Computers Make Good HDTVs – You Just Need an HDTV PC Tuner

March 25th, 2009

As time keeps passing by computers are getting faster and more powerful. You can turn mostly any newer computer and even older ones very easily to an HDTV with just one accessory, an HDTV computer tuner. For example, monitors on a computer usually display using progressive scanning technology. This technology like I explained in one of the pages on this site, creates animation by parsing the complete image to be displayed. This is done by creating them in a single parse as opposed to interlaced scanning in which the image is created in two parses. This is a key aspect of computer that makes them perfect to watch images and video in high def. And if your computer happens to be a laptop and it is not very old your screen will probably be wide. Of course, the story is different when it comes to desktop computers where monitors are usually like SDTV televisions. In order words, they have they normal aspect ratio that normally is referred to as full screen when you are looking at the descriptions on a DVD of perhaps downloading a movie on the internet.

The problem arises when using a “full screen” or should I say a monitor with an 4:3 aspect ratio.  HDTV movies and programs do not look good in these monitors. You will probably experience big blocks on the sides of the image leading to a reduced size in the overall viewing area. This degrades a lot the whole experience.

So to make it short, if you plan to watch HD ATSC formats commonly know as HDTV on your computer, its recommended that you buy a widescreen monitor if you do not have one. Now, another aspect that makes modern computers well suited for High Definition Television is that monitors are even way ahead of HDTV televisions when it comes to resolution. For example, as of now most top dollar HD sets or at least those that are label as “Full HD” are those that can display resolutions up to 1080p. Newer monitors are even able to display higher resolution than that and of course in progressive scan format. So what is the other thing that you may need to look at?

The other thing that you should consider if you are considering the benefits of adding an HDTV PC tuner to your computer is getting a tuner that operates with it own video processor. This will not only make sure that images are displayed like they are supposed to but, will help a lot when it comes to taking a the load of the CPU and other resources such as RAM. Your PC or Mac will run smoother and more stable than if it had to deal with processes and HDTV video at the same time. This is especially true when it comes to notebooks where the machine’s resources are usually more limited that in desktops.

Now unto the subject of functionality. The main specs that you should worry about if you are planning to add one of these accessories to your computer is that they should decode ATSC formats and if possible all of them. This will make sure that your device is able to decode the highest resolution possible in the channels that you will be receiving and hopefully enjoying.  To make it short, if a tuner is able to decode 1080p, you can be almost certain that it will be able to decode all the remaining ATSC formats since 1080p is the highest format that is being broadcasted as of now.  The other is that  a good HDTV PC tuner should be able to decode Clear QAM. Clear QAM is the format used in the U.S. to transmit signals by cable. This gives the tuner more usefulness since not everyone likes On Air broadcasts. In other countries, cable is transmitted in other formats. Keep in mind that like with any HDTV tuner that is QAM ready, only unencrypted signals are decoded.

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