LCD Monitor or LCD TV

[Brando737]

Hello,

I currently use a 17" LCD monitor on my media pc to watch live and recorded tv with Beyond TV 4. What I would like to know is if it is worth purchasing a 19" lcd tv such as this one: Future Shop: TV & Video: 17"-20" TVs: Samsung 19" Widescreen LCD HDTV** (LNT1953H)

Will I get better quality out of the TV or should I just get a larger LCD monitor? The reason I ask is because when I watch tv on the 17" monitor, it looks faded.

[JD]

TVs work good for watching TV and computers work good with monitors.

Although, that LCD TV you linked, appears to have a resolution of 1440x900, which is the same as a 19" Widescreen monitor, so it should actually work rather nicely. Plug your cable feed directly into it though and not into your computer for the best TV picture.

Originally Posted by Future Shop Reviewer

The PC part is not perfect. The native resolution of the TV is 1440x900. However, in its documentation, Samsung says that the maximum resolution for a PC is 1360x768. So the TV has to stretch the PC image. It is still usable, but it is not the clear image that you would get on real PC monitor.I've tried a lot of other products on the market TV card, image capture, multi purpose monitor, and this is the best that I have found. If I could set my PC to the native resolution of the TV, this product would have been perfect.

If thats the case, you may want to try picking up a cheap DVI-to-HDMI cable from TigerDirect or similar and use that instead. You may be able to get 1440x900 resolution using HDMI.

[Brando737]

Thanks for the reply. There seems to be mixed views about this TV being used as a computer monitor. Ill look further into it.

[biff]

FWIW, I have a Sceptre X24WG-Naga. It's a budget 24" that does 1920x1200 and is about the same price or less than the one you linked to. I am quite impressed with this monitor especially for the price. I have it sitting next to an LG 20.5" which is really a gorgeous monitor (which made my 17" Samsung look like a washed out contrastless bag of poop). The colour on the Sceptre looked a little flat in comparison at stock settings next to the LG. After some fiddling with the settings it's now very close. You wouldn't know any different if they weren't side by side and even then you have to be looking for it.

[tzetsin]

I've got a 19" monitor and a 32" lcd tv hooked to my pc, the 32" is a cheepo brand with a lowish resolution but it still kicks for watching movies, playing flight sim and any other game, i just dont use it when browsing the web cause its fricken huge. i paid 700 bucks for the 32" well over a year ago and the 19" monitor looks just as good as the tv.

most video card control panels have color adjustments if yours is looking a little washed out, but the tvs usually have there own color adjustments wich can make them seem to look better than the monitors. IMO other than some cheep tvs having lower resolutions and longer response times (wich most people dont notice anyway) there isnt much difference between em. Try keeping your monitor and getting a largish tv to hook up to it as a second (if you have the room).

Another benifit to having a tv as a monitor is that you can hook up anything else you want to it too. dvd players/game consols/ cable boxes... beta machines... my tv even has picture in picture so i can have my xbox and my pc on the same monitor (its a wide screen) side by side (but not my 360, hd and dvi wont process together on this tv :p )

something else to note... unless you have HD TV your not going to get nicer picture quality out of a high resolution display. I say go for the tv. If resolution is important to you, most HD lcds have a pretty high resolution anyway.

[Brando737]

So it does seem like it may be worth it to get the TV then. The primary use is to watch tv. Other than that, the computer is basically storage for all my media and i watch/listen to the media on my main gaming computer over my network. My gaming PC has a 20" wide monitor. The response time for for my 17" monitor is 8ms and its the same for the tv, but the tv's native res is 1440x900 while the monitor is 1280x1024 so based on that, maybe I will get a slightly better picture. Thanks for the input.