Monitor or TV?

[Dirty Hipsters]

What's the difference between a monitor and a TV in regards to gaming?

I need a new TV, and I'm also planning on getting myself a new desktop sometime later this year. I was wondering what would be best and most money efficient, buying a nice TV and also using it as my computer monitor, buying a nice computer monitor and also using it as my TV, or buying a separate TV and computer monitor? If I bought them separately they would still be right next to each other, and since I have limited space I could get either one large TV or one large monitor or a small TV and a small monitor.

So yeah, I don't really know much about monitors and how a good LCD or LED monitor differs from a good LCD or LED TV so I figured I would ask the good people of the escapist. Please fill me with your technical knowledge.

 

[sanquin]

I believe it has to do with monitors having higher resolution. Also, monitors are made for being close to your eyes. TV's aren't.

 

[Morgoth780]

Higher refresh rates are also present on monitors. Most 120hz TVs only take a 60hz signal and then flicker the back light or something to make it look more like 120hz.

If you're looking to save some money, buying a TV and using it for both wouldn't be a bad idea. But, if you're trying to play a game competitively I'm pretty certain you'd want to get a dedicated high refresh rate monitor (depending on genre).

 

[Doom972]

If you don't mind the fact that you won't be able to play videogames and watch TV at the same time, getting either a monitor or a TV is a good idea. Since monitors don't have built-in broadcast decoders, don't support multiple connected devices and don't come with remote controls, a TV would be a better idea.

Higher refresh rates are also present on monitors. Most 120hz TVs only take a 60hz signal and then flicker the back light or something to make it look more like 120hz.

If you're looking to save some money, buying a TV and using it for both wouldn't be a bad idea. But, if you're trying to play a game competitively I'm pretty certain you'd want to get a dedicated high refresh rate monitor (depending on genre).

There are 120 Hz TVs already and they can get the same resolutions as monitors.

 

[Xeros]

I use a 32" 720p HD TV that I got for around $100 for everything, and it's worked like a charm for the last couple years. Sure, it doesn't do my computer justice when compared with a proper monitor, but I don't have the space, or money for both, and I'm not all really that picky; everything looks as beautiful as it needs to.

 

[popa_qwerty]

It surprise me is that no one has brought up input lag most newer cheap TVs input lag is about 150ms which is bad but it can be helped with game-mode but if you are A competitive player I would go with a monitor.


You can use this site for more info on input Lag http://www.rtings.com/info/input-lag-tvs

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Higher refresh rates are also present on monitors. Most 120hz TVs only take a 60hz signal and then flicker the back light or something to make it look more like 120hz.

If you're looking to save some money, buying a TV and using it for both wouldn't be a bad idea. But, if you're trying to play a game competitively I'm pretty certain you'd want to get a dedicated high refresh rate monitor (depending on genre).

I don't care about playing competitively, I got over that back in college. Since I work I no longer have time to play a single game enough to get competitively good.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I'm not sure how big you want to go but a 32-inch TV works well as both a TV and monitor, 38-40 would probably be pushing it a bit. I guess the most important aspect will be the inputs/outputs you want and sound as well (since monitors have no speakers). Of course, the TV has a tuner as well but I'm guessing less and less people actually watch broadcast TV anymore.

It surprise me is that no one has brought up input lag most newer cheap TVs input lag is about 150ms which is bad but it can be helped with game-mode but if you are A competitive player I would go with a monitor.


You can use this site for more info on input Lag http://www.rtings.com/info/input-lag-tvs

Smaller TVs and monitors usually use the same kind of panels so input lag will be about the same on either. I'm guessing if the TC is considering using a TV as both a TV and computer monitor, they aren't looking to buy a big screen TV. Plus, monitors get really pricey as you get into average TV size territory.

 

[baddude1337]

I'd say go for a TV. I have a gaming laptop (765m) and recently got my parents' old(ish) 55inch 1080p tv, which I can plug my laptop into and is glorious.

