Post by malform on Nov 8, 2005 9:38:13 GMT -5
This is about my journey to finding the most entertaining entertainment system. I have not been able to find any forums about this kind of thing, and thought maybe some of you guys on here have had similar experiences.
I got the bright idea about 2 years ago that I wanted to take my tv, vcr, dvd and stereo and merge them together with my pc. I got an 80 gig hard drive loaded it up with mp3s and videos, and then started down a long road of trying to figure out how to merge the two video aspects of the satellite receiver and the computer.
First thought was converting the computer graphics to display on the tv. There are tons of scan converters that will do this, and they are pretty cheap. If you have never done this, save your money. A tv cannot display computer graphics well at all. So the next effort was to display the television channels on a computer monitor.
I started with a converter/tuner from GE. It worked well on my 15” monitor. I then upgraded to a 20” monitor (free from work!) and it was ok. Then I found a great deal on a 36” monitor! And the converter sucked. Like it didn’t produce enough color, which made images look weird. Then I got a converter/tuner made by Viewsonic, it is the converter I currently use. It works well but it seems like there is still room for improvement. I am currently searching for an even better converter.
I found this today:
www.ramelectronics.net/html/video-vga-vis-3000.html
It looks very promising. It even has a picture in picture option so that you can work on the computer and watch tv at the same time. I think my girl friend would appreciate that a lot.
So… Has anyone else tried to mesh their computer and television? If so, how did you do it, what would you suggest doing different? I hear ya, “buy a plasma or lcd”, I cant, Im cheap, compounded by poor.
I got the bright idea about 2 years ago that I wanted to take my tv, vcr, dvd and stereo and merge them together with my pc. I got an 80 gig hard drive loaded it up with mp3s and videos, and then started down a long road of trying to figure out how to merge the two video aspects of the satellite receiver and the computer.
First thought was converting the computer graphics to display on the tv. There are tons of scan converters that will do this, and they are pretty cheap. If you have never done this, save your money. A tv cannot display computer graphics well at all. So the next effort was to display the television channels on a computer monitor.
I started with a converter/tuner from GE. It worked well on my 15” monitor. I then upgraded to a 20” monitor (free from work!) and it was ok. Then I found a great deal on a 36” monitor! And the converter sucked. Like it didn’t produce enough color, which made images look weird. Then I got a converter/tuner made by Viewsonic, it is the converter I currently use. It works well but it seems like there is still room for improvement. I am currently searching for an even better converter.
I found this today:
www.ramelectronics.net/html/video-vga-vis-3000.html
It looks very promising. It even has a picture in picture option so that you can work on the computer and watch tv at the same time. I think my girl friend would appreciate that a lot.
So… Has anyone else tried to mesh their computer and television? If so, how did you do it, what would you suggest doing different? I hear ya, “buy a plasma or lcd”, I cant, Im cheap, compounded by poor.