differences between a monitor and a TV : While some users have the same expectations of home screens and TVs for purposes such as gaming; But these two devices are very different from each other, which we will mention in this article.
You may watch your favorite shows, including TV series or movies, on your PC screen, or experience video games on your home TV; But it must be acknowledged that despite the many similarities between monitors and home TVs, there are also hardware differences that distinguish the two devices.
Differences between a monitor and a TV
In fact, each of these two devices was built for different applications; But advances in technology have largely removed the limitations of each and allowed both devices to be used for the same applications.
Perhaps the most important hardware differences between a monitor and a home TV are that the TV has a radio frequency tuner or RF tuner, more powerful speakers, a remote control, and more, which we will discuss in the following.
Naturally, the difference in screen dimensions is also one of the differences between the screen and home TV. Basically, new home TVs are produced in much larger dimensions than monitors. However, it should be noted that items such as screen size or price are out of date and every user is aware of such items. For this reason, we will take a deeper look at the lesser-mentioned differences. Join Wironal.
Monitor
The monitor can be considered as an output device for displaying information and visual data on a personal computer. In fact, the task of the display is to provide graphic information to the user. The monitor is not able to process graphic information; Rather, this happens on another piece of hardware called the GPU.
Other obvious differences between home TVs and monitors include pixel density. Unlike home TVs, monitors use smaller screens, resulting in higher pixel density. Pixel density is the number of pixels per inch of the screen, and factors such as screen size and resolution have a direct effect on increasing or decreasing it.
Basically, monitors are placed on a computer desk; But as usual, it is possible to connect different models of modern home TVs to the wall. Just like home TVs, early display models used cathode ray tube or CRT lamp technology.
Televisions and monitors equipped with cathode ray tubes consist of electron guns, fluorescent screens, and internal and external devices for accelerating and directing electron beams. The main purpose was to display images on a fluorescent screen.
Prototypes of televisions and monitors equipped with cathode ray tubes were monochrome and displayed images in black and white, But later models were introduced that we’re able to present images in different colors.
CRT monitors and TVs or cathode ray tubes were available in three models; Convex or spherical, flat or flat, and concave or cylindrical.
- Convex or spherical: Early models that had a convex display. Limited field of view is one of the main disadvantages of CRT TVs with convex screens.
- Flat : In flat models, CRT TVs had a flat screen that, in addition to providing a better field of view, emitted less radiation and, of course, had much better picture quality than convex models.
- Concave or cylindrical: In this model of CRT TVs, the screen had a slight curvature (inwards) and its most important advantage over flat-panel TVs and monitors was the better field of view. However, with the introduction of LCD panels, all models of TVs and CRT monitors were eventually phased out.
The advent of LCD panels revolutionized PC monitors. Then we saw the introduction of more modern models with more features. If you are interested in learning more about the display panels.
Over time, with the development of display panels and the introduction of newer models, many of the advantages of screens over home TVs have been eliminated: for example, resolution can be mentioned. The number of pixels on the home TV screen was so small that they could not display texts properly. However, more modern TVs have advanced so much in providing high resolution on large screens that resolution can no longer be considered a reason for the superiority of monitors.
Although TVs and monitors are very similar in terms of screen technology and the panel used in it; But there are differences, such as the refresh rate. Early models of home TVs used a 50Hz refresh rate, and later models were equipped with a 60Hz refresh rate.
Currently, we can mention modern home TVs that are equipped with a 120 Hz refresh rate; The same price as the next-generation Xbox X Series and PlayStation 5 consoles. However, among the displays can be found models that also offer users a refresh rate of 240 Hz.
Some TVs are said to be able to offer higher refresh rates as well, But it should be borne in mind that this happens in the form of software and in some cases may hurt the gaming experience.
However, if we eliminate the gaming experience, we will not have a problem with the low refresh rate of home TVs; But in monitors, the refresh rate is particularly important and is not limited to gaming.
