question #2

[chronovore]

What is the difference between an LCD monitor and an LCD TV? For a 15" monitor, I am seeing the damned things for about ¥25,000 (recently ¥109 = US$1), and 15" TVs are still running ¥40,000. I am assuming that there is a TV band tuner in the latter; apparently those cost a lot of money? TV Capture devices run about just under ¥20,000 here for an external unit, though it is now par for the course for midrange PCs now include an internal unit. Speaking of "par for the course" Samsung's recent range of TVs also have a 15-pin connection and advertise their use as a monitor as one of the primary features. I am also seeing not-unreasonably priced WindowsXP home entertainment setups with widecreen LCDs running about 24"-27" - These have a P4 2.8GHz in 'em, and a 300GB HDD, and are running about US$2400.

So LCDs, the de facto choice for monitor in space-starved Japan, are coming down in price, but at the same size scale the TVs are still expensive. The standard NTSC picture displayed on them looks like crap compared to a high resolution Windows screen, but that's probably a source signal issue. What am I missing, and what should I beware when looking at monitors vs. TVs?

Comments

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Ooh:

from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire) "FireWire was developed primarily by Apple Computer in the 1990s, after work defining a slower version of the interface by the IEEE 1394 working committee in the 1980s. IEEE proposed the standard as a serial replacement for the SCSI bus. Apple's development was completed in 1995. It is defined in IEEE standard 1394 which is currently a composite of three documents: the original IEEE Std. 1394-1995, the IEEE Std. 1394a-2000 amendment, and the IEEE Std. 1394b-2002 amendment. Sony's implementation of the system is known as i.Link, and uses only the four signal pins, discarding the two pins that provide power to the device in favor of a separate power connector on Sony's i.Link products"