Two Monitors In One - PC & HDTV
Written: Oct 30 '07 (Updated Jul 06 '08)
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Pros: Low cost - flat panel
Cons: None as LCDs go
The Bottom Line: Looking for a great PC monitor and HDTV combo? This may be the unit for you.
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| rbinck's Full Review: Westinghouse Electric LVM-42w2 42 in. HDTV-Ready T... |
I have tried several different monitors on my computer and have never been completely satisfied with any of them until I got this 42” widescreen monitor. Being a full 1920x1080 resolution HDTV ready monitor combined with the various PIP modes, it has totally solved all of the issues I have had trying to combine a TV with a computer monitor.
But going back just a bit the reason I went looking for a new monitor was because the 40 inch HDTV in my bedroom died and the cost to repair it was going to be around $500. I just could not see spending that on a CRT rear projection TV and decided that money would be better spent toward a LCD flat panel monitor. Considering I was able to sell it to the repair shop for $100, the answer became clear what to do.
The question of whether to go with anything other than a LCD never came into play for me. I was going to go with a LCD all of the way because I knew the 1080p units would only work for what I wanted to do. 1366x768 LCDs flat panels are fine for TV viewing, when you throw in the computer monitor requirement they were deemed unacceptable. While it is hard to beat a plasma for picture quality in a flat panel TV, there are just too many issues when used with a computer. My two biggest were glare and the possibility of burn in. Also it is hard to get a small (42 inch) 1080p plasma for the same money.
First I went looking through various reviews from all of the online sources I could find. To my surprise many of the sites rated the Westinghouse LCD panels the highest in budget LCD panels. One notable site, Home Theater Magazine, had done extensive testing on the LVM-42w2 and rated it very highly. One spec of note is the Westy passed the deinterlacing and 3:2 cadence tests that many of the higher priced spreads failed. Just to explain why this is important, the 1080i broadcasts by most HD channels need to be deinterlaced for display on the screen. 1080i broadcasts are made up of two sequential 1920x540 fields that need to be put together by the deinterlacer for the 1920x1080 frame required for the display. Some sets will scale up each 1920x540 field to the 1920x1080 frame for display and Home Theater Magazine would list these sets as having failed. Failed sets would essentially throw away half of the detail when viewing 1080i broadcasts.
Next having decided I wanted this particular monitor, I went looking for a source. Newegg ended up being the best price and one was ordered.
The monitor has a boatload of inputs, especially for HD and computer sources. In addition to the PC (VGA) input, there are 2- DVI inputs, 1- HDMI input, 2- component inputs, 1- s-video input and 1 composite video input. The specs say the PC, DVI and HDMI will all accept 1080p/60 input signals, but my PC input would not. The DVIs and HDMI did however, so it was not really an issue for me that the PC input wouldn't.
My hookup went as follows. I used the PC input to connect my two Home Theater PCs (HTPCs) through a KVM. This allows me to view either MDP-130 HDTV tuner cards by selecting through the KVM.
I used one of the DVI inputs connected to the HTPC that had a video card with both a VGA and a DVI output. It is also the HTPC that I use for image processing and printing. The DVI connection is used at 1920x1080 resolution photo work and viewing mainly.
The other DVI input is used to connect an OTA HDTV receiver. The HDMI input is used to connect a U-Verse IPTV receiver and one of the component inputs is used to connect my U-Verse DVR that is located in my living room. Finally, the composite input is connected to a SD TiVo unit.
What makes this monitor so useful, at least for my situation, is I spend quite a bit of time on line working and the PIP features allow both TV and PC monitor concurrently very nicely. By selecting the PBP (Picture Beside Picture) mode, I can put two 16:9 windows side by side. With a HDTV picture on the left window and the computer output on the right window, the monitor becomes two. To do that all that is necessary is to reduce the PC resolution to a size that one can read in the reduced window. Since my work requires I use 800x600 mostly, that works out nicely, but resolutions up to 1280x768 are still very readable.
Now to the picture. As a PC monitor it is as good as any LCD monitor I've ever seen. The high brightness of the unit to allow use in high light situations making it ideal for rooms with a lot of windows. Like all LCDs it has less than spectacular black level response so in dimly lit rooms, especially with lights off, the screen will not really make true blacks although the adjustable backlight feature allows for an adjustment between bright and dim environments. It does have enough contrast ratio to allow me to see a difference in every gray scale from a test DVD, so it is not terrible. It may be that if you are going for a home theater room and are going to be watching mainly TV in dimly lit rooms, a plasma screen may be a better choice. But there are many applications where the lighting is high that this would be a better choice, actually.
Colors are accurate and don't seem to drift from input to input. Having full 1920x1080 resolution insures you will see all of the detail that is broadcast as well. 1280x720 broadcasts are scaled up, so no detail is lost there as well. Response time for the panel is rated at 8 ms, so the motion blur associated with LCD panels is virtually non-existent. My son, who is an avid gamer, hooked up to the monitor and claimed similar response to his CRT monitor. Virtually no video lag from the audio or controls either.
When connected to a PC the monitor will allow several resolutions from 640x480 (VGA) to 1920x1080 all except the 1920x1080 at both 60 Hz or 75 Hz. When a 4:3 resolution is received the display will switch to show them correctly with black pillar boxes on the 4:3 resolutions automatically. In full screen mode the 1280x1024 resolution is very nice for across the room surfing and it will also allow a full height 4:3 window and a small 4:3 window for TV in one of the PIP modes.
Overall I have been very pleased with this monitor and would recommend it to anyone that has a similar application. With the money saved over the high priced spread, you can afford a long extended warranty to make up for the possible trepidation you may have buying a Westinghouse TV.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1200
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Epinions.com ID:
rbinck
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 - Top 500 |
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Member: Richard Binckley
Location: Houston, Texas
Reviews written: 125
Trusted by: 26 members
About Me:
Retired A/V professional, likes Hawaii and Classic Cars
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