Upgrading my monitor(Help please)

[jonny_uk]

Right ive got a 17" Ben-Q LCD right now, great monitor, got nothing bad to say about it but my parents wanted to get me a nice LCD TV for my birthday, now i thought instead of buying me a tv for £400-500(English money) id rather have a nice new pc monitor for £200-300 and then buy a usb digital tv tuner thing and then i can watch tv AND use the pc on the same screen, im loving the idea of this to get more space in my room.

Now i play games so it needs to be good at this and obviously ill be watching tv/movies aswell, but then i guess if a monitor is great for playing games then it will automatically be great at watching tv etc?

What are you thoughts on this one http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/114798

Great brand name(which is what i want) 6ms so it will be great for gaming and also HDTV ready, does that mean its ready for viewing tv channels in HD? also how could i get HD through a pc? would one of those usb digital tuners allow this or would i need a more expensive tv card with all the bells and whistles?

Sorry for all the questions but you know how it is

 

[saltynay]

I would reccomend this monitor the full way the picture is breathtaking!!!! and looks awesome on or off http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/123504

if u want one without the ipod dock and some other functions there is a cheaper one which when i last looked was 305 theres a 19inch with everything for 260. For hdtv on a computer you need to buy a hdtv pci card and have a decent aerial. you could get sky with a hd package and then route through the computer if u wanted the best possible signal but ive only read of ppl doing this not actually done it myself.

Matt

 

[jonny_uk]

Ahh right thanks for that, so basically im going to have to spend £££'s extra AFTER getting the monitor just so i can watch tv in the best possible picture. hmmm maybe ill stick to getting a nice HD ready TV set instead.
And that monitor does look very nice but i have no use for all the extras.
Thanks for the info though, im wiser now

 

[saltynay]

pretty much i would just reccomend rather then buying a hdtv tuner card subsribe to a website that lets you download hd tv programs for a monthly fee and then you can watch tv for a more managable cost

off topic but is this one off the asus mobo that every1 else on here seems to love?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=443853

 

[Phrantic]

The Samsung 205BW is a great LCD monitor. There are, however, newer versions around that cost about £10 extra, conveniently called 206BW. I myself would get a 22" model rather than a 10" one however, but that's upto you, they have exactly the same specs but are slightly bigger (225BW and 226BW).

Keep in mind that if you want an LCD TV you'll always end up with a lower resolution. And mostly with a smaller screen too, as bigger screens don't stand for higher resolutions. Take a look at this monitor, it's 19" but it does have a nice resolution of 1440x900. You can't find them much higher than that.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-LE1...1_2/026-8129822-2090839?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

 

[jonny_uk]

saltynay any idea where/ how much these hdtv tuner cards are? think id rather get one of those and then not have to worry about paying any extra ever agian.
Phrantic, very good point about the TV's having a lower resolution, i was thinking maybe if i got a LCD TV with a pc input i could use that as a pc monitor/tv but then do you think my gaming experience would suffer THAT much just because im using a TV and not a pc monitor?

Im just trying to gauge what im better off doing here

EDIT just incase your interested, if i do get the TV this is the one that seemed to fit the bill and in my budget http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=358169
I see what you mean about the resolution its alot lower than a pc monitor, would that really effect gaming that much as the screen is a good quality from Toshiba and its HD ready so it must be a pretty good screen

 

[Phrantic]

Well 1366x768 is a decent resolution. For gaming I wouldn't say it matters that great a deal, more so for desktop use, like if you want to run many cascading windows or view big pictures or use graphics editors a lot, you would really want the space.

Gaming is fullscreen, and to be honest 1024x768 (and anything above that, also the resolution of that TV there) will give a good image. I myself don't even mind running 800x600 if that means being able to turn on more eye candy. However, you might want to see just how that would look on a 26" monitor, I can imagine you'd have to sit away a lot farther away from the screen, because the pixels would be pretty big.

That TV looks pretty good, it has a good contrast and an (excessively) good brightness. Check for reviews to see how the sound quality is. But you can always hook up other speakers to it. If you're on a budget, maybe there are cheaper 26" TV's out there, I haven't looked into screens that big myself to be honest.

P.S.: Nearly all LCD TV's are HD ready.

 

[saltynay]

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=331&catid=2

 

[jonny_uk]

Thanks guys, big help, i should be able to make a decision now that im better informed