Technology is changing so quickly that once revolutionary devices do not even have time to develop their resource, turning into an unnecessary dust collector and a habitat for spiders. Unused electronics are a scourge of the modern world. Many of us probably have fully functional gadgets that are gathering dust, such as old computer monitors, which can be used in a variety of ways.
Until recently, we were happy that they fit on our desktop, making the computer a truly compact and affordable device. Today, it's just a plastic container stuffed with electronics. It's a pity to throw out the monitor, because it is still working. Nevertheless, this device may well get a second life, in a different, however, quality.
Older CRT monitors are easy to disassemble, but it can even be dangerous if done incorrectly. Therefore, before implementing any of the projects below, please read the step-by-step instructions on disassembling your device. It should not explode and harm you in the rework process.
Flower bed
Once safely disassembled, your monitor can enjoy its new life outdoors or help you bring a piece of nature into your home or office. Why not turn a plastic container into a stylish flowerpot? The authors of the project claim that the rework will take about 2-3 hours of time.
Aquarium
Do you have a container with a glass lid? So what's stopping you from making an aquarium out of it? With the help of epoxy resin and an installation hair dryer, you can achieve the tightness of the container. It remains only to design the background of the aquarium and launch the fish there. Perhaps, over time, there will be a place for other forms of marine life in the cute microtank.
Miniature puppet theater
After removing the insides of the monitor, it can be turned into a real theater, albeit a puppet show. Place the background on the back, and cut a hole on top to control the dolls. The obsolete device will become a new playground for children!
Cat's house
Your cat is constantly sitting on the computer system unit, so give her the opportunity to finally win. Let the monitor become her comfortable home. This project provides an opportunity to express yourself creatively. You can decorate the dwelling with feathers or colored paper, glue wooden handles on the bottom and place the house at the desired height. A heating pad placed under the bed will make this place not only cozy, but also warm.
Laying hen nest
Swap out the pillows for straw and you can start your own small bird farm. Laying hens will love this house.
Magazine rack
This project came about as a result of a design competition. An old monitor can become a magazine rack. To do this, you just need to take the old legs from the furniture and screw them to the base of the device. The author of the project even provided a secret compartment for correspondence in the counter.
Bin
This project is worth noting for its sense of humor. After a small re-equipment, a broken old monitor turns into a trash can of a standard 50 liters volume.
Note board
The main complaint about CRT monitors is their volume. But no one bothers with the help of a small alteration to make the device compact and give it a new life. It will no longer be able to become a flat monitor, but quite a board for attaching notes, notes and papers. You just need to attach a cork board to the front of the monitor instead of glass. And on the back, wooden handles can be attached for structural stability. In this way, it is possible to re-equip the obsolete flat-screen monitor.
Picture frame
Nothing prevents you from making a digital photo frame out of the monitor, but for this you will have to use a whole computer. An outdated monitor, on the other hand, can make a decent analog bezel. You can put anything in it - from photographs to handmade creations.
Personal Computer
Using a single board computer Raspberry Pi (), you can turn an old monitor into a full-fledged PC for about $ 50. To do this, you just need to connect the Raspberry Pi to the monitor. In addition, you can create a retro video game console or multifunctional clock like the PiClock based on the Raspberry Pi.
As conceived by the author of the project, the gadget is capable of displaying the current time, weather forecast in the region where the user is located, as well as a radar map. The developer posted on GitHub a step-by-step guide on how to assemble the device, but essentially all you need to create a PiClock is a monitor, Raspberry Pi, keyboard and mouse, and an active Wi-Fi connection.
Private Monitor
If you don't want others to see what you are doing on your PC, turn your monitor into a tamper-proof monitor. To prying eyes, it will look like a simple white screen on which nothing is happening, but you can work as usual, wearing special glasses. To make such a monitor, you will need an old screen, a pair of glasses, a screwdriver, scissors, polarizing film, and a penknife. The process of creating a private monitor is demonstrated in the video below.
Mirror (or "smart" mirror)
An old broken LCD monitor can serve as an excellent mirror, and if the device is working, it can be turned into a "smart" mirror.
The easiest way to make an ordinary mirror is to disassemble the monitor, remove the screen and place it in a frame. The process of creating a "smart" mirror is a little more complicated and costly. In addition to the monitor itself, you will need additional supplies including a Raspberry Pi, a double-sided mirror, wooden frames, cables, and carpentry tools.
In addition to the above methods, old monitors can also be used as a TV or screen for the Nintendo Wii console, and they are obtained from ancient CRT monitors.
The market for the computer and television industry offers a wide variety of TVs, from budget to high-end options. However, a person does not always have the opportunity to purchase new television equipment, especially when the old one suddenly fails. In these cases, you can turn on your ingenuity and make a TV at home from available tools.
