Using a TV as your Monitor

[CowEater]

<Gwarsbane> cause you need the s-video wire, rf modulator box, rca y splitter 1 male end to 2 female ends, a stereo audio 1/4 jack converter to rca, 2 RCA wire extentions both ends on each of the wires need to be male, long enough coax cable to reach from rf mod box to tv
[01:25] <Gwarsbane> Its not hard, least I didn't find it hard, its just a little pricy, cost me about 45 bucks in the end
[01:25] <Gwarsbane> basically this is what you do...
[01:25] <CowEater|> i have some of that stuff
[01:27] <Gwarsbane> first before you do all this stuff, you will need to see if your video drivers support video out
[01:28] <Gwarsbane> you will have to check on the nvidia site as I don't know anything about their software
[01:28] <Gwarsbane> while the computer is off cause there is no sense in taking a chance, plug in the RF mod box (cause it needs a wall socket for power) then plug one end of the svideo wire into the video card and the other end into the rf mod box
[01:31] <Gwarsbane> then take the stereo audio 1/4 jack converter (with a 1/4 male end and a rca female end) plug the 1/4 end into a spot where you normally plug in your speakers for your computer, then plug the rca y splitter single male end into the female end of the jack converter, then plug in 1 end of each of the RCA extention wires into each of the rca y splitters
[01:31] <Gwarsbane> then plug those ends into the back of the rf mod box
[01:31] <CowEater|> : ( )
[01:33] <Gwarsbane> then take the coax wire (which should have the connectors on each end) and screw it onto the back of the rf mod box, run it to your TV and plug it in. Turn the TV to either channel 3 or 4 (which ever your rf mod box is set for) turn on your computer, tell your video card software to out put it to the TV and then bingo you should have everything up and running
[01:33] <Gwarsbane> total actual time to do all this, 5 to 10 minutes


3VEN at 2am he was able to tell me all that easily : ()

[Gump]

if you like 800x600 resolutions...

[Wha?]

HDTV supports up to 1600x900 (those TVs are all 16:9 aspect ratio).

[Gump]

you can't do 1600x900 on a s-video cable, that only supports up to about 800 x 600
if you want larger resolutions, you'd have to use a dvi or rgb output, but there aren't many regular tv's that accept it. the newer HDTV's and projections have the inputs for rgb or dvi or hdmi, so they can do the 1600x900. Just some advice, if you want to buy a HDTV to use as a monitor, don't buy a sony, they rarely do the job correctly

[Miagi]

It's mostly only good for watching videos. Which I think is your idea anyway.

Text, at least for me, is blurred.

[Gwarsbane]

Seeing as how I can't afford a HDTV and all I have is a normal TV from about 10 years ago, everything is nice and clear for me.

A normal TV runs at 500 to 600 scan lines a second I believe (been a while since I read anything about it) so anything above that will look clearer or at least look the same. I find that things seem a little clearer on my TV. Not as clear as whats on my monitor but clearer then whats on my TV normally.

The reason why I suggested this method to cow was so that he wouldn't have to waste CDs by VCDing stuff to multipul discs that hes just going to watch once and then toss out.

I download TV shows that I can't get locally or of episodes I miss. Once I'm done watching them delete them. But my back was getting more and more sore sitting in my computer chair so around 45 bucks after I have my computer system now set up as a small multimedia system (lacks the ability to record but I can eventually fix that, not that I am really interested as all the shows I watch locally eventually come out on DVD that I can buy)

It is also nice to be able to pop in a DVD into my computer and sitback and watch it on my bed. My back likes the new setup alot. :D


also rereading that stuff, I don't actually think I missed anything. I'm just looking at my setup now and everything is the same I believe.


There is one thing I did after I had everything set up to save me time from switching from normal cable to computer. I had 2 wires with plugs them othem that I could just slide onto the back of the TV instead of having to screw the coax cable on.

So I picked up a 2 pack of connectors thats used to join 2 coax cables together. I put one in the end of the coax that brings the cable into the house and one in the coax cable from the RF mod box. Then I just sipped on end of the 2 cables that slide on to the 2 coax cables and now I can change cables in under 10 seconds where as before I had to take the time to unscrew the one in the back of the TV then screw the other one back in. Not really time consuming but annoying.

[Gwarsbane]

There are some LCD computer monitors out there now that allows you to hook them up like normal TVs and they accept the HDTV signal. I hear they are good and if I eventually get a new monitor I will look to see how much one of those are.

[evil_admin]

I recently purchased a Westinghouse HDTV which has no tuner (since I have satellite) so really it is one big monitor. Model LVM-37w1 it is a 37" HD monitor. It willl run max resolution of 1920 x 1080 and has vga, s-video, DVI2, DVI1 and YPbPr. So far it looks great when watching DVDs and all right when watching satellite cable. Satellite HDTV receiver is on its way so that should be a nice upgrade.

I have been interested in trying it on my computer with my video card running Half-Life to see how it looks but I need some longer network cable. If I get it running I will post pictures.

Here is a picture of the monitor although we purchased it at Best Buy.

[CowEater]

Wow that is big, your a lucky sob. Btw i was just wondering what happend to you lol and suddenly your at my thread:)