HD TV on a PC LCD monitor

[slayer4567]

For now, this is a hypothetical question (last I knew, they didn't have HD tuner card for a PC that accepted HDMI inputs), but I thought I'd ask it anyways.

I was thinking about getting a 24" LCD monitor for my computer. I know its native resolution is 1920x1200, which is bigger than HD TV's (correct me if I'm wrong). If I were to get a TV tuner card for my PC that accepts HDMI input, that 24" monitor would work as an HD TV, correct? Or would I have to actually output the video to an HD TV?

[redwudz]

You may have a HDMI output from a video card, but I haven't heard of a HDMI input on a video card. A tuner wouldn't do you any good with a HDMI signal anyway.

I watch HDTV content on my LCD computer monitor all the time. I have a HDTV tuner card with antenna input. This is for OTA (Over The Air) HDTV. It outputs from my video card to my computer monitor by a DVI output and also to my video projector from a component video output. If you have a LCD computer monitor/LCD TV combo, it may have a HDMI input.

[edDV]

1920x1200 could display a 1920x1080p source in full resolution say from a file. You would need a capable display card. The most recent are NVidia's "Purevideo" and ATI's AVIVO.

It is possible to add an HD capable ATSC tuner that can receive and display 1080i or 720p broadcasts. For display, 1080i/29.97 would need to be either inverse telecined to 1080p/23.976 or deintelaced to 1080p/59.94 in software or hardware. 720p/59.94 would be upscaled in hardware to 1080p59.94. To pull this off in realtime, the tuner card would need to pass the MPeg2_TS file to the display software and hardware for decompression and processing.

An alternate path into a computer is over IEEE-1394 from a cable box or a D-VHS HD recorder. Camcorder HDV can also be imported over IEEE-1394. Other options exist at the pro level (e.g. SMPTE-292).

That's the state of the current consumer HD art. There are no DV/HDMI inputs that will accept cable box output. There is one designed to work with HDV camcorder HDMI out.

Next comes internal HD and BD DVD players, then recorders. These will work for your home made recordings but encryption and copy security issues will limit playback of commercial discs to special HDCP supportive display cards and HDCP supportive monitors. If you buy a computer monitor today, you can be near 100% assured it will not work. Wait for someone to test a working configuration. Never assume some driver will make it work later.

The use of a computer as a DVR from a source like a cable box may work someday but HDCP or other copy protection would limit this to an encrypted hardware path approved by the owner of the media. It will take a major player like Microsoft or Intel to pull this off.

Whatever you buy today probably would not work in this DVR configuration for copy protected HD video.

[slayer4567]

Yea, I've been reading up on the up coming HDCP... I know that if all components in the chain aren't HDCP compliant, then it won't show a full 1080i (or p) resolution video. It will get scaled down to, I believe 540, or maybe 720. Right now though, I'm not worried about Blu-Ray or HDDVD's. They are still way to expensive and don't work well enough for me to spend 1G on them.

I'm curious about the IEEE 1394 though. Do most cable boxes have those? I could swear that my old cable box (and when I mean old, I don't really mean old, I mean the one I don't have anymore) had, what I thought was, just a regular USB port on it. If a cable box did have a IEEE 1394 connector, would it be able to output HD video to my LCD screen thru my computer?

Oh, and redwudz, I know of the OTA HD tuner cards, but you're limited in the choice of channels you can watch, mainly because not everyone sends HD broadcasts OTA. That's not quite what I'm looking for.

I guess my basic concern is will there be a significant difference if I scale down the LCD's native resolution to work with the HD resolution 1080? will the picture look muddled? Is it more worth it to get a HD TV instead of using an LCD that has a higher native resolution than the HD standard?

[edDV]

I'm curious about the IEEE 1394 though. Do most cable boxes have those? I could swear that my old cable box (and when I mean old, I don't really mean old, I mean the one I don't have anymore) had, what I thought was, just a regular USB port on it. If a cable box did have a IEEE 1394 connector, would it be able to output HD video to my LCD screen thru my computer?

IEEE-1394 ports are on the high definition capable cable boxes. Some cable companies don't have the ports turned on.

I guess my basic concern is will there be a significant difference if I scale down the LCD's native resolution to work with the HD resolution 1080? will the picture look muddled? Is it more worth it to get a HD TV instead of using an LCD that has a higher native resolution than the HD standard?

1080i downscaled to 1366x768 is the job of the display card. It will range from smeared and blocky to excellent depending on the display card, software player and settings.

So what HD do you intend to watch if not from off air tuners or HD/BD DVD?

[slayer4567]

Well, none yet. That is why at the beginning I said this is hypothetical. I know that tuner cards that will have HDMI I/O ports will be avalible soon, and I also know that they won't be in the consumer market as stand alone cards right away. The idea is to future proof my system, which I know it really won't. Again, for now, this is just hypothetical.

[alien88]

Instead of buying an LCD monitor with a TV tuner, which is a TV. I just want to purchase an LCD monitor and hook it up to a standalone DVD player.

Has anyone got this to work?

LCD monitors run around $200 - $250 here in Vancouver--19" - 22". The TV tuner part is another $250. So, since I don't care about watching TV on it, I don't want to purchase a tuner.

Any help out there?

Thanks in advance.

[edDV]

Instead of buying an LCD monitor with a TV tuner, which is a TV. I just want to purchase an LCD monitor and hook it up to a standalone DVD player.

Has anyone got this to work?

LCD monitors run around $200 - $250 here in Vancouver--19" - 22". The TV tuner part is another $250. So, since I don't care about watching TV on it, I don't want to purchase a tuner.

Any help out there?

Thanks in advance.

You would need to find a DVD player that outputs Vesa standard square pixel RGB over DVI-D or VGA in sizes accepted by the monitor specifications. To do this the DVD player would need to carry the same circuitry needed for a display card to scale and deinterlace video, (i.e. a progressive player) but one that outputs DVI-D at the optimal resolution for the LCD monitor. Upscaling DVD players output 1080i over HDMI which is useless to a computer monitor.

Licensing agreements prohibit DVD upscale of protected commercial DVD discs over 720x480p size (maybe 960x540p under current HDCP negotiations). 720x480 isn't a Vesa resolution and it isn't square pixel. Assuming you get a picture, you would need custom monitor setups to change aspect ratio (H size and V size) to 4:3 or 16:9.

Easier to buy a LCD-TV that will accept HDMI 480p, 720p or 1080i directly. Or buy a scaling computer monitor that accepts YPbPr component analog in 480p or 720p.

In other words, an LCD computer monitor is not a TV. You can get much of what you want using a computer to play a DVD through a display card to the computer monitor.