computer monitor as TV for Full HD?

[disaster123]

Hello!

I want to replace my old TV in the bedroom with a new one. As I'm using MP for viewing TV - my idea was to buy a 24" Computer TFT instead of a Plasma / LCD. What do you think about it? Advantages / Disadvantages? What things are important?

Stefan

[Paranoid Delusion]

I want to replace my old TV in the bedroom with a new one. As I'm using MP for viewing TV - my idea was to buy a 24" Computer TFT instead of a Plasma / LCD. What do you think about it? Advantages / Disadvantages?

Monitors in comparison to LCD TV's are very expensive for similar viewing specifications, you can get say a 26"\66cm 1366x768 TV with dvb built in for £300 in the uk, at least you do not always have to turn the pc\htpc on to be able to view, also it gives at least 1 more tuner available.

Going higher res at this visible size has no benefits whatever, so looking at monitors that do 1920x1200 is lost on what you will see in benefits.

720HD at 66cm's looks fantastic when playing HD movies, as good as any 1080HD i have seen.

[disaster123]

OK regarding full HD you might be right. I've a TV-Server with 3 TV-Cards and two TV Clients - i only want to use them for watching TV - so i can press pause everytime i want. With the builtin Tuner in a TV i cannot use these functions. So this is not relevant for me.

An Hyundai N240Wa Computer Monitor is about 250,- Euros mhm i see the minimum is 32" TV - which you can get and this is about 700 - 1300 Euros.

Do i miss something.

[revs]

Remember that a computer monitor will be 16:10, not 16:9, so you will always have black bars top and bottom - and possibly some odd aspect issues.

I used to use a 24" Dell screen with MP, and it worked fine!

[funkstar]

One advantage of a monitor vs. a TV is that it will be pisel perfect. You send it the correct native resolution and thats what it displays.

Many TVs have a native resolution of 1392x768, but you can have dificulty actually sending that to them. Samsung used to be particularly bad at this. If you sent it anything other than 1920x1080 it would scale it to that resolution then back to the native resolution of the panel. You can also get overscan problems where the edges of the picture are not visible.

These problems are not there with monitors.

I have a 20" Viewsonic in the bedroom, would like to replace it with a 24"+ though. Perhaps one of Dells new 16:9 monitors that are on the way, i think the first one is going to be a 26".

[disaster123]

I've red that the contrast of a PC monitor is not as good as the one of modern TVs.

[Atramhasis]

I think this Dell Monitor could be a very good alternative for HTPCs:
Dell S2409W 24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

I just wait for it to be available in Europe and hope, that the PQ is good. Maybe other companies soon will have such monitors?

The advantage when compared with a TV is:
- less energy consumption
- no problems with resolution and frequency
- FullHD for cheap
- faster to turn on (I hope)

[disaster123]

that looks good - but is dell good at producing such monitors?

[grubi]

Originally Posted by Atramhasis

I think this Dell Monitor could be a very good alternative for HTPCs:
Dell S2409W 24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

I just wait for it to be available in Europe and hope, that the PQ is good. Maybe other companies soon will have such monitors?

The advantage when compared with a TV is:
- less energy consumption
- no problems with resolution and frequency
- FullHD for cheap
- faster to turn on (I hope)

What's missing from the spec is if the device is capable of operating at 50 Hz. This is one of the main differences between TVs and computer monitors. Most computer LCDs only operate at 60 Hz which makes it impossible to get smooth motion on PAL sources. Important at least in PAL land.

grubi.

[Tullux]

Why bother with LCD at all for a small TV? (unless you have some serious issues with the depth of a CRT!)
Their main advantage is the size and resolution - brilliant for "Home Cinema". But neither of the two make that much of a difference <32" and from more than 2 meters viewing distance.
16:9 ration is not that much of an issue, since the black border are really black, unlike TFT, where you always have some backlight bleeding.

Personally, I still consider CRT to give the better Image at small sizes. Vibrant Colors, great contrast - you'd have to go for a high end Plasma to get similar Results.