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Best 24-28" monitor or 32"+ HDTV on a budget

T

Thedesolateone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2009
21
0
I am thinking of purchasing a display for my MBP, but am unsure what are the best ones out there. As I see it, all TVs with VGA input should be compatible with my mac so long as i get the right cable (am I wrong?)

If it were a monitor, it would have to be at least 24", with a maximum of 5ms response and at least 1920x1200 resolution. Also, I'm looking at around £300 budget, although ideally it would be cheaper. I don't know much about monitors, so if there is a key feature I need to take into account, I would be grateful for any help.

If it were a TV, it would have to be full HD 1080p, at least 32" diagonally, 100hz (that frame-adding thing) and around the same budget. Again, I know little about TVs, so if there is anything else vital to take into account, advice would be heartily appreciated.

Thanks.

I would also be grateful if anyone could give me a conclusive reason why to get a monitor vs. a TV or vice versa. Obviously the potential added cost of a TV license £142 is tipping the scales in favour of the monitor, given that I don't watch TV. If this is practicably and legally possible to get around, then I'd appreciate any info w.r.t. that too.
 
Regarding VGA ...

Not all TVs support all resolutions via VGA. I know that some older Sonys and Toshibas (I think) only supported up to 1024x768 via VGA, even though they were capable of much higher resolutions.

Most newer TVs have replaced VGA with DVI. Even so, the newer TVs seem to support full 1920x1080 resolutions on all inputs.

Make sure whatever you get has 1:1 pixel mapping (aka zero-overscan or dot-by-dot), otherwise you'll be messing with apps like SwitchresX.
 
I bought my LG 24" LCD screen model L246WP (and its a P-MVA panel!) for $375 CAD with taxes. That comes out to about $330 US, and that was also a year and a half ago. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this monitor, the colour reproduction on it is FANTASTIC as well as all the connections available for it. I'm sure you could find the same monitor for about the same price if not less nowadays.
 
The Dell 27" monitor is pretty good; I believe it's actually IPS as well and it runs a 1920x1200 resolution.
 
No need to opt for VGA or DVI specifically, as long as you have enough HDMI ports. Just get a DVI->HDMI cable and it'll work fine.
 
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