TV vs Monitor?

[Mosg2]

So... Can someone explain what the technical differences are between a monitor and a widescreen TV? I'm just wondering if the quality from say, a 50" flat screen is more or less than say a 24" flatscreen monitor. Is it just cost that prevents more boxers from using a TV? The fact that it's unwieldly?

[Duane]

I know one issue is the fixed resolution on TVs. Say you have a 50" 1080P LCD TV and resolution maxes out at 1,920 x 1,080 and you have a 24" monitor that maxes out at the same resolution. Graphics are going to look nicer on the monitor because the pixels will be smaller on the monitor compared to the TV.

Response times could be another issue but I'm not familiar enough with that to talk intelligently about it.

[Oatboat]

Well it use to be the resolution factor. But now adays 1080p compatible tvs look pretty good hooked up to a TV.

Usually its overkill because of price. You wont use the tv speakers, you have to sit back pretty good ways, but besides that a 42-50 inch looks nice.

[Littleburst]

I don't understand why people use such huge screens to be honest. Maybe a big Off monitor to watch the slaves in a bigger window. But i wouldn't want my mainscreen to be more then 24".

[Mosg2]

Well, I was thinking you could put your main on the top 2/3 of the TV and then the other 4 in a row along the bottom.

The TV's I was looking at were basically the same specs as a 24-30" monitor regarding resolution. The only major difference was going from 2ms response time on the monitor to 4ms on the TV. Now, considering my current monitors are 6ms I'm guessing the difference is negligiable :)

Basically, playing on the TV would allow me to sit more comfortably while playing. I currently have a 50" TV but it's older. I guess I could hook it up and see how it is and decide if I'd want to blow money on a newer one.

Anyone else have any pros/cons they want to share?

[Littleburst]

Well, I was thinking you could put your main on the top 2/3 of the TV and then the other 4 in a row along the bottom.

The TV's I was looking at were basically the same specs as a 24-30" monitor regarding resolution. The only major difference was going from 2ms response time on the monitor to 4ms on the TV. Now, considering my current monitors are 6ms I'm guessing the difference is negligiable :)

Basically, playing on the TV would allow me to sit more comfortably while playing. I currently have a 50" TV but it's older. I guess I could hook it up and see how it is and decide if I'd want to blow money on a newer one.

Anyone else have any pros/cons they want to share?

If you then use the default blizz frames and got your own healthbar in the top left corner, you've got to move your head up to check your own hp :P

Or move your eyes all over the place like you're paranoid, makes me dizzy.

[moosejaw]

The big monitor is ok. You can purchase a 'tv' without a tuner to save $$. I have a 37" 1080P that I used for a while and it was great. I did not box with it and I sat about 3 ft away max. Sitting any further away require adjusting fonts to make them readable.

You absolutely can not sit on the couch and play wow from a distance. Mount the monitor on the wall place your desk in front of it and adjust viewing distance to suit.

On a side note we have a 47" Lcd 1080P (Westinghouse) at work for viewing Trends on. After 2 years it is burned in so bad I wouldn't take that monitor if they gave it to me. The images would be changed every 8 hours at shift change over yet it still destroyed itself. This would be my concern for long term gaming on the Lcd tv.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

For anything but LCDs, if you can find one that has good color and brightness, you'll be fine.

Primary differences between LCD monitors and LCD TVs:

TV has lower resolution (1920x1080 vs 1920x1200) usually, with expensive exceptions
TV usually has brighter picture for viewing in sunny rooms and such
TVs are designed for TV content and not text/word processing content, so most have dot pitch (pixel clarity, basically) that is much bigger than a computer monitor, making reading text much more fuzzy.
TVs have a tuner for connecting cable boxes or game units that normal monitors may not support (i.e.: HDMI or composite RGB) which becomes useless if only connected via DVI or VGA(DB-15).
TV only has to support 30fps as most modern TV content is only 30p for live TV and 24p for movies.
TVs with anything higher than 60hz are pretty much snake oil, with some expensive exceptions. What these TVs do is add "interpolation frames" between the regular frames to "smooth out" the video stream. This can be done very well (Sony Bravia) or really, REALLY badly (some of your cheaply-built-yet-expensive 240hz TVs.
TVs usually have better color saturation and accuracy than computer monitors as you notice when skin color is wrong much quicker than you notice that the shade of gray in your Excel spreadsheet is wrong. ;)


The short version is, if you're going to be doing lots of text/email/web work, buy an actual computer monitor. The good ones are more expensive for a reason and if you're on a budget, you won't be able to get a good enough TV to match the performance of the cheap TN monitors.

If you're only doing games and video, a TV would work OK and might be cheaper than a comparably-sized monitor.

[Harrypott]

Contemplated using a 50" plasma as a second screen for the other toons awhile back since I already had the tv etc. Space to position it in the room didn't work so just got more LCD screens

[valkry]

Big monitor lets me use big frames on my UI so I can see numbers and buffs easier. That and I love watching movies I download on my comp while laying on the couch I have right next to it :P