Using a PC Monitor as a TV
Discussion
If you've got an old pc lying around, spend £20 or so on a TV tuner card for it, and run the dscaler (dscaler.org) software instead of the stuff that comes with the card. Dscaler offers a variety of filters for deinterlacing and removing noise from the video signal. Impressive results can be quickly achieved. Doesn't really need a powerful PC - anything four or five years old should still be fine.
This isn't going to help much, but I think you don't need much at all.
If your LCD monitor has an analogue input RGB and HSYNC + VSYNC, your scart cable should already have RGB with the HSYNC on GREEN.
All you need to do is to split out the SOG for HSYNC and produce a VSYNC with a vertical hold control.
This depends on wheather your LCD monitor is capable of running as slow as the telly, and possibly in an interlaced mode.
Analogue PAL TV is interlaced, but the RGB output may not be depending on how you receive it. If the signal is coming out of a freeview box, the video feed may not be interlaced.
To find this all out you really need an oscilloscope or detailed tech specs. Overall though it's much easier to go from PAL to VGA than vice versa. All you should need is to generate a VSYNC.
Edited to add;
Picture quality will only ever be nearly as good as VGA! If you take the simple route, the image may not fit the whole monitor. PAL is 625 lines and VGA is 640 lines. Horizontally the resolution will be limited by the 5MHz channel that is PAL.
>> Edited by dilbert on Friday 24th June 18:41
If your LCD monitor has an analogue input RGB and HSYNC + VSYNC, your scart cable should already have RGB with the HSYNC on GREEN.
All you need to do is to split out the SOG for HSYNC and produce a VSYNC with a vertical hold control.
This depends on wheather your LCD monitor is capable of running as slow as the telly, and possibly in an interlaced mode.
Analogue PAL TV is interlaced, but the RGB output may not be depending on how you receive it. If the signal is coming out of a freeview box, the video feed may not be interlaced.
To find this all out you really need an oscilloscope or detailed tech specs. Overall though it's much easier to go from PAL to VGA than vice versa. All you should need is to generate a VSYNC.
Edited to add;
Picture quality will only ever be nearly as good as VGA! If you take the simple route, the image may not fit the whole monitor. PAL is 625 lines and VGA is 640 lines. Horizontally the resolution will be limited by the 5MHz channel that is PAL.
>> Edited by dilbert on Friday 24th June 18:41
I asked this a couple of months back and was pointed in the direction of this. I baulked at paying £120 for though, so found one on fleabay for £35 
Works a treat, pic quality is as good as my old TV tuner card - however I have a slightly older Vision box that outputs only via a analogue port, not DVI. I imagine with DVI out things would improve dramatically.
There are plenty of options on fleabay if you search for 'tv tuner'. Don't pay more than £40-ish, though
Works a treat, pic quality is as good as my old TV tuner card - however I have a slightly older Vision box that outputs only via a analogue port, not DVI. I imagine with DVI out things would improve dramatically.
There are plenty of options on fleabay if you search for 'tv tuner'. Don't pay more than £40-ish, though
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