Play DVD and DirectTV on PC monitor

I've found some external hardware that kindof does what I want, but wanted to check here for advise.

Daughter has a computer with a 15" LCD monitor. Want to display the DirectTV signal (component or composite) w/ sound and a DVD player (component or composite) w/ sound. Is there a card or something that will allow this? Cheap is good as I can get a 15" cheapo LCD TV that does all this for $180.

Thanks,

Tom

What is it about fathers who can easily pass off "cheap" computer parts to their daughters?

Get her a 19" wide screen LCD monitor, street price for most brands about $230US. When I say wide screen, I mean minimum resolution of 1280 x 720, or 16:9 aspect ratio.

Video input and capture can be by a plain video capture card or a TV tuner card. Almost all video capture and TV tuner cards have Video In port, usually svideo. All DirecTV boxes have svideo out with red and white stereo audio out. If you use a plain video capture card instead of a TV tuner card, use the svideo connections. Some capture cards have Audio In via a mini-plug port, so you will need a Y-type cable, with the red and white plugs on one end for the DirecTV box, and a single mini-plug on the other end for the capture card.

If you use the TV tuner, some have a coax/antenna plug for connecting an external antenna, or the DirecTV box has a coax out so that you connect the DirecTV box to the TV tuner card via a regular antenna cable. No audio connection would be needed.

As for DVD player, she can use a DVD ROM disk drive in the computer, which will make for a neater setup. DVD movies will play just fine. If you use a standalone DVD player, you will be adding complexity to the connections scheme.

Of course, connect the monitor via the graphics card in the computer. The sound from the movie can be heard through regular computer speakers. If the computer's sound card supports it, add a set of 5.1 surround sound speakers, street price for a competent 5.1 set about $80US.

With a 19" wide screen monitor and 5.1 surround sound, DirecTV and DVD movies will allow for great viewing from 3 to 5 feet away.