Turn Your Monitor Into an HDTV

orangerobot writes "ViewSonic has released an interesting new box that turns any VGA monitor into an HDTV video display with support for standards up to 1080i. At $399 it's a little on the pricey side, but according to the review from EnvyNews, the unit performs pretty well." Like the review, I can't figure out what the target market for this is, but it's still a cool device.

Comments

Hmm

[blitzoid]

I would imagine that simply buying a HDTV would, in the end, be cheaper. HDTVs are just really big monitors IIRC. That's not to say this isn't cool, I just imagine it would be more economical to buy an HDTV and use it as your monitor :D

Re:Hmm

[sacherjj]

But if you already have a 1024x768 VGA capable LCD projector, this is a really cool option. Now, my only problem would be that I would have to watch TV live again. I haven't done that since November, with the exception of the Shuttle and recent Iraq events. Don't think I'll be spending the big bucks when HD TiVo comes out.

Why convergence?

[Blaine Hilton]

I think I'm the only one on the whole planet that is not too excited over combing TV and computers. I think they are different and serve different purposes, and should stay different! I'm not a big TV person though and if I miss a show, OH WELL! Does anyone think the same way?

Uhm, do the math...

[Anonymous Coward]

The cheapest 19" monitor is about $150. Add the $399 to do this, and you're looking at $549 for a 19" TV. Add to that the fact that at that size, you wouldn't even notice a benefit from HDTV, and you start asking, WHY?!?!?!?!?!

Target audience

[nougatmachine]

The target audience would seem to be people who have Xbox or Gamecube consoles and want to play games in progressive scan format, which is rather superior to plain ole TV, but don't have an expensive HDTV. Of course, it is still expensive - but not quite as much so as a huge TV.

Students?

[Fastolfe]

Dorm rooms can be tiny. It's not unreasonable at all to consider using your computer monitor as your television in this situation.

For kids too.

But no, now that I'm out of school, I much prefer them separate.

Re:HDTV?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Most HDTV broadcasts are two seperate pictures of 540 lines high (interlaced).

That's not really how it works. A 1080i picture captures a full 1080 lines of spatial resolution, sacrificing temporal resolution in order to do it. Each frame is 1080 lines high; the fact that the frame is captured and drawn in fields doesn't change the spatial resolution.

Compare a 1080i picture to a 480p picture on the same, high-quality monitor, and you'll be able to see the difference. It's like night and day.

Watching Football or Basketball on the flickering 540 line high displays is painful.

Oh, no it's not. During the season I watched SEC football and some NFL playoff games on CBS in 1080i. It was very, very easy on the eyes. In fact, thanks to CBS's investment in gear and experienced production engineers, it looked a heck of a lot better than ABC's 720p Superbowl broadcast.

And did you watch the Grammys in 1080i? Wow. An amazing, reference-quality broadcast. Possibly the best program in terms of overall picture quality ever broadcast over the air.

Re:One Word - Xbox

[Anonymous Coward]

Why does microsoft stubbornly refuse to release a VGA converter for xbox? Dreamcast had one, and the games looked great at 640x480.

Yeah, we get it Bill, it's not a PC. I understand. Now let me hook it up to a nice cheap 200$ monitor already.

Is anyone doing the following...

[Asprin]

How about instead of getting a traditional large screen TV, I buy one of those ever-less-expensive LCD computer projectors (which has full A/V in/out ports)? Are any of you using a setup like this at home instead of a normal large screen TV? Whaddayathinkofit?

We use one (a Viewsonic LCD projector) at our church to watch movies with our youth group, and the picture quality is pretty amazing. We can make that thing 12 feet diagonal and it's like being in the theater. Combine one of those with this gadget, and HDTV is still way overpriced, but now it's overpriced and HUGE!

Re:Is anyone doing the following...

[David Leppik]

How about instead of getting a traditional large screen TV, I buy one of those ever-less-expensive LCD computer projectors (which has full A/V in/out ports)? Are any of you using a setup like this at home instead of a normal large screen TV?

My dad did this, a few years after I got a projection TV. The TV is several years behind technologically (and it was several important years) so it's much dimmer and slightly lower-res than the computer projector. In my mind they are comparable, but the one that's designed for home theater has a much wider display angle-- I get an 80 inch display, whereas an InFocus I borrowed from work did about 50 inches. If you have a large room, that's not an issue, but my living room is small. (That's one advantage of a ceiling-mounted projector: I couldn't fit any other big-screen TV!)

These days, the computer and TV projectors share a lot of parts. They all come with 2000-hour bulbs (they actually have a 2000-hour shut-down timer so they won't explode.) That's several years of viewing for how I watch. Both display DVDs well.

Almost perfect.

[Anderlan]

If this had a tuner in it, it would be a great way to buy a hdtv thats cheaper, and *higher real resolution* than most HDTVs, albeit in most cases smaller. I wonder how huge monitor prices compare to HDTVs at the same size and same res...

But, since this doesnt include a tuner, it might be cheaper just to have a pc and a tuner. I don't know.

the two drawbacks

[Hollins]

I want to do the same. You could get a big, high resolution display from a small box. I find there are two drawbacks to this scheme:

1. Brightness. Projectors have come a long way, but don't expect to be able to watch football on a Sunday afternoon without drawing the shades.
2. Bulb life. The bulbs in these things only last for a thousand hours or so, then cost hundreds of dollars to replace. I don't know of any that can be user-serviced, but I might be mistaken. This is fine if they're used for a few powerpoint presentations a week, but it doesn't work so well for a home TV.

Not True

[flimflam]

The thing is that you can't judge these things based on the specs alone.

A few differences are that the phosphors on a TV (HD or otherwise) are different than those on a computer monitor. They will display the colors of a video image properly (if it's a decent monitor), plus the decay rate is slower so that a TV monitor at 60 Hz is watchable, whereas a computer monitor at 60 Hz will give you a headache fast.

And yes, you do pay for size as well.

It's funny, but I deal with production-grade (as in film/video production) monitors a lot, and I'm so used to the prices that I find it hard to believe that people find a $300 box expensive. We've got little 6in. LCD HD monitors for $4,000, and a big CRT (like in the 30" range) is easily $30,000.

Re:One of the sure signs you are a nerd

[Kjella]

Does my PC *being* my TV count? I got a TV card and a 19" monitor, that's all I had for a year. Now I'm back with a 32" TV but I often watch stuff on the PC anyway... old habit

Kjella