TV or Monitor?

Marlin Guy said:

Someone wants me to help them setup a new system.
They want a 32" display. Is there any advantage of using a monitor over a HD TV?

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Where would you buy a "monitor" these days. Serious question. In my mind, a monitor is a TV that doesn't have speakers or things like that. In fact, I'd like to buy monitors rather than these 3D "Smart" TVs. They gotta be cheaper, no?

Rich

This is a computer desktop setup. Not a TV setup.
I'm just wondering if a 1080P HD TV is going to display as well as a computer monitor.

In searching computer monitors, it would appear that they only go up to 27" or so. So a 32 inch would have to be a tv.

Marlin Guy said:

This is a computer desktop setup. Not a TV setup.
I'm just wondering if a 1080P HD TV is going to display as well as a computer monitor.

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Understood. Don't know the answer, but I'll leave this thread now and leave you in the hands of someone better versed to help than I.

Rich

Marlin Guy said:

In searching computer monitors, it would appear that they only go up to 27" or so. So a 32 inch would have to be a tv.

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Perhaps I won't leave. I tried a Vizio 32 or 37 inch LCD TV a couple two three years ago and it was a poor TV, but a helluva nice monitor. Awfully expensive for a computer monitor, tho. Probably a lot cheaper now. I think I paid over $500 for it and if it would have been $300, I'd have kept it and used it as my desktop computer's main monitor. I do have a nice 1080p 24" LCD monitor now. I'd think any small TV would do for a monitor. LCD of course.

Rich

Marlin Guy said:

Someone wants me to help them setup a new system.
They want a 32" display. Is there any advantage of using a monitor over a HD TV?

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Apple makes the best (and most expensive) one around but it is 30" not 32". Dell also makes a 30". That is the largest PC desktop monitor these days.

A TV would be WAY cheaper ($250 and up) but the resolution is not really made for a computer unless all they want to do is watch TV and moives. It maxes out at 1920 x 1080 so the fonts would be huge (unless that's what he wants). If the guy wants a large montor for graphics work a TV won't come close. The "native" resolution on my 27" monitor is 2560 x 1440. He should really try out a 27" on a computer and see if he likes it. The jump to 30" gets VERY expensive.

Edit: He's also need a fairly high-end video card to get even up to 1920 x 1080 non-interlaced resolution for the TV. If hos card won't go that high the fonts on the TV will be 5" tall. A TV is not a good solution for "everyday" computer use.

Marlin Guy said:

In searching computer monitors, it would appear that they only go up to 27" or so. So a 32 inch would have to be a tv.

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The Samsung UN32D4000 has a PC input.

Marlin Guy said:

In searching computer monitors, it would appear that they only go up to 27" or so. So a 32 inch would have to be a tv.

Click to expand...

30" is the biggest "PC" type desktop monitor. Apple & Dell and a couple other Graphics oriented companies make them. VERY expensive. TV's are horrible for long term use (for other than games or watching videos).

MysteryMan said:

The Samsung UN32D4000 has a PC input.

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Virtually every recent LCD and plasma TV up to 72" does. Great for showing photos off your laptop or a movie but not much else.

MysteryMan said:

The Samsung UN32D4000 has a PC input.

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Current video cards has HDMI output(s).

TBlazer07 said:

Virtually every recent LCD and plasma TV up to 72" does. Great for showing photos off your laptop or a movie but not much else.

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Slide shows are not a popular application for modern computers. The display latency on many LCD TVs will drive a computer user batty. TVs are equipped to handle TV images and often don't do well with text rendering and scrolling.

Of course if the computer operator is vision impaired, I suppose it doesn't much matter if the finer details get lost in the translation.

It is also important to note that not all TVs will accept random resolutions through their analog inputs and not all display cards are equipped to output all panel resolutions (especially the odd resolutions used by some plasma displays).

P Smith said:

Current video cards has HDMI output(s).

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Most of the top end ones do but hardy any of the cheaper ones. So? The resolution limitation is the TV. If you like to do word processing with 5 foot high fonts at 1920x1080 (i or p) that look like fuzz balls that fine. Bottom line is TV's are NOT made to be computer monitors (other than for photos, movies or some lo-res games) or we would be able to buy 32" computer monitors for $249 rather than the $1500 to $4000 "real" monitors cost.

harsh said:

Slide shows are not a popular application for modern computers.

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Huh? Why would a computer have anything to do with it, it's the display? . Not as great as on a nice monitor of course but for family viewing on a large screen TV are perfect (as are movies). Of course if the TV or monitor has lousy latency a movie will look worse but most new LCD & (in my case) plasma look really good for a photo display.

TBlazer07 said:

Most of the top end ones do but hardy any of the cheaper ones. So? The resolution limitation is the TV. If you like to do word processing with 5 foot high fonts at 1920x1080 (i or p) that look like fuzz balls that fine. Bottom line is TV's are NOT made to be computer monitors (other than for photos, movies or some lo-res games) or we would be able to buy 32" computer monitors for $249 rather than the $1500 to $4000 "real" monitors cost.

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Over exaggeration at its finest.
Its definitely not that difficult at all to configure a tv to work well with PC and the results are far from " If you like to do word processing with 5 foot high fonts"

I have my pc hooked up to a 42" inch panny plasma tv from 05 and it works fine, yeah it needed some tweaking but even then it wasnt so bad prior to the tweaks.

TBlazer07 said:

Most of the top end ones do but hardy any of the cheaper ones. ...

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Seems to me you should look at middle range cards too.

What the matter do over exaggeration in simple things. Doesn't matter how you want screw your opponent - the market is show: you are far from real life.

One of the reasons this person wants such a massive display is that do want everything to be larger. They currently have a 27" monitor and the resolution is something like X900 or so.
I can't stand to look at it, but they like it.

I tried to convince them to go with 2 24" screens, but they wouldn't have it.
Anyway, I guess we're going to try a 32 LCD TV (1080P) and see how it looks.

Thanks for the feedback.

P Smith said:

Seems to me you should look at middle range cards too.

What the matter do over exaggeration in simple things. Doesn't matter how you want screw your opponent - the market is show: you are far from real life.

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Obviously English is your second language so I can't blame you for your cryptic messages but unfortunately I have no idea wtf you are talking about but whatever it is congratulations on being the 1st person on my ignore list.

P Smith said:

Seems to me you should look at middle range cards too.

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Just because the middle/low range cards have HDMI ports on them does not mean they can handle it especially on the larger resolutions.

Inkosaurus said:

Over exaggeration at its finest.
Its definitely not that difficult at all to configure a tv to work well with PC and the results are far from " If you like to do word processing with 5 foot high fonts"

I have my pc hooked up to a 42" inch panny plasma tv from 05 and it works fine, yeah it needed some tweaking but even then it wasnt so bad prior to the tweaks.

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OBVIOUSLY it was a bit of hyperbole, the fonts are only 3 feet high.

If you want to use your TV as a monitor all the power to you. You can say what you want but compared to 27" or 30" computer monitor it looks like crap for anything but the most basic use or else you would see thousands of 32" (and up) TV sets advertised as 32" computer monitors and reviewed all over the web. I have never seen one so it must say something about the commonality of it's use.