For various reasons, I moved my PC out into the den today. What we'd like to do is to hang a twenty something inch LCD monitor on the blue wall and use it for the PC as well as TV, DirecTV, DVD, etc. We'd be able to see it from the kitchen as well as the den. So, my question, how do I go about that? Do I need an LCD TV, a pure monitor? What cards do I need? Even though I did put together the PC myself, assume I'm a rube, and assume I don't know some of the uber cool new gadgets that are out there on the market.
I do believe that's the most disturbing paint combination I've ever seen. As for the monitor, I think a plasma ought to work, but I'm not entirely sure - I know our big LCD TV has a computer monitor jack...
There's the blue, and then the rainbow elephants you slowly start to see as looking at the blue drives you crazy. At least that's my guess about what he was referring to.
Most of the LCD and plasmas nowadays have the HDVI or DVI interface available... but you may have to change your video card to make use of it.
If you are willing, and a little patient, you can buy DVI cables and terminate the ends yourself. Buying a DVI cable long enough for this may cost you an arm and a leg.
You CAN get a regular monitor, but unless you've got a tuner card, it won't play TV, and the price increases faster for a monitor than a TV due to the higher pixel density. Any TV card ought to do unless you get HD over satellite, in which case it all depends on how the HD stream is output. If it's standard ATSC over coax, any HDTV tuner card will work, and there are more and more of them these days. You work it like an regular cable box: set the tuner to channel 3 or 4, and change the channel with the satellite receiver remote. More likely though, if it's HD, it's got HDMI or possibly DVI out. This presents a problem, as there aren't much in the way of capture or even pass-through cards with DVI- or HDMI-in ports, and most LCD monitors don't have multiple digital inputs, though there is a DVI-component adapter, and I think one of the ATi TV cards has a breakout box with component input. One thing to consider is a hybrid HDTV/monitor... these usually are smaller than TV's at the same price point, and have all the inputs you need, for computer, DVD, receiver, and video games. Samsung makes a good one, but, IIRC, the 17" version runs something like $1500.
I bought a 26" Phillips LCD about a year ago for $900 - does what you want it to do. Basically my video card is both DVI and your regular vanilla cable - DVI to the LCD, and I have the extra monitor for more real estate. Pretty damn sure that it came with a 6' DVI cable, but I might have found it elsewhere (couldn't have spent more than $40 on the cable) A few caveats - some games have difficulty running on some of the resolutions the LCD uses, LCD (up close) isn't really that great for old fashioned animated programs or anything else with moving "outlines" - gets a bit blurry - great for anything your PC will display and great for DVD, just seems to be weird watching all that kids programming via the cable inputs. And there are some games that are just so much better at 26" than 19"
