LCD TV with VGA support or Monitor with TvTuner?

[BoboKatt]

Hi there and thanks for taking the time to read this. I am trying to help out a friend of mine getting a TV for her son. All she wanted to do was buy him a smallish LCD TV (very little space on his desk) for watching TV/movies etc (he is 10 years old). However sometime soon she mentioned she will be getting a computer for him.

Armed with this info I thought she would be a prime candidate to get an LCD monitor made for computers but that has a built in TVtuner with speakers so it would double as a TV. Is this the best way to go, performance/quality/ease of use/money wise? Or would she be better off getting a plain LCD TV that actually has a DVI in or VGA in for a computer?
I found info on an LCD monitor from Samsung, the 910MO (19") or the 710MP II (17") that both have speakers and a TVtuner that can accept a VCR or DVD player or a cable signal for TV watching. They cost roughly $450 for the 17" or $650 for the 19". Are these what I should be looking for? Or I found 20" LCD TVs that have inputs for a computer but limit resolution to 640x480 or thereabouts. Is this a viable option or would it look like crap and be unusable for Word documents or surfing the net?

Any other suggestions for someone trying to get a 2 in 1 solution? Or would she be better to just get a budget 17? LCD monitor for the future computer (those cost almost nothing now) and get a decent LCD TV for just watching TV?

Thanks!

 

[oynaz]

The LCD TVs have too low resolution for computer use. The computer monitor with built-in TV runer sounds like a very good idea, though.

 

[Bob Anderson]

I have a LCD Monitor with built in speakers and TV tuner. It is a Samsung 930MP, and I bought it to save space (sold the bulky 27" CRT and stand). I'm very happy with Samsung; the monitor for computer use is perfect, and the TV image is fine. I should inform you though that there is a break- in period for the TV tuner image. It may take a few days or even longer for the TV image to look 'good'.

I'd say the 17" would be you best bang for the buck.

-Bob

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I would agree that if you're going to do this, it would be a better idea to get an LCD monitor with TV capability rather than a TV with computer inputs.

From my own experience, I got three Dell 2007FPs for about about $365 total on a hot deal and I gave one to my parents to use as a TV. It has VGA, DVI, Composite, and S-Video inputs on it.

They have a VCR connected to it and use that as their tuner. They also have a very old Pioneer stereo receiver and speakers that they are using for sound.

This might be a route to consider rather than getting a monitor that has all built in options for TV use. If they have a VCR already or he's going to have a cable box connected, that could be your tuner and you don't need to have one built into the monitor. I don't know how big the desk really is to know if this is a dumb idea.

If they do have a VCR that can be used, having that as the tuner could help them divert more money into a quality monitor.

For speakers, the 2007 even has an option to attach Dell's monitor speaker (a $30 option) or you could suggest a small set of 2.0 / 2.1 speakers that would probably be a lot more capable than anything built into a monitor.

Just another alternative to think about. You mentioned a VCR signal so I figured why buy a tuner twice 🙂.

 

[MplsBob]

I thought that some sizes of display lent themselves more readily to this sort of thing. I don't know anything about the subject, but thought it had to to do with the various height/width ratios of the pictures to be displayed.

Can anyone enlighten me, or am I way off base?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: MplsBob

I thought that some sizes of display lent themselves more readily to this sort of thing. I don't know anything about the subject, but thought it had to to do with the various height/width ratios of the pictures to be displayed.

Can anyone enlighten me, or am I way off base?

I haven't seen a 19" 1280x1024 5:4 display showing TV content, but now that you mention it, that might be an issue. I would imagine you'd get the best results on 4:3 content with a 4:3 aspect ratio display like most 17" and 20" monitors that aren't widescreen.

On a widescreen display, you'd either stretch it or have black bars to display the correct aspect ratio for 4:3 material.

I guess these kind of issues would be worked out by manufacturers and how they chose to design their products. I've seen 4:3 TV content on 16:9 and 16:10 displays with both of these options but I don't know how 5:4 19" computer monitors might deal with the issue.