On Feb 20, 2010, at 4:29 AM, Bill Connelly wrote:
How does this all compare to the LCD and LED/LCD TVs?
I think it's kinda the same as the CRT days. The TVs have much lower resolution for their size. For example, my iPhone monitor screen is 2"x3" and is 480x320 for 160 ppi (pixels per inch). My Samsung 40" LCD TV is 35"x17.5" has 1080p resolution (1920x1080) for 54 ppi, which is 3x less linear pixels, and 9x less 2D(area) pixels. Thus, the TV screen has the physical size of 102 iphone screens, but can only display the equivalent of 13.5 iphone displays, which is the 9x less, the difference in the relative pixel density.
The distance that the LCD is viewed from is a factor. An iphone is normally viewed from about 1 foot. A computer monitor is viewed at about 2 feet, and a TV from at least 6 feet. This tends to equalize somewhat the pixel density as a function of how much the screen represents in your visual field-of-view.
The upshot is that a large 40" LCD TV might be an OK monitor if you're sitting 6 or 8 feet from it, but if you're sitting 2 feet away it's going to be a fuzzy, low-resolution mess that fills your whole field- of-view. If you were going to get a true 40" monitor to sit a normal 2 feet from, you'd need monitor resolution, which lies about halfway between the iPhone's 160ppi and the TV's 55ppi at about 100 ppi. For example my 22" monitor is exactly 100 ppi at 1680x1050. This makes the screen measure 16.8" by 10.5" exactly. The reason they call this monitor a 22" monitor is because that's the diagonal measurement of the screen. All monitors and TVs are measured diagonal, it's supposed to somehow be more representative of screen "area", but I don't see this? Something most people don't realize is that widescreen 16:10 & 16:9 ratio monitors have around 20% less total pixels than older 4:3 monitors of the same width. This especially applies to laptops where the competition causing major scrimping by manufacturers. A wide- screen with 20% less pixels that fools the eye can cut costs and enable lower price points. Still, wide-screens are the future of all video formats, so a 4x3 monitor seems a little antiquated already.
The thing to remember is a monitor is meant to be viewed from only a few feet away, and needs relatively high pixel density compared to a similar sized TV. The are some smaller TVs that can double as monitors. Again, pay close attention to the pixels per inch, looking for around 100 ppi if you're going to be sitting a couple feet away. If it's a true TV that you're going to be sitting at least 6-8 feet from, and you're going to use it as a computer also, get a wireless keyboard & mouse, or use an old laptop as keyboard & trackpad to control the computer's TV screen with something like Teleport.
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