Easiest/Cheapet/Quicket Way To use a Monitor as a TV

[Tijuana]

So I have a laptop i could use, so would I just need a tvtuner for my laptop? And how many channels would I get, since im with Rogers and have digital cable, would I get all the ones im subscribed to? Thanks

[Mr Nobody]

You would need a USB tuner "card". $80-$150, depending on sale or not.

You would get whatever channels you normally get with a TV since monitor+tuner=TV.

In other words, you would get all the standard channels (2-70 or whatever, plus the few misc. higher # channels like 104 or whatever) if you plug the cable directly to the tuner card just as you would if you plugged the cable directly into your TV.

To get all the digital channels, you would need the Rogers receiver and plug its composite/svideo out into the tuner card. You would then use a device called an IR Blaster to control the channel changing on the receiver.

Being a laptop, you'd most likely want to settle for the standard channels.

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Another option is to set up the TV tuner on a desktop with SageTV and run SageTV client on the laptop. Now you have full functioning TV tuner (AND PVR FUNCTIONALITY) on your laptop. Even works wirelessly!

[willy]

Probably not the best but it's cheap .... C$29.99 ... http://www.cty.ca/details.asp?pid=1780

Hurry, ends this Sat.

For the digital channels, you still need your digital box.

[rf134a]

Probably not the best but it's cheap .... C$29.99 ... http://www.cty.ca/details.asp?pid=1780

Hurry, ends this Sat.

For the digital channels, you still need your digital box.

I've got one and it sucks. The Intervideo Home Theatre software that comes with it crash often and locks up the system. Upgrading to v2 from the website is free but the up & down buttons become "previous channel" buttons rather than changing the channels. The voice is out of sync with the video and any intensive drive access will cause stutter in the video even if there are no other active USB devices. 2 windows are active at any given time. One is the tv channel, the other is just a plain magenta box that does nothing. On the plus side, the video window will scale to any size with increasing graininess.

I guess you can't really complain too much for $30. :| :(