Help me get the most use out of my new monitor.

January 18, 2007 7:23 PM

What should I hook up to my 22" widescreen HD monitor?

I got this monitor for Christmas, and it looks really awesome, and now I just need some way to use it, preferably to its maximum capabilities.

The way I see it, there are these options:

1. One of my laptops. I have two laptops, one is a Thinkpad R60 the other an HP something or other (3.2 ghz, 128meg video). Problem here is that the HP is broken, and even if it weren't, I'm not sure it has the horsepower to handle HD and it definitely doesn't have DVI out. My thinkpad definitely doesn't have the power for HD.

2. Buy an over the air HD tuner and hook it up somehow. Any ideas about how this would work?

3. Buy a new computer of some sort (with a video card that supports DVI out) and hook it up.

4. Buy an Xbox 360/Playstation 3/Wii. Maybe someone else could explain how this would work. Would I need some sort of DVI adaptor.

Keep in mind I live in a dorm, so I can't get HD cable or anything like that.

So, Mefites, what do you think? Is one of these best? Are there any options I've missed.

posted by matkline to computers & internet (7 comments total)

This might not be the direction you want to go in at all. But if I had a monitor like that and no impending need for it, I'd use a junk computer and make some sort of kiosk program for it. It could incorporate cool photographs from flickr, movies from youtube, content from blogs that I like, news, weather, etc.

But I'm a dork.
posted by roll truck roll at 7:33 PM on January 18, 2007

If you want to play games on it get a console, if you want to compute and play games with it get a computer, if you want to watch tv on it get a tuner. You can even have more than one of those options at the same time. It's really up to you on what you want to do with it and how much money you want to spend.
posted by Count at 7:36 PM on January 18, 2007

"HD" is actually fairly low-res by computer standards. Anything made in the last three years shouldn't have much problem driving it. Heck, I have an old Geforce 6200 driving 3072x768. Plays WoW fine.

Don't get a Wii just for this monitor. I'm reliably informed that the Wii looks crappy on a widescreen HD screen, even using the component cable.

I have a Zensonic Z500. It, or a similar dedicated media device, is probably the best thing to hook up to such a monitor.
posted by krisjohn at 8:04 PM on January 18, 2007

Your thinkpad will drive your 22" monitor easily.

I think you have the wrong understanding of what HD means.

You can use your LCD with your Thinkpad, no problem.
Your monitor is most likely 1680x1050, which minimum requires a 64mb video card. The speed of your processor doesn't matter.

However, if you are talking about playing back HD content on your Thinkpad (such as the HD quicktime trailers), then yes, you probably don't have enough power.

You could easily playback a DVD full screen on your display.

As for OTA HD, all you need is a tuner and some software (usually comes with the tuner) and you are set. Pretty low hardware requirements to do so. I have the Pinnacle PCTV HD usb tuner and it works great (the software sucks though) running through Windows MCE.
posted by mphuie at 2:31 AM on January 19, 2007

If you are planning on going with option number 4, with an xbox 360 that is, there is a product that allows you to plug the xbox in via vga to a computer monitor. here it is.

A PS3 has HDMI output, so I think you would have to buy an HDMI to DVI converter. here (i think).

Since you live in the dorm, you won't be able to get HDTV from the cable company.
posted by trueluk at 1:04 PM on January 19, 2007

If all you care about is HD content you have two choices...

1. Xbox 360 might be the best bang for your buck as they will be launching IPTV services and you can download HD content in addition to the games.

PS3 is a decent choice but there is no telling if Blu-Ray will become standard, plus it's $200 more than the 360 and no killer aps.

2. You could build a new PC and use iTunes for HD content. You can get an OTA tuner but I'm not sure how well that would work.

You could get the Wii, but not for HD content. It's just plain fun. I have a 42inch plasma and the Wii looks ok on it. Not great, not HD, but it is more fun, especially if you'll be cramming a few people in your dorm for multiplayer.

If it were me, I'd get a 360 and a Wii and have the best of both worlds.
posted by SupaDave at 1:17 PM on January 19, 2007

What's the exact model of the monitor?
posted by Caviar at 6:57 PM on January 20, 2007