CRT TV
After switching to LCD screens, many people are left with a CRT monitor. If he hasn't gone to the trash bin yet, it's time to give him a second life.
To answer the question of how to make a TV out of a monitor, you need to carefully examine the CRT model.
The old monitor must have a video channel board and a control unit. They should be removed. For you need to purchase the missing nodes:
- chromaticity module;
- radio channel;
- Control block.
The new units must be installed on the frame of the monitor housing and connected to the modules with a harness. It should be routed from the power source to the right places.
It may be necessary to install additional resistors on the block board: R1 and R2.
It remains to make a complex adjustment, and you can use the monitor as a TV.
LCD TV
Sony is more suited to the role of a TV receiver. The widescreen LCD has excellent characteristics, therefore it guarantees high definition TV viewing. In addition, it has a stylish TV design.
LG offers improved monitors. The newest matrix provides richer and richer images and transmits “live” telephoto.
TV inside the computer
You don't have to puzzle how to make a TV out of a monitor, but combine two useful functions in it with the help of a tuner.
There are 2 types of tuners - standalone and USB.
The latter is designed to connect to a computer. The standalone tuner is the latest development. It can be installed between the computer and the monitor for full screen TV viewing. This will allow you to work on a computer and at the same time watch TV in the designated window.
The standalone tuner models are equipped with a variety of audio inputs and outputs. If necessary, you can connect additional equipment and devices, such as a DVD player, to them.
You don't have to look for an answer to the question: "How to make a TV with your own hands?" - and purchase a combined monitor-TV set. Nowadays, digital stores are increasingly offering improved monitor models. They perfectly combine the functions of a TV and a computer screen.
There are situations when you need another TV, but buying it is impossible for a number of reasons. And here the question often arises - is it possible to connect the monitor how? If you have an old computer monitor at your disposal, it can be used as a TV. There are several ways to do this, the easiest of which is to connect a TV tuner, external or internal.
How do I use my monitor as a TV?
So, buying and installing a TV tuner is a sure-fire way to magically transform a computer monitor into a TV. An external tuner is an independent device that is connected to the mains, TV antenna, PC unit and monitor.
In other words, the TV tuner is connected to the system unit and the monitor is also connected to it. It is controlled using the remote control, as if you are dealing with an ordinary TV.
If you do not need a system unit, you can simply connect the TV tuner to the monitor directly and use it exclusively as a TV. In this case, you need to get speakers that will be connected to the corresponding connector on the tuner.
Is it possible to make a TV out of a monitor in another way?
Another method used by advanced users to convert a monitor to a TV is to install a decoder on the monitor. Fortunately, modern monitors have an LVDS interface, to which you can connect a special expansion card with a built-in video signal decoder to turn an ordinary monitor into an analog or even a digital TV.
An analog board costs less than a digital one, but it does not provide all the capabilities that a digital board with a decoder has. After purchasing the board, you can take it along with the monitor to the nearest service center for working with audio and video equipment, where everything will be assembled and configured for you. All that remains is to bring the antenna to the new TV, after which it will be fully ready for use in a new role.
But if you have some radio engineering skills, then you can quite cope with installing the board yourself. All you need to do is remove the back cover of the monitor, disconnect the ribbon cable to the standard expansion card, and connect the new card through a similar ribbon cable. Make a note of the matrix marking in advance, so that later it will be easier to find the firmware.
Now you know the answer to the question - is it possible to use the monitor as a TV, and you are free to choose a method that is more convenient for you.
In a classic Russian apartment, the TV is the head of everything. It is usually installed in every room. In general, an extra screen will never hurt, especially if it is already in the form of an old LCD monitor.
There are quite a few ways to use a monitor as a TV. You can buy a set-top box, say, Roku. You can slightly increase the budget and connect a mini-computer, such as the Raspberry Pi, to an old friend. But there is a more radical method, similar to.
Almost all LCD monitors have an I / O interface called LVDS. If you remove the cover from the monitor and get to the insides, you can see that the connectors are located on a separate board. In addition to other stuffing, this board is connected by a rather flexible ribbon cable, similar to IDE for hard drives.
To upgrade the monitor, you will need to purchase an expansion card for this interface that has a built-in video decoder. Such devices can be purchased, for example, or. The decoder and its output will make it possible to play analog (and in the case of a more advanced board, digital) television directly, without using a variety of set-top boxes and even a computer.
TTX boards:
- The frequency range is 48.25-863.25 MHz.
- Color system - PAL / SECAM / NTSC.
- Sound system - B / G, D / K, l, M / N, NICAM / A2, BTSC.
- The number of channels is 200.
- Teletext - 10 pages (chip 39 - 10 pages, chip 59 - 1000 pages).
- Video signal input format (VGA, HDMI) - up to 1920 × 1080 @ 60 Hz.
- Supported video resolutions - 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p.
