KissaBoo

Technology Part 3: Desire

I used to pride myself as a man who did not want too many material things, but recently the list of items to purchase keeps getting bigger and bigger. If only I could throw some kind of big gala celebration, where people would be compelled to fly in from around the nation to bring me gifts... jk. Perhaps the least justifiable thing I want at the moment is a LCD widescreen HDTV monitor (yes, apparently people do make non-widescreen LCD HDTV monitors).

First, I'm still using a 17 inch Dell monitor from 1996. It has been extremely faithful, but it is a little big, which eats up real-estate on even my largish desk and puts the thing next to my eyeballs. Additionally, I'm typing this on a widescreen LCD laptop monitor which is just a beauty to interact with and something I want to become accustomed to all the time. For programming and reading LCD's are just terrific plus widescreen should just be the way everything should be. Additionally since I am a man who loves to combine things a TV would be just great for the bedroom. A decent size TV right there against the wall away from my bed, thus greater than 20 inches would be nice with no numbers/measurements to justify this decision. There is a furniture constraint that limits the size to about a 30 inch screen (yes, the $150 piece of furniture will factor into the decision), but honestly with prices the way they are it shouldn't be much of a problem. Yes, LCD's are getting cheaper all the time, but they are still not cheap. Oh, a last thing, why HDTV? My previous article made no mention of HDTV and in fact this monitor is going in my bedroom. Well, in a move to copy someone I know and to let freedom ring before the copy protection flag comes into effect, I was going to build a HDTV DVR and stick an antenna out the window. Do I have absolutely any idea what HDTV channels are available? No, absolutely none, but hey, I expect to keep this monitor for a while so at some point HDTV will become pervasive or Blu-ray DVD's will be out.

So keeping in mind my criteria and the little issue of money, what god-like devices satisfy my demands? Quite honestly, even removing the money issue leaves no perfect choices. The 23 inch Apple Cinema HD display seems like an ideal solution (20 inch doesn't seem capable of HD and the 30 inch needs a pretty powerful graphics card), but it is not really a TV. It would be terrific as a monitor, but it is not very TV-like. No remote or tuner (though admittedly the box could control these aspects, but I need a shutoff timer and I'm unsure whether there is some hack available to provide this. Plus the $2000 price point is not terrific, though it could be had for a little less at places besides Apple. Yes, one could save a few hundred by buying the older model, but new is just the way to go.

When price is a concern, Dell should be considered, and indeed they do have a line of LCD widescreen TV's. In fact they currently have a sale (they always do) which makes the 23" only $1049 and the 26" $1649. Quite honestly I can't hope for much better on the price. Why don't I jump on the deal? Well, because I don't believe they would make very good monitors. Their native resolutions are 1280 by 768 and I've read it is not a good idea to run an LCD monitor at something besides its native resolution since the picture will just look terrible. To give one some idea the 15.1" monitor I'm using right now is 1280 by 854. I don't plan to be across the room when using it as a monitor so this seems a little unacceptable. The apple's run at 1900 by 1200. I've even seen these LCD TV's in action at Dell mall stores where they were setup so badly I can't believe anyone would buy them even for TV, but I am definitely convinced they are TV's and not monitors.

There are some other players in the game. HP has a 23" monitor (review) that sounds a lot like the Apple. I even saw it at a Best Buy where the salesperson was quick to tell me the Apple was better (at only $100) more. Take away the USB / firewire hub and i wonder if they really are any differences.

All the other brands I've looked at have the same problem of being too much TV or monitor. Even Sony doesn't have an offering which is on the nose. I'll eventually have to sacrifice one of my criteria I imagine or suck up a deficiency, but one thing about technology is that there is always something new to be desired.