22' Widescreen LCD Monitor for TV?

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Nety

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#17296 20-Nov-2007 08:48

OK so I have the possibility of purchasing a Dell 22" Widescreen monitor. Now currently we have an old CRT in the bedroom which the wife would like to replace with a LCD flat screen.

The problem -
The Dell has VGA and DVI inputs only. Somehow I need to get the signal from a analogue Telstra STB to the screen. The STB only has composite and coax out.

Anyone got any brilliant ideas on how to convert composite to DVI or VGA without it costing the earth?

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cyril7

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#96041 20-Nov-2007 09:00

To actually do that you require a deinterlacer and scaler, there are products such as this that do that, how well they work I will leave to you to find out.

Cyril

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#96044 20-Nov-2007 09:10

I've played with a couple of similair units ands they seem to work reasonably well. Nothing fantastic but certainly watchable. One of the limitations of units such as these now is that a lot of them only do 4:3 1024x768 resolution maximum. This is fine on older 4:3 LCD monitors but on new widescreen monitors displaying 1024x768 can look very bad.

allstarnz

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#96049 20-Nov-2007 09:45

I use a Genius TV Go A31 which connects to my 22" BenQ LCD screen. Seems to do a pretty good job for me.

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#96058 20-Nov-2007 11:56

Good find alltranz, I suspect this is V1 or V2 of the A31, I see the lattest on the manufactures site (the V3) supports component video as well. Not a bad price for what you get.

Cyril

Nety

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#96088 20-Nov-2007 15:17

Yeah I have had a look. In NZ currently looks like the V2 is the best you can get but at least that supports widescreen altough the AVerMedia AVerTV Box W7 also looks interesting but is a bit more.

allstarnz

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#96130 20-Nov-2007 20:14

in regard to picture quality, i now run s-video into it from a Sky box, and i'm pretty happy with the quality. Especially as the Sky feed is hardly high def by any means.

Nety

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#96189 21-Nov-2007 10:02

Just had confirmation back from Ascent. The Genius TV Go A31 they have is the V3 so is now top of the list.

davidcole

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#96962 26-Nov-2007 14:33

having just gone through a similar exercise I went away from an LCD montior for a tv. Some of the things and LCD is not good at:
Getting one with an S-Video port is hard work. There's a 24" dell that will do the job, and an ASUS 20" wide (from Harvey normans). But the Dell doesn't have a sound bar (extra).
No remote on these things so they stay on all the time - not sure if they will turn off when there is no signal.

I ended up looking at the Samsung 19" widescreen LCD TV
And would have bought the LG 22" wide LCD TV (PBTechnologies Wellington sell them)

But actually ended up with the Samsung 26" - bit big but really nice!!

Smallers LCDs are coming down in price (there's a philips for 799 or so and HN's had a 23" on special for $888 when I bought the samy.

Also final note...If our dvb-t was the same as Oz they have a eap os sets over there that would be great with built in DVB-T tuners!!

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Nety

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#96966 26-Nov-2007 15:14

I did finish up getting the TVGo A31 V3. I did have to return the first one as after Ascent said it was the V3 a V2 turned up. As the monitors resolution was higher then the V2 could handle and the V3 adds component into the mix I did think it worth getting the V3.

davidcole: having just gone through a similar exercise I went away from an LCD montior for a tv. Some of the things and LCD is not good at:
Getting one with an S-Video port is hard work. There's a 24" dell that will do the job, and an ASUS 20" wide (from Harvey normans). But the Dell doesn't have a sound bar (extra).
No remote on these things so they stay on all the time - not sure if they will turn off when there is no signal.

These issues are addressed by the most part by the TVg0 A31 or similar. The monitor does go into sleep mode when the tuner is turned off and gives you VGA composite svideo and component inputs as well as having a TV turner built in. The tuner controls the volume.

The only thing I don't like is that I have had to use external speakers which add to the clutter and they have to be turned on all the time (or turned off and on each time which would not get wife approval). Other then that it seems to be a nice (and very cheap) way to do it.

davidcole

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#96968 26-Nov-2007 15:28

Good that you got it to work.

I had a look at the Jaycar vga to svideo thingy whatsit. Guess it does similar. But I didn't want any more than two devices with power and tv and video type device i use for the tuner already were using the power.

sbiddle

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#96972 26-Nov-2007 15:50

davidcole: Smallers LCDs are coming down in price (there's a philips for 799 or so and HN's had a 23" on special for $888 when I bought the samy.

Expect to see TV prices drop even further. I can source 32" LCD's now for $799 and 47" for around $2700. I think we'll see a huge glut of cheap imports hitting the NZ marketplace very soon and to be honest the quality of these cheap Chinese sets is very good.

allstarnz

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#96973 26-Nov-2007 15:52

yeah, as Nety said, the TV box does all the work in regards to turning off, remote etc. My screen will go into standby once the TV box is off. I hook a pair of laptop speakers up to make the sounds. I'm happy with this, it's a great way to get a widescreen TV for less than $1000