What's the main difference between a same sized lcd monitor and tv?

[DL402]

Since I found a tv that's $90 cheaper than it's monitor equivalent, with somewhat similar specifications.

TV: http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...S&Sp=C&topnav=

Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236047

 

[BladeVenom]

You're comparing different brands, and different sizes. Look at the details. To begin with ones a 25" at 1920x1080 while the other is 25.5" at 1900x1200.

Here's a monitor that's a lot closer to the TV. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254048

 

[DL402]

Hrmm, well comparing that monitor to the tv, it looks like the monitor is betting spec wise except for not having a tv tuner?

 

[DL402]

Also I'm not exactly understanding the specs between these three monitors, such as the different types of contrast ratios.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254048
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009167
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236052

Out of those three can someone explain the key differences since I don't exactly get what the different stats mean, thanks.

 

[Petey!]

TVs also usually come with TV tuners. And the panel type will probably be different.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Also I'm not exactly understanding the specs between these three monitors, such as the different types of contrast ratios.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254048
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009167
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236052

Out of those three can someone explain the key differences since I don't exactly get what the different stats mean, thanks.

They all have the same resolution 1920x1080p.

Their response times are a bit different. Two of them are at 2ms, the other is at 5ms. This is negligible though. 5ms is already really low.

Their sizes are a bit different, 25", 24", 23.6".

Anytime you see something like 15,000:1, 40,000:1, 10,000:1, 50,000:1, etc, or anything similar to that, that is the contrast ratio. I honestly wouldn't worry too much about that # as each manufacturer calculates that # differently.

Not sure which specs you were looking at specifically, but those above are some of the main ones you see.

 

[fffblackmage]

Specs are nice and all, but what you should really be doing is looking for reviews on those monitors.

Anytime you see something like 15,000:1, 40,000:1, 10,000:1, 50,000:1, etc, or anything similar to that, that is the contrast ratio. I honestly wouldn't worry too much about that # as each manufacturer calculates that # differently.

More specifically, that's the dynamic contrast ratio. Ignore this spec.

With dynamic contrast ratio, the backlight brightens and dims according to what is being displayed, to enhance the appearance of bright white or dark blacks. But the problem with that is that it brightens and darkens the entire screen. The primary benefit to this is just to make crazy large numbers like 40000:1 to impress you enough to buy the TV. Otherwise, you wouldn't normally use this feature. Heck, AFAIK, this feature comes disabled anyways.

 

[Seero]

Since I found a tv that's $90 cheaper than it's monitor equivalent, with somewhat similar specifications.

TV: http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...S&Sp=C&topnav=

Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236047

Let me put it in simple words, you will regret if you buy a TV and use it as a monitor.

When you watch TV, you don't really care about the clearness of each frame as TV uses something called "motion blur". The FPS of TV doesn't exceed 30, so T.V. specs won't even bother showing. Also because of "motion blur", the contrast doesn't mean much other than the brightness of the screen.

As a monitor, those becomes very important. 2 colors must be as distinct as possible or you don't see if your health bar is full or empty. Speaking of games, you won't see the difference above 20FPS because a TV simply can't display it. If you put a TV and a LCD side by side, then you will see that the TV is very blurry compare to a monitor.

 

[fffblackmage]

Let me put it in simple words, you will regret if you buy a TV and use it as a monitor.

When you watch TV, you don't really care about the clearness of each frame as TV uses something called "motion blur". The FPS of TV doesn't exceed 30, so T.V. specs won't even bother showing. Also because of "motion blur", the contrast doesn't mean much other than the brightness of the screen.

As a monitor, those becomes very important. 2 colors must be as distinct as possible or you don't see if your health bar is full or empty. Speaking of games, you won't see the difference above 20FPS because a TV simply can't display it. If you put a TV and a LCD side by side, then you will see that the TV is very blurry compare to a monitor.

Hmmm... didn't know that. So I guess there is a difference between a monitor with a TV tuner and a TV... used as a monitor.

The one thing I'm still bummed about is that my monitor doesn't have PiP. I want to watch TV while using the computer... Samsung actually told me to get a TV tuner for my computer instead....

 

[VirtualLarry]

Let me put it in simple words, you will regret if you buy a TV and use it as a monitor.

When you watch TV, you don't really care about the clearness of each frame as TV uses something called "motion blur". The FPS of TV doesn't exceed 30, so T.V. specs won't even bother showing. Also because of "motion blur", the contrast doesn't mean much other than the brightness of the screen.

As a monitor, those becomes very important. 2 colors must be as distinct as possible or you don't see if your health bar is full or empty. Speaking of games, you won't see the difference above 20FPS because a TV simply can't display it. If you put a TV and a LCD side by side, then you will see that the TV is very blurry compare to a monitor.

