tv on my monitor

[Olly]

Righty ho....
I've got a little Dell Vostro, must be about 18 months old. The screen's only 1366x768 plus I want a standalone monitor I can watch TV on.

My Dell doesn't have a DVD player either....sooooooooooo

What do I need to buy please?
24" widescreen is I guess about right, perhaps a tad bigger.
I want to watch telly on it so how do I do that?
Will a DVD player be a Freeview / digital tuner too - is that what I need?
Do PC monitors come with remote controls?

Help me out please chaps.

Ta very much

edit: BUGGER ..no HDMI out on vostro v13....bugger bugger bugger - how on earth to I connect to an external monitor? through the 15pin D socket on the back? does that do sound? I'm guessing it has limitations?

[VectraMan]

edit: BUGGER ..no HDMI out on vostro v13....bugger bugger bugger - how on earth to I connect to an external monitor? through the 15pin D socket on the back? does that do sound? I'm guessing it has limitations?

It's called VGA.

[SimonMac]

TVCatchup - Never Miss A Show Again

[Spacecadet]

does that do sound?

No

Are you sure you work in IT?

[Clippy]

I bought a Samsung P2470HD last year which sounds like it will fulfill your requirements.

It has a built in digital TV tuner so you just need to plug in your TV aerial for TV reception.

Connect your laptop via the VGA socket and your DVD player via HDMI and you are sorted.

[Pondlife]

Nest time you're looking at laptop accessories in Dixons you need to do the following;

Stand up straight.

Look towards the far wall.

If it has fridges and freezers against it turn 90 degrees.

If it has hoovers, dysons turn 90 degrees.

Keep doing this until you see a bank of coloured screens showing football.

Walk towards them and explain your predicament to a sales chappie.





Note to Mods: Obvious trolling outside of General I know.

[Olly]

I'm being serious chaps.....it was a simple post so that I'd get recommendations and advice from the site's esteemed more gadget aware members.

I honestly don't know if the VGA output will support full HD resolution. The sound bit...erm...well ok I did know that but if I play dumb then maybe someone helping out will come up with a nugget.

TVcatchup doesn't fullfill the DVD capability and the connection (BT vision) slows to crawl when someone's watching a movie in the other room but it's def something to keep in mind.

Ok ok....I'll ask a shop assistant but to say they've been close to useless in the past is an understatement.

I've been thinking this may do the trick Samsung FX2490HD 24-inch Full HD 1080p Widescreen LED TV/Monitor (250 cd/m2, MEGA DCR, 1920 x 1080, 5ms, HDMI)Samsung FX2490HD 24-inch Full HD 1080p Widescreen LED TV/Monitor (250 cd/m2, MEGA DCR, 1920 x 1080, 5ms, HDMI): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

[doodab]

I have my laptop running at 1920x1200 into a Samsung T240, so the VGA connection will be fine as long as your laptop graphics are up to it. DVI would be better though. Neither of these will transmit sound.

A DVD player generally won't have a tuner but a DVD recorder usually will. Another alternative to receive freeview is a USB TV tuner from e.g. hauppauge.

[BoredBloke]

Why not buy a new TV - it will have a connection for your laptop. Getting it past the taxman might be an issue though unless you ar a MP

USB tuners are pretty cheap - the speakers on your laptop will do the sound and a cheap pair of external speakers will make it better and any old monitor will do the video

[pmeswani]

I'm being serious chaps.....it was a simple post so that I'd get recommendations and advice from the site's esteemed more gadget aware members.

I honestly don't know if the VGA output will support full HD resolution. The sound bit...erm...well ok I did know that but if I play dumb then maybe someone helping out will come up with a nugget.

TVcatchup doesn't fullfill the DVD capability and the connection (BT vision) slows to crawl when someone's watching a movie in the other room but it's def something to keep in mind.

Ok ok....I'll ask a shop assistant but to say they've been close to useless in the past is an understatement.

I've been thinking this may do the trick Samsung FX2490HD 24-inch Full HD 1080p Widescreen LED TV/Monitor (250 cd/m2, MEGA DCR, 1920 x 1080, 5ms, HDMI)Samsung FX2490HD 24-inch Full HD 1080p Widescreen LED TV/Monitor (250 cd/m2, MEGA DCR, 1920 x 1080, 5ms, HDMI): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Olly, As far as I am aware, the VGA standards havent changed for quite some time. So to answer your question, VGA has never supported HD, and probably never will. HDMI does support HD (hence the name). You may be able to play HD content on via your VGA connections, but that will require software codecs to allow you to see the HD content in VGA mode and not in true HD mode (whatever that may be).

VGA doesn't support audio, and is unlikely to support it in the future. DVI doesn't support audio either. It's only HDMI that outputs any form of sound without a separate sound card.

Hope that helps.