A Better Way to Watch Your PC

Last fall, I bought a "Multimedia" PC, complete with DVD-ROM and DVD burner, high end graphics and sound, and pretty much everything needed to backup commercial DVD's and CD's, play my MP3's in style, edit and render digital video, and generate top quality photo prints. The unit had an S-video output jack from the graphics card, so I thought that I would be able to plug in my television, for the times when I wanted to share a slide show or movie ... but alas ... S-video output would not work the way my machine was configured. I did some research, and learned that the answer was a SCAN CONVERTER .. a device used to convert a computer's *VGA output to a television signal (NTSC, PAL or SECAM.)

Armed with that knowledge, I headed out to the electronics megastore, where one is said to find their best buys ... and bought a unit for $100 made by "ADS". The sales critter told me that it was a name brand unit, far superior to a more generic convertor which was selling for the same amount. Short story - I returned it the next day. The monitor I use is a very nice Sony SDM-M81 LCD. As soon as I plugged in that converter, it drew an imaginary vertical line one-third of the way to the right, and squeezed my computer output into that area. This enabled it to match the television screen to the computer.. but it pretty much made my computer output look horrid - all the time... even when I had no need or desire for television display.

I started to do my research, and learned about the Gold TView unit. Now there are units out there, particularly for use in large MultiMedia presentations such as at conventions, which cost many thousands of dollars .. and I would think that they do better than TView Gold, but for the person who just wants to display on an old 19" television in the bedroom, this is the unit to buy. I picked it up at the MicroCenter store, where it was bundled with another item, called the "Command Post", which is used to do video editing. Have not played with that unit yet, but it is an area of interest to me, so perhaps there will be another review.

I know that the TView can be purchased online for less than I paid, however the unit did not have reviews on Epinions, so I thought that it might end up being returned to the store. After setting up and using the unit, I have decided that it is a "keeper", so others considering buying it can go ahead and look for a good price!

The unit itself is a small, black plastic box. It comes with a remote control, batteries, a power unit, good quality S-video and RCA composite video cables, and a special "Univiewer" cable, for connecting the unit to the computer and monitor. Quick-start directions are on a one-page guide, and there is a more detailed manual, along with extra software on a CD.

Leery from my first attempt at scan conversion, I set everything up initially with my computer outside of its cabinet, to allow for a quick "tear it down and pack it up." Set up took 5 minutes, and then I ran my first test, playing a DVD. I was quite pleased with the results, and then took my time doing a more elaborate installation, with all my wires properly tucked away.

I did find that the color, hue and brightness of the image on my television were not as good as on my monitor, but the remote makes adjusting things simple and straight-forward. I also observed that the optimal settings on the television were a bit off from what was best to watch regular programs, but again, the adjustments were easy. For me, the really good news is that this product does not harm my crisp monitor image at all, and it does a very nice job matching that image to the television.

Non-HDTV does have lower resolution than most monitors, so this device is not going to let you fully abandon your monitor, but I ound it good for movies, and with large enough fonts, I can sit on my bed with my wireless keyboard and mouse, and do things on the web. By the way, there is a TView model available now with a wireless keyboard, but I know nothing about its quality. I use a Micosoft wireless set which works very well.

I realize that you can now buy a DVD player for less than $50, so this is not really the best solution if all you want to do is play your DVD's on your television set, but the unit is capable of a lot other nice things, such as doing electronic pointing and highlighting on the screen. I could definitely see the value of this in presentations.

The unit also comes with free technical support and a 3 year warranty... so I antipate getting a lot out of it. Based on my experience, if you need/want a scan convertor for your personal use, this is a good choice.