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?

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.

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!