computer/Tv combo help!

[Bonibelle]

Oh boy..I hope I didn't just make a huge mistake but I ordered a computer with a Wide Aspect digital flat panel display and the dual TV tuner in an attempt to please both my hubby and myself.
I wanted a more media capable computer..for movies and to burn DVD's and he wanted an LCD, plasma or what ever TV. I thought that I could kill two birds with this system...Anybody have any thoughts? Darn I hate when I act impulsively...and that is just what I did ..
Does anyone have a set up like this?  I am getting sick......
Quite honestly the only purchase that didn't get me upset was my tub!..this is making me sick!

Thanks for any help or thoughts,  Boni

[wmccall]

Personally I like to keep my computing and TV separate, but every now and then I will hook my laptop up to my 50" screen just because I can.   I am enjoying taking old VHS movies and burning them onto DVD.

[Bonibelle]

Bill, I wanted to also burn my old 8mm tapes to DVD's and have the ability to record DVD's from the TV. Believe it or not, I have 7 TV's in the house and my husband and I sit at the bar in the kitchen and watch football games on a 13 inch TV!  that's crazy, but that is what we do. I just thought he could go to my computer room and watch TV, burn DVds, look at movies or pictures or play games...He loves the 26 inch Plasma TV that my sister just got my brother-in-law ..I guess you are right though, and thats why I am upset...

[Tman122]

I use my 17 inch laptop and a digital TV reciever through Microsoft Media when I go camping. Nice for movies when it's raining and map/GPS software to get us there and look at the surrounding area. Combined with the sprint card we have internet everywhere, except up in the woods of Northern Minnesota, but thats the way we want it!!! We also unload our camera into the laptop, record fuel usage and several other things I dare not mention here. But in your case bonnie, I woulda bought a big ole digital plasma for home. And keep the computing seperate.

[Vinny]

Here's my $0.02 although I'm not a computer geek ...

Since you ordered the whole system as one, you'll be OK. I believe as technology moves forward, you need to take a "snapshot" of the time and not think about upgrading certain components in the future.

What works today may not work next year. I once bought a video accellerator card and the computer's processor couldn't handle the upgrade. The computer was about 1 1/2 years old and the video card was new technology.

I tell people who ask me just buy what they need for now or for the near future and when the time comes in a few years, buy a new computer. As long as you're not looking for the computer to do some unforseen future project or change out components such as video cards the computer will last for a while.

The only thing I think you need is a signal splitter if your computer is on a cable internet carrier, I don't think the video card is connected to the modem area.

[Bonibelle]

Vinny, I have Verizon for my fios service and Comcast for my cable. If I understand correctly (and that is part of my problem), I can hook the cable up using the TV tuner...and just connect my broadband through the Verizon router.  
I really do wish I had thought this out more...I am happy with the computer aspect of the deal, but I don't know if my expectations for this being two things in one are over blown.  

My husband would love to have a rear projection TV, but we only have one room that is big enough to accomodate what he was thinking about. that room is usually occupied by one of the kids....playing video games or just messing it up!  The ones I looked at cost over $2500.00...and that is almost what I paid for the computer!

I think I will wait to tell my husband about my new purchase until maybe Christmas... :-/

[badval]

I bought a50" plasma from Dell & have been absolutely thrilled with it.  It replaced a 46" projection HDTV & the difference is night & day.

I just use the cable box though - haven't bothered trying to run everything thru a PC.  I just don't watch enough TV to bother.  

Plasmas have really dropped in price over the past 18 months.  I wouldn't go rear-projection again for anything.  Even with the DLP rear projection models, the overall picture quality & viewing angles simply aren't there compared to a good plasma.

Do you watch movies or TV from the computer you had?  If not, you probably won't bother to w/ the new one either.  You might be better off keeping your PC and home theater needs separate.  Using one system for both is going to be difficult.  Just setting up a room so you can watch it as a tv but still have a workstation to use it will be a challenge.  Then you have family conflicts of someone wanting to use the PC or watch TV - you're going to be limited to doing one or the other (not impossible to do both, just not practical).

[Bonibelle]

Exactly, and you are right, I just should have given all this more thought.....I guess when I realized that I could watch TV on the computer monitor, it seemed like a good idea. the thing that may still work is the capability to record to a DVD from the TV card and to be able to watch one thing and record another at the same time.

The reason that I wasn't too impressed with the plasma TVs is that they use so much more energy than LCD or the projection TV's.
I am glad to know your thoughts about the rear projection models..I thought the sony models looked good.