I'd also recommend a good pair of headphones and, if needed, a headphone extension cable (which is what I use), as a good pair of headphones makes far better sound than a pricey surround system.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'm not sure how big you want to go but a 32-inch TV works well as both a TV and monitor, 38-40 would probably be pushing it a bit. I guess the most important aspect will be the inputs/outputs you want and sound as well (since monitors have no speakers). Of course, the TV has a tuner as well but I'm guessing less and less people actually watch broadcast TV anymore.

It surprise me is that no one has brought up input lag most newer cheap TVs input lag is about 150ms which is bad but it can be helped with game-mode but if you are A competitive player I would go with a monitor.


You can use this site for more info on input Lag http://www.rtings.com/info/input-lag-tvs

Smaller TVs and monitors usually use the same kind of panels so input lag will be about the same on either. I'm guessing if the TC is considering using a TV as both a TV and computer monitor, they aren't looking to buy a big screen TV. Plus, monitors get really pricey as you get into average TV size territory.

If I get a monitor it'll probably be 32", if I get a TV it'll either be 32" or 40" depending on how I want to set up the room and what kind of TV I'm getting.

Don't really care about having a TV tuner because I just use netflix and hulu to watch everything and don't actually bother with cable. Sound isn't an issue since I have some decent monitor speakers as well as decent gaming headphones. Mostly I'm curious as to how different the refresh rate, the resolution, and the input lag are going to be between a decent TV and a decent monitor.

So far pretty much everyone I've talked to has told me that a monitor is going to have better resolution, but wouldn't a 32" 1080p monitor have the same exact resolution as a 32" 1080p TV? Besides, if I want higher resolutions I could always go for a 4k TV instead.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Don't really care about having a TV tuner because I just use netflix and hulu to watch everything and don't actually bother with cable. Sound isn't an issue since I have some decent monitor speakers as well as decent gaming headphones. Mostly I'm curious as to how different the refresh rate, the resolution, and the input lag are going to be between a decent TV and a decent monitor.

So far pretty much everyone I've talked to has told me that a monitor is going to have better resolution, but wouldn't a 32" 1080p monitor have the same exact resolution as a 32" 1080p TV? Besides, if I want higher resolutions I could always go for a 4k TV instead.

I was gonna say, if you cared about refresh rates and input lag, get a monitor with an HDMI port and just plug in the cable/sat box (or get convertor box for transmissions coming from the aether) into that port (along with an audio solution), but you've solved that issue already. Cutting the cable is the future.

Just watch out for sets with overscan/underscan problems. Most of them should display a 720p or 1080p signal from HDMI fine right out of the box. Others cut off or have black bars, even with their native resolution, and you have to comb through the menus to find the option (which some manufactures have to be rebels and give it different names) to fix that problem. My 40" TV from 2009 had that problem, and I resized my desktop with my Nvida driver every time I switched to my TV for months until I found that overscan option. Now that I switched that setting, I can mirror my monitor and TV at 1080p.

I don't know why some HD TVs had that issue, especially with a bidirectional interface such as HDMI that should make the two devices work together to figure out the best solution. Perhaps it was a vestigial part of the old TV line resolution system? At least, it shouldn't be a problem today, but I thought I'd warn you, just in case.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Don't really care about having a TV tuner because I just use netflix and hulu to watch everything and don't actually bother with cable. Sound isn't an issue since I have some decent monitor speakers as well as decent gaming headphones. Mostly I'm curious as to how different the refresh rate, the resolution, and the input lag are going to be between a decent TV and a decent monitor.

So far pretty much everyone I've talked to has told me that a monitor is going to have better resolution, but wouldn't a 32" 1080p monitor have the same exact resolution as a 32" 1080p TV? Besides, if I want higher resolutions I could always go for a 4k TV instead.

