What’s the difference between buying an LCD monitor and an LCD Television today?
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at
4:17 am
Because I’m thinking of getting an LCD monitor for my computer but why not just get an LCD TV and use it as my computer monitor among other things? Whats the difference?
Tagged with: between • buying • difference • Monitor • television • today • whats
Filed under: 55-Inch Question & Answer
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LCD Monitors don’t have a tuner, so good luck on watching tv with just that… LCD tvs, I think, can’t be used for comps…
Not too sure about this.. but I think HDTVs don’t have DVI inputs so you’d have to buy a DVI to HDMI convertor. There are probably differences in pixel density and refresh rates but it’ll depend on what you buy. Also I don’t know how well a TV would cooperate with a video card since they are made for LCD monitors.
Television sets, as mentioned, have tuners, and a lot of extra connections to go with them. They also get better resolution, being able to give you the true 1080 that everyone is lookin for. LCD monitors generally max out at 1440 x 900, and since they don’t make 900 movies and shows, you would be limited to the 720 version of high-def viewing. I’m not saying that you can’t find a 1080 monitor, they are just a lot more expensive. Speaking of price, televisions run higher than just a monitor, and you can always get a tuner card for the computer, thus eliminating the need for a tuner in the monitor. HDMI converters are extremely cheap, so no need to worry there.
There are numerous differences between lcd monitors and lcd tv sets today. The biggest difference is resolution. LCD monitors have way higher resolution than HDTVs. Most consumer HDTVs max out at 1920×1080 pixels (1080p aka “full HD”) while common monitors with screen sizes 24-30″ are capable of 1900×1200 or even 2560×1600 (that’s way more resolution than your common 1080p tv set). Basically, LCD monitors have better pixel pitch since they have a lot more pixels at a much smaller screen size (compare a 1920×1080 50″ with a 2560×1600 resolution 30″ monitor).
Next is panel technology. Most manufacturers of LCD monitors use TN panels, while almost all LCD tvs use something like MVA (not sure about ips). Basically, TN is cheap and the monitors reflect this in their prices. TN gives fast response times while MVA/IPS allows excellent color reproduction as well as preventing colors from shifting when viewed at an angle. However, there are many mva/ips LCD monitors too, it’s just that they’re usually much much more expensive.
LCD monitors also usually do not have tv tuners but some, like the samsung T240HD do come with a buil-in tuner and a remote control.
Before buying, try to research first on the LCD tv’s input lag and response times, since these will be the factors most readily apparent in everyday computer use.