Ah, I can see widescreen being great for spreadsheet work!

I had a Philips LCD TV (only a small one) that I used as a monitor, but it died, and Philips said it would cost more to get the part than to buy a new one! (it originated in UK, not India). Since then I've been using an NEC Multisync 17" CRT that was my office monitor back in 2003, and was a few years old when it [legally, but WTF, the office was closing down anyway and I wish I'd fewer scruples in those days] found its way to my house. It got bashed in the move to India, the case is broken, and none of the buttons work.

Most people, when they sit at a monitor of mine need to turn up the levels; I like to keep stuff fairly dim.

Not being a TV watcher, I don't watch TV specifications either very much.

However, recently, I noticed that whereas contrast ratios for monitors tend to be in the hundreds, or maybe a couple of thousand to one, TVs sport contrast ratios of tens of thousands to one.

Does this mean that a TV will make a better monitor than a monitor? Or is it excessive capability to reproduce the output from a PC's graphics card anyway?

Would I be better off buying a TV with a VGA-IN rather than a high-ish end monitor?

Please advise.

Hey,

TV contrast ratio numbers are very high, cause they usually quote with some form of "Dynamic" contrast ratio. This is not accurate, and is mostly a marketing number. Trust your eyes. And no, using a TV as a monitor is not recommended. It's a question of pixel density.. a 24 inch monitor has 1920x1200 pixels in 24 inches, while a full-HD 37 inch TV has the same number of pixels spread across 37 inches, so your per inch pixel count is much less.

A TV is good as a TV and a monitor as a monitor. Of course, playing games is more fun on a bigger TV, but don't think that you will have fun editing spreadsheets on a TV. You'll just get a headache if you sit close to your TV.

Thank you for that, that puts my mind at rest about buying a monitor.

I used to be very happy using a TV as a monitor, but it was only a small one (I forget, but 15-inch maybe) so that probably explains why I did not experience the discomfort you mention. Now I understand why a bigger TV would not be a better monitor.

Hey,

Quick post to let you guys know that I tested the Benq T2200HD (22 inch(almost) Full HD), and it's pretty damn good. Full review will be in next month's mag, and on the website pretty soon as well.

I read about a scaling problem with it at resolutions other than the native 1920 res. Is it true ? Can it display other low res modes acceptibly ?

aditya, looking forward to review of benq......
And btw anandtech is also having in depth review here
www.anandtech.com/disp...spx?i=3449

Another thing is, Dell is also bringing S2209W full HD 22" monitor shortly... so good going for consumers.....

I didn't see any scaling issues. I tested at 1920x1080, 1680x1050, 1440x900, 1280x960.