View HDTV on your computer monitor for less than $400

[James_F]

http://www.viewsonic.com/products/video_box_nextvisionn6.htm

I'm thinking that I might want to hook this up to our new LCD projector here at work. :D

[Scott Greczkowski]

Not a good deal, you still need a HD tuner.

Basically all that thing is, is a glorified switch box. :)

[James_F]

I have a tuner!

[Scott Greczkowski]

Well there you go. :) But for most people they don't so its $400 for this gadget, plus whatever for a HD tuner.

I can take my Dish 6000 and plug it into my computer monitor with no special box needed. :)

I would love to get a projector myself. :)

[James_F]

But you need a breakout box that supports VGA. This one does...

[James_F]

Review of the device...

http://www.envynews.com/review.php?ID=410

[Mike123abc]

I use http://registration.hauppauge.com/webstore/hardware.asp#wintv_hd (WinTV-HD) it can recieve them just fine and show on my screen and they have output for HDTVs too, so you can record off the air to the hard drive and then play back on TV later.


It is also only $299!

The above link was updated.

[Jacob S]

I think with the internet and television merging together that it can all should be viewed on one screen with the high resolution. This would save people space and money.

[rbonzer]

Originally posted by Mike123abc
I use http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/html/wintv-d.pdf (WinTV-HD) it can recieve them just fine and show on my screen and they have output for HDTVs too, so you can record off the air to the hard drive and then play back on TV later.


It is also only $299!

I just read the .pdf file about this, and I have a question. It says "After decoding, the digital TV picture is redered into a 480i format, and displayed in a resizable window on your PC screen." I want to get one of these things, but 480i on the PC screen? Why bother? Does it record in 480i as well?

[Mike123abc]

It records the bit stream as is on the HDTV, it does A to D conversion on the normal channels. It has component/RGB output for full HDTV output for your TV (note it does not have Svideo or composite). It does however only down scale some your computer monitor (probably a limitation of the PCI bus since it has to send the picture across it).

It also has a remote control, and a box that you can put somewhere to receive the remote control signals (so you can hide your PC in a cabinet or something.

I just realized I linked the wrong model!!! You want the WinTV-HD not the WinTV-D... See the link here to see comparison chart:
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/products.htm#digital

And the one I have: http://registration.hauppauge.com/webstore/hardware.asp#wintv_hd

[raj2001]

Originally posted by Jacob S
I think with the internet and television merging together that it can all should be viewed on one screen with the high resolution. This would save people space and money.

I already do this for my bedroom. I use my PC as my bedroom TV, with DScaler (http://www.dscaler.org) as the TV viewing app. It's SDTV only though, but DScaler does a nice job of deinterlacing it, and it looks pretty darn good. For a remote control I use the X10 MouseRemote, a pretty nice UHF remote for your PC, and the free Max10 (http://max10.sourceforge.net) software. The X10 is also a universal IR remote that can be programmed to control DirecTV (and Echostar) receivers.

Next step is HDTV, but right now I have different priorities, like getting a nice house to build a home theater in ;)

[DarrellP]

I think with the internet and television merging together that it can all should be viewed on one screen with the high resolution. This would save people space and money
That is exactly what Plasma manufacturers fear the most and why a lot of them are no longer including a VGA connection. Plasma's are extremely vulnerable to burn in from the color blue-especially the color of blue that our favorite software vendor uses for their desktop.

As far as saving money goes, heck, you can buy a decent 17" monitor for under $100 now.