I have never watched TV from the computer or even watched a DVD on this computer..but now I will have a computer with a decent size screen and surround sound so who knows,...

Yep, I should have thought this out better....oh well...

[Vinny]

OK, I'll be up to $0.04...

Boni, the fios modem gets hooked up to the computer via an ethernet cable (looks like a huge telephone plug) and I think the TV portion of the video card will come with an "F" connector like a cable box. The only problem would be if you have a premium channel and need the cable box to pick it up, your computer couldn't pick it up without the box. To confuse matters more is that if you want fax capabilities from your computer you need to hook up a phone line too. Each portion of the computer acts independatly of each other.

The video card may be able to do pict in pict or it may open up a screen similar to opening up Windows Media Player and having another program on. If a screen is big enough ( I have a 19" flat panel LCD on the computer - it's big) you can have the best of both worlds- being here on WTB and watching the Eagles lose! (I'm not a fan of any team - just playing with you).

Now for the not so good news ... plasma screens have a short life expectancy. They supposedly burn themselves out in a short (3 years or so) time, LCD is the way to go. Also, technology is evolving in the high def market. The new stuff coming out is 1080i and it blows away the 720 high def monitors. I saw a 1080i LCD monitor in Circuit City that looked like a photo - it was amazing! Of course it's at a store with I'm sure enhancements that made it look that way. I have a 20" enhanced def LCD monitor that's running at standard def in my bedroom and it's there to free up space on my wife's dresser. It's good enough for the bedroom as we watch all of tops an hour of TV then go to sleep.

I think you did well in both aspects ... the computer will do what you need and 1080i will come down in price as more and more manufacturers make them available.

[Bonibelle]

Vinny, I guess I didn't do such a good job of explaining what I bought ...maybe since I didn't know myself...The monitor is a wide aspect digital flat panel and it is 24 inches. I just thought it would be similar to the size and picture quality of my sister's new TV.
All the stuff on the computer is good...for the things that I want to do. We don't get the premium TV channels so that is not an issue and I have an all in one, so I fax from that, not my computer. the Tv tuner card says the computer can record like Tivo without the cost..I don't know if that is a big deal...To be honest, we mostly only watch the news and sports...and discovery channel, so I don't know what I was thinking...
My kids are excited about it because it is new technology...at least in our house. I don't think I will tell my husband for a while...maybe until it is delivered. I never do things like this...I could have had a nice computer with a decent monitor for about 1200.00..Oh well

[autoplay]

But in your case bonnie, I woulda bought a big ole digital plasma for home. And keep the computing seperate.

I agree with TMAN!   Over a year ago....I purchased a killer monitor.  Paid a hair under 800 bucks for it. It's a 19" Sony high def monitor,made for the computer.  It has split screen etc etc.  When I purchased it,I thought it would be great on sundays,to watch the games in high def,while foolin around on puter.  The picture is GREAT!  I had it hooked up for a little over 2 months,as far as cable and high def etc. Was paying about 8 dollars a month for the high def box.

My experience....I didn't watch the games and use computer much at the same time...so over-all,it was a waste of money. After football season last year,I returned the high def receiver/converter.  For me,multi-tasking TV and computer on same monitor,wasn't what I thought it would be as far as convenience.

When I compute/internet etc presently...I do either 1 OR the other,without distractions,and the same can be said as far as watchin football.

If I was you,I would purchase a 42" Plasma (that's what we have)  with high def capability! DO NOT purchase a ED monitor!(extended definition). It doesn't offer the high resolution that a true high def TV does.  The brand we purchased was/is a Panasonic. It's been a little over 2 years since we purchased it,and the picture is still as good as the day we bought it.

P.S. ...  I love my wife,as she loves football just as much,and maybe even more,than me

[Bonibelle]

Well I am pretty much stuck with the computer...and about $600.00 went into that darn screen...I'd have to find somewhere to unload
my 32 inch TV to accomodate a new 42" TV...guess may just wait a little while for the TV...I should have posted this before I orderd the computer...

I love football too, Auto, but my husband is so pasionate about his Eagles that he often ruins it for me...He is really out of control sometimes and I end up hiding somewhere so I can enjoy the game without my "extra commentator"...Maybe I won't tell him about the monitor capabilty to play TV...he will think I am on the computer..and I can watch the game in peace when he gets all crazy...
thanks for all your help, I just made a bad decision... :-/

[dkersten]

OK, lemme throw in my 2 cents since not only do I work on computers as my daily job now, but I was in audio/video for 10 years before I did this.

