LCD TV vs LCD Monitor?

[Optical668]

Hi i was thinking about upgrading my Monitor from my little 20" LCD Monitor to something alot bigger like a 26" or 30" screen. Now my main question is whats the big differnce bewteen a LCD TV and Monitor i could get like a big 32" LCD HDTV for like £500 off ebay but the Monitors are like well expensive for stuff over like 24" let alone something like 30" Monitor would cost like mega bucks. So whats the main draw bewteen them? I understand theres a difference bewteen the resolutions, but i seen a Philips 37" which does like 1920 x 1080 res...

Another thing is that im gonna be doing alot of gaming and watching movies mostly, so i can use my little 20" for windows stuff..

[RAYK47]

its about resolution Optical. Your 20" monitor will have far superior resolution than any 32" LCD TV

[RAYK47]

That 37" sounds OK for gaming and movies but you may need to take a look at response times as well. Out of interest how much is that 37" Phillips

[RAYK47]

You will probably find that the high end large screen monitors are generally used by designers who not only need the large screens but also the vast resolution capabilities. I guess thats what makes them expensive.

I have a 32" Samsung LCD TV in my living room and although it is good for movies and OK for games it is not much good for windows admin work. Also I find that with a larger screen you need to sit a farther distance away from the screen in order to get the full benefit of the size. That distance seems to be a bit far for me so sitting it on my desk is not an option. That might just be my aging eyesight though.

[Funkstar]

Some people like to use monitors for screens when pairing them with HTPCs. Monitors display the native resolution you send to them without messing around with it. This can be over DVI, VGA or in some cases HDMI as well.

This was, any image scaling is done in software once by the media center type software. so there is as little loss as possible in the image quality.

Using a regular LCD TV can give you varying results. Samsing screens are really bad at this. Over HDMI they require that the device sending it a signal knows about HDCP, even if there isn't any ecription in the video in the first place. Also they cannot just take a 1366x768 input and display it, they tend to overscan the picture, scaling it in the process.

Using a conventional TV with conventional inputs shouldn't be a problem, but when you put an PC into the mix, things get complicated.

Some TVs can display a pixel perfect image on them, there is a list floating about the net somewhere. I think Hitachi and LG ones are good if memory serves.

Oh, and another thign. the 768pixel verticle resolution isn't that great for desktop use. My 15.4" laptop is 1200x800 and is far far too small a resolutioon for me these days. I'm even thinking of replacing my 22" 1600x1050 monitor with a 24" 1920x1200 beast to get more on screen. This is a huge when doing any sort of photo editing.

[benstation]

Originally Posted by Optical668

Hi i was thinking about upgrading my Monitor from my little 20" LCD Monitor to something alot bigger like a 26" or 30" screen. Now my main question is whats the big differnce bewteen a LCD TV and Monitor i could get like a big 32" LCD HDTV for like £500 off ebay but the Monitors are like well expensive for stuff over like 24" let alone something like 30" Monitor would cost like mega bucks. So whats the main draw bewteen them? I understand theres a difference bewteen the resolutions, but i seen a Philips 37" which does like 1920 x 1080 res...

Another thing is that im gonna be doing alot of gaming and watching movies mostly, so i can use my little 20" for windows stuff..

You can already get the LE32R87BDX for circa £500.