I was gonna say, if you cared about refresh rates and input lag, get a monitor with an HDMI port and just plug in the cable/sat box (or get convertor box for transmissions coming from the aether) into that port (along with an audio solution), but you've solved that issue already. Cutting the cable is the future.

Just watch out for sets with overscan/underscan problems. Most of them should display a 720p or 1080p signal from HDMI fine right out of the box. Others cut off or have black bars, even with their native resolution, and you have to comb through the menus to find the option (which some manufactures have to be rebels and give it different names) to fix that problem. My 40" TV from 2009 had that problem, and I resized my desktop with my Nvida driver every time I switched to my TV for months until I found that overscan option. Now that I switched that setting, I can mirror my monitor and TV at 1080p.

I don't know why some HD TVs had that issue, especially with a bidirectional interface such as HDMI that should make the two devices work together to figure out the best solution. Perhaps it was a vestigial part of the old TV line resolution system? At least, it shouldn't be a problem today, but I thought I'd warn you, just in case.

Overscan... I have that problem with my monitor.
It's a 1080p computer monitor, but since I connected it via hdmi, my computer seems to have assumed it was a TV, and underscanned the image.
I also noted the monitor had an option to turn on overscan.
(it's off by default though)

Weird how that works...

 

[Smooth Operator]

Monitors are made to just get the image on screen as quickly and accurately as possible, TVs have a whole bucket load of middleware that slows things down and their LCD panels usually have a slow turn over because they weren't intended for quick changes.

Really depends on how much you need that TV functionality and how much playback quality you can sacrifice.

 

[Rayce Archer]

BREAKDOWN TIEM!!!1

Resolution
TVs and monitors are both available in numerous resolutions, although 1080p (1920x1080) is the most common for both. However, monitors will generally boast a higher resolution as they get larger while TVs just add space between pixels unless you go 4k.
ADVANTAGE MONITOR

Color Fidelity
There are all sorts of gimmicks with TVs to make the colors look better, but the only one that matters is OLED. In an organic light-emitting diode display, each pixel has both its own color and its own brightness, giving you a very true image. Both OLED monitors and TVs are available. If you can't swing that, a standard LCD monitor with independent plane switching (IPS) can look almost as good, but you will pay a premium, especially for gaming quality refresh rates (IPS monitors tend to show a lot of ghosting unless the refresh is very high, much more so than other displays).
DRAW

Size
Big TVs are cheaper than big monitors, but as I mentioned above that's because they scale up differently. The cheapass way TVs scale is fine if you are across the room, but if it's right in front of you looking at a big TV will kind of suck. I don't know your setup, so I'll assume you're at a desk, and I don't know your budget so I'll assume you only care about quality.
ADVANTAGE MONITOR

Audio
Yeah, yeah, I know no real gamer wants display audio. But lots of displays have audio. And while monitor audio tends to suck, some TVs, even some entry level ones, have pretty nice audio. Even better, if you get a TV with optical audio out, which is basically all of them now, you can tie that into one of those cheap surround out BD players for 5.1 audio (supplied to the TV by your video card via HDMI). This is all handled by the TV's existing audio tuner, something monitors don't have (that's what makes them monitors).
ADVANTAGE TELEVISION

Quality Versus Feature-Richness
I put this in just to give TVs another point, really. Monitors vary between low and high quality displays, but don't really do much else. TVs can have onboard CPUS enabling apps, web browsing, streaming, etc. Of course you have a computer which already does all that, and probably faster. So while a TV is more feature rich at a lower price point, quality is what you need and you can get a better looking monitor than a TV at the same price point, usually. Oops, guess monitors won.
ADVANTAGE MONITOR

High-End Cost Effectiveness
At the entry level TVs and monitors are neck and neck, but monitor pricing gets nuts fast. Dell will happily sell you a 2 grand monitor that's only 32 inches, and if they rummage around in back, Apple can probably top that. The thing is, though, that at this point you're getting into pixel densities far above what any television can manage, which makes it hard to establish a winner.
DRAW

So if we look at this as just a straight comparison, monitors win. But you should really look at it in terms of how each comparison applies to your situation. For instance, if you want to game from the couch, TV wins handily. I've always been a monitor guy but a lot of that is that the games I play are a little awkward from far away. If I was a sports and FPS man, I'd probably just have a HTPC. I hope all this helps a little.

