Current State of TV Tuners and Consoles

[civic]

I have a very good monitor (flat, widescreen, very clear, big)and a very bad TV(cheap wal-mart tv).

I would like to use my monitor for my game consoles, wii/xbox/ps2/etc..


Ive done some research and have read that it might be better off to just use my TV and forget the TV Tuner, but alot of what I read was pretty old.


So, I ask you guys, Is this a viable option?
What are some of the pros cons to using this over a TV?
Does the picture quality degrade any?
any lag time in the newest models?

and will I be able to use it to watch cable TV on my monitor

If someone knows of a good one for consoles, please list it and ill check it out


preciate it

 

[civic]

Forgot to ask, if anyone had any experience with something that converts it directly like this

http://www.interloper.com/products/product-details.php?productid=54440003&am p;cat=54&mfgn=&page=1&sec=1&od=


How well would that kind of thing work?

 

[nukemaster]

From what i have used software tuners just slam video into the video cards ram, as such they are fast(the lag is not noticable to most)

On the other hand if you plan to record TV hardware cards are far better, but they have a lag time due to the fact that the card takes the TV digitizes it and sends it to the hard drive where the system then reads it and plays it back on your screen.

If you can find a cheap software card time lag should not be much but all cards are differrent.

WinTV GOFM - minimal lag but video seemed to not de interlace well. Eats CPU on recording

WinTV PVR 250 - Hardware, 1-2 second lag time. No cpu load whe recording. software(decoder) load when playing

WinTV PVR 150 - like a 250 with slightly better image quality.

I would make sure if you try this go somewhere with a no hassle return....just in case.

If you link was supposed to go to the VideoView Box then YES that what it does. similar to the way IMB TV used to work. I can not commend on the quality of this device but thats is what you are looking for....no need to turn on the PC even

 

[shadowmaster625]

I bought the best rated tv tuner card at neweg... the best one under $50 that is! And lemme tell ya it sucks for gaming. You want to hook the console directly, not through the computer. Being able to record game sessions is nice, but not when it gives you a headache!

 

[civic]

Ok, so I guess the direct hookup is the way to go.


What are these called exactly?
Do they sell em at best buy/frys/circuit city etc..?
Could anyone recommend one, I need a place to start my research, I still feel really lost and dont know where to begin

 

[nukemaster]

Not that i can see. they are a specialized item and they seem to be in the 100-200 dollar range. the videoview you linked to is the cheapest i've seen so far @ 99$

With the price of TV's dropping and the fact that new TV's have computer inputs....well...yeah...thats what i would do.....

There are lots of scan converters that go the other way. VGA to TV.....but tv to VGA is rare

 

[civic]

I don't know anything about the one I linked, just using as an example. I got it from a thread i found talking about the same topic made over a year ago.


I picked these up from frys today

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5082935?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

http://shop1.outpost.com/%7BOhCU9h0ApzeedvbkHQvq5w**.node2%7D/product/4076872;j sessionid=OhCU9h0ApzeedvbkHQvq5w**.node2?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG



but I cant plug the adapter into the splitter; the splitter doesn't have the 4 pins surrounding the flat connector


I can plug the adapter into my monitor directly, but theres not enough room to plug in the av jacks so i still don't know if it will work :/

So, I guess I get to head back down there tomorrow and figure this out.


I wish the people who worked there weren't such total jackasses -_-

 

[nukemaster]

the links look kind of messed....the 2nd one goes to a DVI-Component adapter. thats made to let your computers DVI go to a component(analog with 3 separate color channels) HD TV. I have no clue if it works backwards.....but if it does do tell me

If you want to try it you would need HD adapters for your systems WII and Xbox should have then but i dont think PS2 will.

So you go have DVI right?

http://www.hdtvsupply.com/svideotodvi.html
http://www.nextag.com/svideo-converter-dvi/search-html

But damn those cost allot...but they are EXACTLY what you are looking for if you have DVI on your screen.