[Judge Crandall]

Hey,

I'm thinking of getting a new monitor, preferably a flat screen. I'd be using it with my laptop. I was hoping to use it to watch some tv and movies too. I don't really know how big I want the screen to be, but at least 25 inches, I'd say. I'd really appreciate any suggestions, as well as how much things would cost. Thanks in advance.

 

[wali]

Does your Laptop have a DVI out? last time I checked one needed a TV tuner card to be able to watch TV with a computer monitor.

 

[Elec]

Well if you want an LCD (which is a thin, flat monitor, as opposed to just the screen being flat, which can be accomplished with a standard tube display), the main thing to keep in mind is resolution. Resolution is the number of pixels, or little dots which make up the picture. This is kind of a dual issue. Television is relatively low resolution. A computer display is relatively high resolution. What this means to you is that if you buy something meant to be a television and use it with a computer, you will discover that a lot of things look huge or blurry. On the other hand, if you buy something meant to be a computer monitor and use it for television, it either won't take up the whole screen or will while looking very blocky and blurry.

An LCD TV in the upper 20 inches range may run you $1500 to $2000 give or take. The only computer monitor LCD or otherwise that I am aware of which is larger than 24 inches is the 30" Apple Cinema Display which costs around 3 grand and has some very specific graphic card requirements. There is one 24" widescreen monitor made by Sony, though it is a CRT and weighs ~100 pounds. There are also a few 24" LCD widescreens available from HP, BenQ, and soon Dell.

 

[psychogentoo]

I remember Samsung had 15" LCD monitors with a TV tuners built in. You may want to check to see if they have larger LCDs with a built-in tuner.

You could go the route of getting an external tuner for the computer but I can't say to the quality of the video. Maybe someone else can chime in on that.

If you go the route of getting a LCD HDTV/Monitor to double as your computer monitor, you have to keep in mind that the resolution will mostly be limited to something like 1280 x 768. Depends on the laptop but most newer laptops have higher resolution than this.

As Elec points out, Apple does make a 30" LCD but you going to need a serious vid card to take advantage of the resolution it provides. The 24" 16:10 CRT that Sony had...haven't they discontinued that model?

 

[gsferrari]

I have a 21 Inch Liyama monitor and it is awesome...not as big as you might require but it works for me...

 

[GokieKS]

There are a few 23"/24" LCD monitors out, but I don't think any have built-in TV tuners.

Dell is set to introduce a 24" widescreen LCD (1920 x 1200 resolution), the 2405FPW... if it follows in the footsteps of the 2005FPW and the 2001FP (which I have), it'll have composite and S-Video inputs, so you *could* use it to watch TV w/o a computer-based tuner, though it'll still require extra components/effort.

~KS

 

[Aman]

Something I'd recommend is getting a cable box that has a DVI output, and then sending it to your DVI input on your LCD.

You could have a switcher of some sort, that can change between the DVI output from your TV, and from your computer.

Another option is this:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...180-017&depa=1

With this, for under 1000 dollars, you are getting a full LCD monitor, 30 inches mind you, and the addition of DVI and component inputs for high-definition Cable and Satelite connections. It even has speakers if you don't care about the sound quality

But seriously, something like that is your best choice, and I recommend buying from New Egg if you live in the United States.

 

[Judge Crandall]

What would I have to get if I got a monitor without a TV tuner and wanted to make it TV capable? Is my videocard going to be an issue? Would I be better off just getting an LCD monitor for my computer and not worry about watching tv on it? Sorry for all the questions, I didn't realize it'd be this complicated. Thanks for all the help.

 

[psychogentoo]

Couple of things you can do if you wanted to get a monitor without a tuner built in.

As Aman suggests:
LCD w/ DVI connector with a digital cable box
Possibly use a KVM that supports DVI so you don't have to swap cables.

OR

Get an external tuner:
LCD or CRT with a NextVision N6 or ATI TV Wonder USB or something similar.

Here is a review of the N6.

Here is a review of the TV Wonder.

I hope this helps.

 

[Judge Crandall]

What about a plasma screen? They seem to be a lot cheaper than LCDs at the same size. What about a plasma screen? They seem to be a lot cheaper than LCDs at the same size. Although I'm not sure if I REALLY need a 40 inch screen, but if the shoe fits...

Would the image quality be different from that of a comparable LCD TV or monitor?

 

[Aman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judge Crandall What about a plasma screen? They seem to be a lot cheaper than LCDs at the same size. What about a plasma screen? They seem to be a lot cheaper than LCDs at the same size. Although I'm not sure if I REALLY need a 40 inch screen, but if the shoe fits... Would the image quality be different from that of a comparable LCD TV or monitor?

The offered resolution would be very low. Probably under 1024x768

 

[Elec]

Plasmas and LCDs each have their own benefits and quirks. A plasma will probably be a poor choice for a computer monitor though. For one thing, plasmas have burn in issues (different from headphones

) where something displayed for a long time may become burned into the screen so it is permanently visible. This isn't great with a computer because you may have things like the taskbar or various windows/parts of windows that are almost always in the same spot. Also, beware that many of the cheaper plasmas are not HD, but rather ED (extended def.) which means they have an even lower resolution. You won't care for TV viewing, but that will probably bug you for computer use. If you want to see why, set your computer to the 800x600 or 640x480 resolutions. Now imagine the proportions of everything are the same but your screen is 40+ inches. Stuff will be huge and text may not be sharp enough to read.

 

[Judge Crandall]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aman http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...180-017&depa=1 With this, for under 1000 dollars, you are getting a full LCD monitor, 30 inches mind you, and the addition of DVI and component inputs for high-definition Cable and Satelite connections. It even has speakers if you don't care about the sound quality But seriously, something like that is your best choice, and I recommend buying from New Egg if you live in the United States.

This looks like a great deal. Anyone have any experience with this? I could only find the 1 review on newegg.

 

[infiskik]

trust me the way to go is the dell 2005FPW or FWP
that thing looks brilliant and i hate lcds, plus it has 3 inpus in the back and allows picture in picture, plus you can find it on sell for round 550-650.


edit that thing posted and low rez, sub par contrast ration, response time is good, but, kinda wastefull unless you want a TV more then a monitor.

 

[Judge Crandall]

What about the 21" Samsung 213T? A friend of mine just got one and it looks great. All the reviews I've found on it have been good, too. The 243T looks good as well. Also, would there be any problems running these monitors through my laptop? My video card's not that good (ATI Radeon IGP 345m) so I'm not sure if that's an issue or not.