 

[popa_qwerty]

I'm not sure how big you want to go but a 32-inch TV works well as both a TV and monitor, 38-40 would probably be pushing it a bit. I guess the most important aspect will be the inputs/outputs you want and sound as well (since monitors have no speakers). Of course, the TV has a tuner as well but I'm guessing less and less people actually watch broadcast TV anymore.

It surprise me is that no one has brought up input lag most newer cheap TVs input lag is about 150ms which is bad but it can be helped with game-mode but if you are A competitive player I would go with a monitor.


You can use this site for more info on input Lag http://www.rtings.com/info/input-lag-tvs

Smaller TVs and monitors usually use the same kind of panels so input lag will be about the same on either. I'm guessing if the TC is considering using a TV as both a TV and computer monitor, they aren't looking to buy a big screen TV. Plus, monitors get really pricey as you get into average TV size territory.

The panel is not the main cause of input lag. It is the image processor that most TVs use and all panels are not made evenly most small TV are not going to use a 1ms refresh rate panel because the TV main focus is not for recreating the image as best as possible but showing the best image that it can make.

This is the lag caused by the television or monitor (which is also called "input lag" by the first definition above). Image processing (such as upscaling, 100 Hz, motion smoothing, edge smoothing) takes time and therefore adds some degree of input lag. It is generally considered that input lag of a television below 30 ms is not noticeable,[5] discussions on gaming forums tend to agree with this value. Once the frame has been processed, the final step is the pixel response time for the pixel to display the correct colour for the new frame.

[youtube]J1cDbewunI4[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1cDbewunI4

 

[CaitSeith]

I personally use a TV because I play game in a couch. It's the best solution that I could came up for now. Besides of all the drawbacks already stated, I experienced an annoying screen tearing with my AMD graphics card (I think it happens in monitors too, but I haven't tried). The easiest way to fix that is with vertical sync (but, you know, low framerate :/ ) .

 

[Bravo Company]

I'd rather buy a smaller monitor and have better picture quality than buying a larger TV and sacrificing picture quality.

Most people would rather have a larger TV and take it's disadvantages from what it seems.

Refreash rate is a major thing for me because it mitigates ghosting, and ghosting is a huge problem I've had with playing games on a TV. Granted, I haven't played games on any super expensive TVs before.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

Well if you end up getting a TV, one way of reducing the input lag is to tun all of the image processing off. The signal from your video card is clean and it doesn't need to be processed to make it look good. So all the image enhancements that the TV does isn't needed and just increases lag.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Well if you end up getting a TV, one way of reducing the input lag is to tun all of the image processing off. The signal from your video card is clean and it doesn't need to be processed to make it look good. So all the image enhancements that the TV does isn't needed and just increases lag.

Is turning that off an option on all TVs or does it get locked away on some of them?

 

[x EvilErmine x]

Well if you end up getting a TV, one way of reducing the input lag is to tun all of the image processing off. The signal from your video card is clean and it doesn't need to be processed to make it look good. So all the image enhancements that the TV does isn't needed and just increases lag.

Is turning that off an option on all TVs or does it get locked away on some of them?

On most new TV sets then you can access it all from the picture menu. However I'd recommend that you do some some research into whether the one you want has the ability or not, it's very common but not universal.

The things you are looking to turn off are things like noise cancelling, cinema mode, Bravia engine, and any post processing that messes with the signal before it's displayed on screen.

If your new TV has a game mode however that should be turned on, Game mode just turns off all the post processing in one go without you having to hunt through the menus to disable it manually.

Good luck with the hunt and I hope you find what your looking for.