Purely for playing games (360 and PS2 at mo) and possibly the odd DVD, which would be the better buy?
It seems most monitors have much better resolution and are a good bit cheaper, plus it could also double up as a second PC monitor for when i’m doing design type stuff.
Anyone got any advice?
For what it’s worth, we have a HD TV. But with cable box, surround sound system, WII, etc. It is almost always used as a monitor.
But we do have the option to use the built in HD Tuner. Who knows what the future will bring.
A second monitor is the best thing you can do for your computer. Once you try two monitors you’ll be spoiled and never want to go back to just one monitor. Two monitors makes real computer work so much more productive.
Have your work on one monitor and email, file directories, various utilities, documentation, web browser, etc. on the other monitor.
Get a second monitor.
You don’t have to do an either-or these days. There are maufacturers who are selling HD-TVs that have monitor-like inputs.
I ditched my 19" monitor for a Visio 37" LCD HDTV (only $749 at Costco). For your purposes: gaming and DVDs, it is light years better than any monitor or dual-monitor setup. It even works (although not ideally) for web browsing and email.
Be sure to upgrade the cabling from your PS2 / 360 to component video. I’ve been using A/V out for a while, but there’s quite a noticable difference in picture quality with the upgrade. It also allows your box to make full use of a wide screen.
Yeah, you can get higher resolutions with a PC monitor, but an image on an HDTV in 1080 leaves little to be desired.
Contrast ratio is important
I’m no expert on monitors, and am still using a CRT. Hey, it works ok, and the one sure truth in computing is the longer you wait, the cheaper and better stuff gets.
Anyway, I was looking at LCD’s at a store the other day, and was surprised how much better the 1000:1 contrast looks next to the 700:1. I would never consider buying a lower contrast monitor now.
I think when I get ready to buy one, I will find ones that look great in the store, then buy it cheap online.
HDTV is still to new for me. But I remember when a music cd player cost 700$. Give it another year or 2 and cable bandwidth, HDVD burners and stuff will be 1/10 of what they cost now. You will get a 37 " monitor with HDTV everything for 200 $. And bit torrent movies will come down a 10 MB/sec pipe. No way I’m gonna buy 50 $ movies.
My friend uses a Dell HD monitor for his Xbox 360, and also uses it as an external display for his laptop, and its easily the best solution I’ve seen. Since it has component inputs it acts like a TV, and has a really good resolution and refresh rate, its much better (in theory) than an HDTV for display purposes, and its a really nice gaming display. But they are more expensive than HDTV’s in the states.
If you’re using a monitor with a resolution of 1366x768 you’re not getting 1080 anything. 1080p, which is what you seem to be thinking of, is a fancy marketing ploy to make displaying something in 1920x1080 sound even cooler than it already does. You need a display with a native res of 1920x1080 (or higher) to get true 1080p.
In my dream world of ultimate displays, I’d ditch my 20.1" (1680x1050) LCD monitor and get a nice 42" LCD HDTV that would display true 1080p. That’s how you want to game.