The audio, scan converter, etc is not an issue - Casio’s been putting out those pocket LCD tv’s since the middle 80s, and they had all that - some models even had an AM/FM receiver to boot (Cite)
Yes I realize there’s a difference in scale - it’s MUCH easier to manufacture 3" LCD screens with 0 dot-defects than it is to manufacture 15" LCD screens with 0 dot-defects (and I also realize the LCD type has changed radically in 20 years, but each advance has only made it cheaper to create higher-quality large LCD screens) but my point is that the basic technology to actually display a TV signal on an LCD screen has been around for 20 years on a consumer lever, so R&D cost for that is nil, and the components needed to accomplish that are, again, of negligible cost.
I think astro is on the right track. Those early LCD tv’s had gawdawful viewing angles - an 1/8th of an inch in any direction was enough to kill the picture (and may still be - I haven’t looked at one for 12-13 years now). Viewing angle on PCs is rarely an issue since you’re not going to generally have 3-10 people watching the screen over your shoulder, or if you are, they’ll be right behind you and not more than 10-15 degrees (20-30 degrees total) either way. In a typical living room setting, you could conceivably have people spread as much as, oh say 50-60 degrees each way (100-120 degrees total). A TV that requires you to be almost right in front of the TV just wouldn’t go over well (this is the reason why projection TVs didn’t take off like was expected - they sold well enought I suppose, but I think some people were predicting that EVERYONE would have 60" projection TVs by now).
I don’t get the point of a LCD TV when you can use a tv tuner card in your PC & use your PC as a LCD… But its easier if your LCD TV has a RF or a/v input, I suppose.
One difference I’ve noticed, as the owner of both a LCD monitor and an LCD TV, is how much brighter the TV is. I’m not sure if this would affect the price so drastically, though. I think the main cause must be supply and demand, as well as the presence of the OEM market for LCD monitors.
I think maybe you’ve got that backwards, handy . The designers know that you’re likely to be a lot farther from the television than your monitor, and so design it much brighter to make up for the distance.
Actually, before posting, I did a nice little (absolutely non-rigorous) experiment, to see if my hunch was true. I put both monitors on my desk, and sat across the room and played with the brightness setting on each.
The brightness of the LCD TV, at maximum brightness, was about half again that of the monitor. Now, this is only a subjective measurement. However, it’s better than nothing.
I was just in Circuit City last night and checked this out. Based purely on direct observation the angle (with useful brightness and clarity) of the LCD TV’s was noticeably wider than the LCD PC monitors and the LCD TV screen was brighter and more umm… “intense”. The LCD PC monitors could be viewed at wide angles but the images were not as clear and pristine at wide angles compared to the LCD TVs. Just my observation though. They were not side by side and the lighting in the TV section was not as high as in the PC section so viewing conditions were not equivalent.