Know more
What is the refresh rate: The refresh rate is the number of times the image is updated on the screen every second. In fact, the refresh rate consists of consecutive images of the same frame, and when it is said that the display refresh rate is set to 60 Hz, in fact, the refresh rate is 60 times per second.
What is the frame rate: The frame rate, which is the unit per frame per second, is actually the frequency displayed by the frames on the screen. In a simpler example, when it is said that the game is running at 60 frames per second, it means that the graphics card was able to render 60 frames per game per second.
What is the difference between frame rate and refresh rate: Frame rate is related to the GPU of the device, how many frames of content are rendered per second, and refresh rate is the number of times the monitor screen is updated per second. If the frame rate is higher than the refresh rate and synchronization does not occur, the user will encounter cropped images on the screen.
Home TV
Home TVs, like monitors, are built to play video and video content; Of course, the monitors need another device to broadcast content, but home TVs, thanks to the RF Tuner, can broadcast the content of local TV networks by receiving a signal.
At present, home TVs are produced and offered in different dimensions, and in some cases, we even see the introduction of models with screen dimensions of 88 inches or larger. However, the most important difference between a monitor and a home TV is not the screen size; Instead, TVs have a radio frequency tuner or RF tuner.
The tuner is actually a part of the radio receiver in the television that receives electrical signals in radio frequencies through the antenna and converts it into a signal at a specific frequency (intermediate frequency) after the initial amplification.
Simply put, radio frequencies consist of audio and video signals that the TV tuner receives and sends signals to the relevant sections for audio and video playback. By saving each TV channel, its frequency specifications are actually stored in the TV memory, and when the user selects the desired channel, the tuner receives the relevant frequency information and transmits it to the desired sections.
While older televisions were capable of processing radio frequency signals, monitors were designed to process video signals. This may not be the case in modern products, and in fact, it can be used similarly thanks to a computer with a monitor or TV; But old products were not like that.
What is the difference between a video signal and a radio frequency signal?
In the definition of radiofrequency, it should be said that the range of fluctuations in the range of 30 kHz to 300 GHz is actually the frequency of radio waves and alternating currents that carry radio signals. Video signals, on the other hand, are sent to a scan display from an image-processing source to control the image. These signals contain display information along with horizontal and vertical synchronization signals. Video signals are basically classified into two categories: analog and digital.
There are significant differences between the video signal and the radio frequency signal, which are:
Signal strength: The signal strength of a radio frequency is far greater than that of a video signal.
Need for a special cable: Radiofrequency signals have high power and therefore need thicker cables such as coaxial cables. This is while ordinary cables can be used to transmit video signals. Coaxial wires come in a variety of models, sometimes based on impedance. Basically, the two impedances of 50 and 75 ohms distinguish coaxial cables, which are mostly used for home TVs with cables with 75-ohm impedance. Common models of 75-ohm coaxial cable include the following:
- RG6 cable: Used to connect aerial antennas to home TVs or similar applications. Its damping rate reaches 65.5.
- RG11 cable: With 65.3 damping, it has the same performance as the RG6, except that it can be used for long distances, for example in tall buildings.
- RG59 cable: Capable of distributing analog and digital video signals and is primarily designed for use in CCTV cameras. This cable has the maximum phase stability required and in addition to routing flexibility, it has 708.9 attenuation.
Keep in mind that damping is derived from damping. Damping is a property of physics that reduces the amplitude of oscillation in oscillating systems.
Coaxial cables are available in two types, ThinNet and Thick Net. The Thin Net model is used in the network system due to its softness and flexibility and can send signals up to a distance of 185 without attenuating them. The Thick Net cable uses a thicker copper core, which allows data to be sent over a longer range without signal attenuation. The Thick Net cable is said to be able to send signals up to 500 meters without attenuating them.
