I have a Sony A1U and a decent Samsung LCD monitor.

Is there any way to directly connect the camera directly to a LCD monitor to simply watch footage without capturing it?

Right now I can't afford to get a HDTV or expensive capture card. I'm wondering if there is some kind of affordable adapter or converter that works like a TV box.

Has anyone tried something like this to connect an HDV cam to a 17" LCD monitor?
http://www.kworldcomputer.com/product/analog/004/lcd_tv_box.htm

I just found this device, which seems handy, but is a little more than I care to spend:
http://www.cwol.com/hdtv/hdtv-video-scaler-dvi.htm

I assume your monitor is 4:3 and not 16:9 and it only has DVI or VGA input? If it had component video input you'd be able to plug it directly into your camera.

Maybe someone else knows a product, but I don't think it will be worth your while to buy anything for this. You would only be getting a standard definition image from those boxes (fed via s-video) and if your monitor is 4:3 then it will be a squashed image since the original is anamorphic. After the conversion and scaling I'm guessing that the image won't look all that great either.

Maybe you can sell your old monitor and get a new 16:9 LCD screen with component inputs? They are getting a lot cheaper these days.

Thanks Boyd! After looking more into this I pretty much see your point. Better to save up for a proper monitor than find a "cheap" solution.

I even found that many "HD Ready" plasma TVs as large as 50" still only have 1366 x 768 resolution. I need to do more research the figure out the monitor situation.

I also notice that I somehow overlooked the monitor section on the board... oops