First, let me point out that it all comes down to personal preference.  Even though the arguments I came up with for myself may be sound for me, they dont work for everyone, so dont take what I did as what you should do.

I look at it this way:  it is MUCH more comfortable for me to sit in the family room in a leather recliner watching a movie or TV than to sit in my computer room.  Many times when I watch a movie on DVD, more than one family member joins me, and only one person can fit in my little office, so it makes sense for me to have a theater room and a seperate computer room.

I have a 48" rear projection mitsubishi hdtv in the family room downstairs, which is where I set up my home theater.  I could have (and can still) added a computer to the system for added features, but I dont think I would ever use those features.  The local cable service provided a DVR (digital video recorder) with dual tuners for cable service, and a DVD player, even a good one, will cost less than $100 these days.  The only thing I cant do in that room is listen to my music from my computer, which I wouldnt do in that room anyway, or watch slideshows and whatever from my computer, which I also wouldnt do.  I can edit and burn video in my office and take the dvd into the theater room to watch if I want.

I have a 24" dell widescreen on my computer in my office, and bought a 17" wide phillips lcd TV to put next to it if I want to watch TV in there as well.  I have had TV tuner cards in the PC but I never used them.  I have a cable box in that room as well so I can set shows that I like to record there, and transfer them to my computer quite easily if I want to put them on DVD.  I have been known to download a movie now and then and if I dont feel like burning it to dvd, I can always watch it on the 24" widescreen.  I have 5.1 audio on the computer, and it sounds quite good.  So if I want that option, I have it, but to be honest, that is not why I bought the 24" widescreen (paid $745 for it from Dell).  I only watch a movie in there when I am bored and my wife isnt around to watch it.

Upstairs I put up a 32" lcd above the fireplace after I completed a living room renovation.  It was kind of an afterthought but I figured that a formal living room didnt really fit my family lifestyle, and after spending a chunk of money on the renovation I wanted to use the room.  The size is perfect for the room, and once again, we have a cable box with dual tuner and DVR in it there.  The TV can be seen from the dining room, so we removed the 13" tv from the counter, which the kids used quite often.

For me, I have no reason to have the computer as a media center, just because I wouldnt use it.  The 48" mitsubishi rear projection tv cost me $1500 4 years ago.  Most rear projections are LCD or DLP now, but you can get a really good looking DLP in 50+ inches for around $1500-$2000 from costco these days.  The 32" lcd cost me $1500 as well, but can be had for around $1100 now, and the same brand 37" can be had for 1400 at costco right now.  

Now, as far as cable goes, Comcast does pretty much the same thing my local company does for service and hardware.  If you just plug in the cable to your new computer, you can get the first 60 channels and nothing else.  These are the analog channels and the rest of the channels require an addressable digital tuner.  Many TV's support cable cards now, but I have not seen a tuner than supports digital cable (or hd cable) without a box.  The dual tuner setup you bought is a good way to go as far as digital video recording (TiVo style) but since you will have to have 2 cable boxes to take full advantage, it probably wont work well.  You can get the motorola dual tuner DVR box from Comcast which will do everything your computer will do concerning TV media.  It is also unlikely that the dual tuner media center you bought is NOT HD compatible.  This means that you cannot record HD channels on your computer.  There is a LOT to the whole computer tuner HD thing, and lets just say that its still very undeveloped technology.

Now, this doesnt necessarily mean that you wasted your money.  The dual tuners probably arent gonna do you a whole lot of good, but the 24" monitor is something that you dont need to be watching movies to enjoy.  I am very happy with mine.  You will still have a lot of options for incoming video, and the nice thing is you should have all the authoring tools you will need to convert older video formats to DVD.  While windows media edition isnt required for this stuff, it can make it easier if you are not very computer savvy.  

Since I am running out of room here I will make another post about LCD vs Plasma vs rear projection.

[badval]

Well I am pretty much stuck with the computer...

Not really.  If it hasn't been delivered yet, just call Dell & change the order.  If it has been delivered, call them & tell them it doesn't fit your needs & would like to return it & then buy whatever you feel would fit you better.  If it has been delivered, you'll probably have to pay return shipping.  If it hasn't, it shouldn't cost you anything.

I work for Dell BTW & people cancel & change orders all the time.  If you look at the refurb website (dell outlet), you'll see at most times at least 1/2 of what's on there are "previously ordered new".  That means someone ordered it, it was built, then the customer decided to change/cancel, or it couldn't be delivered for some other reason.

You can take the money you save getting exactly what you want/need in the PC & put that toward a nice high def TV of your choice.    

