What is the difference between a regular LCD Monitor and an HDTV or HD Monitor?
I am in the market for a 22-24″ monitor for my computer. I will use it for web surfing, photo editing, and the occasional watching of videos via YouTube or Hulu. Is it worth the investment to get a HD or HDTV monitor? What benefits does it offer that a regular LCD does not?
Sounds like you need just a regular LCD monitor, the only time someone needs a HD Monitor is if they are gaming, also watching TV if it has a built in tuner or advanced video or photo editing.
When they say its an HDTV monitor, it means it comes with a built in TV tuner to plug in with your receiver and watch tv. Therefore you can effectively use it as a computer screen AND a TV. The ones with built in TV tuners are usually more expensive (50-100 dollars more) but offer no additional benefit in terms of picture quality compared to the same monitor with no tv tuner.
Any new LCD is an “HD” monitor. “HD quality” is sort of a vague term and really depends on resolution. You can have a monitor that reaches 1920×1080 resolution (most of them do) and thats exactly what resolutions most HD TVs reach (hence the terms 720p or 1080p).
LCD HDTV usually has a resolution of 1366 x 768, while a widescreen 27″ lcd monitor usually has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 even higher, so a lcd hdtv cannot be used as a lcd monitor for its bad resolution.