# lcd monitor as tv? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 27, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lcd-monitor-as-tv/442941 "2008-03-27T17:43:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lcd-monitor-as-tv/442941/1 "2008-03-27T17:43:55Z")
Ok so I’m thinking about trying to do this (without the use of a PC). Let’s say I have an LCD monitor that has only VGA or DVI, and HDMI inputs. Here are a couple questions I’m confused about: 1. If the monitor (vga) resolution can achieve 1920x1080, and the cable box has HDMI output, is this picture the equivalent of having a normal 1080p HDTV? 2. If the cable box only has non-HD outputs, would using, say, an s-video to HDMI converter look horrible, or would it look like a normal SDTV picture? Any other things one would need to consider? Is this non-feasible? ---
**Author:** ![PuddingCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@PuddingCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PuddingCat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lcd-monitor-as-tv/442941/2 "2008-03-27T17:51:46Z")
1. Yes. 2. You will get some artifacts but it’s down to the quality of the convertor box. Bear in mind that an LCD is sharp so you’re going to get good picture clarity but if the source is nasty, you just see very sharp nasty 🙂 tim ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lcd-monitor-as-tv/442941/3 "2008-03-27T17:59:59Z")
[QUOTE=trmatthe] 2. You will get some artifacts but it’s down to the quality of the convertor box. Bear in mind that an LCD is sharp so you’re going to get good picture clarity but if the source is nasty, you just see very sharp nasty 🙂 [/QUOTE] Alos note that SDTV looks notoriously bad on digital displays. New HDTVs do a pretty good job of cleaning things up but if you run the signal straight to a monitor it may look pretty noisy (I doubt the cable box does this for you, even if it has an HDMI out). That’s the funny thing about SDTV, it looks better on an SDTV. ---
**Author:** ![PuddingCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@PuddingCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PuddingCat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lcd-monitor-as-tv/442941/4 "2008-03-27T18:12:16Z")
[QUOTE=CookingWithGas] Alos note that SDTV looks notoriously bad on digital displays. New HDTVs do a pretty good job of cleaning things up but if you run the signal straight to a monitor it may look pretty noisy (I doubt the cable box does this for you, even if it has an HDMI out). That’s the funny thing about SDTV, it looks better on an SDTV. [/QUOTE] Will definitely second this. I replaced my first generation 40" LCD HDTV at the weekend with a 2nd/3rd gen 40" LCD HDTV. SDTV looked pretty iffy on the first TV but with judicious tweaking of the picture options I got used to it. My new LCD has a much better image mangler so is able to remove a lot of the nastiness caused by scaling the picture from 0.4 Mega Pixels upto about 6 MP. You’ll probably recoil in horror the first time you try, but you do get used to it. And then you plug in a BluRay movie and you know it’s all worth while… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lcd-monitor-as-tv/442941/5 "2008-03-27T18:40:41Z")
How are you going to get your sound? Does your monitor have built in speakers? ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lcd-monitor-as-tv/442941/6 "2008-03-28T16:29:41Z")
Thanks for the replies. Funny about SDTV on an HDTV – but I would have the same issue with a real HDTV, yes? I guess I’ll just look for something with both s-vid and HDMI. As for sound, I guess I’ll use some external speakers or something.