24" Monitor Recommendations With a Twist

Bravetart

Bravetart

Bravetart

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Hello, been a long time lurker here and I'm now looking for some advice after not coming to any conclusions after digging through other posts.

Baiscally my old Dell 20" widescreen monitor no longer seems to cut it having seen what's out there at the moment. I'm Looking for a monitor at least 24", though I don't really have a price in mind, I'm happy to pay more if the price warrants it. It will mainly going to be used for work / internet but needs to handle games / photography also.

The twist is my girlfriend said she'd chip in if it could double up as a TV for the spare room. A TV Tuner isn't necessary, however we do need to be able to plug a sky box in to it (so we can get rid of the old TV). Unfortunately it's an old Sky Box, so no HDMI.

Are there any monitors out there that have SCART? Alternatively would it be possible to connect the Sky box to the monitor through a SCART to Component/Composite cable? Realise a lot of monitors only have HDMI/DVI these days :( Speakers are also a must for obvious reasons.

I've seen the Samsung T240HD has SCART but I've also read because it has a TV tuner, there's a lot of input lag.

Any recommendations based on the above? Preferably one that would be able to double as a TV without degrading the quality as a monitor. Bonus points if the monitor looks good :)
 
welcome. Not sure how a tv tuner equates to input lag. A friend has a similar sammy and for a tn panel the picture is ok.

Does your old sky box have any other outputs other than scart?
 
you can use a scart to composite adapter to plug straight into a monitor with composite video input..
I have done this with my Dell 2407WFP.. and so far Its almost flawless.. the only flaw I can find is that because its not 720p I can only run the box at 4:3 to get the perfect aspect ratio on the monitor... widescreen output from the box also works alright, except that its stretched to 16:10 (no black bars cause its not 720p and I don't think it can ever be with composite.). I however, prefer it stretched rather than getting perfect 4:3 aspect ratio (more viewable picture).
 
If you want a SCART connection directly to the monitor, it seems the Samsung T240 is the way to go:

samsung-t240hd.567227.jpg


Otherwise, you could get a SCART to VGA cable, and then use a VGA to DVI adaptor which come with most graphics cards.
 
scart to componenet cable sounds like your best route, although it seems you'll have issues re screen formatting.

do you still subscribe to SKY? I'd ring them and threaten to cancel, saying your old box is tatty and can't connect optimly to your new tv.

Either that or if the contracts in your name, cancel and resign in your GF's name with a new shiny HD box.
 
Thank you for all the replies!

Carefree Chris said:
If you want a SCART connection directly to the monitor, it seems the Samsung T240 is the way to go:

Otherwise, you could get a SCART to VGA cable, and then use a VGA to DVI adaptor which come with most graphics cards.
Click to expand...

See the link I pasted earlier, only the T240HD version has SCART and the monitor seems to be inferior to the non-tv tuner version (with no SCART). I'd plump for this monitor if I could be assured that the lag isn't that bad for gaming.

VGA/DVI is a no go as the cable doesn't transfer sound.

capriboy1978 said:
do you still subscribe to SKY? I'd ring them and threaten to cancel, saying your old box is tatty and can't connect optimly to your new tv.

Either that or if the contracts in your name, cancel and resign in your GF's name with a new shiny HD box.
Click to expand...

Yep, still subscribe but sadly we already have a SKY HD box in the living room and pay the £10 a month for the HD channels so they would be highly unlikely to give away a 2nd HD box for free unfortunately.

Definitely seems SCART to Component is the way to go though. Any recommendations for a 24" monitor with component? I didn't look through them all but it seemed looking on the ocuk site that only the most expensive ones (the HP LP2475w and Dell 2408FP) had it. I'd probably pay that but times are hard. Doesn't help that both of them look cheap, I really wish companies would take a leaf out of Apple's book when it comes to aesthetics, without doubling the price like Apple do (as much as I hate them).

Alternatively any opinions on the T240HD that could reassure me? I'm currently using a Dell 2005FPW and have had no problems with it so if it's no worse, then I'd happily plump for it. Has the added bonus of "looking pretty" according to the girlfriend :P
 
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I still haven't read the review linked up top - it struggles to load on my phone. I really can't see why the tv tuner would add to input lag, sorry. If theres an identical monitor without the tuner and it doesn't have the same lag I'd question the review's accuracy. Either that or the non tuner monitor as actually a different panel / circuit entirely.

I'd have thought the tv side of things is done entirely independantly from the rest of the display circuitry, just feeding in to it like an external input.
 
Yeah, it doesn't make a great deal of sense to me either. Can you see these images if I hotlink?

Delay Compared with a CRT

T220HD

36_391_112.jpg


T220

36_370_112.jpg


Game Rendering - Best Result

T220HD

36_391_101.jpg


T220

36_370_101.jpg
 
Going to risk it I think and go for the Samsung. After reading a few reviews people seem to be happy enough with it and I don't get a huge amount of time to game on it and as I'm used to a 4/5 year old TFT, I'm sure it will probably be better than I'm used to anyway.

Now just to decide whether or not to stump up the extra cash for the 26" version or not and find a decent retailer as it seems to be out of stock or overpriced everywhere except a French competitor :(

Thanks for the help!
 
I've ordered a T260HD @ £330 but Im having second thoughts :confused:

Im not THAT bothered about the extra inputs, they would be nice however means I could hookup my GC and DC.

but I could also get 2x24"s at ~ £200ea
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
I've ordered a T260HD @ £330 but Im having second thoughts :confused:
Click to expand...

Can I ask where you got it at that price? I'm just going with the Samsung as it would keep the girlfriend happier as it's easier to connect the TV and looks better and after all, she's contributing to the cost :)

I'm just going to use my 20" as a 2nd monitor.
 
Bravetart said:
Can I ask where you got it at that price? I'm just going with the Samsung as it would keep the girlfriend happier as it's easier to connect the TV and looks better and after all, she's contributing to the cost :)

I'm just going to use my 20" as a 2nd monitor.
Click to expand...

I'll take a guess and say here.

Personally, I'd go with this IPS monitor and a TV card (using a scart to Composite +Audio converter), but if you want things simple then I guess the T260 is a fine choice.
 
cmndr_andi said:
I'll take a guess and say here.

Personally, I'd go with this IPS monitor and a TV card (using a scart to Composite +Audio converter), but if you want things simple then I guess the T260 is a fine choice.
Click to expand...

Yeah, needs to be simple as it's not me that's likely to be using it for the TV element and I guess that's the monitor he was talking about but the normal T260 doesn't have a SCART port, so no use to me :(
 
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