Type of transmitted content: Radiofrequency can transmit audio and video content, But the video or video signal only transmits the video content. Radio frequencies include different wavelengths in the amplitude range, for example, very low-frequency ELF in the frequency range of 100 Hz to 3 kHz to very high-frequency EHF in the range of 30 to 300 GHz.
Basically, when we talk about home TVs, we are actually referring to the VHF, HF, and UHF frequencies. The amplitude of the frequency range of the mentioned wavelengths is as follows:
- HF frequency: starts from 3 MHz and reaches up to 30 MHz.
- VHF frequency: starts from 30 MHz and reaches up to 300 MHz.
- UHF frequency: starts from 300 MHz and reaches up to 3 GHz.
The International Telecommunication Union has divided the frequency range according to their frequency. HF is equivalent to High Frequency. VHF is equivalent to Very High Frequency and is called UHF or Ultra High Frequency.
At present, most television networks, mobile networks, GPS, and the like are in the UHF frequency range and their information carrier signals are in the range of 300 MHz to 3 GHz.
Frequency transmission source: Radio frequencies are sent from telecommunication towers or satellites and are made available to users by receivers; But video signals are generated by sources such as video players, computers, cameras, home theaters, and the like and sent for broadcast on television or monitors.
differences between a monitor and a TV
So far we have mentioned some of the differences between monitors and home TVs; But these differences are related to older products, and many of these differences are now gone; For example, digital receivers can receive radio frequencies and convert them into video signals, so you can enjoy watching TV by connecting the receiver to a monitor.
In fact, advances in technology and the introduction of new products have made modern TVs and monitors more similar. However, there are still significant differences. In addition, advances in science have led to newer models of home TVs being equipped with features such as smart assistants or operating systems that are not found in almost any display. In the following, we will examine each of these cases. Be with Wironal.
Response time: Because monitors are designed for specific purposes, such as gaming experience, graphics and design work, and the like, they have a much better response time than home TVs. In fact, monitors with a response time of up to 1 millisecond can be found on the market.
For a better understanding, it should be said that response time refers to the time period when content is taken from the source (game console, computer, etc.) and presented to the user on the screen. In fact, when we say that a display has a response time of 1 millisecond, we refer to the delay in the distribution of content (information from the source until it is displayed on the monitor). However, the response time on home TVs does not matter much other than playing games or gaming; Because how to use them is completely different from monitors.
While modern TVs suffer from high response times; There are rumors that monitors with a response time of 0.5 milliseconds are also being built. The importance of response time is seen in playing online games.
There are also Sync and Free Sync synchronization provided by Nvidia and AMD, But few people connect their PC to home TV to play the game. The same is true of providing accurate colors. In fact, providing true colors is only important when the user is looking for graphic design.
Basically, graphic designers are also looking for special tools to design and create digital works of art, one of which is a display with the ability to provide very high color accuracy. In fact, graphic designers rarely use home TVs for design work, and the display of such features is valuable when considering home TV design.
Color sampling
Statistics show that the number of PC users using two or more monitors at the same time is increasing rapidly. However, there are drawbacks to using multiple monitors, such as taking up a lot of space.
It may occur to many users to use a large screen TV instead of multiple screens; But in most cases, the poor quality of computer-generated content on TVs, especially in the case of illegibility of texts, causes users to make such a decision.
This raises the question of what features a suitable TV should have to replace monitors, and what features actually increase the quality of PC content output on home TVs?
While things like resolution and refresh rate are very important, things like color sampling are also very important. In fact, if you want to choose a TV instead of a monitor, in addition to having a refresh rate of at least 60 Hz and above and 4K resolution, you should also pay special attention to having 4: 4: 4 color sampling.
In the definition of color sampling, it should be explained that digital images are composed of pixels, and each pixel needs two components of light (Luma) and color (Chroma) to display. Since we are talking about the digital world, information is sent as a signal from the source of content production to the source of output for content distribution.
