lilmike815 wrote:
SixShot said the question I was was a bit of a jumble so i will ask again.
Can I watch HDTV on today's LCD's, DO they need to say they are HD or have some special input (i.e. DVI).
I ask ask the question because I want to start researching for a new computer and I wanna be able to no just play games but also use it for HD movie and TV Watching. So I want to know what features I should look for in a monitor.
As far as viewing HD content on computer monitors via computers, that's easily done. So in some sense, yes you can view them using that. But it's only one variable out of many...
TV viewing through the use of the computer will severely limit you as to what you can watch overall. Viewing HDTV channels over the air is no problem, since there are tuner cards available that can handle it. The problem will be what to do when it comes to HDTV channels through cable, as that can be a hit-or-miss thing, and will vary from provider to provider. This is due to the encryption that some cable providers use to protect their HDTV content. Some do it, some don't. Another fallback is the hardware available made ot handle HDTV content that is encrypted. The hardware for that is very limited and may not even work for you. This side is when you wish to have the hardware in the computer... like your everyday conventional TV tuner cards out there today.
On the other end are the hardware that exists outside the computer box, such as a digital receiver, HDTV receiver, and whatever else associated. For that, viewing HDTV on your computer monitor becomes a little tricky. HDTV reception tuners will have one or two output, perhaps more. One that is likely definite is using component cables. These cables come in 3 wires and are both letter and color coded. They appear like your typical RCA jacks that you see for audio and video (ie. red, white, and yellow). If the only output from the HDTV tuner is that, then viewing it on your computer monitor depends heavily on whether it can accept such input. Computer monitors/panels of this kind is very rare, and probably will carry a heavy price premium compared to others. The other type of output that the HDTV tuner may have is what is called a HDMI port, which is short for High Definition Multimedia Interface. At this time, I have never heard of a computer monitor capable of accepting this as input, unlike other HDTV displays where you're likely to find both DVI and HDMI video inputs.
Working around these limitations is going to be more troublesome than it is worth. There exists a converter that takes HDTV component video input and converts the interface into VGA. But that's an additional hardware expense that is likely to be not worth spending over.
In short... Can you view HD content on the computer? It is definitely possible. Can you watch HDTV on the computer? The hardware exists for over-the-air reception and is scarce/rare for cable reception. What should you look for if you wish to view HDTV? If you're going to be watching HD movies, get a widescreen computer monitor as a starting requirement. TV, however, you're going to have to live with standard-definition video. Your other alternative, which will encompass and provide you with everything (at the cost of higher-resolution), is to find a good HDTV display that'll accept DVI for input.
If you need a suggestion as to what you should get, people have found Dell, Samsung, and Viewsonic to be pretty good for widescreen monitors. The quality will vary between but someone will have to take over from here on out, as I have limited knowledge on this particular area.
