[konni]

I'm looking to buy a wide screen display minimum 32" (81cm). I've done a little research online and at shops but I'm still unclear what the advantages or differences between a HD LCD TV and a Monitor.

a) I don't need a TV because I have no aerial and don't want one, but I do watch DVDs.

b) I have a 68" cathode ray TV (and my 17" iMac) but I want something easier to lift.

c) I tutor graphics & animation to small groups (4-6 people) in my SOHO. The students have laptops but it's awkward to crowd around my 17" iMac for a demo. So I want a bigger screen. I thought about a projector but needing a dark room, plus the resolution is a drawback.

d) I don't intend to use the 32" monitor to replace my workstation monitor - ie not trying to create graphics. It's just for tutorials and watching a nice big movie at a distance.

What I'd like to know is:

1. LCD HDTVs seem to be cheaper than LCD monitors. What are the tradeoffs?

2. The LCD-TVs I've looked at are either 50hz or 100hz - how big a problem could the refresh rate be in terms of teaching or watching animation?

3. What issues are there with plugging in either a standard DVD player or external HDD-media player, and iMac or another Mac computer model?

4. What cabling requirements are needed for plugging in a data source to both types of LCD - monitor or TV?

5. Are there any other factors I need to consider?

any advice or opinions to help me decide would be appreciated, thanks.

[Brains]

The single difference between a boring but large LCD TV-set, and an expensive, precision LCD computer monitor, is RESOLUTION. The screens may be exactly the same measurements, physically, but where your LCD TV set holds 1920x1280 pixels in its 40 inches of gloriousness, the computer monitor can be up to 3,000 x 2,000 pixels, or up to twelve times as many individual itty bitty dots. Unless you're wanting to set up a home theatre using Blu-Ray discs, then for watching DVDs on, and the occasionaly big-screen Mac fest, then an LCD HDTV is the smart choice all 'round. Bigger pixels, see?

[konni]

hmm.... duh? I don't see. Bigger pixels... I have to think about why I am confused. You are applauding the superiority of a monitor for resolution, but saying the TV is the smarter choice.

Yes, I understood the monitor has greater resolution, more pixels per inch - and so I'm wondering (but don't really know) if the output from a DVD is a fixed resolution, perhaps best suiting the resolution of the LCD-TV ... is there something like interpolation happening on the monitor then?

Forgive me but I've never thought about this before. So now I'm doing some reading...

• No matter the resolution of the source material, whether VHS, DVD or HD TV, a fixed-pixel display will always convert, or scale, it to fit its native resolution.
• If the incoming source has more pixels than the display's native resolution, you will lose some visible detail and sharpness, though often what you're left with still looks great.
• If the incoming source has fewer pixels than the native resolution, you're not getting any extra sharpness from the television's pixels.

What happens to the proportional view of the Mac desktop display when it goes to the 32" monitor or LCD-TV? The highest screen resolution for my iMac is currently 1440 x 900 - and that doesn't scale up neatly to either resolution you mention Brains.

I'm in a conference all day tomorrow - but I'll be back.

[Brains]

The resolution of your iMac's monitor isn't as important as what the graphics chip can actually do with an external monitor, and 1920 x 1080 is no doubt a supported resolution. The resolution of the external screen is in no way fixed to what your internal screen does, unless you enable mirroring.

If you have a 19" LCD monitor at 1440 x 900, and a 32" LCD TV-set at 1440 x 900, the TV-set is going to have the bigger pixels -- same number on each, the TV's ones are just larger, which makes it better when sitting back on the comfy chair when you want to watch movies. Same applies if you have a 22" external LCD monitor at 1920 x 1080 and a 36" LCD TV-set at 1920 x 1080.

Video material from movies will always be a fixed resolution -- in the case of your typical modern DVD, it will be saved with a fixed resolution of 1920 x 1080 (the "1080p" you occasionally hear about). On your 32" LCD-HDTV screen, the DVD movie will match pixel for pixel. If you get a 30" LCD computer monitor, the fixed resolution of it will be 2560 x 1600, so each pixel of data in the movie has to be blown up a bit, but because you can't perfectly match the scaling with the size of the pixels, on a monitor with a resolution higher than the movie, the movie becomes slightly fuzzy -- the dots don't match up.

A large number of very small pixels in a large area will cost a lot more than a moderate number of large pixels in the same area.

[konni]

thanks Brains. I understand it now. I can purchase with more confidence now. I don't upgrade things very often so I like to make it count.

[Steiny]

Originally Posted by Brains

- in the case of your typical modern DVD, it will be saved with a fixed resolution of 1920 x 1080 (the "1080p" you occasionally hear about). On your 32" LCD-HDTV screen, the DVD movie will match pixel for pixel.

That's overstating DVDs just a little. DVDs are standard definition, not HD, and have a fixed resolution of 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL) so they never pixel-match to any LCD screen. There's always some scaling going on, most commonly in the monitor when using a "regular" DVD player, but sometimes by the player if it's one of the slightly-more-fancipants models that does internal upscaling. Blu-Ray discs on the other hand, store video natively in 1920x1080.

That said, I do agree with Brains' recommendation of going with an LCD TV...

I don't intend to use the 32" monitor to replace my workstation monitor - ie not trying to create graphics. It's just for tutorials and watching a nice big movie at a distance.

...primarily from that point. You should be able to get a nice 32" full HD 1920x1080 LCD TV (still with plenty of res for what you want to do) for considerably less than the price of a quality 30" computer monitor.

[K3G]

Originally Posted by Steiny

That's overstating DVDs just a little. DVDs are standard definition, not HD, and have a fixed resolution of 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL) so they never pixel-match to any LCD screen.

Good point, however SD signals work of pixel aspect ratios (pixels that are not square) HD LCDs use square pixels the same way a computer monitor does, however I am not sure how they handle the non square nature of SD content. and there's also the matter progressive and interlaced... Man do I hate SD.

I am a Multimedia student and this crap still confuses me.

well there's my 2cents.