External monitors

[bubble27]

To all those who have external monitors.

Im thinking about investing in a 20" LCD HD. Would love to get an apple one but i would prefer one that has a tv tuner aswell.

The only one i could find is the Samsung T200HD http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=itbusiness&type=monitors&subtype=lcd&model_cd=LS20TDDSUV/EN


My questions are; is 20" a good size?
and secondly is there a way to get a mac 20" screen but have a good tuner on iit? Cause these tv tuners that they offer are total crap!!

 

[winninganthem]

Only way to know is to go to a computer store and actually take a look at any 20" display and see the size is right for you. This is something no one can really correctly answer for you.

Not sure about the tuner thing though.

 

[johngardiner]

To all those who have external monitors.

Im thinking about investing in a 20" LCD HD. Would love to get an apple one but i would prefer one that has a tv tuner aswell.

The only one i could find is the Samsung T200HD http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=itbusiness&type=monitors&subtype=lcd&model_cd=LS20TDDSUV/EN


My questions are; is 20" a good size?
and secondly is there a way to get a mac 20" screen but have a good tuner on iit? Cause these tv tuners that they offer are total crap!!

That's a neat monitor, generally you won't find an actual computer monitor with a tv tuner in it as computer monitors display at much higher resolutions. It's much more common to find a tv with a vga input for computers that will be displayed at a lower resolution. I'd be wary of the quality of tv you'll get on that one though as the monitor will be stretching it to a really high resolution, unless of course you have hd . But as suggested above the best thing to do is to go down to the store and check it out as quality and size are much in the eye of the beholder.

 

[bubble27]

That's a neat monitor, generally you won't find an actual computer monitor with a tv tuner in it as computer monitors display at much higher resolutions. It's much more common to find a tv with a vga input for computers that will be displayed at a lower resolution. I'd be wary of the quality of tv you'll get on that one though as the monitor will be stretching it to a really high resolution, unless of course you have hd . But as suggested above the best thing to do is to go down to the store and check it out as quality and size are much in the eye of the beholder.

OK will do.

what are you saying exactly about the Samsung T200HD??

That it wont be as good as just a monitor cause of the resolution?

 

[NODEraser]

It should be fine; what I think they're trying to say is that TV will look a bit blurry on that monitor, as it will be displaying at a much lower resolution that your computer input. But, this would be the case with any TV. I would assume that you won't be sitting right in front of it while watching TV like you would while using the computer, so you probably wouldn't notice it anyway.

 

[bubble27]

It should be fine; what I think they're trying to say is that TV will look a bit blurry on that monitor, as it will be displaying at a much lower resolution that your computer input. But, this would be the case with any TV. I would assume that you won't be sitting right in front of it while watching TV like you would while using the computer, so you probably wouldn't notice it anyway.

Cool cheers for that.

Got another question. How about if i get a mac screen and get a usbTV? Will that still be bluring?

 

[johngardiner]

Cool cheers for that.

Got another question. How about if i get a mac screen and get a usbTV? Will that still be bluring?

Yeah, anytime you're using a computer monitor to view tv, it will have to stretch the image to fit, so standard def tv will look a bit blurry. Some monitors do better jobs than others, and the software you are using will also make a difference. People that I know that have media centre CPU's and have them hooked up to monitors haven't complained though so I say go for it!

 

[bubble27]

Ok i will check into it abit more.

________

Off subject.

What makes the Apple monitors so expensive?
Ok their macs have the OSX but the monitor?

 

[viggen61]

I'm using a 20" Apple Cinema Display with the ADC-DVI adapter on m MBP. It's great. The main advantage is that the pixels are larger, giving me a more comfortable view (I don't have to get quite so close).

As for a 20" monitor vs a 20" TV, I think you're likely to get more pixels, in most cases with the monitor. Most 20" DTVs are 720p, am I right? That'll give you something like 1366x768 vs the 20 Apple Cinema at 1680 by 1050 pixels.

Of course, if the 20" TV is 1080i/p native resolution, you've got 1920x1080...

Look at Macsales.com. THey had a 20" Apple Cinema display in there cloeouts/used area for cheap recently.

As for the tuners on a small TV, the tuner is only as good as the antenna or the cable signal getting in to it. Be aware that many digital TVs may not have both the NTSC (analog TV, going away next Feb) and ATSC (Digital TV, including HDTV) tuning capability, or the ability to tune digital cable channels (a whole other kettle of fish).

Oh - and the Apple monitors are that expensive because they are that good, IMO.