TV on PC

Bertison · 19 Mar 2012

Hello all

A glance at my system Spec's will show that I have upgraded a little. I now intend to fit a Win TV Nova T-500 Dual DVB-T tuner, to take advantage of the Lyama Prolite E2407HDS 24" monitor I was lucky to find at the right price. This will enable me to watch sport, films & TV of choice without marital discord! I am a newbie at this PC-TV activity, and am looking for advice from anyone who can help. Screen is (correctly) mounted on the spare room wall via a tilt/swivel bracket, connected to the PC via DVI. I have a decent Hercules 2.1 speaker setup, not interested in Home Cinema as (i) room too small and (ii) lounge has an all-singing, all-dancing Panasonic setup. I have Logitech wireless KB & Mouse and the Tuner has a Remote. PC has a 500 GB and a 1TB (to store video).

What are the potential problems and options please? I would appreciate any input, thanks.

C32C3 · 19 Mar 2012

My pc is connected to my Bravia TV which doubles as a monitor. I haven't had any problems with my setup from day one so I can not comment on any potential problems you might have. Why think of them? Just connect everything and see for yourself.

I can switch from pc to TV by using the remote control. I can not minimize the one while watching the other but that does not frustrate me because I rarely watch TV except for watching the sports channels.

I have looked at your specs and its interesting that you are doing this with a laptop and not a desktop.

What to do you mean by Self build when listing info about your system? You built the laptop yourself?

Bertison · 19 Mar 2012

C32C3 said:

My pc is connected to my Bravia TV which doubles as a monitor. I haven't had any problems with my setup from day one so I can not comment on any potential problems you might have. Why think of them? Just connect everything and see for yourself.

I can switch from pc to TV by using the remote control. I can not minimize the one while watching the other but that does not frustrate me because I rarely watch TV except for watching the sports channels.

I have looked at your specs and its interesting that you are doing this with a laptop and not a desktop.

What to do you mean by Self build when listing info about your system? You built the laptop yourself?

Thanks for the advice, and taking the 2 bold, underlined comments:

You have not read the Specs fully. I have a PC and a laptop. I am quoting "PC" as a 'Big Box' computer, thought that would be understood. I give the PC specs first and the lappy specs second. I will be installing the Tuner Card to the PC and connecting to the monitor. I have the option to connect my HP pavilion DV7 lappy, to the main TV in the lounge, should I wish to.

The "Self Build" part refers to the PC. I am a Senior who came to computing late, after an injury and disability forced a change in my circumstances. I have gradually taught myself to build and use computers, but have not reached the stage of building laptops. In point of fact, I understand that this is not possible, for several reasons. There are not, as far as I am aware, any manufacturers selling "bundles" or parts to build laptops, as they do with PC's. There are people who buy damaged or defective laptops in numbers, they advertise in certain sites and publications. When they have enogh stocks of parts to build a working laptop, they build and sell them on. But that is a different matter.

However, if you read my specs again, you will see that I have carried out a complete reinstall of the O/S in my laptop. That was to remove all the crud that manufacturers install into laptops.

I shall certainly "connect everything and see for myself",however I was expecting to receive advice from someone who had carried out the same procedure that I anticipated. Not connecting to an actual working TV in another room, but setting up a monitor to do double duty as PC and TV, in a separate room, as a second TV. Please consider your comments with more care and forethought, they appear in this instance to resemble criticism.

C32C3 · 20 Mar 2012

My apologies for not having read your specs correctly. I agree with you that to date there are no known manufacturers selling bundles or parts to build laptops.

I do not see the need to consider my comments with more care and thought. I have read again what I wrote and I see no negative criticism at all. If however you are offended then please accept my apology. I answered your inquiry for help with the sincere desire to be of assistance; evidently I failed.

smarteyeball · 20 Mar 2012

Bertison said:

What are the potential problems and options please? I would appreciate any input, thanks.

Hardware wise, no problems at all. DVI connection is fine. Adjusting sound properties to 2.1 is fine as well.

The only 'potential' problems could be possible reception issues from the supplied antenna (if used). If you are connecting to the external home antenna, it becomes a non-issue.

If you plan to use Media Centre as opposed to the supplied tuner software, your tuners remote 'may not' be fully compatible with WMC. Since you have a wireless mouse/KB this can mitigate any shortcomings of remote incompatibility.

Depending on your PC's location in relation to the screen, the IR receiver for the remote comes down to cord length.

Realistically the only thing you'd need to change would be the location of the buffer/recorded TV folder.

For WMC, by default it's found at C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV

You'd need to point it your 1TB drive instead. This can be done when setting up WMC or the bundled software.

Bertison · 20 Mar 2012

smarteyeball: many thanks, just the advice I needed, hence the Rep. Good on yer, mate! (I have a mate of many years living south of you in Tamworth, NSW.)

C32C3: My comments were immature, it is I who should apologise.

However, if you take a look at smarteyeball's advice, you will see what I mean; it was advice to fit the query.

smarteyeball · 21 Mar 2012

Thanks mate and thanks for the rep :)

Enjoy your impending harmony