New video card - PCI, TV, widescreen

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Hola! I recently picked up a 20.1" widescreen for my wife and I plan to upgrade an older computer's video card that will support the native resolution of the monitor. I would also like to be able to use this monitor for television and to watch DVDs. Very, very little gaming. Video cature and recording would be fine but isn't a priority. The computer has PCI slots only, I think, and it has a 64MB NVIDIA GeForce card at the moment.

I currently have the monitor set up via the analog monitor cable, and it looks alright, but of course the picture is stretched out.

Any suggestions on a single card that will take care of all my needs? Would I be better off using two cards? I could really use your help - I am not really clear on the difference between the options for video cards.
 
PS - the monitor is the sceptre 20" from Costco - no extra video inputs, just DVI. I would consider exchanging this if it made for an easier TV connection. I don't really understand why I can't go directly from the satt. box to the monitor - do I have to watch TV via software???
 
danimal1971 said:
Thanks mnm - I had looked at some of the newegg cards. Would this one work, or do I need to pay more attention to the resolution settings available?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102318

Do you know of a combo card? If not, could you or anyone let me know what I could expect from something like this???

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...t&productCategoryId=cat01151&id=1091099665361

The first one only supports up to DirectX 7. Most modern software requires high DX versions. I suggest sticking with a card that supporst DX9.

The second one is fine for TV, but again needs to be used in ADDITION to a display card. There are hundreds of TV tuner cards you could choose from, but you would need an AGP slot for a combo video display TV tuner card like the ATi All-In-Wonder cards.
 
I guess that's the scary part - there are 100s of cards to choose from. I like the idea of pressing a button to toggle between computer and TV - maybe I would be better off using a tv as a monitor, rather than a monitor as a tv......
 
danimal1971 said:
I guess that's the scary part - there are 100s of cards to choose from. I like the idea of pressing a button to toggle between computer and TV - maybe I would be better off using a tv as a monitor, rather than a monitor as a tv......


There are many LCD monitor / TV's out there. Some that are even HDTV ready. Here's a good example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116370

The cool thing about having a TV tuner card though, is that you can have a little TV window open on your desktop and surf the internet or other things at the same time.
 
What are your system specs? you should always put them in your profile. I can find a vid card that will work in your mobo (motherboard)
 
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