Monitor v/s TV - uhhhh!!! Which to get for a new system?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Demhi Moss
  • Start date Start date
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Demhi Moss

Hello Computer Demigods and Gurus, I have a question I cannot seem to
resolve.
I saw an ad in the Best Buy advert for a monitor that was about 27"
and right at $350.
Wow, I actually found the advert again.....
$349 for a 27" LED Wide screen Monitor
1920X1080 MAX Res
1000:1 mega Dynamic contrast ratio.
2 ms response timve.sku:4835342
VGA and 2 HDMI connections.
I thought this looked good and planned to buy it until I saw the
following add in the same advert:

For the same money I can get a 40 " CLASS LCD 1080p HDTV
SKU:4550458

very ROUGHLY almost twice the screen space. The TV has to be the
better deal right?
I keep up with computers when I need a new system then I tend to kind
of stagnate. Now I'm getting ready to build a new rig - actually the
pieces are in the mail on their way to me. I need a new monitor.
I'd like to get a very nice one to be the main screen and then a far
cheaper one to use along with it.
I know that 1080p means 1080 horizontal lines and (P)rogressive scan.
And that is my understanding of the two devices above. It would seem
that they both offer the same resolution but I am probably wrong.

Also, I am afraid that the TV may have a very slow response time. I
have played movies from my Laptop to 60" TV and was pleased with the
results.

So my questions to all the readers here is: What am I missing???
The TV is bigger/cheaper per sq inch, and I can watch TV on it ((not a
big plus but a plus)).
Are the two devices comparable? If you can help me out I'd be very
grateful.

Also looking for a decent - nice GPU. I prefer Nvidia.
If it matters, I am getting the new rig mainly TO PLAY and WATCH
MOVIES. My current game - SKYRIM.



PS: Can one buy an adapter to run from a video output (the original
type, looks like a serial port - NOT A Digital Output OR a HDMI
output) from a lap top to RCA type Video inputs on a TV? I am
trying to hook my laptop up to an older LCD TV that only has a few
types of input.
My laptop also has an HDMI output if that matters.

Thank you guy for taking the time to read this and assisting me if you
are able.

Demhi
 
Demhi Moss said:
Hello Computer Demigods and Gurus,
Click to expand...

Hello no-archive poster.

If you are a computer enthusiast, naturally a computer monitor
comes first. But I really enjoy having a monitor that includes all
modern TV functions (including cable input and air antenna).

--
 
Hello Computer Demigods and Gurus, I have a question I cannot seem to
resolve.
I saw an ad in the Best Buy advert for a monitor that was about 27"
and right at $350.
Wow, I actually found the advert again.....
$349 for a 27" LED Wide screen Monitor
1920X1080 MAX Res
1000:1 mega Dynamic contrast ratio.
2 ms response timve.sku:4835342
VGA and 2 HDMI connections.
I thought this looked good and planned to buy it until I saw the
following add in the same advert:

For the same money I can get a 40 " CLASS LCD 1080p HDTV
SKU:4550458

very ROUGHLY almost twice the screen space. The TV has to be the
better deal right?
I keep up with computers when I need a new system then I tend to kind
of stagnate. Now I'm getting ready to build a new rig - actually the
pieces are in the mail on their way to me. I need a new monitor.
I'd like to get a very nice one to be the main screen and then a far
cheaper one to use along with it.
I know that 1080p means 1080 horizontal lines and (P)rogressive scan.
And that is my understanding of the two devices above. It would seem
that they both offer the same resolution but I am probably wrong.

Also, I am afraid that the TV may have a very slow response time. I
have played movies from my Laptop to 60" TV and was pleased with the
results.

So my questions to all the readers here is: What am I missing???
The TV is bigger/cheaper per sq inch, and I can watch TV on it ((not a
big plus but a plus)).
Are the two devices comparable? If you can help me out I'd be very
grateful.

Also looking for a decent - nice GPU. I prefer Nvidia.
If it matters, I am getting the new rig mainly TO PLAY and WATCH
MOVIES. My current game - SKYRIM.

PS: Can one buy an adapter to run from a video output (the original
type, looks like a serial port - NOT A Digital Output OR a HDMI
output) from a lap top to RCA type Video inputs on a TV? I am
trying to hook my laptop up to an older LCD TV that only has a few
types of input.
My laptop also has an HDMI output if that matters.

Thank you guy for taking the time to read this and assisting me if you
are able.

Demhi
Click to expand...

