LCD monitor as a TV?

[Tim_Q]

Hi everyone,
Here's the reverse of another current thread....

I'm looking for a small screen for a bedroom, say 17". Question is, what exactly is the difference between an LCD TV and and LCD computer monitor?

For a start monitors seem much cheaper.
A monitor does not have a tuner built in but I don't care about this as I will use it with an external digibox anyway. How many monitors have a suitable video input to do this? I would have thought some do?
As for sound, not all monitors have speakers built in but many do.
What about the screen itself, any major differences?

Any feedback you can give on this would be gratefully received!
Thanks
Tim

 

[mickbarlow]

fyi

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=72433

 

[jon2099]

The primary difference between an LCD monitor and an LCD TV is that the TV can accept NTSC and/or PAL inputs which are 720x480x60i and 720x576x50i (interlaced) respectively. Most monitors can accept a minimum of VGA resolution which is 640x480x60p (progressive). In terms of horizontal resolution this is roughly 15.5kHz and 31kHz respectively.

In practical terms, this means you can't just plug your digibox straight into an LCD monitor without have a box to deinterlace and upsample the digibox signal to at least VGA. The upsampler is built-in to an LCD TV. I think the actual LCD panel itself is little different.

Having said that, there are a few rare exceptions. The Acer AL-1x31M family (where x can be 5, 7 or 9 for 15", 17" and 19" versions) are LCD monitors with standard VGA and DVI-D inputs but they also have composite and S-video inputs. For a Sky digibox, unless you have a Grundig or Sky+ box (these do S-video), the best you can get is composite video (ewww...).

 

[MarkE19]

A STB will not work directly with a PC monitor as they work on different frequencies. Of course there are going to be monitors that will work, but they will not be the majority of them.

This was also asked in This thread.

Mark.

 

[Tim_Q]

Thanks folks, Jon- very comprehensive reply! Maybe this isn't the way forward

 

[Dubbing Mixer]

It is also possible to obtain boxes with a tuner and scaler in them that output VGA for around a hundred quid e.g.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=71989

Providing you pick an LCD monitor with a decent response time (20ms or less) contrast of at least 800:1 and brightness of at least 250 nits and ideally 400 or more, these can work very well.