LCD for Gaming and TV

[scca325is]

Currently I own a 17inch ViewSonic VX715 with a DVI connection. I love it! Great picture for gaming I have never been happier. Recently I have been looking a the ViewSonic VX2025WM 20.1inch widscreen. The response time is quicker, better resolution and of course the size. I also wanted to use it for my cable tv. Can I buy an external TV tuner and just plug it in through the VGA? What is the quality going to be like. To sum up, I want a widesreen moniter that is great for gaming, but also good for tv useage. Any suggestions?

 

[Dman877]

Get a tv tuner pci card. The scaling to your monitors native res will be better through a graphics card than from an external tuner like a vcr or whatever.

As to the monitor choice, I have no idea. For standard def tv, I think any good lcd will be fine.

 

[santz]

i have a x1900xt with a 19" 1907fp dell lcd..........the graphic card supports vivo for tv tuning but i think i have to buy a seperate tuner too! so whats up with that?

 

[mrzed]

VIVO just means Video In - Video Out. You can input a video source, but cable or air is not a video source. The only video cards that come with TV tuners built in are the All-In-Wonder series.

 

[skooma]

Originally posted by: scca325is
Currently I own a 17inch ViewSonic VX715 with a DVI connection. I love it! Great picture for gaming I have never been happier. Recently I have been looking a the ViewSonic VX2025WM 20.1inch widscreen. The response time is quicker, better resolution and of course the size. I also wanted to use it for my cable tv. Can I buy an external TV tuner and just plug it in through the VGA? What is the quality going to be like. To sum up, I want a widesreen moniter that is great for gaming, but also good for tv useage. Any suggestions?

The theater 550's are nice and come in pci and pci-e. Remote, FM tuner (crappy but its there), great picture quality.

The monitor is up to you. Mines hooked to an AG Nuevo 19" I got from hot deals for $209. Its only 12ms response though.

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: mrzed
VIVO just means Video In - Video Out. You can input a video source, but cable or air is not a video source. The only video cards that come with TV tuners built in are the All-In-Wonder series.

He could plug a VCR into the loop and use that to change channels.

Anyhow, if his monitor has vga in in addition to dvi, he could get a viewsonic nextvision (n4, n5, or n6, depending on the features he wants), which is a stand alone tv tuner that just plugs into the vga port on a monitor. He can then just switch his monitor between DVI and VGA, though he won't be able to do both at once. (well, if you don't mind hooking up the PC via VGA they do have a passthrough and overlay mode, but with my N6 it didn't work well, the entire image got very messed up at any res over 640x480)

 

[namityadav]

If this is going to be the primary TV for you, then you can consider buying a monitor with RCA inputs (Like Dell 2005FPW). I connect the monitor to the cable box through RCA directly and there's no need for any other tuner / card. If you do need a tuner, consider external ones. I disagree with an earlier poster about getting better resolutions through a PCI card. The picture quality doesn't get better by those. In fact, because of the extra processing, the quality is worse (IMHO). I tried the ATI USB 2.0 wonder before switching to the direct-to-cable-box idea. Moreover these monitors have PIPs .. so you can get DVI and RCA (or VGA) input at the same time.

 

[CCityInstaller]

Originally posted by: namityadav
If this is going to be the primary TV for you, then you can consider buying a monitor with RCA inputs (Like Dell 2005FPW). I connect the monitor to the cable box through RCA directly and there's no need for any other tuner / card. If you do need a tuner, consider external ones. I disagree with an earlier poster about getting better resolutions through a PCI card. The picture quality doesn't get better by those. In fact, because of the extra processing, the quality is worse (IMHO). I tried the ATI USB 2.0 wonder before switching to the direct-to-cable-box idea. Moreover these monitors have PIPs .. so you can get DVI and RCA (or VGA) input at the same time.

I would recommend this as well. I am using a Gateway 2185W that has S video, VGA, DVI, and Composite inputs. You can hook your cable box directly to the monitor, and use the built in PIP controls to watch tv and be on the PC at the same time. The Dell 2005FPW, Gateway FPD 2185W, and Samsung 215tw are some of the better choices. The other great feature of these monitors is that you can watch Hi Def (720p) tv with no loss on these monitors.