bhome83

So I'm wanting to buy a new LCD flat panel monitor/TV to replace my current 19" flat panel. I want a widescreen 24" LCD, and its gonna be in my room and will be used for about 60% computing and 40% HDTV/blu ray.

Only thing i dont really understand though is the big difference between an LCD TV and a LCD computer monitor. Does one have better overall quality than the other?

You would think an LCD TV would display a better overall picture and have more features (HDMI, TV tuner, etc) but it seems you can find LCD TV's in that size range of 24" cheaper than an LCD monitor at 24."

On amazon they have a touch of color 24" samsung LCD TV for just over $400, and a dell ultrasharp 2048 24" is over $500.

What exactly am i missing here? Seems like a no brainer i should buy a tv for my dual purpose bedroom screen.

DthRdrX

I bought a 42' 1080p Westinghouse Monitor for TV and PC use. The only thing I can think of that you should know ahead of time is that most monitors may not have an internal tuner.

bhome83

any idea why a LCD monitor would be pricier than an LCD tv?

Mr. Salty

They're usually higher resolution for one thing.

bhome83

why would you need any higher resolution than 1080p? isn't 1080p blu ray the highest quality out there?

Mr. Salty

No, not remotely. 1080p is the highest quality with respect to home A/V, but digital photos, graphics and so forth in computer applications can be much higher resolution. My 5 megapixel digital camera shoots at 2,587 x 1,844, and there are cameras that are much higher resolution than that.

Spiky

Strange, I usually find it to be the opposite, TVs cost more. Probably because they include tuners, video processing and a wider range of inputs. And then a bit more just for kicks to make it seem like they are more special.

But you were looking at a top of the line Ultrasharp Dell vs a cheap TV. Check out tigerdirect.com for cheap 24" monitors starting under $300.

Now, at the 30" size, monitors would probably often be more expensive than TVs. But those are getting into ridiculous resolution ranges, and nobody really makes a cheesy one, they are all high quality panels.

shaun3000

I think that LCD TVs many times have a more limited RGB gamut than computer displays.

TheMadMonk

LCD Monitors also tend to not have speakers in them.

parrotheads4

TV= 16:9

Monitor= 16:10

SoSpacey

LCD monitors and TVs aren't the same technology. I am too lazy to look it up but if you search a bit you will find they are different.

X

I hooked up a HTPC to my 42" 1920x1080p LCD TV and evaluated it compared to a typical LCD monitor. While it could certainly be used very easily as a huge monitor, it looked very good and had perfect resolution of characters, it just doesn't appear to be up to the quality of a monitor.

Outlines of characters depended on the contrast and brightness levels, very low levels improved the definition of the characters at the pixel level, but it was too dark to use as a monitor that way. Medium-low contrast and brightness left a very slight redness under characters that went away when I raised the settings to medium. It may be possible to make adjustments for that, I didn't really try.

So it appears to me that the circuitry of a TV just isn't up to the quality of that of a monitor.

Spiky

I think you would find them very similar if you could match up color, gamma, etc. settings. But PC color is very different from TV.