[bearcatrp]

Not sure if this was covered but trying to decide which. I have dish network in my bedroom and would like to hook my mac pro and my dish. Is there a monitor out there that has the proper ports to hook up my dish without me buying an eyetv or other device? I know the refresh rates on the tv's are not as fast as a monitor. I do a little video editing on the side. Suggestions?

[mduell]

LCD TVs tend to have more inputs (particularly of the DVI/HDMI kind) and higher refresh rates (120Hz is common at the mid-high end) than LCD monitors.

How big are you looking for or what price range are you looking for?

[tooki]

LCD TVs are great for TV but kinda sucky as computer displays if you don't get a 1080p model.

Computer displays are great for computers, but even the ones with video inputs may not be good for video. Some of them have a delay between when the picture signal enters and when it shows up on the screen, causing your audio to be out of sync. So do research!! (My Dell 24" from a few years ago suffers from this, making it useless as a TV. I dunno if newer ones do better.)

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by bearcatrp 

Is there a monitor out there that has the proper ports to hook up my dish without me buying an eyetv or other device?

Dell UltraSharp monitors tend to have a bazillion inputs. My 2408wfp has:

2 DVI ports
1 VGA port
Component
S-Video
Composite
HDMI
DisplayPort

Between the HDMI and the component inputs, I'd suspect that would be sufficient to connect most things, although you'd want to connect some external speakers to it, because I don't think it has any built-in speakers. So yeah, you could do this. Just make sure you get a 24" or larger UltraSharp, because the Dells smaller than 24" and the non-UltraSharps tend to be TN panels, which have bad viewing angles and are thus lousy for home theatre usage.

Unfortunately, I don't have a TV tuner to test if there's a delay or not. Tooki, is your 24" Dell the 2408wfp, or an older model?

[bearcatrp]

Originally Posted by mduell 

LCD TVs tend to have more inputs (particularly of the DVI/HDMI kind) and higher refresh rates (120Hz is common at the mid-high end) than LCD monitors.

How big are you looking for or what price range are you looking for?

24 to 30 inch. I have the 7300GT graphics card so need to make sure it would drive a 30 inch display. Want to keep the cost under 1000 but closer to 700 if I can.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by bearcatrp 

24 to 30 inch. I have the 7300GT graphics card so need to make sure it would drive a 30 inch display. Want to keep the cost under 1000 but closer to 700 if I can.

The number of pixels (which is where the graphics card is limited) is completely independent of size in inches; the high resolution (greater than 1920x1200) displays are out of your price range anyway, so it's not a concern.
All of the displays below are 1920x1200 (monitors) or 1920x1080 (TVs) and have more than enough input connections for your needs.

$550 gets you an ok 28" monitor (Viewsonic VX2835WM)
$660 gets you a great 24" monitor (Samsung 245T)

$700 gets you a good 32" TV (Toshiba 32RV530U)
$910 gets you a great 32" TV (Samsung LN32A650)

You can go even larger (there are good TVs up to 42" below $1000) but that may not be ideal for your viewing distance.

[Veltliner]

But would you actually buy an LCD TV like the Sony Bravia instead of a monitor?

I can't imagine those things can match a good NEC or Eizo in color reliability. And calibrating an LCD TV - you need a special device, I guess it's called Spider TV.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by mduell 

$550 gets you an ok 28" monitor (Viewsonic VX2835WM)

TN panel (160° viewing angle gives it away). I wouldn't recommend it for home theatre usage.

$660 gets you a great 24" monitor (Samsung 245T)

This is a great monitor, and it's a S-PVA - but it's more expensive than the Dell 2408wfp ($660 vs. $517 for the Dell), which also has a Samsung-made S-PVA panel.

I don't know much about the TVs, so I won't comment there.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Veltliner 

But would you actually buy an LCD TV like the Sony Bravia instead of a monitor?

I can't imagine those things can match a good NEC or Eizo in color reliability. And calibrating an LCD TV - you need a special device, I guess it's called Spider TV.

Because you want to sit further away from the screen.
Nothing in the OP's price range is going to match the $$$$ Eizo/NEC displays for color accuracy.

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

TN panel (160° viewing angle gives it away). I wouldn't recommend it for home theatre usage.

