TV monitors:
Pro:
- set up/configured so everything works OOTB, or nearly so. So easy to hook up to off the shelf players/DVR kit, coax/antennae and so on.
- viewing angles
- speakers if you don't have them, tend to be a bit better than what you typically get on a PC monitor
Con:
- resolution
- harder to hook up to a PC, though HDMI probably will work too. (Depends on the graphics card, really.)
- not so easy to make them useful for anything but content playback. Usually far too bright and so on to sit directly in front of, so your only option are the proverbial 30 foot high intefaces which waste huge amounts of screen real estate in order to be readable from a distance. with an already mediocre resolution at best.
PC monitors:
Pro:
- easy to hook up to a PC
- resolution
- good ones tend to have useful extra's like built-in USB hub
- price
- versatile.
Con:
- viewing angles and colors are rubbish by comparison to TVs unless you go for the relatively expensive ones. If you are going to use a monitor to double as TV screen at least make sure you get an IPS or M-PVA or similar panel, and stay well away from a TN panels. A 24 inch M-PVA panel last time I bought one was about €800,-, but that's a few years ago so prices will probably have fallen a lot since then.
- not calibrated, or often poorly so. More prevalent with TN panels, though, so if you took the above to heart you won't have much issues unless you do professional design work or the like -- in which case you probably already have calibration kit.
- not so easy to set up for regular TV playback over coax/antennae, though you can probably pick up tuners for not too much. Be aware that content may be encrypted, so you might have to buy additional CAM modules or the like to view all channels.
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