connecting CRT with laptop is not straight forward..
you need a tv tuner card and you may need a pc remote..
cost may go higher than a budget media player
also its cumbersome...
Well, I dont think so. I set up my Toshiba A215 laptop with LG 29 within 3 mins time. I just needed a good quality 4 pin S-Video to Yellow RCA cable which I got from friend. Just connect both ends to Pc & TV and select source as external display. Thats' it.. Just make sure you PC/ laptop has s- video/ tv out slot on GPU/ board.
Instead of remote you can get a wireless mouse if you want..Anyways whats use of remote if cant FF or REW easily?