Monitor vs TV – What’s The Difference?

In the olden days, it was easy to find the difference between a monitor and a Television. Do you remember those bulky white-coloured cathode ray tube monitors? In those days, the computer was a machine with limited facilities.

But now, the computer is one of the most commonly used electronic devices on the planet. And technology is improving day by day. Here you can find how many ways the computer is useful.

Now, both monitors and Televisions are coming with ultra-thin designs, curved displays, and more. So, it’s hard to find the difference between them.

Televisions are used to watch TV shows, movies, NEWS, video songs, etc. Whereas monitors are used to get the digital output from the computer. Another major difference is the existence of Android features between them (TVs have but monitors can’t).

With a quick comparison table, you’ll understand the concept easily.

Monitor vs TV

Looks-wise, both the monitor and TV seem to be the same. So we need to look at some factors to find the difference between them.

Here we couldn’t consider the cost of the product. The cost of a product depends on the unique features in it. So, there is no need to consider it in this comparison. However, computer screens are more expensive than a TV of the same size. Let’s see why it will be…

Display size :

In Monitors – a normal display size is enough to work. For commercial use restaurants, schools, college labs, offices, etc have a maximum of 24” monitor. In Personal Computers, monitor size is our wish based on work requirements.

• Useful Read: How to measure monitor screen?

In Televisions – display size matters a lot because it is a device that everyone can use in a family. Sometimes all the family members are used to watching a movie or a TV show. In such cases, a small display size screen is not enough to satisfy all the family members. So, a minimum of 32” display is required in this generation.

Screen Resolution :

In Monitors – screen resolution is preferred a lot. A normal PC user may ignore the screen resolution on a monitor. But, a gamer, graphic designer, YouTuber, etc, must require a high-resolution display.

In Televisions – screen resolution does consider because nobody wants to see the poor quality image or videos. Nowadays 4K resolution TVs are more popular.

• Useful Read: How to measure a computer monitor?

Screen Refresh rate :

In Monitors – screen refresh rate is the basic factor these days. Basic or pro gaming, coding, designing, high-resolution image and video file accessing, etc., need high refresh rate monitors. If you are a normal PC user, then a 60Hz display is enough for you.

In Televisions – we found high refresh rate screens these days because when we try to open raw photos and 4K resolutions videos, a normal 60Hz screen takes so much time to open a file and shows a lag in performance while moving the slides. This problem can be overcome with the high refresh rate screens.

Connecting ports :

In Monitors – we can see different ports like HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, USB, etc. All these ports are more convenient for PC use like connecting to a CPU, or laptop, or you can use a monitor as a dual monitor with these ports. The HDMI and Display ports are useful for gaming, rendering, etc. The latest version of USB ports is helpful to read and write the external drives at high speed.

In Televisions – also we can find different types of ports like USB, and HDMI. Maybe some other ports are also present on TVs, but these two are common. These ports help us to connect a Pendrive or a laptop to it.

• Useful Read: How to connect a monitor to a laptop?
• Useful Read: Monitor USB ports not working – 5 ways to fix

Android features :

In Monitors – we can’t get this feature. In fact, a monitor doesn’t need Android features because we have a PC to use the digital world in the best way. There is no problem in using all the features available in Android even without it on monitors. The computer directly connects with the web so there are no limitations in use. However, operating systems like Windows provide all the stock apps that are available on Android.

Televisions – are coming with Android features. So, we can access various OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, HULU, YouTube, etc. We can access TV with our smartphones. Just like mobiles, the TVs Operating System also gets from its manufacturer. So we don’t have to know how to install OS on a TV and all that stuff. Also, the manufacturer will send updates to the TV operating system. All you have to do is download and install these updates and keep your machine up-to-date.

Special features :

In Monitors – we found special features that mean they are not present on TVs. They are…

• Gaming monitors with a high refresh rate from companies like LG, Samsung, MSI, etc.
• G-Sync and Free sync feature to show the peak performance
• The new technology with advanced ports and curved screens is coming to the monitors first than TVs.
• We do not find any special devices like remotes to control the monitors. Instead, we get buttons on a monitor to control it.
• If the monitor is connected to a computer, then the miracast feature is based on the Operating System. An ideal monitor doesn’t support miracast.

In Televisions – we have a remote control to adjust the settings in a TV. And some other unique features are…

• Smart technology is inbuilt.
• The sound system is present in all TVs, but not in monitors (High-end gaming monitors come with built-in speakers).
• Advanced controls like sleep mode, colour, and volume adjustments are present.
• TVs with the latest technology have miracast features.

Both Monitors and TV have some advantages and disadvantages. The feature quality in a monitor is high compared to TV and hence it costs more.

Is it bad to use a TV as a computer monitor?

There is nothing wrong with using technology as much as you want.

Before answering this, I want to ask you a thing, what type of work do you have with your monitor?

 If it is for general use, I wouldn’t recommend using a TV as a computer monitor because of some disadvantages like discomfort in PC setup, too much brightness contrast at night, consuming more space, fewer required features for PC users, etc.

If you are ok with the above disadvantage and still want to connect your TV to the computer or laptop, make sure that you have a common port between the two devices (CPU and the TV). 

In most cases, HDMI is the most common port for all the devices like monitors, TVs, and laptops.

Conclusion :

Hope you find the differences between a monitor and a TV.

I wouldn’t recommend you add a TV as a monitor for your PC. However, if you have no choice, go with it, no problem. But, choosing a monitor for your PC based on your type of work is best.

No matter what you are buying, either a TV or a monitor, along with the other best features, you must check the connecting ports. This is the area where people make a mistake by ignoring it. When you need a specific port in the future, you will feel disappointed and need to purchase additional devices called connectors.

The connecting ports will help you in multiple ways while using the product.