Can any LCD with HDMI be made into a TV w/ a cable box?

[Corporate Thug]

Can I plug a HDMI cable box into any LCD monitor w/ a HDMI input and use the monitor as a TV? I'm curious about this because I'm considering a 27 or 30 inch LCD if it can serve a dual purpose.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Corporate Thug
Can I plug a HDMI cable box into any LCD monitor w/ a HDMI input and use the monitor as a TV? I'm curious about this because I'm considering a 27 or 30 inch LCD if it can serve a dual purpose.

In theory yes. In practice, I had a 22in Acer monitor that didn't work with my U-Verse TV service after a DRM update a few months ago. Basically the HDCP handshake didn't work and the "work around" was to use component video. I recently purchased a 22in LCD TV to get around all the limitations and I can now do scaling on the TV for 4:3 ratio material, which makes me less reliant on my video card drivers working properly (although ATI's drivers have been great with GPU scaling since the 8.xx days for me).

If you're going to hook both a cable TV and PC connection to a monitor, I'd get a 1080p 32in model and don't look back.

 

[Lotheron]

I've done this as well my self. I have an HP2408h. It has native HDMI with HDCP. It worked great, except the speakers on it are horrible. I bought a pair of external computer speakers and it does the trick, however, I have no volume control.