- Sound amplifier output power - 2 × 2.3 W (40) 1 HD + N< 10% @ 1 KHz.
- Supply voltage - 12 V.
Input connectors:
- Power supply - 12 V.
- VGA input.
- HDMI input.
- Composite video and stereo audio input.
- Sound input when using the TV as a computer monitor.
- Headphone output.
- USB input (for firmware update).
- Antenna or cable input.
Actually, the simplest path ends here: the purchased board and monitor are referred to the audio-video equipment repair service. After a while, after paying a small amount, you have a new TV in your hands. All that remains is to install it and connect the antenna or cable TV wire.
A slightly more complex way of self-installation is described in detail by a colleague on the resource Mysku.ru. Let's consider it briefly.
Despite the possible problems with installation and setup, such a monitor upgrade is fully justified. Many have old, unclaimed 17- and 19-inch devices. The price of such devices in the secondary market is quite low, and the image quality is often not worse than a new TV. It turns out the ideal TV for a kitchen, small room or summer cottage for a minimal price - from 15 to 60 dollars, depending on the configuration and functionality.
TV tuners are separate small-sized devices for receiving a television signal. They have been around for a long time. But with the beginning of digital TV broadcasting, TV tuners have become especially popular. This small and inexpensive box will allow you to turn an outdated analog TV into digital and receive 20 channels with perfect quality even in areas of poor reception, where previously you could only "catch" just how many analog channels with noise and ripples.
In fact, a TV tuner is a full-fledged TV, only without a screen and speakers. To view programs, it only requires a screen and a part of the electronic filling, which is directly responsible for displaying the image, therefore, in principle, a computer monitor can also be used with the tuner.
So is it possible to use a computer monitor as a TV: let's try to figure it out.
How can a computer monitor be used as a TV?
There are two types of TV tuners - computer (in the form of a board installed in a computer case, or a USB device connected to a computer) and external.
The built-in computer TV tuner is not relevant, since now many TV channels broadcast via the Internet, and you will have to watch programs under the noise of computer fans, and even laying an antenna cable to the system unit is not an option in general.
But to hang a small box on the back wall of an outdated, but still fully functional monitor, and send it to work in the kitchen, dacha or garage (if, of course, you have one) is quite possible, and will save you a lot of money.
So, in order to turn a monitor into a TV, you first need a TV tuner.
Converting a monitor into a TV with your own hands: what you need to know?
When choosing a TV tuner for a computer monitor, you need to determine the type of video signal connection (to avoid unnecessary adapters) and the method of sound reproduction.
About sound:
There have been monitors with built-in speakers on the market, but this is rather an exception to the rule, so you need to provide for computer speakers that you can free up, for example, as a result of an upgrade of "computer sound" (after the monitor).
Perhaps an old radio tape recorder with an external entrance is already waiting in the garden - also an option, and often of better sound quality than tiny computer speakers.
Finally, our enterprising Chinese friends launched tuners with a built-in speaker.
The sound will not be of very high quality, but the “all-in-one” solution is compact and does not require an abundance of wires: an acoustic cable to the speakers, a speaker power adapter, a connecting wire between the speakers.
In a word, if you are not a fan of Muz-TV, and if you are against the kitchen resembling a radio center in terms of the number of wires, take a device with a speaker.
About video signal:
A modern and high-quality interface for.
TV tuners with such an interface are on sale and are minimal in price, but the HDMI interface has appeared relatively recently.
And most likely, an old monitor of the previous generation with a VGA video input will go to the dacha as a TV.
You can, of course, purchase an HDMI-VGA adapter. But the circuit with an adapter has its own pitfalls. The HDMI standard is evolving, has many specifications and it is not a fact that an inexpensive adapter will cope with converting a digital signal to an analog one. And the cost of a high-quality HDMI-VGA converter can be more than twice the cost of the tuner itself.
Therefore, it is wiser to purchase a TV tuner specially designed for connection to an old monitor and having a VGA output "on board". Here is one of the popular models of such tuners:
Note that it also has a VGA input. This allows you to include such a tuner "in the gap" with the connection of the monitor to the computer, ie. you can continue to use the monitor for its intended purpose, but at the same time watch TV programs with the computer turned off without manipulating the cables. Although, if you "collect" a TV set in the kitchen, this option is not needed.
How to convert a monitor into a TV with your own hands?
In addition to the presence of the video output you need (as a rule, VGA), when choosing a tuner, you should pay attention to the possibility of receiving a digital DVB-T2 / C signal, since outdated purely analog tuners are still on sale.
Some tuners also have an input for playing video, sound and photos from USB devices, but the presence of such an option significantly affects the cost of the device. By the way, now there are monitors on sale that have a built-in TV tuner, but they are difficult to find in price lists if you sort the list "by price ascending".