First they cost $1500 before dropping $1000, a better known 32" LED.
At $600 I bought, only so many years ago I forget. At least 8 years
ago. I'm still using it, looking at you now on it as a matter of
fact. Haven't the time for whatever you said. . .something about
LEDs, lots of money, in lots of whatever else. Remember last
Christman Economic Holiday. . .everything under God's Sun, aroundabout
December, around 32" was around $200. LED/LCD, whatever. It was a
glorious event of glutted and surfeit manufacturing reserves for
following the FCC mandate on HDTV implementation.

Wonder how long that'll remain King of Kings with $80 Verizon fiber
optic qualified 1.2M/s minimum throughput requirements for most
televised internet streaming Set Tops. Such a lovely word,
too. . .Set Top. Has almost an informal rhyme to Cable Box.

Here's signing off at you quickly over 128K/s, so the door doesn't hit
me in the ass on the way out. Yours truly, Ouch.
 
Demhi said:
For the same money I can get a 40 " CLASS LCD 1080p HDTV
SKU:4550458
Click to expand...

It's a "Best Buy Exclusive". I can't find a user manual
in PDF form to download, or a specification sheet.

Note that in the past, some "1080p" capable TV sets, didn't
actually have 1920 wide panels. They used a scaler instead.
(I.e. A ripoff in terms of resolution.) It was the input
connector that accepted 1920. There were fewer pixels on
the screen.

I'd just stick with the computer monitor instead. You can be
seated at your desk, and put the screen at head level, and
adjust the level for least neck pain. (I use 3/4" thick
pieces of lumber, underneath the computer monitor stand,
to put the monitor at the right level. It took nine pieces
of board, to build a stand.)

If you go "LCD TV", it'll end up using the VESA mount, and
you may have problems putting it at the right height, and
still being able to see it. If you put it up high, you'll
get neck pain. And eye strain from eyeballing the keyboard,
then looking up at the TV set, back and forth, etc.

If you're a gamer, maybe you have the physical setup
(couch & TV, game controller) for an LCD TV. If you have
office furniture (chair and desk), the LCD TV may not work
out as well.

Paul
 
Yours truly, Ouch.
Click to expand...

And screw ergonomics and buy the cheap LED at yesteryear's LCD price;-
it'll last you, at least, well into next century.

Right.

Actually wrong, as they never got it right from Day One, those wily
old Microsoft engineers, a hungry bunch when first at inventing such
obfuscating words;- it wasn't Winderz 1/2.0, but Word ON Winderz,
which is where they succeeded the industry, en masse, in a behavioural
laboratory by observing such as facial tics behind mirrors set up in
front of endusers subjugated for testing purposes, in ironing out all
the creases for a business-grade Word Processor.

Took WordPerfect by storm and effectively blew their collective arses
out of Orem, UT, right up the old pipeline and into the maelstrom of
swirling obscurity.

The actual physics of monitor interaction as a behavior assay, isn't
one as much of size but size in relation to placement at an optimal to
the mechanics of viscous fluids and how they are distributed to the
eyes by reflex patterns of the brain. The optimal, again, is not one
of the object size but a subject relation of the eyelids (blinking in
order to distribute from ducts a covering of viscous substance);- the
optimal, then, in placement is eyelids posed between and at 45- to 90-
degrees, for a pupil focus juxtiposed at somewhat lower positioning,
than the median 90-degrees, and up to 45-degrees in the lower
quadrant.

A perceptual point in balances whereby muscular tensions of lifting
the eyeball are not engaged, for the eye to relax downward with
gravity, as with the eyelid's lowered posture, which is conducive to
blinking over sustained periods in maintaining a steady focus. A lay
analogy no different than holding a book beneath the head, at 45-
degrees roughly between the navel and adam's apple, rather than
directly in front of the face while never blinking.

The solution, though imperceptibly as short-lived as any pragmatic
sense yet derived, was a piece of furniture, once traditionally known
as a desk top, with a recess to mount a modern monitor beneath, to
finally cover by film materials similar to glass, or if not such as
better layer substrates actually used in monitor manufacture processes.
 
For the same money I can get a 40 " CLASS LCD 1080p HDTV
[..deleted..]
Also, I am afraid that the TV may have a very slow response time.   I
have played movies from my Laptop to 60" TV and was pleased with the
results.
Click to expand...

I went through the same thinking as you and bought the big screen TV
for my primary monitor (using my prior larger monitor as a secondary).
New TVs have very good response times, usually around 8ms. While good
monitors have 4ms lag, extremely few people would notice the
difference.

Large TVs make awesome monitors. Pay close attention to the specs
though; you want to see a PC connector (typically a VGA connector, but
sometimes a DVI connector), because it means that the TV maker had
computers in mind when designing the TV.
 
