All very obvious stuff to you lot, which is great. Eyeing up this or this monitor for my laptop. But can I also watch telly on it. If I have an HD box, will the quality be HD quality, and could have the TV and my computer screen on it at the same time?
Also, while at it, check this out.
Monitor help...
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Gavin Scott
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Both of those monitors will display HDTV through a set top box.
The smaller of the two will display 1900x1200 pixels, while the 30" model can resolve a whapping 2560x1600. Both are in excess of HDTV standards.
They both take DVI-D/HDCP connectors, which will connect to a set top box. HDCP is a digital encryption system that some HD suppliers will use, so it's important that these screens have it.
Although they use the same type of connection, the larger screen requires a "dual link" DVI-D cable. Single link DVI-D can send about 165 million pixels per second. Dual link can send twice as much information down it, which would be essential to get the best out of a 30" screen.
Your Sky or Telewest box only use "single link" connections at present, so HDTV results on the larger screen, ironically, might seem less satisfying than the smaller one.
You should be able to to use the picture-by-picture function when using your pc and TV at the same time, but obviously it will squash the HD picture while its doing it.
The smaller of the two will display 1900x1200 pixels, while the 30" model can resolve a whapping 2560x1600. Both are in excess of HDTV standards.
They both take DVI-D/HDCP connectors, which will connect to a set top box. HDCP is a digital encryption system that some HD suppliers will use, so it's important that these screens have it.
Although they use the same type of connection, the larger screen requires a "dual link" DVI-D cable. Single link DVI-D can send about 165 million pixels per second. Dual link can send twice as much information down it, which would be essential to get the best out of a 30" screen.
Your Sky or Telewest box only use "single link" connections at present, so HDTV results on the larger screen, ironically, might seem less satisfying than the smaller one.
You should be able to to use the picture-by-picture function when using your pc and TV at the same time, but obviously it will squash the HD picture while its doing it.
Thanks Gavin that's much appreciated. Would there be a way of connecting the Digibox to my computer, so I can watch HD on my laptop screen, and then connect my laptop to the 30" monitor using the dual connection, giving me the freedom to simply have the telly as a resizable window next to my other programmes, with no quality lost in transition?
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Gavin Scott
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I'm afraid not. Your laptop screen can't taken an external input from your set top box. Even if it could then you wouldn't be able to see your desktop - it would be one input or the other.rts wrote:Thanks Gavin that's much appreciated. Would there be a way of connecting the Digibox to my computer, so I can watch HD on my laptop screen, and then connect my laptop to the 30" monitor using the dual connection, giving me the freedom to simply have the telly as a resizable window next to my other programmes, with no quality lost in transition?
You can buy DVB cards to slot into a pc (a bit like a miniature bigibox) which will allow you to to watch cable (DVB-C), satellite (DVB-S) and terrestrial (DVB-T). You can then watch SD programmes within a window or full screen on your laptop.
However, HDTV broadcasts are processor hungry, so your laptop would need to be top of the range to cope with it. You might only end up seeing 5-10 frames per second.
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Nick Harvey
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