LCD Monitor as a TV

Not sure if this is the right section.
I'm heading off to college and need a TV for my room. It would probably be cheaper to use one of my existing monitors instead of buying a new TV.

I already have a 17in Dell monitor with VGA/DVI inputs and a 19in Acer monitor with VGA input both with a max res. of 1280x1024.

What I'd like to be able to do:
-Cable -> Monitor
-Laptop -> Monitor
-Cable -> Laptop (for recording shows)
-Xbox -> Monitor

Are there any tuner recommendations that would allow me to do all that?

 

are you sure your dell has a VGA/DVI INPUT? i suspect those are only outputs (but could be wrong)
probably easiest would be to get a TVtuner for the laptop, and use the 19" as an external monitor

you'd get
cable --> external tuner --> laptop --> screen
Xbox --> screen

 

The dell is a monitor, not laptop.

I would much rather stay away from a tv tuner that requires a PC connection. I'd have to reconnect the cables every time I took the laptop away. I'd also have to leave the laptop on for hours when watching TV. A standalone unit would be much more practical.

 

you can use a cable splitter?

 

How exactly is a cable splitter going to help me?

 

My dad has a 27" Polaroid "monitor" (meaning it's basically a TV but without the tuner).. and he used an old DirecTV box that no longer had a card as a tuner, using the DVI connection with RCA audio (you may need to use external speakers if your Acer doesn't have speakers). He had to check 3 or 4 of the boxes before finding one that would allow sort of a pass through connection.

I don't know if that sort of solution would work for you. We have a very strange setup in our house among our 12 freaking TVs.

 

Just about every modern computer monitor is "HD ready", meaning that the monitor is capable of displaying HD content, but does not have an internal decoder.
You can use a cable box with DVI output as the decoder. Or you can use a DVB-C card (might be called QAM in the USA) along with a computer as the decoder. Dedicated decoders are expensive, although your cable company might provide one for free or cheap with a contract. (But read the fine print!) DVB-C capable cards for laptops are also expensive, but cards for desktops are now cheap. Maybe you could get an old desktop (P3 should do, P4 or above better) for cheap or free and install a card, then use it as a MythTV server.
BTW, the HDTV Wonder and Kworld ATSC-110/115 cards are capable of QAM and are cheap.

 

striker: with a splitter, you can send 1 cable to the laptop for recording, annd 1 to the TV for general TVviewing

 

The monitor will be used as the TV so I still need a tuner...

 

Basically all I need is an external tuner for an LCD. All I want to be able to do is connect basic cable to an LCD monitor through VGA. Has anyone done this before?

cable -> tuner -> LCD

 

This is exactly what you need:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815260001

You basically plug the cable feed into this box, then you connect your LCD to this box thru a vga cable just like any other computer.

 

The Vdigi VGA Transcoder should work well (good picture output):

http://www.datapro.net/products/hdtv-component-to-vga-transcoder.html

I actually have one thats barely used, like new condition. I could give it to you for $50 shipped if youre interested. Or just order from the datapro site like I did, they ship pretty fast.