Adding Stand Alone Tuner Capability to LCD monitor

**ampire** · **06-29-09, 04:00 PM**

I posted this in a subforum but I don't think it got any traffic.

Right now I purchased the Asus vh242h 23.6" 1080p monitor. My apartment uses some dish network setup that gives analog "cable" channels via coax included in my rent money. I don't have the money or the interest for paying for FIOS/Comcast etc or getting a DVR with hdmi and using that as my tuner. A seperate tuner box would also let me hook up my ps2 to the monitor I think.Would one of those kworld style tuner boxes be a good solution for using this monitor as my TV as well as my monitor? Are those tuner box solutions any good?

**tonyvdb** · **06-30-09, 06:35 PM**

This type of monitor makes a lousy TV due to the fact the they dont have a built in tuner and because its not a true PC monitor it is not ideal for that either, an external tuner from the PC is your best option but gets costly in a hurry there is no real cheap solution.

**jackfish** · **07-01-09, 09:31 AM**

A KWorld TV Box 1680 EX is $60. Has some rough edges but does do what you want.

**ampire** · **07-01-09, 10:32 AM**

Quote:

tonyvdb wrote:

This type of monitor makes a lousy TV due to the fact the they dont have a built in tuner and because its not a true PC monitor it is not ideal for that either, an external tuner from the PC is your best option but gets costly in a hurry there is no real cheap solution.

Explain how its not a true PC monitor?

I am thinking Ill just live with my 20 year old crt tv until I graduate then.

**jackfish** · **07-02-09, 09:15 AM**

I have a 24" Westinghouse LCD hybrid monitor HD TV which works fine as either. I usually play 1080i upconverted DVDs on it and the picture is very good. Unlike the Asus you are looking at, mine has no speakers, but I run the audio through a stereo. A KWorld TV Box 1680 EX would allow you to access your cable TV signal and play it through the Asus VH242H.

**tonyvdb** · **07-04-09, 12:54 PM**

Quote:

ampire wrote:

Explain how its not a true PC monitor?

I am thinking Ill just live with my 20 year old crt tv until I graduate then.

LCD TVs do not scale video well and thus if you using it for anything other than its native resolution (1920×1080) your not going to get a very nice picture, PCs usually dont support this setting right out of the box as its a 16x9 display so there will be some scaling or the image will have black bars on the sides in order to fit when using it as a PC monitor.
PC monitors work well for PCs and TV monitors are ok for TV but only at its native resolution.

**ampire** · **07-06-09, 06:29 PM**

Quote:

tonyvdb wrote:

LCD TVs do not scale video well and thus if you using it for anything other than its native resolution (1920×1080) your not going to get a very nice picture, PCs usually dont support this setting right out of the box as its a 16x9 display so there will be some scaling or the image will have black bars on the sides in order to fit when using it as a PC monitor.
PC monitors work well for PCs and TV monitors are ok for TV but only at its native resolution.

Thats too bad because my dell laptop supports 1920x1080 and its a basic 2 year old latitude. Looks great on this monitor.

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