What is the best monitor to invest in?

I've been using a TV as a monitor for several years and I don't think that there is any issue with Text resolution, in my experience. I take the time to set up any display device to my preferences. Mid to high range TV's will have all the same controls as a dedicated monitor, the only real difference being that these controls are not as accessible, a dedicated monitor will normally have at least some external controls whereas a TV will have the controls in menu software.

Obviously if you compare a high resolution monitor with a lower resolution monitor the text will appear sharper but I have not found this to be a major issue for my use, I do a lot of reading from my monitors and find it acceptable YMMV

What is also happening due to the high popularity of Flat Screen TV's, (Plasma,LCD, or LED) is that volume production means that a 1080P panel is very economical to produce because of the economies of scale. A bespoke monitor with twice the resolution of a HD TV will cost considerably more than twice the price, All other things being equal.

Indeed if you look at a lot of available "monitors" in the low to medium price range, these actually use 1920x1080 pixel panels, originally designed for HD TVs, I have seen some devices at the bottom end of the market that still use the HD Ready panels at a 1360x760 (approximate) resolution, so you need to check specifications carefully ( as is the case with actual TVs).

What I find the best way to set-up a TV for PC use is to ensure that settings apply only to the current input source and dedicate a user preset to the PC input - This can then be set for quite critical colour matched use using software or hardware colour matching solutions, I have my two TV's set up in this way and find that editing in Lightroom and Photoshop is consistent whichever screen is used - giving consistent matched printer output.

Depending on takeup of the new 4K standards for TV screens it may be that another evolutionary jump in reasonably priced Monitors with ultra high resolution may be coming n the near future

arizonajack said:

Barman58 said:

if 1920x1080 is a high enough resolution for your needs, then there are a lot of High Quality HD TVs available, at very competitive prices and all but the cheapest include various connection options for PCs.

If you are going to use a TV as a PC monitor understand that you are likely to see text that is not quite as sharp as on a PC monitor.

If you work with text a lot, it could end up being very annoying, like I've learned with the TV I just bought and hooked up to my PC.

I suppose that would depend also on the computers system and of course the t.v. it's self and researching the spec's of the t.v.
Op's showing a custom build but no specifics,
I have a small work laptop 1280x800 that displays quite nicely on a 40" sony lcd all it has is onboard graphics and hooked up with a vga of course hdmi looks better but for the most part vga is acceptable in word.... and almost full screen taking aspect ratio into account

I always trusted Viewsonic they've been good to me