sure, you are a cheap ass ******* 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 *******. 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. |
#7
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"Stacey" wrote in message ... 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. -- Stacey 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 hardwa 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/wi..._deluxe_1.html |
#8
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"Stacey" wrote in message ... 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. -- Stacey 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 hardwa 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/wi..._deluxe_1.html |
#9
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"Stacey" wrote in message ... 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. -- Stacey 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 hardwa 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/wi..._deluxe_1.html |
#10
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On Fri, 02 Apr 2004 19:25:22 GMT, "Dave C."
wrote: 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/ViewProduc...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. |
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