Dell 2405FPW and Comcast TV

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laxmiddi44

Gawd
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Jan 10, 2005
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I am thinking about buying a 2405.

I have a question first...... I want to be able to watch regular tv on it. (not HD, at the moment) and I need to know how I would connect it since I only have the cable outlet coming from the wall. Also i heard the image like stretched to the monitors default resolution, which obviously would look horrible, whats the deal with that? Thanks
 
You can't connect a coax cable to this monitor and expect to watch TV for 2 reasons:

1) The monitor does not have a tuner.
2) The monitor does not have a coax input.

You best bet would be to either get a TV tuner card for your computer or to get a VCR that also outputs to composite. If you have only 1 set of speakers (and they're not connected to a receiver with multiple inputs) it will be a mess, so I'd recommend getting a TV tuner for your computer.
 
the comcast Digital tuner box has S video, component and composite outs, so in theory if you use the digital box for comcast, you should be fine.
 
i have a DVR with comcast so i would use the DVI connection, i heard its better then HD
 
Well, the thing is normal television wouldn't benefit from a DVI connector as much as high resolution (1920x1200) from your PC would. I don't suppose you have a VGA connector on your box, do you?
 
hoop32 said:
i have a DVR with comcast so i would use the DVI connection, i heard its better then HD
Click to expand...

I may be mistaken, but i don't believe the 2405 is HDCP compliant, therefore i dont know if you could use a cable box via DVI w/ the 2405.

Also, your mixing different things here.

HD = High Definition (i.e. 720p, 1080i)
DVI = Digital Video Interface (digital connection from box to tv)

In terms of quality of cables;
DVI & HDMI ---> Component --> S-Video --> Composite/RCA
 
Let me make your chart a little more detailed (from best to worst):

DVI-D (digital) / HDMI (digital) ---> DVI-I (analog mode) / RGB (analog) / VGA (analog) / Component (analog) ---> S-video (analog) ---> Composite (analog) ---> RF (analog)
 
I hooked mine up to regular cable with a VCR acting as a tuner just to test it, I think it stretchs the image unnaturally because all 4:3 content displayed through my pc is more pillarboxed than what the TV content appears as on the monitor. In simple terms, the black bars are larger with 4:3 content via pc than the black bars on 4;3 via composite cable TV. So that means all 4:3 content on the monitor could be stretched and geometrically incorrect. Out of the thousands of posts on this monitor I think I'm the only one to notice and mention this...

You best bet would be to either get a TV tuner card for your computer or to get a VCR that also outputs to composite. If you have only 1 set of speakers (and they're not connected to a receiver with multiple inputs) it will be a mess, so I'd recommend getting a TV tuner for your computer.
Click to expand...

Or you could just buy a little RCA to 1/8" jack plug for $3, stick one end in the VCR's audio outs and plug the other into the PC's audio input.
 
Here's a couple of pics showing what I'm talking about with 4:3 aspect
(My digicam is packed up so the phone cam will have to do, sorry about the low image quality)


43correct.jpg
A dvd in 4:3 aspect that is geometrically correct

43unsure.jpg
4:3 TV program via composite, using the "Aspect" setting.

What's up with the scaler in this monitor? Why even bother with all the other inputs if none of them display correctly? I can't believe I'm the first person to mention this anywhere (that I've noticed atleast)
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the only way you will get a true 1:1 image without scaling/compression is first to have a digital source (Comcast Digital/HDTV service), and then have your monitor connected to the Comcast box via a digital medium such as DVI-D.

Then I have heard the Dell monitors have a 1:1 setting so all images display as the source signal dictates. So if you are receiving a 480p image, you should see a small 704x480 progressive image on the center of your screen with black horizontal/vertical bars since your monitor's native resolution is 1920x1200 right?


EDIT: You can test this by running your PC in DVI-D mode, play a DVD using Windows Media Player 10 and the nVIDIA DVD Decoder codec. A widescreen DVD should appear as a small 853x480 image on the center of your screen (do not run WMP10 in fullscreen mode). Try downloading some HD examples from the WMP HD site too.

Now your TV images should be smaller than this if you are not watching HD sources (720p or 1080i/p).
 
1:1 mode via composite/component is also stretched the same way, it's not true 4:3 but something like 4.3666..:3.12555...

In DVI mode the monitor won't scale any HDTV signal correctly as it doesn't have HDMI support nor is it capable of distinguishing a 1920x1080 signal from a 1920x1200 one or 1280x720 from 1280x1024. That means no DVI support for upcoming consoles unless they actually have some built in software scaler like video drivers for a PC.
 
omega-x said:
can anyone see how it handles a 720p signal from an xbox?
Click to expand...
720p from xbox looks correct to me, it has the small black bars on top and bottom like geometrically correct 16:9 should. So far it's the only thing that looks right to me using the composite input. DVD's blank out on my xbox but not on my cheap JVC progressive DVD player (it probably has no macrovision protection) I can't remember how 480p scaled with the JVC but I do remember 16:9 mode for 480p was stretched out of whack. Also if you select 16:9 mode on the Xbox all 480p content will be squashed, even in 720p games. Stuff like the title menu's, videos ect.
 
Well then the answer is simple...(maybe)


Find an HD TV card for your PC that accepts a DVI in (Comcast box to PC card). Then maybe you can view TV through Windows Media Player with correct 1:1 video???

This is all a big guess on my part though.
 
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