Setting up my monitor to work with my cable box

College Life
1

<p>Setting up my monitor to work with my cable box</p>

<p>I just build myself a new computer. Everything hasn't come in yet but for the purposes of this here is what I think you need to know. It brings Media Center Edition 2005 w/ the MCE remote control. It also brings the ATI All-In-One Wonder x1900 256MB w/ TV Tuner x16 PCI-Express video card.</p>

<p>Just to make sure it brings the following connectors: DVI-I, 15 pin VGA, Stereo audio, S-video, and composite video inputs and outputs, External stereo connections to sound card's line input and output, YPrPb Output adapter (HD-TV).</p>

<p>Here is the monitor I bought to go with it: <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824254005%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824254005&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>As far as I know that 19' LCD monitor brings the following connectors: D-Sub, DVI-D, and VGA.</p>

<p>Now my cable box (model: Scientifuc Atlanta Explorer 4200HD) has the following connectors in the back: 1394, USB, DVI, S-Video, HD-TV, Digital Audio Out, Video Out, and the cable out (for coax cable from outside and inside).</p>

<p>Ok so here is the following setup I want. I'm unsure if it will work. I basically want to use that monitor for my computer and to watch tv, hence why I got the video card w/ tv tuner. I don't want to have to turn the computer on everytime I want to watch tv. I want to be able to just turn the monitor and the cable box on just to watch tv.</p>

<p>What kind of cables would I need for this kind of setup? Is it possible to make the monitor slash a computer monitor and a tv?</p>

<p>I was thinking I could use an s-video cable and connect it to the video card from the cable box. the vga port would be taken up by the video card as well. then i would have a dvi cable from the cable box to the monitor. i'm not sure if that would work though.</p>

<p>any ideas?</p>

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<p>Using an S-Video cable from the cable box to the computer sounds fine; the other part may be a problem. I looked online and I found two different drawings of the back of the cable box - one has a DVI out and other didn't. If your box does have a DVI out, then using a DVI cable shouldn't be a problem. If it doesn't, then you'll need to buy a DVI-to-Component adapter that you can plug into the display so that you can run component cables (Y Pr Pb) from the cable box to the adapter.</p>

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<p>my cable box does indeed have a dvi connection in the back. I'm not really sure if it's an in or out connector at the moment. It sounds like either way I can go with getting a regular DVI cable or a DVI-to-Component adapter which would still do the same thing.</p>

<p>Here is the problem I figured I might run into.</p>

<p>With the setup I described originally normally the monitor would read from the video card. But in this setup it could read from both the cable box and video card. I figured I wouldn't have a problem if I turned on the PC but the cable box was turned off, or vice versa, but if both devices were turned on I figured I'd run into a problem because the monitor would try to read the video card and the cable box. Even then the cable box is never truly turned off, it's just in bypass mode (when I turn my tv on with the cable in bypass mode it's just pitch black like if it were turned off). So I'm thinking that even then the cable box is still sending that pitch black signal to the monitor when it's in bypass mode. That's my worry.</p>

<p>I'll still have to go out and get the cables because the moment I'll just get the DVI cable with the monitor but I'll still need a S-Video cable.</p>