Monitor or HDTV?

In the market for a new monitor. I Have a 22" flat panel now, but am looking to size up to anything from 26"-32" range. In my research, it seems I can get a pretty decent 32" HDTV 1080P usually 60hz for about the same price a decent 27" 1080p "monitor". I play FPS, no movies really, and other than that, I'm just surfing. My PC isn't super high end, even after I upgrade here in the next few weeks, and I will use HDMI. So that being said, is there a reason to buy a "monitor" over an HDTV? Resolutions, 60hz not good for FPS gaming, etc?

Should I have made this yet another "Tell me what monitor to buy" thread instead?

the info:

if you set your desktop resolution to 1920x1080 on a 1080p monitor (which should have 1920x1080 pixels... check specs) then there will be absolutely no bars. 1080p is a common resolution so black bars aren't an issue except when playing very old games without support for widescreen.

just remember that the bigger you go with a monitor at the same resolution the larger everything will look. you will notice a difference between a 22 to a 27-32 screen. you might even have to bump up text sizes a bit to be more ledgible. i had to do this.

if you go the monitor route i know you can get large format displays from dell (and others) with double the resolution compared to typical monitors. expect $$$$ though. and to fullscreen games you might need a better video card!

60hz is the standard lcd refresh rate. there is not really any need to buy 120hz unles you want 3d support.

i use a 40" sony bravia mounted on the wall perhaps 4.5 feet in front of me, and it works great. if i lean too far some text can be hard to read but that is due to the size of the screen versus pixel density. this will be less noticible on smaller tvs.

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now for some advice:


since you will be playing games and surfing the internet only is such a large screen necessary? weigh some of the pros against the cons.

performance in fps games is actually increased when you are only focusing on a 20-24 inch screen compared to a large screen as your vision is directed to one spot while on a large screen it can be overwhelming (and hard to get used to i can say that!)

viewing pages on the internet i would have to say is much better on a 20-24 inch screen as well. text is crisper, easier to read.

overall my old 20.1 was much much much! better than my 40" for fps gaming/ web browsing. however, i don't have space on my desk for my monitor with all the extra goodies i have (even on a 9ft wide desk!!) so i had to consolidate. i've gotten used to the tv though and if i scale things up a bit its not bad.

additional information I just heard about, its 3rd hand knowlege so take it with a grain of salt (i didnt verify it):

there *is* a difference between an lcd television and lcd monitor. supposedly monitors (meant for computers) have a pixel arrangement which makes text easier to read. lcd televisions have a pixel arrangement that is best arranged for shapes. I'm guessing this is why monitors cost more than tvs of the same size.

perhaps this:
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/ [...] 2728wm.htm