Watching TV on Your LCD

WOULD YOU LIKE to get more out of your
LCD monitor? If your LCD display is capable
of at least 8ms response time you can
use it as a TV, anything higher may result
in ghosting or blurry pictures.
To receive and process TV signals, you
have three options: an internal TV tuner
card, a USB device, or a TV tuner card that
acts as a bridge between your computer
and your monitor. While the third type will
not let you record programs, with the other
two you can use a hardware or a software
encoder to record programs to hard disk.
Hardware encoders are generally better.
Internal TV tuner cards start from as
low at Rs. 800 and include brands like
Techcom and Frontech. If you are looking
for better software features like time
shifting, and scheduling and better DACs
then you can consider products from PixelView,
Pinnacle, Compro or TUL (ATI
chipset). These manufacturers also produce
external USB 2.0 models.
We tested the Rs. 2,500 Compro Videomate,
a USB 2.0 external model, with a
19-inch widescreen and a 17-inch display.
The performance was quite good, except
that the device draws way too much
power from the USB port. It ships with
an extra USB cable that supplies power
to the device, though you can also connect
it to an independent 5-volt adapter
(not supplied).
The TV tuner is quite feature-rich, and is
easy to install. You can use it with various
kinds of displays, with the option to switch
aspect ratios. The tuner is quite fast, and
scans channels rapidly.
On the downside, this TV tuner uses a
8-bit DAC (Digital to Analog Converter).
So, the contrast and brightness adjustments
are bit limited. This can be be a
problem when cable signal quality is
poor—a problem that is common in
India. The bundled software, Compro
PVR, is slightly unstable and an inconsistent
performer.   Search Amazon.com for LCD