Computer Monitor and Antenna TV

28 Oct 2018

7-minute read

I’ve been thinking a lot about my entertainment setup while I prepare to move into a new apartment. Since I’m already planning on bringing my current computer monitor and buying a new set of speakers, the only remaining question I had was whether I would also be getting a TV.

I decided to pass on the TV since it would set me back a few hundred dollars, I typically don’t watch cable, and it would be a pain to move whenever I left the apartment. The only thing that I’d miss taking advantage of would be the free HD sports programs broadcast over local channels.

For what it’s worth, this article on using a computer monitor to watch TV gives a pretty good overview of all your options for “watching TV” on a computer monitor. However, I found the section on how to watch over-the-air (OTA) antenna broadcasts on a computer monitor slightly confusing and unclear and decided to quickly write up my own experience as an OTA “cord-cutter.”

Connecting your TV antenna to your computer monitor

The equipment needed to use a computer monitor to watch OTA broadcasts is actually fairly simple:

  • a normal TV antenna
  • a digital TV converter box with an HDMI output
  • an appropriate cable to connect your converter box to your monitor (usually HDMI-to-HDMI)

Then:

  1. Connect the coaxial/AV end from the antenna to your converter box.
  2. Using the HDMI cable, connect the converter box to your monitor.
  3. Connect your monitor to your speakers via an audio auxiliary cable.

However, there are a few things you’ll want to verify below.

Things to check

  • Does your monitor have an HDMI input? Most modern monitors have an HDMI input built in. If you have only have VGA or DVI input, you’ll have to buy an HDMI-to-VGA with audio adapter such as this one or the equivalent for DVI since neither VGA nor DVI carries audio. You would then connect your speaker system directly to the adapter. If you only have DisplayPort input, you’ll need an HDMI-to-DisplayPort cable instead of the HDMI-to-HDMI cable.
  • Does your monitor have an audio output? If your monitor doesn’t have an audio output jack, you’ll need to separately output audio by either splitting the audio signal directly from the converter box or splitting the audio from the cable that connects the converter box to the monitor (see above regarding the VGA example). If you’re splitting the audio directly from the converter box, you’ll probably need an adapter for RCA (these are two prongs, usually one red and one white) to 3.5mm, assuming your speakers use the typical 3.5mm audio input. Splitting the audio directly from the converter box is probably the best approach if you’re going from HDMI-to-HDMI between your converter box and your monitor and your monitor doesn’t have an audio output.
  • Does your converter box support 1080p HD output? Most modern monitors support 1080p resolution. Some converter boxes only support 720p HD output which may short change your monitor’s resolution capabilities.

Setup and cost

My equipment:

The digital TV converter box is the only true incremental cost. I like to keep a monitor around for extending my laptop screen and, if I had a TV, I would have gotten an antenna for it anyways. So compared to paying a monthly subscription for cable, a one-time outlay of $25 seems like a cheap payment to get most mainstream OTA programming.

Reflections of a cord-cutter

Between Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Reddit streams, most of my entertainment needs are covered by streaming services. I generally lack the patience to follow a TV series with a regular cadence so I usually only watch movies and live sports anyways.

Watching El Clasico on a free stream is bearable, especially when the cheapest TV package with the beIn Sports channel would end up costing a couple hundred a year. But watching Saturday morning Premier League matches or Sunday NFL games on a stream is frustrating when you know that you could get a reliable, live, lag-free HD broadcast on your local NBC/CBS/FOX station.

Lessons from the DIY community

Although local OTA broadcasts offer the the most basic setup for canonical television programming, there’s a large community of cable subscribers who squeeze the most out of their entertainment system through a digital converter box. Since cable programming is also passed through the same coaxial/AV cables as OTA TV, you can use one of these boxes to set up a cheap DIY DVR system for playing and recording live TV; this is where you’ll typically hear about more complex setups with Plex media servers (or similar media center software).

One of the more interesting things I learned was that, if you’re already subscribed to cable, you can get extra cable cards for a relatively low monthly rate from your cable provider. Along with a device that has multiple TV tuners (WinTV by Hauppauge is popular among Microsoft Windows users), you can watch and/or record different channels at the same time in your house without the need for a DVR subscription or additional cable boxes from your cable provider. The HDHomeRun line of devices by SiliconDust are also popular and offer similar capabilities to the WinTV with multiple possible TV tuners. Both devices essentially allow you to broadcast live TV to any device on your home network, something that I would find useful if I actually followed any cable TV. You can also use these devices to broadcast and/or record OTA TV programming across your home network as well.