Advice for External TV Tuner Boxes?

MsGeek asks: "It's time to replace my TV. My current TV is old, ugly and it has a Coax input and an input for the -really- old-school flat two-wire TV antenna cable. I have been looking at tuner boxes like the ViewSonic NextVision series. These are different from external USB tuners in that you don't need to use it with a computer to make it work...you just plug the monitor into the box and away you go. Aver makes a series of these boxes too, as do a few other manufacturers. I was wondering...does anyone in the Slashdot audience actually *use* one of these devices? Do you have good luck with them? How is the computer pass-through input? Does running VGA signals through the box before they hit the monitor degrade them in any way?"

"The reason why I'm looking at this rather than a computer based solution is simple: I don't want to have to rely on whether or not my computer boots or not to be able to watch TV or a DVD. These devices are not dependent in any way shape or form on a computer: you can plug a computer into them through a VGA pass-through port, but it does not need the computer to be able to display TV signals, DVD, videotape or game console input.

Another nice thing is that you can swap out the monitor for a newer, bigger, more improved one at any time, and that when HDTV versions of these boxes come out, it will be a simple matter to just disconnect the old standard analog TV box and install the brand-spanking-new HDTV version. Most 17" CRT monitors are capable of displaying all the HDTV formats, from 1028i to 768p to whatever. Of course, there are bigger CRT and LCD monitors out there, but the 17" is what I have on hand right now to use with it. Besides, the old hunk-o'-junk isn't too much bigger of a screen than a 17" monitor anyway.

Oh yeah, and because these boxes don't rely on computer hardware or software, they can be used with any computer running any kind of OS. Linux? No problem! *BSD? No problem! MacOS 7.5.3 'Unity Release'? No problem! ~_^"

Except...

[herrvinny]

I don't want to have to rely on whether or not my computer boots or not to be able to watch TV or a DVD

Even though you say you don't want to have to turn on your computer to watch TV, I would still recommend a TV tuner card for your computer. You can do some really interesting stuff with a computer based TV, record shows, get listings, etc. There are a lot of open source projects, like the the Dave/Dina distro [slashdot.org] that will add considerable functionality to a multimedia pc. And if you don't like Linux, you can always go with the Windows Media Center OS.

DigiVision box

[Tiersten]

I've got a InnoVISION DigiVision [ivmm.com] box and it works quite nicely. It maxs out at 1024x768 and can handle NTSC, PAL and SECAM (alledgely, I've not got anything that outputs SECAM). I can only speak for the UK spec but it's got a broadcast tuner, S-Video input, composite input and a VGA bypass.

The TV picture quality is quite good but still not up to a real TV. There's no noticeable delay so it's usable with a console. I've plugged my PS2 and XBox into it without any problems at all.

I've not noticed any signal degradation but I've not had a close look. I'm running it with a LCD and the picture looks fine to me.

AverMedia TVs

[saden1]

I have an Aver Media external TV turner and that sucker works wonders. Here is a link to their TV Tuner Product Page [aver.com]

Quality and Quantity

[fm6]

And nicely priced too. But you didn't answer a key question: how does picture quality compare with POTV (Plain Old Television)?

This story has a slight taint of technology for its own sake. I can see combining TV and monitor to save space, but MsGeek just wants to replace an "ugly" and supposedly obsolete TV. Of course, a good TV costs more than these Aver Media gadgets, but not that much more.

The really funny thing is that she thinks her TV is ancient because it has a dipole input. News flash: all TVs h

Re:AverMedia TVs

[martin]

We use the AverTV Box3's at work to enable switching from video to laptop/dvd etc and trade shows.

Works wonders and means the plasma screens we hire only have to cope with one input (VGA or TV whichever)..

Why not ask the experts

[_LORAX_]

There is a whole site dedicated to video equipment, part of which covers the viewsonic style of devices.

http://www.avsforum.com/

Here's some links

[justanyone]

The above article references some products.
Here's the links:
1. Aver.com (product link is HERE [aver.com] has a closed unit (no fan noise, solid state it seems) that is advertised to turn a VGA monitor into a TV. Price: $130.

2. InnoVision (product link is HERE [ivmm.com] same features. Price: Unknown, pricegrabber.com doesn't have any prices nor does the manufacturer site.

3. ViewSonic (product link is HERE [viewsonic.com]
same features. Price: $163

4. WalMart (buy a Micron SuSE PC model "Microtel SYSMAR746 PC With 1.4 GHz Duron" for $199.98, install a Video Card like the "ATI TV Wonder Pro that does this kind of stuff for $65 at Amazon.com [amazon.com] figure out how to control it easily and eliminate fan noise) and you've spent about $275 including shipping. It may be more versatile, but you may not need it to be versatile.

Just some links, hope this is helpful.

I have something similar

[nelsonal]

I've never used those devices, but I connect an X-Box to my montior through something similar. It seems to work well, and I haven't noticed a significant reduction in quality running the monitor through the extra few feet of cable.

