TV on LCD monitor, best method

[danrock]

I just purchased a Dell 2005fpw monitor and was wondering what the best way to watch TV on it would be. I was thinking about either a ViewSonic VB50HRTV TV tuner module or a digital cable box. I am not sure if the viewsonic box will support widescreen resolutions because the website says that max resolution is 1024x768. I think that it might just put bars on the side of the screen, but im not sure. I will have comcast digital cable, but I am not sure what boxes would work with it or if I would need to do anything to get it to work. I also had a quick HDTV question, the max resolution on that monitor is 1680x1050 would it be able to properly display HDTV if not what would it need to support? Progressive scan?

Thanks for the help
Dan

[edDV]

I just purchased a Dell 2005fpw monitor and was wondering what the best way to watch TV on it would be. I was thinking about either a ViewSonic VB50HRTV TV tuner module or a digital cable box. I am not sure if the viewsonic box will support widescreen resolutions because the website says that max resolution is 1024x768. I think that it might just put bars on the side of the screen, but im not sure. I will have comcast digital cable, but I am not sure what boxes would work with it or if I would need to do anything to get it to work. I also had a quick HDTV question, the max resolution on that monitor is 1680x1050 would it be able to properly display HDTV if not what would it need to support? Progressive scan?

Thanks for the help
Dan

Well first, this not a HDTV it's a RGB computer monitor. The Viewsonic box will get you a basic TV tuner and S-Video in from a cable box or game console. You would get more functionality with a ATI All in Wonder card in your computer.

If you can get over the air HDTV the ATI HDTV wonder tuner would put a scaled HDTV image on your screen (1920x1080 downscaled to 1680) but it won't work with a Comcast HDTV cable tuner.

To hook that monitor to a Comcast HDTV tuner you would need a transcoder box like this
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/kd-ctca2.htm
but your monitor can't handle 1920x1080 interlaced in and that is all the normal Comcast HD box puts out (1080i). Talk to the transcoder company. Maybe they have a solution.