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Has the world yet to create a computer moniter with a built-in HD tuner?

G

gothamm

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 18, 2007
844
3
I need something that i will primarily use as a computer monitor, but it would also be nice to watch the occasional over the air NTSC digital television. is there a monitor that does this?
 
Eidorian said:
I know a lot of televisions that could be used as monitors. Not that they make good monitors.
Click to expand...

thanks for the quick response! HDTV's are good but so far from what i have read their display is not as crisp and clear when used as a monitor.

so maybe a monitor that does 1920X1200 and has a built-in hdtv tuner that does 720p?
 
Why don't you an external, stand-alone tuner? They must still be selling them as there were quite a few HD-ready TVs sold until recently.
 
gothamm said:
thanks for the quick response! HDTV's are good but so far from what i have read their display is not as crisp and clear when used as a monitor.

so maybe a monitor that does 1920X1200 and has a built-in hdtv tuner that does 720p?
Click to expand...
You're going to see a lot of vendors run into hardware cannibalization with placing a tuner into a monitor. They're really going to want you to buy a television instead.

Dell 300x WFP anyone?
 
theBB said:
Why don't you an external, stand-alone tuner? They must still be selling them as there were quite a few HD-ready TVs sold until recently.
Click to expand...

i wasn't aware that this would work. so on a monitor doing 1680X1050, one can receive over the air digital channels with the stand alone?
 
gothamm said:
i wasn't aware that this would work. so on a monitor doing 1680X1050, one can receive over the air digital channels with the stand alone?
Click to expand...

What exactly do you mean by "stand alone"?

I'm assuming you know about the Elgato EyeTV tuners that let you pick up OTA HD signals, but these work via USB. But if by "stand alone" you mean is there a tuner that exists where you can just somehow hook it up to your monitor and just use the monitor straight as a television...then no, there is nothing like that which exists (to my knowledge).
 
CKtoph said:
What exactly do you mean by "stand alone"?

I'm assuming you know about the Elgato EyeTV tuners that let you pick up OTA HD signals, but these work via USB. But if by "stand alone" you mean is there a tuner that exists where you can just somehow hook it up to your monitor and just use the monitor straight as a television...then no, there is nothing like that which exists (to my knowledge).
Click to expand...
You can buy stand alone (no computer) tuners that will output to a monitor.
 
gothamm said:
I need something that i will primarily use as a computer monitor, but it would also be nice to watch the occasional over the air NTSC digital television. is there a monitor that does this?
Click to expand...

If you're primarily going to be using it as a mointor for your computer, I don't know why you'd want a stand alone (not part of your computer hardware).
I think the Elegato is your best bet from what you've described. A lot of peole seem to very happy with them.
 
gothamm said:
so maybe a monitor that does 1920X1200 and has a built-in hdtv tuner that does 720p?
Click to expand...
Try this. Take your 1920x1200 monitor and set the resolution to 1280x720. Like the way the picture looks?

The reason why you won't see this (on a large scale) is because digital displays (LCD, plasma, non-CRTs) work best at one and only one resolution. Anything apart from that resolution will have a degraded picture. The more you deviate from the native resolution, the worse the picture will get. Thus, HDTV's do not make good monitors because the resolution is too small and Computer monitors do not make good TV's because the resolution has to be downscaled (or otherwise run at a non native resolution) to get to 720 or 1080.
 
I believe that Samsung made a monitor (it was branded as a monitor) that had a tv tuner in it so it could go both ways ... not sure if they still offer it but a friend of mine bought one and it worked fairly well :)
 
Divindude said:
I believe that Samsung made a monitor (it was branded as a monitor) that had a tv tuner in it so it could go both ways ... not sure if they still offer it but a friend of mine bought one and it worked fairly well :)
Click to expand...
Looks like the 713BM and 913BM are it. I'm still looking though.
 
By definition a monitor cannot have a tuner, it then becomes a television.

Yes, there are plenty of televisions that will also accept your PC input and function as a monitor.

But your question is "Why aren't there monitors with tuners" ... because we call those TV's.
 
Take a look at this combo that might interest you. If you get..say a dell 24", the monitor has component and composite ports on the back (in addition to DVI and VGA). So, you could plug in a VCR or cable box or something with a tuner in it and have a tuner in your monitor. Otherwise, you need a 1080p TV, which can do 1900x1200. All you need is an HDMI port on the TV(all 1080p tvs prob have this) and a HDMI->DVI converter (cheap connector cord)..or if it comes with a DVI on it already then you're set. Those are the 2 options available.
 
topgunn said:
Try this. Take your 1920x1200 monitor and set the resolution to 1280x720. Like the way the picture looks?

The reason why you won't see this (on a large scale) is because digital displays (LCD, plasma, non-CRTs) work best at one and only one resolution. Anything apart from that resolution will have a degraded picture. The more you deviate from the native resolution, the worse the picture will get. Thus, HDTV's do not make good monitors because the resolution is too small and Computer monitors do not make good TV's because the resolution has to be downscaled (or otherwise run at a non native resolution) to get to 720 or 1080.
Click to expand...

why can't a 1920 x 1200 do 1080p? isn't the 1080 number the vertical, so there'd be a bit of banding top and bottom, but otherwise not a bad way to go?

where am i wrong?
 
vixapphire said:
why can't a 1920 x 1200 do 1080p? isn't the 1080 number the vertical, so there'd be a bit of banding top and bottom, but otherwise not a bad way to go?

where am i wrong?
Click to expand...

1900x1200 is 1080p

his point was that tvs don't make good monitors b\c they tend to be less pixels per inch screen than a comparative monitor would be

example - a 37" 1080p tv is 1900x1200
a 24" monitor is 1900x1200...so the tv would look low quality next to the 24" for text and such
 
You mean ATSC...

Just get a 1080P DVD Player upscaler w/integral ATSC HD Tuner and plug into a 1080P HDTV or Projector like the Sony VPL-VW60!

gothamm said:
I need something that i will primarily use as a computer monitor, but it would also be nice to watch the occasional over the air NTSC digital television. is there a monitor that does this?
Click to expand...
 
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