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Differences between a Monitor and a LED TV

Tags:
  • TV
  • Computers
  • LED Monitor
  • Graphics
  • Monitors
  • Displays
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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April 25, 2014 1:43:39 PM

Hello All,

I was looking into getting a new display and I was just curious if HD TV with a max resolution of 1920X1080 would perform as well as a monitor designed for computers. I've spoken with friends that use a TV as the display for their computers and they don't seem to mind it. At long as the TV has the right connections I don't think this would be a problem would it?

Another curiosity I have is with my current monitor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824113019


I've had this monitor for years now and its been a great purchase. However, the other day I plugged it into my computer using an HDMI cable instead of DVI and the resolution seemed to suffer for it. It stopped using up the full display area of the screen and everything seemed a bit fuzzy and less crisp. I was curious if that was to be expected with any TV/Monitor you'd plug in using HDMI or perhaps my monitor doesn't support full HD via HDMI but does via DVI? One thing to note is that I had to change the settings in my catalyst control center to signify I had an HD TV attached and not a monitor or the display wouldn't work at all.

As always, thanks for your time.

More about : differences monitor led

a b C Monitor
April 25, 2014 1:52:44 PM

In theory, they are the same. If you can find a TV with the specs you'd find appealing in a monitor, you'll just have to look at the TV's color to see if you like it - the same as you would a monitor. There's a challenge, however. The TV industry suffers from a severe lack of transparency that makes reliable information very hard to find.

If you want answers to questions like "What is the ms, resolution, contrast ratio, ect. on a monitor?" then all you have to do is look at Newegg's spec sheet. What about for a TV? Well, you'll have to dig a little more. Just one example is that TVs will advertise really amazing refresh rates (e.g. 240 Hz), but they don't come out and say that the ratio of actual frames to TV-generated frames is 1 to 4, so it's really a 60 Hz scree with an onboard CPU creating and inserting three generated frames in between each actual frame.

The best thing to do is to take a laptop to a TV store and let your graphics processor detect the capabilities of the TV. It will tell you. They might think you're weird for asking to connect your laptop to a bunch of TVs through an HDMI, but who cares? It's your money! If the TV manufacturers would just give you an honest spec sheet, you wouldn't have to do things like that.
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a b x TV
a b C Monitor
April 25, 2014 2:13:30 PM

As far as your current monitor and going from DVI to HDMI, there must have been a resolution setting or something else that needed adjusting, or your graphics card might not do well with HDMI.

As far as difference betwen TVs and monitors. The sperating difference is simply that a TV has a TV tuner built into it.

A TV has faster refresh rate, up to 480hz for high end.
A monitor has more resolutions availible in the sub 32 inch category, while TVs have only 1080 and 720p resolutions until you get into the larger sized 4k TVs.
Both have better black levels when you buy a high end. Now it is easier to find monitors with higher resolution in the 21 to 30in size then it is to find TVs with more then 720p.

All in all it comes down to what inputs you need and how you plan to use it: what content you need to watch, how far away you want to sit, etc
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