Just picked up a 22 inch computer monitor equipped with HDMI. Ordinarily, I'd have purchased a TV but this was free (every 2 years, my wife's company allots 750$ for computer upgrades [either new bits or a new system]). We didn't feel the need for a new system, so I picked up some RAM for my notebook, an external 500 gig hard drive with an e-SATA connection port (could be good as extra storage space for my HD PVR IF its port is active--if not, it still works as external storage) and the monitor.
I didn't do too much shopping and comparing. The purpose of the monitor is as a secondary display in the HT so I don't have to fire up the PJ all the time for shorter viewing sessions or to navigate those few DVD-As I have that do not properly default to MCH hi-res. Even so, I read up on monitors and this one seemed to be the best option at a reasonable cost (there is a 24 inch model that would likely have been better, but the extra cost would have forced me to drop the RAM). In the 22 inch category, CNET rated the one I got among the highest. It has a 16:9 setting (native it is 16:10) so it doesn't distort images tailored to TV. It also has a 1:1 setting (though it does not appear available via HDMI--perhaps via DVI or VGA--important for gamers, I suppose) and a 4:3 setting. It has far more colour adjustments than available on my 17 inch 4:3 LCD monitor with the docking port for my notebook. I haven't tweaked it yet (some HD DVDs looked fine, but flesh tones on the DVD I watched tonight were clearly out of whack).
It's not perfect (light "bleeds" along the edges--though perhaps some tweaking can diminish that) and I would have liked at least a composite or s-video input as well but at 329$ (in the US it can be had for about 15-20% less at some vendors), it is a reasonably good deal (at free for me, it's even better
). If I were a student living in a dorm room or small apartment, I could see using this as my main TV. It has 1680x1050 resolution (not quite "full HD", but higher than 720p--though it is an "odd" resolution that may not appeal to video purists, despite the 16:9 mode, as it has to scale every input it receives) and it looked very good with HD DVD. Even SD DVD (the movie I watched tonight) looked quite nice. So, anyone who is looking for a decent secondary display (easily portable at about 10 pounds) or, as a student, a primary one for a small room set up--this one is worth considering in my opinion.
Anyway, here the model number: SP2208WFP 22 inch from Dell.ca
