difference between LCD monitor and TV??

Yaron Dahan · May 5, 2006

Okay, this question has been burning me up. what's the diffrence between LCD monitors and TVs? I mean why does the apple 30" screen cost as much as a 42" LCD television. Is there any difference? Would I reasonably be able to hook up a Powermac to my television and edit on that? Is there any reason why not? What about using a plasma screen TV? Any help or link on info to this would be appreciated.

June 9, 2006

I would say that there's not much difference. Many LCD tvs can be used as computer monitors etc. The cost difference is mainly the brand, sometimes the quality of image you get, what cables there are. Some that are advertised as LCD tvs may just have s-video connector. The contrast might be different between the two.

I dunno entirely. It's a good question.

Michael Nash · June 10, 2006

First of all, you're talking about entirely different technologies (LCD, CRT, Plasma, and others). They work completely different from each other, and have their own uniques qualities as far as the image is concerned.

Second, there are cheap (crappy) consumer models and expensive high-quality professional monitors in each of those technologies.

In theory you can edit on any monitor that you can manage to pipe a signal into. But that doesn't guarantee you a good quality, let alone accurate, image.

Professional monitors are designed to display the image as faithfully as possible in terms of color, contrast and resolution, and with the fewest artifacts. Professional hardware also usually includes more controls and more precise control than consumer equipment.

Consumer equipment tends to have a lot of features that make the image look "pretty," yet not at all accurate to the signal. The specifics of that vary between technologies and models.

Look at it this way; is there really a difference between a VW Bug and Porsche 911? ;)