Hiya Guys,
Just revcenetly my wife surpassed her 25th annaversary at her work. They gave her one of those company rewards books and let her pick out a nice gift for being a loyal employee. They had some nice stuff in the catalog but we both decided to go for a new flat panel TV/computer monitor.
Right now, our main computor is using an older micropc 17" SVGA. Its been a good monitor and still works fine but as we get older, our eyes get worse. So we thought going to a bigger screen would be great, especially a flat screen.
The one they offered was the RCA L2010. Its a 20" screen that is pretty stylish. We saw that it was "PC compatible". Trouble is, I didn't look any further at the specs and I assumed that it was an SVGA monitor since the TV portion is HDTV ready.
Needless to say, this thing shows up, I hook it up and discover that it's only a VGA. So, the good news is this thing has ample inputs. Heres the specs on it.
http://tv.rca.com/en-US/ModelDetail.html?MN=L2010&nav=ByTechnology&PC=LCD----------------------
PICTURE
Screen Size - diagonal (inch) 20 Revised 7/6/05
Category LCD TV
Display Type TFT LCD
SDTV / EDTV / HDTV Compatibility EDTV Monitor
Aspect Ratio 4x3
Adjustable Color Temperature Yes
Backlight Adjustable
Brightness Adjustment Yes
Comb Filter Digital 5-Line
Format Control 4:3, 16:9 Full Screen, Cinerama
Gamma Correction Yes
SYNCROSCAN PLUS component inputs automatically detect video formats 720p,
Panel Specifications 1080i, 480p and 480i without the need for consumer intervention.
Display Resolution VGA (640 x 480)
Brightness (cd/m2) 450
Contrast Ratio 500:1
Response Time (Tr + Tf) 16ms
Viewing Angle - Horizontal/Vertical 160° / 140°
Picture Control Adjustable
Video Standard Control NTSC
SOUND
Speakers (number) 2 - Side Mounted
Audio Power (Front Speakers) 1.7 Watts/Channel
Audio in PC Mode Yes - MultiTask Audio™
Second Audio Program (SAP) Yes
Sound Controls Yes - Volume, Mute
Sound Type MTS Stereo
Tone Control Bass & Treble
CONVENIENCE
Audio in PC Mode Yes - MultiTask Audio™
Auto Channel Search Yes
Auto Tune (One-Button Launch) Yes
Calendar Yes
Channel Labeling Yes
Clock / Timers Clock/Sleep/Alarm (Wake-Up)
Closed Caption Capability Yes
Multilingual On-Screen Display English/French/Spanish
PC Compatibility Yes - via 15-Pin D-Sub
Parental Control (V-Chip) Yes - USA & Canada
Picture Memory Presets Yes
Picture Reset Yes
Power ON / Standby Indicator (LED) ON-Green, Standby-Red
SIGNAL FORMAT CAPABILITY
RF Tuning Capability NTSC
Analog Video Formats (NTSC / 480i) AV / S-Video / Component
Digital Video Formats (480p,720p,1080i) Component, RGB
REAR CONNECTORS
Audio/Video Inputs (Composite) 1 L&R Audio, 1 Video
S-Video Input 1 - Auto Detectable
Component Video Input 1 Set - SYNCROSCAN™ PLUS³^
Audio Input for Component Video 1 Pr - L&R Audio (Phono)
PC Input (RGB) 1 VGA - 15-Pin D-Sub
Audio Input for RGB 1 (3.5mm)
RF Input (Antenna) 1 "F" Type
AC Power Input Yes
Headphone Jack Yes
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If I change out my video card in my computor I can still use this as we intended.
My question for you guys is, what video card should I go with? You should know first that I am not a gamer. Second, we use the computer for doing household business, sometimes work business (Word, Excel, etc) and finally surfing. That means (I think) that I don't need a lot of horsepower out of a graphics card.
I'm not sure I want to spend more than $200 on a card but I'd consider it if there is good reason to.
The first card I looked at was the GeForce 6600 GT 128MB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card. It has a s-vid out that will plug right into the back on the RCA L2010. It seems reasonable. I've also looked at the Radeons and they seem OK too.
Do you guys have any suggestions on which card I should go for? Maybe more importantly, will what I'm looking to do actually work (read=video card with s-vid out, plug into monitor s-vid in and now use TV as monitor)?
TIA for your help.