In each signal, data from 8-pixel domains is sent to the output source, which consists of 4 columns and 2 rows. Experts call such an arrangement the image rate, which consists of three numbers with parameters j: a: b.
If you have seen the specifications of different TVs, you are probably familiar with numbers such as 4: 4: 4, 4: 2: 2, and 4: 2: 0. The number 4 that you see in all three components indicates the number of pixels in the horizontal direction, and the second number indicates the color samples in the first row and the third number indicates the number of color samples in the second row.
In fact, 4: 4: 4 means that two rows of 4 pixels are next to each other, and each of the 8 pixels can have a different color. Now suppose such a pattern is implemented across the screen. Naturally, each pixel is processed independently, so the device has to process the color and brightness of the output for each pixel.
Engineers implemented a 4: 2: 2 color sampling pattern to reduce information processing. In such a pattern, the chroma or color of each pixel was shared with the adjacent pixel, and in fact, the chroma processing of the pixels was halved at the screen level. In fact, with each signal sent, the data related to luminosity did not change; But chroma data was reduced by 50%.
To further reduce the amount of color processing in images, the engineers introduced a 4: 2: 0 color sampling pattern. In this way, the second-tier colors are copied exactly from the first-tier color data to reduce the color processing rate by 75%.
Now, you see why the content processed on a PC, especially the texts on TVs with 4: 2: 2 or 4: 2: 0 color sampling, is very poor quality. If you want to buy a TV that is suitable for use instead of monitors, you should buy a model that is compatible with 4: 4: 4 color sampling.
Note, however, that TVs do not use 4: 4: 4 color sampling by default; Because the quality of video content such as movies and series do not decrease much in 4: 2: 2 and 4: 2: 0. For this reason, if you want to use the TV instead of the screen or have a better experience playing video games, you must enable the 4: 4: 4 sampling mode from the TV settings.
Image aspect ratio: Modern monitors have different aspect ratios and are marketed according to the tastes of PC users with ultra-wide screens; The aspect ratio is rarely seen on a home TV.
Home TVs use a standard aspect ratio. Older models used a 4: 3 or 4: 3 aspect ratio. Newer models use 16: 9 and 21: 9 aspect ratios. In the image below, you can see the image in different aspect ratios on a 55-inch TV.
Monitors use a larger aspect ratio, such as early 3: 2 models, or recent products that use a 32: 9 aspect ratio.
Keep in mind that things like screen panels, contrast rates, or other things can be mentioned; But the technologies used in home screens and TVs are becoming more and more similar, and the latest types of display panels can be seen in both products. For this reason, they are not suitable for comparing monitors with home TVs.
Input/output connections: Each device can have one of two types of input or output connections; Of course, some products use both input and output connections. Simply put, each device uses input ports to receive information from other devices and uses outputs ports to transmit information to other devices. Home monitors and TVs both have different input and output ports.
Display output / input ports
- Display port
- HDMI
- DVI
- 5mm headphone jack input (for audio playback from monitor speakers)
- 5mm headphone jack output (for headphone use)
- USB ports
TV output / input ports
- TOSLINK
- Coaxial cable port
- SCART
- Composite input
- Component input
- HDMI
- 5mm headphone jack output (for use with headphones or speakers)
- USB ports
- Ethernet port for connecting the TV to the Internet
Your monitor or home TV may not have one or more of these ports, or they may have other ports. We have mentioned the standard items that are basically found on most home screens and TVs.
Ability to record images on a home TV: Some home TVs can record video from streaming networks or video games played by consoles on flash memory; Of course, there are also models on the market that the TV has storage memory in different capacities, which eliminates the need for the user to connect a flash memory to record video. There is no such feature in monitors.
Possibility of connecting home TV to the Internet: At present, home TVs can be connected to the Internet and access the Internet through the Internet, or use some applications such as weather, newsreader, and others. There is no such feature in monitors, and such products require a personal computer to display any content.