For the same money I can get a 40 " CLASS LCD 1080p HDTV
[..deleted..]
Also, I am afraid that the TV may have a very slow response time. =A0 I
have played movies from my Laptop to 60" TV and was pleased with the
results.
Click to expand...

I went through the same thinking as you and bought the big screen TV
for my primary monitor (using my prior larger monitor as a secondary).
New TVs have very good response times, usually around 8ms. While good
monitors have 4ms lag, extremely few people would notice the
difference.

Large TVs make awesome monitors. Pay close attention to the specs
though; you want to see a PC connector (typically a VGA connector, but
sometimes a DVI connector), because it means that the TV maker had
computers in mind when designing the TV.
Click to expand...

DVI is getting outdated. HDMI (Basically DVI with audio) is what you want.
 
Ting said:
For the same money I can get a 40 " CLASS LCD 1080p HDTV
[..deleted..]
Also, I am afraid that the TV may have a very slow response time. I
have played movies from my Laptop to 60" TV and was pleased with the
results.
Click to expand...

I went through the same thinking as you and bought the big screen TV
for my primary monitor (using my prior larger monitor as a secondary).
New TVs have very good response times, usually around 8ms. While good
monitors have 4ms lag, extremely few people would notice the
difference.

Large TVs make awesome monitors. Pay close attention to the specs
though; you want to see a PC connector (typically a VGA connector, but
sometimes a DVI connector), because it means that the TV maker had
computers in mind when designing the TV.
Click to expand...

The only exception to the rule, is when an older TV with "computer
input connector", lacks a display option to run native.

I've checked the user manual on a few sets for people here,
and the old ones would do something silly like this.

Native resolution 1366x768

VGA resolution (computer input) 640x480
800x600
...
1280x1024

and the thing lacks the option to accept 1366x768, to avoid blurring.
So on a TV set like that, the computer input will always be
compromised, by resampling to fit the native 1366x768.

More modern sets, no longer do that. You can get "native" on a
modern TV. Compared to the example above, that might look like this.

Native resolution 1366x768

VGA resolution (computer input) 640x480
800x600
...
1360x768 <--- tiny black bars on the side
1368x768 <--- toss a couple columns out ?

Video cards can't always output 1366 exactly, and modern sets
offer options to select a resolution which they know the video
card can generate (basically, horizontal must be divisible by 8).
1360 exactly divides by 8. Only video cards with digital output,
and an external TMDS, seem to have "divisible by 1" outputs. On
those video cards exclusively, you can get exactly 1366 wide
(a number not divisible by 8).

The above, is an example of the level of trivia involved in selecting
TV sets for usage with a computer. *Always* download the manual
for the TV set first, before you buy. And if a TV set doesn't
have a manual for you to review, don't buy it!

Also, if you use a TV for a computer monitor, and you want to
edit images in Photoshop, select a TV which supports disabling
"dynamic contrast". An LCD screen can support contrast of 500:1
or perhaps 1000:1 native. To get the claims of "20000:1" or
"1000000:1" for contrast, they do that by varying the backlight
level as a function of the image content on the screen. Dynamic
contrast works great, for viewing TV movies. But sucks when
you're trying to calibrate colors in Photoshop. (When the TV
changes the light level behind the screen, it screws up the
Photoshop colors.) A computer monitor, will have that setting,
in the OSD (the menu presented by the monitor, when you want
to adjust stuff).

Using a TV is fine, if you did your homework first.

Some of the older LCD TVs, were really crappy.

Paul
 
For the same money I can get a 40 " CLASS LCD 1080p HDTV
[..deleted..]
Also, I am afraid that the TV may have a very slow response time. I
have played movies from my Laptop to 60" TV and was pleased with the
results.
Click to expand...

I went through the same thinking as you and bought the big screen TV
for my primary monitor (using my prior larger monitor as a secondary).
New TVs have very good response times, usually around 8ms. While good
monitors have 4ms lag, extremely few people would notice the
difference.

Large TVs make awesome monitors. Pay close attention to the specs
though; you want to see a PC connector (typically a VGA connector, but
sometimes a DVI connector), because it means that the TV maker had
computers in mind when designing the TV.
Click to expand...

Btw - recently picked up a quad-channel stick of USB memory. Patriot
XT Rage and higher-class rated memory than any my other sticks.
Bought the Patriot based on favorable user experiences, which is no
different for me. Getting common HD <> HD speeds from that stick, or
about 25M/sec for both write and read, and it doesn't drop
significantly with smaller file transfers being around 20M/sec. $12
for 8G on a no-rebate sale, although the same store within a week
after I bought mine advertised both the 32G & 64G module for $20 & $40
respectively on the same terms. Supposedly slower at higher
capacities although either those sizes I'd seldom fully utilize.
 
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