S.E.R. FAQ
Home
Search
NotTaR of Television Sets : Displaying TV on a computer monitor     
 Copyright © 1994-2007, Samuel M. Goldwasser. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this document in whole or in part is permitted if both of the following conditions are satisfied: 1. This notice is included in its entirety at the beginning. 2. There is no charge except to cover the costs of copying. I may be contacted via the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ (www.repairfaq.org) Email Links Page.

     << Could a TV be modified fo.. |  Index  | Displaying computer video.. >>

Displaying TV on a computer monitor

My general recommendation is that if you have the space, buy an inexpensive TV - the quality in the end may in fact be better. And, it will be usable without tying up your expensive monitor and (maybe) PC.

While various convertors are advertized to use a computer monitor with video from a VCR or other source, keep in mind that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is like the claim of a $200 box for this:

OK, let me get this straight - this card/box will enable a 31.4 kHz horizontal scan rate monitor (VGA) be used as a TV - yes or no? It thus includes a video A/D, full screen frame buffer, D/A, and all the other tuner stuff for under $200? I don't think so. A scan doubler - which is a subset of the above - will not result in a high quality picture since it will display pairs of lines interleaved. Or does the impressive advertisement leave out the key requirement that the monitor sync at the NTSC horizontal scan rate of 15.734 kHz (most newer monitor do not)? Or is it a board that plugs into a PC and indeed does use the resources of the PC including the VGA card and bus?

In any case, get a written money back satisfaction guarantee.