This is a great monitor, and it's a S-PVA - but it's more expensive than the Dell 2408wfp ($660 vs. $517 for the Dell), which also has a Samsung-made S-PVA panel.

Yes, it's TN, that's why it's bigger and cheaper; TN is fine for home theater, not so good for color-sensitive photo editing.

I wasn't aware the Dells had dropped under $600, although the 2408 has significant input lag and some quality issues with blurry text.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Yes, it's TN, that's why it's bigger and cheaper; TN is fine for home theater

I dunno - if you have a few people over watching a movie or something, someone's going to be looking at the screen from a not-straight-on angle, and TN panels tend to have worse viewing angles than other panel types.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

Unfortunately, I don't have a TV tuner to test if there's a delay or not. Tooki, is your 24" Dell the 2408wfp, or an older model?

Mine's the 2405FPW, I think it was one of their first 24" models. It's fantastic aside from the composite/s-video/component video inputs, because those have too much delay and weird scaling. Using it as a computer display is perfect.

Re: other models --
I hate TN panels for anything. Using my MacBook drives me nuts with the viewing angles. I'd never risk getting a TN-panel LCD TV, which is part of why I plan to buy a plasma. (I much prefer the color on a plasma.)

Originally Posted by bearcatrp

24 to 30 inch. I have the 7300GT graphics card so need to make sure it would drive a 30 inch display. Want to keep the cost under 1000 but closer to 700 if I can.

Well, you're not gonna get a 30" (2560x1600, requiring a dual-link DVI port) computer display for under a grand, not even close. But a good 24"-28" (1920x1200) should be no problem for your budget.

As for graphics card support, all Mac Pro graphics cards support at least one dual-link display, and most support two, so you should be fine. Your 7300GT has one dual-link port and one single-link.

As for color accuracy, most TVs pump up the brightness and saturation to look better in the showroom, which also makes them much more saturated than a computer display. If you take the TV and change it from its typical default ("bright", "vivid" or similar) and change it to "normal", you'll get more accurate color. Calibration is not necessary unless you need extremely precise color. Simply creating a custom profile using SuperCal does a great job for everyday use.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by tooki 

I hate TN panels for anything. Using my MacBook drives me nuts with the viewing angles. I'd never risk getting a TN-panel LCD TV, which is part of why I plan to buy a plasma. (I much prefer the color on a plasma.)

What you really want is frickin laser beams.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by tooki 

Mine's the 2405FPW, I think it was one of their first 24" models. It's fantastic aside from the composite/s-video/component video inputs, because those have too much delay and weird scaling. Using it as a computer display is perfect.

Huh, I'd be pretty surprised if that hasn't been fixed by now then. Unfortunately I don't have any component equipment to test it with, but I can tell you that the 2408wfp works great over DVI and VGA. Since HDMI is basically carrying a DVI signal, I'd expect it to be fine, and composite/s-video/component are all analog signals like VGA.

Re: other models --
I hate TN panels for anything. Using my MacBook drives me nuts with the viewing angles. I'd never risk getting a TN-panel LCD TV, which is part of why I plan to buy a plasma. (I much prefer the color on a plasma.)

If you get an LCD TV in a store so you can look at it ahead of time, you can make sure it's not a TN fairly easily - TNs stick out like a sore thumb once you look at them from an angle that's not head-on. If you're ordering over the Internet, I can understand your concern.

Originally Posted by mduell 

What you really want is frickin laser beams.

?

[bearcatrp]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. Plan on looking at some tv's in the stores to get a good idea if this will work. If not, I'll shoot for a good monitor. Might wait to see if apple releases new monitors in january but as usual, they will be pricey. Dell might be my other option.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

?

Mitsu's hot new LaserVue technology.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

Huh, I'd be pretty surprised if that hasn't been fixed by now then. Unfortunately I don't have any component equipment to test it with, but I can tell you that the 2408wfp works great over DVI and VGA. Since HDMI is basically carrying a DVI signal, I'd expect it to be fine, and composite/s-video/component are all analog signals like VGA.

I can tell you that on the 2405, composite/component/s-video is handled totally different from VGA. VGA has no delay problems.

As for whether it's been fixed: the problem has gotten so bad that many midrange and better home theater receivers allow you to add a delay to the audio signal to match it up to the lag of the display processor on your LCD or plasma.