Viewsonic VB50HRTV

[afay]

I have the older VB50HRTV from Viewsonic. It works great for my purposes and combined with my 19" Viewsonic monitor makes a wonderful small T.V.

One thing that I would recommend is getting a monitor that has a "super bright" mode. Basically, on my monitor, if i push the button the pictures blur a little bit but the monitor becomes as bright as a normal T.V. so that it doesn't look dim from a distance.

I don't really use the vga pass-through. Instead when I use my computer I simply turn off the tuner box (which makes it into a dumb vga pass-through apparently).

One final thing, I don't really know about reliability on these things. My remote control (which was surprising good on such a cheap box) recently died. Although the picture and inputs work fine, I guess i'll have to fork over the money for a replacement because a lot of the features cannot be controlled through the buttons on the front.

Re:Viewsonic VB50HRTV

[hab136]

I also have a VB50HRTV, have had it for like two years. The remote works fine on mine.

I've used it with regular CRTs and with a 17" LCD. The pass-through works fine (I can't tell it's there), even up to 1280x1024. I have my computer, an S-Video switch box (connected to a PlayStation, Dreamcast, ReplayTV, and DVD player), and my stereo all hooked up to it.

It works as advertised, the picture is perfect, and I'm happy with it.

I bought mine for like $99 I think, some sort of deal back then. I think they'

Samsung SIR-T165

[presearch]

The Samsung SIR-T165 is very nice.

VDI, S-video, composite, component, VGA out.
Firewire (sadly only to D-VHS devices).

Also has some switchable inputs as well.

Gets OTA SD and HD. Some cable too I think (no cable here).

You can control it from it's RS232 port.

Re:Samsung SIR-T165

[presearch]

oops

s/VDI/DVI/

DMCA gets in the way again

[TheSHAD0W]

I doubt you'll see any good HDTV tuner boxes for a while, because the FCC recently mandated that HDTV will be encrypted all the way to the display. Eventually I'm sure you'll see tuners with DVI outputs, but most people don't have monitors with that connection.

av toolbox

[GigsVT]

The best place to get things like this is avtoolbox.com

Upconverters [avtoolbox.com]

I use the $69 model (what has become the green box, the one with the IR remote) for hooking a game system, a satellite box, and a computer to a monitor all at the same time. Computer video is not degraded at all when you use quality VGA cables. Not the thin kind, the shielded kind.

Basically you get svideo input, Coax input to an internal tuner if you want to use direct cable or antenna (or channel 3 for another device input), VGA computer passthrough when the box is off... It's got plenty of inputs.

If you want simpler, you can get the cheesebox. If you want more expensive, you can get video scalers, the lower end ones are just line doublers, they just double each scan line to get 640X480 from NTSC. Line doubled video looks pretty good though on a monitor, especially a larger one. It's not perfect though, it won't look quite as good as a high quality TV, especially up close.

Re:av toolbox

[GigsVT]

Actually now that I look again, my model is more similar to the $89 or $129 model... it has a tuner.

They've redone the product line since I bought mine, my particular model's features have been absorbed into others.

Picture degredation

[Webmonger]

I've used an Aver external box, and found that there were problems VGA image quality. The pass-through added some funny interference patterns to the standard display.

I returned it. I currently use an Aver bt848-based card under Linux.

You're lucky

[Rheingold]

My current TV is old, ugly and it has a Coax input and an input for the -really- old-school flat two-wire TV antenna cable.

My TV only has the flat antenna cable connectors.

Re:You're lucky

[Rheingold]

Not even that good. It gets converted to coax and connects to the VCR/DVD player, which has a dinkly little set of rabbit-ears (w/o bowtie).

Some cool stuff

[macdaddy357]

If you have the money, and I'm saving my quarters! Here is a cool monitor [digitalconnection.com] and some neat tuner cards, [dcpuraty.com] not to mention a computer case that will work in a stereo rack. [dcpuraty.com] If they will send me those for free cause I plugged tham, that would be cool! Too bad it doesn't work that way, though.

Thanks for all the info!

[MsGeek]

Just a brief "thank you" to all the people who responded to my question.

I wanted to clarify a few things. First, I already have a candidate monitor I want to use with an external tuner. I am a great believer in "reduce, reuse, recycle." If I didn't want to reuse the monitor for these purposes I would have bought a new TV months ago.

Second, I have tried the PC/TV route, and it's just too fiddly to use it to replace a TV. With a TV, you want something that will be usable immediately, not something that wil

Planar Video-EX

[specktater]

I picked up a Planar Video-EX (http://www.planar.com/Products/Accessories/Video_ EX.html) a few days ago and it looks better than my ATI AIW Pro 128, but it does have some odd artifacts (very small vertical black and white lines) during fast motion. I would like to know how the Planar stacks up against the Viewsonic and other models.

Speck

a late reply, but...

[TheLittleJetson]

i used to use a product called the XGA theatre [avtoolbox.com] and it was pretty cool. it does a nice tv signal from cable or video in, and was fast enough to play video games (little or no delay on the signal)

i'd highly recomend this device if the I/O ports are the ones you need. :)