[dkersten]

OK, concerning TV's:

In my opinion, LCD is the way to go.  Plasma is nice as it will be brighter, have a higher contrast, and a softer image.  LCD is a little sharper, and can be too sharp, and the blacks are not as good.  Some people will argue about LCD's having ghosting or smearing images because of the slower response times, but I have installed and viewed $75,000 projection TV's and let me say that I dont see an issue with them.  A cheap LCD with a crappy upconverter might have compression issues which will lead to tiling where you see a bunch of squares on the screen.  However, digital cable will do this often, and it wont have anything to do with the TV when it comes from your cable box.  Sometimes in fast action sequences you might also get some tiling or artifacting (artifacting is when little bits of video seem to freeze and not be in the right place after a couple frames).  Most times this is once again from the source rather than the TV, but some LCD tvs handle this worse than others.  Most times this is from the upconversion process, which is when you take an NTSC tv signal (from any non-hd source such as your cable box or dvd) and the upconverter in the tv changes it from however many lines of resolution to a format that can be outputted to the LCD panel.  NTSC has 480 lines max, but digital cable is usually compressed so much that you are lucky to get 240 lines, and analog cable usually is around 320 lines.  DVD's have a solid 480 lines of resolution, and a newer DVD player with an upconverter will bump that to 720 or 1020 lines.  With all that conversion going on, there are a lot of places things can go bad and result in a bad image.  Plasma is a softer image so it doesnt show the problems as much.

The problem is that most people end up watching DVD's or regular analog or digital TV channels as opposed to HD content.  The result is looking at a sometimes horrible quality picture and blowing it up to 32, 40, or even 50 or 60 inches.  A good TV will be able to use different filters to make that image much better looking.  My 48" mitsubishi is the entry level for that model and didnt have a really good upconverter, and the noise filtering is not that good, so the image on the analog channels is horrible.  My 32" lcd has a great noise filter and a good upconverter and the image on the analog channels is pretty darn good.  

As I said, plasmas do have a tendency to burn in, which is where you get a permanent image sort of ghosted onto your screen.  This will happen if you play a console video game a lot where parts of the screen are static and dont change.  This can also happen if you watch a channel like ESPN a lot and the logo is always in the bottom corner, or there is a news bar at the bottom of the screen.  LCD's wont burn in ever.  Plasmas these days are better, with life expectancies up to 50,000 hours for the panel.  Burn in is the biggest issue.  

One thing you have to watch for though is on cheaper models, where the image might be every bit as good as the more expensive models, the features might not be as good.  Vizio is a newer brand that has an excellent image.  Consumer reports rated them high.  However, there are basically 3 modes to watch them in:  zoom, where the image is just zoomed to fit a 4:3 to the 16:9 screen; stretch, where the image is stretched to fit, so everything looks wide and squashed; and standard, where they put black bars on the sides so that you are watching a 4:3 in 4:3.  Zoom chops off the top and bottom, and if you have a digital channel with 240 lines of resolution, you are chopping off another 40 lines which leaves you with a horrible picture.  Stretch leaves the lines of resolution but stretches the image so it is bad.  4:3 standard looks right but you have a smaller image and more importantly, the bars will burn in on a plasma.

Better TV's will have more options, including stretches that also zoom a little so that you have a full image with less extremes of the downsides, or a stretch that leaves the middle the right aspect ratio but stretches the sides a little more to fit.  Even better, a good TV will have an auto option that detects if the picture is letterboxed so it can zoom in, or whatever and give you a good picture for any format.  

HDTV has many modes, and to me, they all look good.  1020p is the best, and blu-ray dvd players use that mode.  However there are almost no dvd's out for this format, and the players are expensive.  HD-DVD is supposedly coming out with a 1020p format but same scenario, expensive players and few movies.  So to be honest, most LCD's can do 1020i even though it is downconverted, but there is no reason to spend extra to get the 1020p right now.  It will be 3 to 5 years before 1020p is really even a mainstream choice, and it will still be limited and expensive by then.  

As far as projectors go, LCD projectors are, in my opinion, all pretty bad.  I have never seen one I really like.  DLP projectors arent bad, but tend to be a little more expensive.  However you can find decent DLP projectors now in the 50+ inch range for under $2000.  They will not have the latest DLP technology, but once again, you will likely be watching a very low resolution image, and if you do watch HD (espn monday night football in HD rocks), the image will still be unbelieveably good.  

One more quick note on TV's, HDMI cables are expensive, so dont forget that when shopping.