The above is not true.

 

[fffblackmage]

The above is not true.

:'(

 

[Xzyrus]

Hmmm... didn't know that. So I guess there is a difference between a monitor with a TV tuner and a TV... used as a monitor.

The one thing I'm still bummed about is that my monitor doesn't have PiP. I want to watch TV while using the computer... Samsung actually told me to get a TV tuner for my computer instead....

Don't TVs also advertise 60Hz and 120Hz? Perhaps the 30fps and motion blur is due to the signal sent by broadcasters rather than what the TV is capable of displaying.

 

[Athadeus]

Yeah, I would say that isn't accurate either. I have a friend who has used a Visio 32" LCD TV for his computer for a couple years and it looks and works great. I don't want to get into recommendations though, beside reiterating that reading many many reviews is often helpful.

 

[DL402]

Alright thanks for the responses, was just wondering the point of getting a monitor instead of a tv if the tv is cheaper + has a tv tuner built in, but I guess Seero's response sheds a lot of light on that.

I eventually ordered this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...tent-_-text-_-
$200 total and tons of 5 star reviews

 

[fffblackmage]

Alright thanks for the responses, was just wondering the point of getting a monitor instead of a tv if the tv is cheaper + has a tv tuner built in, but I guess Seero's response sheds a lot of light on that.

What? Everyone else just said it "isn't accurate" or it's "not true...."

 

[Voo]

Let me put it in simple words, you will regret if you buy a TV and use it as a monitor.

When you watch TV, you don't really care about the clearness of each frame as TV uses something called "motion blur". The FPS of TV doesn't exceed 30, so T.V. specs won't even bother showing. Also because of "motion blur", the contrast doesn't mean much other than the brightness of the screen.

Well TVs can do 60Hz usually (you've got to be more careful for the 120hz ones, since they could just be talking about interpolating frames and no true 120hz input) and every TV I've seen so far you could disable those post processing things and end up with a totally normal monitor.

The only thing that realy speaks against TVs (as long as you can disable postprocessing) is their horrible dot pitch, but if you're fine with that. Wouldn't want one for my desktop or anything but games.

 

[tweakboy]

The pixels on the TV are bigger. Its not a true PC monitor.

Also you can do 1920x1200 on PC monitor while on TV you do lower 1920x1080.

The pixels on the tv make fonts looks very bad,, pictures are better for PC TV , but for surfing and reading and what not you need a PC LCD ,, not a HDTV that you can use as PC mon. thanks,, gg and gb

 

[zerocool84]

Don't forget that practically all tv's will also have built-in scalers as well as tuners to scale non-native rez. A monitor does not have a built in scaler as it relies on the video card to scale so if you plug in something like a PS3 and it's a 720p game, it'll look worse and small.

 

[Voo]

A monitor does not have a built in scaler as it relies on the video card to scale so if you plug in something like a PS3 and it's a 720p game, it'll look worse and small.

There are enough LCDs monitors with a scaler

 

[Modelworks]

The biggest differences are going to be the media it is targeted for.
A tv is expecting to display 1280x720, 1920x1080 for resolutions and will include speakers , and several ports, component, hdmi, etc.
Monitor is going to target its native resolution and scale to match whatever is outside native resolution.

They both can scale but the difference is the tv is going to have a much better scaler designed for the standard resolutions. When it was designed they knew what the use would be and it was designed for those first. The monitor scaler is more general purpose where they can't be sure what other resolutions will be used and so every resolution is not tweaked to perfection, it is considered secondary.

Whenever any consumer electronics are designed the design teams start with the primary purpose, secondary purpose, optional purpose on the very first page of the proposal and that determines where the attention is spent.

Resolution is not everything. Be sure to check the pixel pitch as well. The lower the better. A tv can get away with a pitch of .31 but a monitor would need .28 or better because you are much closer to the display. I have seen a lot of displays that look great at a distance, but up close would make terrible pc monitors.

 

[DL402]

What? Everyone else just said it "isn't accurate" or it's "not true...."

Only one person said it's not true, and you just quoted him with a smiley face, neither of you even backed up why it wasn't true, so I took his word for it.
The other person just had a story about his friend without explaining anything technical.

 

[0roo0roo]

Don't forget that practically all tv's will also have built-in scalers as well as tuners to scale non-native rez. A monitor does not have a built in scaler as it relies on the video card to scale so if you plug in something like a PS3 and it's a 720p game, it'll look worse and small.

u has that backwards. if video cards did the scaling there would be no issue at all with supported resolutions,a ll monitors would have supported any resolution for the longest time...