Quote:
Originally Posted by GroundUrMast
A1: I use the SiliconDust HDHR. It is no longer available, it is superseded by the well reviewed HDHR3. Hauppauge is a competing tuner vendor which is used by many.
A2: The computer needs to be on and connected to the TV to use a network or computer attached tuner.
A3: Our laptop has an HDMI interface which supports audio and video via the same cable. If your laptop lacks HDMI it may not have the 'horsepower' to process and display 1080p video. My TVs also have VGA and analog audio ports.
A4: The laptop will not need to switch modes, Media Center runs as an application on Windows. It will not be practical to multitask TV viewing and other applications though. If you laptop's video card supports multiple displays, you may be able to connect the TV via the VGA port. If not, you may need to change video adapter settings as you switch from computer monitor to TV monitor.
The ideal solution is to use a dedicated Home Theater PC for frequent TV viewing. We use our laptop for TV viewing occasionally, it is not the primary 'TV' in the house. My desktop PC is my primary PVR/DVR, a task that uses far less 'horsepower' than actual rendering and display of video. I can multitask while recording OTA 1080p and lower bit rate programs.
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Thanks a lot for your answers. It looks like I can get a cable to support the HDMI interface (
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...-1271#Overview) for my laptop.
So you have a dedicated PC for TV viewing on your main TV then? Did you buy this TV specifically for your home theater setup and nothing else? Do you keep this TV in close proximity to your main TV? That's the other thing I'm struggling with because our laptop is in the office and our TV is in the den, so we would have to have some pretty long HDMI cable to run it to the TV. I just wondered how you did this with your setup.
Thanks again for the helpful info.