Operating system: Smart TVs have been launched that use the operating system; For example, we can mention Android TV or Apple TV, which allow the user to install various applications, including games.
In a short example, Android TVs have access to Google Play and a variety of different applications can be downloaded and installed on them. Storage memory is another feature of such products; Because there is a need for available memory to install various applications. To use the camera applications, Android TVs available in the market are also installed; However, it is not an advantage over monitors, because we can refer to monitors that have a webcam.
Smart Assistant: Naturally, with the introduction of the operating system for home TVs, the next step that was expected was to add a smart assistant to such products. Currently, we can mention Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri smart assistants that can be used in some smart home TVs.
Speakers: Models with stereo speakers can also be found on monitors, But these models of speakers are very poor and the sound quality of the output is very poor. Compared to monitors, we can mention the speakers used in home TVs that use a variety of modern technologies. In addition, thanks to different output ports, more speakers can be connected to home TVs.
Remote control: TVs have a small but useful tool called Remote Control that makes TV management much easier for the user. In the early models, the controllers were used only to switch channels, increase or decrease the output sound, and turn the device on and off; But the improved models had more capabilities to enable programming, channel searching, and linking via remote control.
Know more
The first remote control was produced in 1950. This control, called Lazy Bones, was made by a company called Zenith Electronics and was connected to a TV by a cable. On the controller, there were buttons to switch channels and increase or decrease the TV output so that the user could switch TV channels remotely without having to get up.
Zenith offered the Lazy Bones remote control for $ 30. Despite its high price, it had many customers and became the first successful remote control in the history of communication technologies.
Conclusion
As you read throughout the article, there are many hardware and software differences between home screens and TVs. Although technology has made old applications possible on both devices; But there are new uses for each that are not found in the other.
Working with applications such as video chatting or watching videos through streaming services was a feature that could only be done through computers or portable gadgets, But smart TVs are also equipped with such features. Perhaps the most important point is that smart TVs such as monitors do not need another device to provide such services.
In fact, monitors may be the best choice for applications such as design or gaming; But televisions have also made significant progress. The advances in smart TV do not end with better picture presentation; Instead, they have an intelligent assistant that receives and executes user voice commands.
differences between a monitor and a TV
Monitor or TV; Which is more appropriate?
Perhaps in the past, the use of monitors and home TVs was a little different; But now new models of home TVs have many features of monitors. However, in the following, we will give an example of a suitable option for different applications.
Watching content: When watching content, you should pay attention to the required resolution; For example, video content such as movies and series do not require 4: 4: 4 color sampling, and can be enjoyed on 4: 2: 2 or 4: 2: 0 models.
Use with PCs: Monitors are naturally designed to present the visual content of PCs; But if you are planning to use a home TV, there are several things to consider. In fact, in addition to things like refresh rate and resolution, they are very important; Instead, make sure your TV supports 4: 4: 4 color sampling. Otherwise, the quality of the output content of the personal computer, especially the texts, will be greatly reduced.
Play offline games: Video games are divided into two categories. Offline games, which are basically a story campaign or tournament and do not require an online connection, and online games that naturally have a great impact on the gamer’s performance during the game. If you want to get a TV or monitor for eighth-generation consoles, things like 60Hz refresh rate, FHD resolution for consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, or 4K resolution for the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X are very important. Because you are not competing with online games, response time is a lower priority. To experience the next generation Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles, it is better to have a 4K display or TV with a refresh rate of 120 Hz to get the maximum experience.
Playing Competitive Games Online: Almost everything that has been said about playing offline games also applies to playing competitive games. In competitive games, the degree of delay in response is very important. Currently, monitors are the best option for playing online games, and there will be models that take advantage of a response time of 0.5 milliseconds. If you are more into experiencing competitive online games, you do not need to spend more money to buy a 4K display, and in fact an FHD display, but with a very short response time and a 60Hz refresh rate, can meet your needs.
We hope you find the article useful.
