I want to use my TV as a computer monitor, but i'm unaware of how to do this. Is there a video card, or cable, or adapter that would allow me to use my TV as a monitor? If s, how much would it costs?

thanks

Get a tv out card, they are common & under $50. Although you didn't say what computer you have.

i did some research and found that many people complained about awful quality when using their TV as a monitor. Is there a way to avoid drastic quality reduction?

btw, i'm in the process of building a custom computer

tv's have a much lower resolution than yuou usually use on monitors (forget offhand exactly what resolution the tv's use, so unless it's something like the nice lcd display tvs or something then your likely gonna see a very noticable decrease in picture quality from monitor to tv

I have done all of the above and can let you know this:

Regular TV as a monitor using a video out = craptacular picture

Now I have also toyed with hooking my PC up to my 65" HDTV and even there it didn't look great. Reason being that it only does 640x480 resolution.

If you want a great picture you will need to look at LCD / Plasma / (some) DLP TV's.
They will usually be advertied as making a good monitor.
Have your checkbook ready, they are farkin expensive.

yup acid bath hit the nail on the head i have a 42" panasonic plasma tv in the sitting room and the pc looks great on it :tup:

I have done all of the above and can let you know this:

Regular TV as a monitor using a video out = craptacular picture

Now I have also toyed with hooking my PC up to my 65" HDTV and even there it didn't look great. Reason being that it only does 640x480 resolution.

If you want a great picture you will need to look at LCD / Plasma / (some) DLP TV's.
They will usually be advertied as making a good monitor.
Have your checkbook ready, they are farkin expensive.

640X480 is not HDTV.
That is actually standard television resolution. (480i)
The only difference being if its coming from your pc its probobly progressive scan.(480p)
If that is the limit of your set, it is EDTV (enhanced), or SDTV, which I believe means up to 760P
"HDTV" sets accept signals at a minimum of 1080i ,which is relatively close to 1024X768 on a computer display.

I hook my pc to my hdtv often, and games/movies both look fantastic on it.
Granted, it took quite a bit of fiddling around with powerstrip to get that resolution timed right on my tv, but the picture is amazing.

As for needing LCD/Plasma...that is a total cost driven myth.
Read around the net for some HDTV comparisons, almost any high end review site will tell you the picture on a good old CRT HDTV set is still the best quality overall as far as opacity, durability, and color saturation are concerned.